The new Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC will debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, Ford Racing announced in a Thursday livestream.
The new design is based off the sports car Ford unveiled during its annual season launch with 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney behind the wheel, with the street car flexing a 5.2-liter V8 engine. The NASCAR edition will compete for the first time officially in the 2027 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ford introduced the Dark Horse Mustang in 2024, collecting the 2024 Cup championship with Joey Logano and 19 total wins in the two seasons since. The introduction of the Dark Horse SC — for “supercharger” — highlights the manufacturer’s next step in stock-car racing’s top level.
“This was really a dream project for the team,” Arie Groeneveld, Ford Racing’s chief project engineer, said during the event. “A chance to make a world-class performance icon true to its American muscle car roots using everything we’ve learned on the track.
“That 5.2-liter V8 uses a supercharger to generate massive airflow, bringing incredible power to a street Mustang. … It really is the most powerful Dark Horse we’ve ever released.”
Hosted by Hollywood star Dax Sheppard, the event in Detroit, Michigan, featured racing icons from across multiple genres of racing, including retired Formula 1 racer Daniel Ricciardo, sports car ace Mike Rockenfeller and NASCAR stars Blaney, Logano, Chris Buescher and Zane Smith.
As the first to wheel out the Dark Horse SC, Blaney was enthusiastic for what lies ahead for Ford in the NASCAR world.
“It’s great that I got to drive it for the first time,” Blaney said. “The supercharged feeling is unbelievable. The carbon brakes are really amazing when you get on the track. You just want to punch it hard, brake late.”
Blaney then turned it over to Mark Rushbrook, Ford Racing’s global director, who announced the arrival of the Dark Horse SC in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“In 2027, we will take the Dark Horse SC and debut it at America’s race track with America’s race team, the Daytona 500,” Rushbrook said.
Three teams field Fords in NASCAR, each with three cars under its banner: Team Penske with Blaney, Logano and Austin Cindric; RFK Racing with Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece; and Front Row Motorsports with Smith, Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson.
The first taste of NASCAR racing in 2026 comes in the exhibition Cook Out Clash on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The season will officially begin with the 68th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX, HBO Max, MRN and SiriusXM.
Team outlook: Entering Year 2 under the Hyak Motorsports banner (formerly known as JTG Daugherty Racing), the No. 47 team will work on improving its Cup Series program after finishing 30th in the final standings last year with veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The organization’s only top five of the 2025 season was a fifth-place finish in the second race of the year in the EchoPark Speedway spring race. Hyak traditionally brings fast cars to drafting-style tracks, so look for the No. 47 Chevrolet to be in the mix at EchoPark, Daytona and Talladega. The team’s most recent Cup win was the 2024 Talladega fall race.
Experience: 13 full-time seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series; 472 starts 2025 stats: 30th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 1 top five, 3 top 10s, 0 poles, 8 laps led
Driver Outlook: Stenhouse’s sixth season with Hyak proved to be his most challenging year yet behind the wheel of the No. 47 Chevrolet. Last season, the 38-year-old from Olive Branch, Mississippi, had five fewer top fives and top 10s compared to 2024. After missing the playoffs for the last two years, Stenhouse will be hungry to return to Victory Lane following a winless 2025 campaign, in a year he made headlines for an ongoing feud with Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar. Looking ahead to the 2026 season, Stenhouse could put that on-track feud in the rearview mirror and get things trending in the right direction to kick off the new year with his second Harley J. Earl Trophy. The Hyak driver won the 2023 Daytona 500, and given how strong he typically runs on drafting-style tracks, he might be able to capitalize on some early-season momentum with Daytona and EchoPark as the first two races of 2026.
TULSA, Okla. — Christopher Bell’s first week as a car owner at the Chili Bowl Nationals is off to a fantastic start.
After winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions from the pole Monday night inside the SageNet Center, Bell stormed from eighth to win Thursday’s preliminary night feature to lock himself into Saturday’s championship race.
