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The 2024 NASCAR Cup season has begun in earnest.
Following the non-points exhibition race on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum received by Denny Hamlin earlier this month, Joey Logano took pole for this weekend’s Daytona 500 season opener by main a Ford front-row lockout in qualifying on Wednesday evening.
Logano and McDowell underlined the efficiency of the brand new Mustang by locking out the entrance row in qualifying
Photograph by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
Thursday evening’s twin 150-mile qualifying races set the remainder of the grid, with Jimmie Johnson among the many two unchartered drivers who booked the 2 remaining slots within the 40-car subject for NASCAR’s blue ribband occasion.
Listed below are 5 issues to look out for as the brand new marketing campaign kicks into gear.
Ford and Toyota debut new automobile our bodies
Whereas the 2024 NASCAR Cup season options new drivers and new venues, there will even be an up to date look to the entries from Toyota and Ford: Toyota Racing Improvement and Ford Efficiency are to debut new iterations of their respective Camry and Mustang race automobiles.
In early November, Ford unveiled its new-version Mustang for competitors in 2024 based mostly on the Mustang ‘Darkish Horse’, the seventh era of the revered mannequin. Since arriving in Cup in 2019, the Mustang has received a producers’ championship and series-best 18 races in 2020, and drivers’ championships with Team Penske pair Logano and Ryan Blaney in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Later that very same month, Toyota adopted with its new Camry XSE race automobile for Cup sequence competitors. The Camry XSE Subsequent Gen follows the Toyota Camry TRD Subsequent Gen, which produced 18 victories and 25 poles through the previous two seasons of competitors.
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, FedEx Toyota Camry
Photograph by: Nickolas Wolf
How the brand new our bodies will change these groups’ efficiency is just about an open ebook but to be crammed with information. Every automobile had only one restricted on-track check previous to the three February pre-season Busch Gentle Conflict exhibition on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which was received by Toyota driver Hamlin. With such restricted testing and solely a brief exhibition race below their belts, the anticipated efficiency good points have largely been illustrated although laptop fashions.
“All of the instruments we use – the wind tunnel, the CFD – all of that carries backwards and forwards,” says Richard Johns, Ford’s NASCAR efficiency chief. “So, what we study within the improvement of the Cup automobile carries over to manufacturing and what we study in manufacturing carries over to the Cup automobile. There’s a whole lot of know-how switch, particularly on the aerodynamic facet.”
Each automobile fashions function some seen variations from their predecessors, with the most important coming within the nostril designs. The Mustang has some sharp character traces that draw to a extra rounded nostril. The Toyota has a particular hammerhead styling, with an higher grille slot that’s tied into the up to date slim and extensive headlights. JU
Cup irregular SVG bids for glory in Xfinity
Supercars legend van Gisbergen makes his full-time NASCAR swap after profitable on his Cup debut final yr
Photograph by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
Essentially the most thrilling newcomer to NASCAR in 2024 isn’t even going to be a Cup Collection common, however Shane van Gisbergen’s victory within the Chicago Road Race final yr for Trackhouse Racing rocked the inventory automobile world.
The primary man in 60 years to attain a Cup triumph on his debut is to compete full-time within the second-tier Xfinity Collection with Kaulig Racing to study the ropes, however he’ll run in at the very least seven Cup occasions amongst a 40-race programme that may begin within the ARCA sequence at Daytona.
“I’ve by no means completed something like this earlier than,” the three-time Australian Supercars champion admits of superspeedway racing. “I’m a full rookie.”
SVG will share the #16 Kaulig Chevrolet in Cup with Josh Williams and AJ Allmendinger. Additionally value protecting an eye fixed out for in 2024 is reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki, whose falling out down below with Erebus Motorsport may present itself right into a sooner-than-anticipated swap to the US with Richard Childress Racing. Fellow Supercars star Cam Waters can also be anticipated to run three races in RFK’s #60 Ford.
In full-time driver strikes, Kevin Harvick’s retirement has opened the door for Josh Berry to graduate to Cup within the #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, whereas Noah Gragson (who misplaced his drive at Legacy MC by disgracing himself on social media) strikes to the #10 SHR machine vacated by Aric Almirola. Xfinity standout John Hunter Nemechek takes over the Legacy seat from Gragson.
Justin Haley has swapped Kaulig for Rick Ware Racing’s #51 entry, whereas the sister #15 automobile might be shared between Kaz Grala, Cody Ware (returning to the game after strangulation costs in opposition to him had been dropped) and Riley Herbst.
Lanky Truck Collection firebrand Carson Hocevar will drive the #77 rather than Ty Dillon at Spire Motorsports, which has added a 3rd entry – purchased for $40million from Reside Quick Motorsports – for the extremely rated Zane Smith, 24, who received the 2022 Truck title.
And 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson’s part-time schedule with Legacy MC has elevated to at the very least 9 races, including the returning Brickyard 400 to his roster that may kick off along with his bid to win a 3rd Daytona 500. CB
Jimmie Johnson racing a Toyota will blow followers’ minds
Johnson raced his manner into the Daytona 500 subject in his Legacy MC Camry
Photograph by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Images
Solely Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt have recorded the identical variety of NASCAR Cup titles as Johnson however, on the age of 48, ‘seven-time’ is again for at the very least a nine-race schedule with a significant twist… he’ll be racing a Toyota.
It’s one thing that’s not misplaced on David Wilson, the top of Toyota’s US motorsports division: “Jimmie Johnson operating a Toyota Camry, are you able to imagine that? Followers are going to go psychological!”
