Popular thinking is that the larger teams will still have an edge, no matter what type of car NASCAR uses on the track. That’s because the big teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing and a rejuvenated RFK Racing have more resources, engineering and other assets that can overcome the same parts and pieces that will be used on all the cars on every team.
“The best teams are always going to be the best,” McDowell said. “As you guys know with any industry it is all about people. The biggest and best teams typically have the best people. So, it is always going to be that case.
“You look at all different forms of motorsports and the top teams are always the top teams, even with rule changes. I always feel like and have felt like this model will work because even at Front Row we have really good people. So, on a given day when we hit everything right. When I hit everything right and we hit the setup right and the strategy right, you should at least have an opportunity or be in a position to win.
“I grew up an open-wheel guy and I love watching IndyCar and get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a guy like Dale Coyne win races because he hired a good engineer and a really good driver. When they hit it right and they get the strategy right they can win an IndyCar race and beat Penske and Ganassi and Andretti and those big teams. I think the Next Gen car gives us and other teams the opportunity to do that in the Cup Series. When you get it right and hit everything right you will see guys win races that you don’t typically see because a lot of the parts and pieces are pretty close.
“The best teams are always going to be the best teams, there is no doubt about that.”
All of the teams are required to run the same parts and pieces and acquire them from the same manufacturers. That, combined with the worldwide supply chain issues, has created a shortage of spare parts and pieces.
That is one of the main concerns for every team in the garage as they look ahead to next Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
“Our inventory is not very big currently – no one’s is,” said Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who will start seventh Sunday. “It’s been difficult to get parts and pieces, honestly, for the teams to kind of put full things together. We used to come down here with one or two backups for each team just in case things happened and now we’re sitting on a couple for your whole organization, so that’s been difficult. You have to have that in the back of your head.”
There are other questions that won’t be answered until the race, such as how effective are these cars in the draft? Many drivers believe the race will break into five-car packs, but the last car in the line will not have a chance to get to the front. The draft goes all the way back to the car in the fourth position.
Keselowski believes the new cars are symmetrical, where the previous car was asymmetrical and that will change side drafting. Keselowski said a driver can get a good side draft if he is in the inside line, but the car on the outside line cannot get a good side draft from the lower car.
Hamlin disputed that when the same question was posed to him on Friday.
“Sure,” he said. “Every car is different. I know what it is on my car, but I’m not going to spill it through this microphone.
The bumpers are also softer and not part of the frame, as they were in previous versions. So, will teams be able to bump-draft?
“Every manufacturer is different,” Hamlin continued. “A lot of it is shapes of cars. As you know the sides of these cars, the bumpers of these cars look a lot different for each manufacturer. So, all of them will be able to bump draft or push draft or whatever differently. I don’t know that you could really throw a blanket statement over all of the cars because they are so different, but certainly some bodies lend themselves better to this type of racing than others. Side drafting is still part of our racing. It always has been since Dale Earnhardt kind of showed us that.
“It’s still a big part of what we do today.”
There is no clear-cut favorite to win Sunday’s Daytona 500. That’s exactly what NASCAR wanted to create with the Next Gen car, a playing field where nearly anybody can win its biggest race.