“This place is magic,” said Bell, who matched fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson with his ninth preliminary night victory at the Chili Bowl. “It’s never over until it’s over, and that’s the way it is here.”
The three-time Chili Bowl winner went undefeated Thursday night, winning his heat race, his qualifier and the 30-lap preliminary feature. He won his heat race from the pole and his qualifier from second, but his road to victory in the feature was much more difficult.
Lining up eighth, Bell spent most of the race playing catchup as C.J. Leary, Ryan Bernal and Spencer Bayston battled for the lead ahead of him.
Christopher Bell on Thursday night. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
Bell was struggling to make any gains on the leaders and was running a distant fifth when the first caution of the race waved with seven laps left. Were it not for that caution, Bell said he likely had no shot at catching the leaders.
“I didn’t think I was going to get there,” Bell admitted. “When the yellow came out, I don’t know how far away those guys were, but I just didn’t really have the pace. Everyone was really committed to the top, and I really wasn’t able to keep up.”
When the race resumed, Bell sliced his way to third before another caution slowed the field with five laps left. Finally within striking distance of race leader Bernal and runner-up Leary, Bell knew he had a shot to win the race, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
Bell first moved by Leary, who was driving for NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman in Tulsa, before turning his attention to Bernal. With three laps, left Bell made his move, diving to the inside of Bernal in Turn 1 to take the race lead.
The native of nearby Norman, Oklahoma led the rest of the way to punch his ticket to his 11th Chili Bowl Nationals championship feature. Leary finished second to give Bowman two cars locked into Saturday’s finale.
Christopher Bell in Victory Lane Thursday night at the Chili Bowl. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
“When the yellow came out, I was like, ‘OK, i’m just going to have to do something different here,'” Bell explained. “I could make a couple good corners on the bottom whenever I hit it, so I just said I’m going see what happens. The curb got so treacherous that nobody could get off of (Turn) 4 really well on the top, and there was enough juice on the bottom where I could get by and make a lot of speed down the frontstretch.”
Despite finding the checkered flag every time he has been on the race track this week, Bell doesn’t think his car is good enough to win his fourth Golden Driller trophy at the Chili Bowl.
At least not yet.
“The car is insanely fast. Like it is just really, really fast. Every time I hit the track it’s got great pace. I just am struggling with being consistent enough,” Bell said. “I don’t think it’s good enough to win on Saturday. I’ve just got to make the car a little more drivable.
“It clearly has the speed. If I can get to driving it a little more consistent, we’ll be right there.”
The 40th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals presented by NOS Energy Drink continues Friday night. Action begins at 5 p.m. ET with complete coverage available live on FloRacing.
TULSA, Okla. — Each season when teams converge in the SageNet Center for the running of the Chili Bowl Nationals, the largest Midget car event in the world, a handful of active NASCAR drivers join the fray in pursuit of the famous Golden Driller trophy.
No fewer than eight drivers who competed in one of NASCAR’s three national divisions last year are entered to compete in this year’s Midget car racing extravaganza.
They include defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, defending NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs, among others.
However, if you look a little closer, you’ll find even more involvement from NASCAR personalities in the Chili Bowl pit area.
Five active NASCAR Cup Series drivers are entered in the Chili Bowl this year as car owners, including Larson, Bell, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch. Another familiar face in the NASCAR garage, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Blake Harris, is the car owner for Love this year at the Chili Bowl.
Car ownership is a growing trend among NASCAR personalities at the Chili Bowl, especially for those who grew up coming to and racing during the Chili Bowl.
Bowman is a perfect example. He has been traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma each January for more than a decade to compete in the Chili Bowl, first as a driver and now as a car owner and crew chief for his own team.
That shift from driver to owner/crew chief was a gradual one for Bowman, who is fielding cars this week for drivers C.J. Leary and Briggs Danner.
“I think this is like the 11th year I’ve brought a car to the Chili Bowl, and I’ve driven five or six times out of those 11 years,” said Bowman, who made 10 Chili Bowl attempts as a driver during his career but never qualified for the Saturday championship feature.
