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AVONDALE, Ariz. — The grand unveil of NASCAR’s 2016 rules package came as welcome news around stock-car racing circles, establishing a reduced-downforce baseline for the Sprint Cup Series. For the handful of teams busy this week with a three-day test at Phoenix International Raceway, the package had already received its initiation with a dry run in the desert.
The news received an overwhelming thumbs-up from those in the garage area Wednesday, moments after NASCAR competition officials released the 2016 rules configuration. A similar rules setup was met with approval during trial races this summer at intermediate-sized tracks Kentucky and Darlington.
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Teams put a similar reduced-downforce setup to the test on the 1-mile track during portions of the two-day Goodyear tire test Monday and Tuesday with positive results, then during some of Wednesday’s open test.
“We’ve tested a little bit here what we felt it was going to be, and looks like we were pretty spot-on for that,” said Brad Keselowski, the Coors Light Pole Award winner at Darlington with the package. “In general, I think from the technical side, I think it probably makes the race cars more in the drivers’ hands, so I’m a fan of that. I feel like that suits my style.”
NASCAR officials chopped the rear spoiler back from 6 inches to 3.5 for next season, and decreased the aerodynamic effect of the front splitter (2 inches to .25) and the radiator pan (38 inches to 33) for next year. The 2015 rules for superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega largely will remain intact; the reduced-downforce package will be the basis for the remaining 21 tracks where NASCAR’s top series competes.
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In making the anticipated changes, competition officials hoped to make the cars far less dependent on aerodynamics when racing in larger groups.
“The two times that we raced it, it seemed like it was better as far as being able to get close to another car and have less negative aero effects being behind other cars,” Matt Kenseth said. “I think it gives us more opportunities to get side-by-side and pass. I think it’s certainly what I think all the drivers think probably is the right direction as far as passing and putting on better racing.”
The primary focus for the eight teams here centered on tuning in this year’s package for when the series returns Nov. 15 for the next-to-last race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. Six of the eight drivers here — Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr., and Kenseth and Keselowski — remain title-eligible, all hoping to find speed to upend Kevin Harvick‘s stellar streak of four consecutive Phoenix wins.
That focal point didn’t keep teams from getting a taste of the 2016 rules a few months early.
“I thought yesterday, really when we first went to it, the car overall was a little bit freer, but all in all it wasn’t drastically different,” said Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief on the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. “Goodyear brought a lot of different tire combinations and they found a couple sets that seemed like they provide more grip and lap times were up a little bit from there, but all in all, Matt was fairly happy with it. I think if we’d had more time to just work on that, we could’ve made it better, but for our first stab at it here at Phoenix, I thought it went pretty good.
“I think we’ve raced it a couple times this year and the racing’s a little bit better directionally. I thought at Kentucky, there were a couple of situations where there was some passing going on that maybe we don’t see this year. I thought directionally it’s definitely the way to go. It’s hard to tell at a test like this what that’s going to do in a group because we were never in that situation, but from what we’ve seen at Kentucky and Darlington, I think it’s going to be a plus.”
Goodyear collected data this week to confirm its tire compound for the Sprint Cup race here next month, but teams also gathered valuable information in their dalliances with the 2016 rules. More tests for next year’s package are scheduled in the weeks and months ahead, next Tuesday at Michigan, Oct. 27-28 at Atlanta, and Dec. 14-15 at Homestead-Miami.
Michigan was the host to what was likely the final event of a two-race trial for the widely panned increased-downforce package, which raised the spoiler height and other aerodynamic devices. Next week, the 2-mile track will get its first taste of the 2016 baseline setup.
“I think that’s been the general consensus of all the drivers is that we liked that direction, and I think that those are two of the better races that we had this year,” said Jamie McMurray, driver of Chip Ganassi Racing‘s No. 1 Chevrolet. “I don’t really like when people use the term ‘having to drive the car,’ because no matter what the package is, you still have to drive the car and it’s still a lot of work, but the less downforce is just a little more fun to drive. The acceleration is better, the (tire) fall-off is a little more, and the corner speeds are less, so hopefully it creates more passing.”