Johnson, who ‘retired’ from NASCAR competitors in 2020 and switched to IndyCar for a few seasons, simply couldn’t avoid inventory automobiles. The not too long ago inducted Corridor of Famer was a mainstay of Hendrick Motorsports’ Storage 56 undertaking, driving alongside Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller as they took NASCAR to the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Johnson additionally took an possession function within the Petty GMS squad, which has morphed into Legacy Motor Membership below the stewardship of airline entrepreneur Maury Gallagher. Final Might, it made the massive choice to modify producers, shifting away from Chevrolet and placing NASCAR legends Johnson and Petty squarely within the Toyota camp. It additionally pairs full-season drivers Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, each no strangers to Toyota’s inventory automobile ranks.
One other large off-track transfer was the appointment of trade veteran Cal Wells as Legacy’s CEO, and he brings a ton of Toyota knowhow to the staff.
“It’s virtually too good to be true how all this has come collectively,” provides Wilson. “Cal and I’ve been working collectively for 35 years, and he’s raced nearly every little thing we’ve completed. Most significantly, he understands our tradition, so he’s already made a significant influence within the brief time he’s been there.”
Johnson provides: “We’re assured [Cal’s] management will take us to the following stage throughout many upcoming transitions of the producer change, in addition to persevering with to construct our model. We’re rising rapidly, and definitely hope to be a pressure within the NASCAR trade. I’m excited to have a shot at one other Daytona 500 trophy in our new Toyota Camry XSEs.”
Legacy’s inclusion additionally raises Toyota’s market share on the grid to eight full-time entries, giving it extra drafting companions on the superspeedways. CB
Shaking up the huge schedule
The Cup sequence hasn’t raced on the Indianapolis oval since 2020, having used the highway course in current seasons
Photograph by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
The 2024 NASCAR Cup season brings with it some intriguing schedule adjustments, highlighted by the revival of the Brickyard 400. The return of this crown-jewel occasion will signify NASCAR’s first race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval since 2020.
The Cup Collection will even compete within the state of Iowa for the primary time since 1953, including the Iowa Speedway brief observe to the 2024 schedule. The Bristol Grime Race is not any extra, with the half-mile now internet hosting two races on the concrete as soon as once more.
The place issues get actually fascinating is once you take a look at the playoffs. Because of the TV calls for of the Olympics in Paris, NASCAR is taking a two-week hiatus after the Brickyard 400. In consequence, the primary spherical of the playoffs will look very completely different.
The Southern 500 at Darlington will now function the common season finale, whereas Atlanta Motor Speedway turns into the opening race of the playoffs. Watkins Glen Worldwide will be a part of Atlanta within the Spherical of 16, which means that is the primary time NASCAR has ever run two highway programs through the Cup Collection playoffs, the Charlotte Roval being the opposite.
One other shake-up includes Texas Motor Speedway. Simply two years in the past, it hosted the All-Star Race and a playoff spherical. Now it’ll host neither, with Texas faraway from the playoffs solely. The observe, which misplaced its IndyCar date after 2023, will host a single Cup race weekend in April.
Following the profitable revival of North Wilkesboro Speedway final yr, the historic observe will host the All-Star Race for the second consecutive yr.
California’s Auto Membership Speedway has been taken off the schedule solely, so the 2024 season will now open with back-to-back drafting tracks, with the sequence’ first of two journeys to Atlanta instantly following the Daytona 500. With carnage the norm at each tracks, crash harm may set some unlucky groups behind earlier than we even attain March!
Beginning with the Daytona 500, NASCAR groups might be spending 37 of the following 39 weekends on the observe within the longest schedule in motorsport. Nick DeGroot
New aero bundle to brighten up the short-track present
Package deal of adjustments ought to enhance automobiles’ dealing with in visitors
Photograph by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
Whereas NASCAR’s Subsequent Gen automobile within the Cup Collection has visibly improved the standard of racing on the sequence’ intermediate and superspeedways, the trouble on brief tracks and highway programs stays a piece in progress.
For the second consecutive season, NASCAR begins the yr with a brand new aerodynamic guidelines bundle for highway programs and most brief tracks. On highway programs and most ovals of 1.058 miles or much less, automobiles will run a simplified diffuser together with a handful of different updates. Amongst them: use of the 2023 brief observe/highway course splitter stuffers, removing of engine panel strakes, a three-inch spoiler, and simplified diffuser strakes.
These adjustments took place following driver suggestions from a check at Phoenix final December, which was prompted by a second season of brief observe and highway course occasions that featured lengthy inexperienced flag runs quite than the standard bumping and banging seen with the Gen 6 automobile. 5 brief observe and highway course races in 2023 had 5 cautions or fewer, and inexperienced flag passes for the lead on these tracks had been down for the second straight yr.
On account of value and elements availability considerations, the brand new guidelines weren’t used within the pre-season Busch Gentle Conflict on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. As an alternative, they are going to debut within the 10 March race at Phoenix. NASCAR believes that the largest achieve from the bundle might be how automobiles deal with in visitors.
“On the check, the automobile didn’t lose rear downforce when it yawed, which is a matter we struggle with the present automobile,” says NASCAR vice-president of car efficiency Eric Jacuzzi. “The drivers would be capable of slide round extra on the brief tracks and actually must be much less cautious about placing energy down. On the check, they felt they might actually inform that it was extra forgiving.”
One other aspect to the success of the brand new guidelines bundle might be Goodyear’s continued efforts to strive new tyre compounds – one thing it started final season.
“I feel we actually proved that we may proceed to work on making the compounds we now have softer, to the place they’ve extra grip initially, however then fall off extra considerably,” Jacuzzi provides. JU
Price and half availability considerations meant the brand new guidelines weren’t used within the pre-season Conflict received by Hamlin
Photograph by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
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