The stress, according to Bowman, has less to do with being a car owner and more to do with being the guy who makes the final setup decisions on his race cars.
“I’m making all the setup calls on these cars,” said Bowman. “Trying to get those calls right is probably the most stressful part of the week, but it’s a lot of fun, and I really enjoy this event.”
So far this week in Tulsa, Bowman’s setup calls have been spot-on. Danner, who was in action Monday night, finished second to Larson in the preliminary feature to lock into Saturday’s championship feature. His second driver, Leary, races Thursday night.
“Briggs has been really fast both years he’s driving for me,” Bowman said. “I think he probably could have, should have, would have won last year. He made some really conservative decisions there at the end (of Monday’s feature) to take the locked in spot, which I’m all good with. That was a good night for us.
“With C.J., we’re such close friends that it is probably the more stressful one of the week for me. Thursday is inherently always the hardest night of the week. In my opinion it is the most stacked night.”
While Bowman’s time as a driver at the Chili Bowl is effectively over — he admits he doesn’t really fit in a Midget anymore — his competitive spirit remains. If he can’t win the Chili Bowl as a driver, he wants to win it as an owner.
“I want to win this event, and my best chance is to do it with not me in the seat probably,” Bowman said. “I’m definitely having fun with it.”
Christopher Bell already has a win in his own Midget this week during the Chili Bowl after he won the Race of Champions on Monday. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
Bell, a three-time Chili Bowl champion driver, is the latest NASCAR competitor to field his own equipment in Tulsa.
After previously racing for Keith Kunz Motorsports and CB Industries inside the SageNet Center on the temporary quarter-mile dirt oval, Bell made the decision to shift gears and build his own team from the ground up for the 2026 event.
“Last year I drove for KKM, and when I left the event, it just kind of really hit me. I felt like that chapter of my career was behind me,” said Bell, who is fielding a car for himself and Australian Kaidon Brown this week. “I said, ‘I wanna try something else.’ My goal isn’t to drive for myself. Honestly, my goal was to have two drivers I enjoy being around.
“Kaidon was always part of the plan, but unfortunately the guys that were on my list (for the second car) already had commitments. So, I was then like, “Well, I guess I’ll just drive it.’”
From the moment the checkered flag waved for the NASCAR Cup Series finale last November at Phoenix Raceway, Bell has been solely focused on the Chili Bowl. It’s been a gratifying process for a driver who grew up attending the Chili Bowl long before he was a competitor.
“From the car owner side, I just enjoyed the prep process and the shop work and assembling the cars,” Bell said. “Thinking of how we’re going to setup our pit area, the handling of the food, all that stuff. I think I just enjoyed all the extracurriculars of it.
“The Chili Bowl and the Tulsa Shootout is literally the perfect event for me to spend my offseason. I don’t have to put much into it during my regular day job, then when the offseason comes, I’ve been full-time working on these things and preparing for this week.”
Bell kicked off his tenure as a car owner at the Chili Bowl in fine style Monday when he won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions for the fourth time.
Winning inside the SageNet Center is one thing, but doing it in his own equipment meant just a bit more. The goal, of course, is for either himself or Brown to do it again Saturday night.
“I think it’s definitely going to be more special,” Bell said. “Even the Race of Champions just felt very rewarding to win with myself crew chiefing, my father-in-law helping working on the cars, my best friend working on the cars, it definitely meant more.
“Certainly if I could do it with another person driving, it would be icing on the cake.”
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Ashly Ennis, Hendrick Motorsports’ director of racing communications, was named the recipient of the inaugural Jon Edwards Excellence in Public Relations Award, NASCAR announced Wednesday evening.
The award honors the legacy of Edwards, a longtime and highly respected public relations representative who passed away unexpectedly in April 2025. Edwards worked with four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and two-time champion Kyle Larson, both at Hendrick Motorsports, establishing a legacy of integrity, mentorship and passion for both NASCAR and his job, leaving a lasting impact on the sport’s communications community.
