For years, a lot of NASCAR fans clamored for more short tracks due to the abundance of action and chaos they create, but the onset of the Next-Gen car seems to have had the opposite effect. Can this be solved? Another series may already hold the answer...
What is the problem right now compared to past years?
Compared to previous years, the short tracks in 2022 have delivered considerably less action. There could be multiple reasons for this, but it comes down to the lack of passing ability. What hinders passing with the new cars? A few things, but this can be broken down into three categories: the body, brakes and tires, and the drivetrain.
The Body
The new composite body is deformable and is not nearly as effective in bump-and-run scenarios as before. This means that drivers have to be so outrageously aggressive in order to perform a bump-and-run that it's basically not worth it. Also, it takes some jeopardy out of incidents, because most single-car accidents have little to no impact on the car's body.
The Power-to-Grip Ratio Problem
For 2022 and the Next-Gen car, NASCAR and Goodyear switched to wider, low-profile tires. Additionally, they reduced the power on short tracks (and road courses, which could arguably benefit from the changes I'm about to suggest, although it's not the focus) from 750hp down to 670hp. This means that the tires have more grip (because they are wider, and larger tires always increase grip, provided everything else is equal) than before, AND there is less energy going through them because the engines are less powerful. The cornering speeds are increased, the cars should (theoretically) drive better, and be easier to handle.
Additionally, the brakes are better, meaning that braking distances are much shorter and less nuanced, reducing the challenge of things like brake pedal modulation. And the ease of shifting combined with the engine characteristics means that mistakes are not punished easily. So it seems like one or more of these things would need to change to improve the racing.
What should change?
The goal must be to shift the power-to-grip balance more towards power. Of the three categories mentioned above, the easiest thing to change would be the tires. Making new, short-track specific engines would be a huge expense for the teams, especially considering there are only three or four tracks where this could really be used. Likewise, making track-specific body panels has the same problems, and also requires NASCAR to develop new inspection templates and methods, so could be even more costly. NASCAR already brings track-specific tires to most races, so making further tweaks would not be so radical.
Short tracks are best when the cars are slipping and sliding, and when the tires degrade easily. This equates to both more driver mistakes and increasing passing ability (and general chaos, to be honest) due to a greater pace difference between the cars. So, all other things being equal, the tires need to either reduce the overall grip level, or degrade a lot faster. This might sound odd, but one series has already done this: F1. In fact, there are two specific eras of F1 which NASCAR could draw inspiration from.
Option 1: Ultra-fast Degrading Tires
In 2010, F1 famously suffered from a chronic lack of overtaking, and a large part of this was put down to the Bridgestone tires used. Therefore when Pirelli took over in 2011, they were instructed (rather unusually) to make tires which suffered from rapid degradation in order to spice up the racing. This (and in conjunction with DRS) resulted in a huge spike in the number of overtakes between 2010 and 2011. Surely NASCAR could instruct Goodyear to make tires which are a much softer compound which means that the tires would wear out more.
The danger with this is that there are very fine lines between fast-degrading tires, a farcical racing product, and a safety concern. From 2011 to 2021 Pirelli struggled to really achieve the correct balance between all three, but there were definitely races where it could be done. The biggest problem with this theory may not be the tires themselves, but rather whether or not the teams could find the right compromise between longevity and speed. Even with the current tires, there have been a number of failures which are often attributed to extreme car setups which can overstress the tires. So making the tires even more fragile may be a step in the wrong direction.
Option 2: Grooved Tires
So if inducing greater tire degradation is difficult, why not take another approach F1 adopted: grooved tires. From 1998 to 2008, F1 did not use slick tires, instead opting to use tires with a set of radial grooves which extended around a circumference of the tire. This was done to reduce cornering speeds in dry conditions. The theory is simple; the grooves reduce the tire contact patch, which reduced the overall grip level.
If NASCAR reduced the overall grip level, then perhaps this would naturally induce more degradation, because breaking traction would be easier than with a slick tire. The cars would be naturally more slippery in the corners, and also would be faster on the straightaways (owing to less friction and rolling resistance from the smaller contact patch). Would there still be shifting? Yeah, but the goal here is to change as little as possible.
Of course, there would be challenges in bringing the grooved tire situation to life. For instance; would it even be compatible with the low-profile wheels of the Next-Gen car? Should the grooves be horizontal or at an angle, considering NASCAR predominantly only turns left? Should this be extended to all tracks? What happens when the grooves wear out and the tire wears down to slicks? Is it even possible given the weight/loads of NASCAR cars compared to F1? Well, that's what engineers are for.
Conclusion
Fans have asked for more short tracks, and now NASCAR is adding them, and in marquee events, too. The All-Star Race (everyone's favorite!) is headed to North Wilkesboro for 2023. Martinsville, Phoenix, and Bristol are in the Playoffs, and are critical races for the sport to perform well at.
NASCAR has had since (to be generous) the spring race at Martinsville to begin investigating this issue. So far, there does not seem to have been any real progress on this front. There was a single test at Martinsville with a different gear ratio trialed, that's it. They've got to do something, so why not look and see what others have done? Maybe it's time to actually reinvent the wheel! Surely it's worth a test, if nothing else...
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