Ennis was honored with the award in a celebration in Mooresville, North Carolina, for her exceptional work during the 2025 season, during which she served as the communications representative for William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet and two-time Daytona 500 champion. In eight seasons with Hendrick Motorsports, Ennis has established a reputation as a respected leader throughout the NASCAR garage, collaborating often and impactfully with media members and fellow public relations representatives to heighten awareness of Byron, Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 24 team.
“Honestly, I’m a little bit in disbelief,” Ennis told NASCAR.com, “simply because there are so many people in this room who have contributed to my career — Jon by far the most. But there are so many people who have been in this sport longer than me, who worked with Jon before me that also contributed to my career. So it’s a little bit of disbelief, but honestly, I’m just honored.”
David Jensen | Getty Images
Members of Edwards’ family were on hand Wednesday night to deliver the trophy to Ennis. Helping present Ennis the award was Gordon, with whom Edwards worked since 1994, one year into Gordon’s illustrious career that led him into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In Gordon’s eyes, Ennis was the perfect person to receive the inaugural award named in memory of his friend Edwards.
“You’re amazing at what you do. I did not know this is happening, but I’m so proud, so happy,” Gordon said. “There’s very deserving people in this room, but I don’t know if there’s any more deserving right now at this moment than you. You’ve earned it. You deserve it, so congratulations.”
Ennis, who joined Hendrick Motorsports in November 2018, is an Ohio native who earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgia Southern University.
The award was created to acknowledge individuals who embody Edwards’ commitment to excellence, service and character both on and off the track, NASCAR said in a release. Ennis worked closely with Edwards at Hendrick Motorsports. His impact and approach to the job, Ennis said, still resonates today with her and countless other public relations professionals throughout the sport.
“There’s moments where I feel bad for the people who are going to be coming up through the ranks that will never know Jon on a personal level,” Ennis said. “And I hate that, because I feel like everyone should know Jon. But I just feel like it shows the level that we should strive for, and we should also go learn to make it in our own way.
“There is no textbook, cut-and-dry ‘This is how the role is.’ And I say that even with training people. You can’t sit there and be like, ‘This is how the role is done,’ because it changes, and it changes every moment, every situation. But the gold standard is Jon. And I just feel like if everyone strives to be close to that, it just makes our sport a little better.”
Team outlook: RCR has collectively had a tough go of it in the last two seasons. Since 2024, only Austin Dillon made the playoffs (finished 15th in 2025), while Kyle Busch hasn’t made the playoffs since his first year with RCR in 2023. A significant change for 2026 is that Busch will have a new crew chief, Jim Pohlman — Busch’s third crew chief since the start of the 2025 season. The team also named Mike Dillon as chief operating officer, John Klausmeier as technical director and Andy Street as performance director. These leadership changes, coupled with a strong group waiting in the wings in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, could point to a brighter future around the bend.
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CAMARO
Experience: 12 full-time seasons/3 part-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 444 career starts 2025 stats: 15th in final Cup Series standings; 1 win, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 0 poles, 119 laps led
Driver outlook: After finishing with one win and five top-10 finishes in both 2024 and 2025, Dillon is considered a long shot by DraftKings to win the championship in 2026. He’s managed six total wins since 2017 (all of his Cup career wins). With the new Chase championship format set for 2026, Dillon won’t have the “win-and-you’re-in” to make the playoffs this season. This time, the No. 3 team will need to show more consistency over the long haul in order to make it to The Chase.
Experience: 21 full-time seasons/2 part-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 750 career starts 2025 stats: 21st in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 3 top fives, 10 top 10s, 0 poles, 88 laps led
Driver outlook: The 2025 season was Busch’s last under RCR’s original contract with him, but the team gave him a one-year extension for 2026. Busch has not been the driver he once was: The 63-Cup race winner has not won a race since 2023, and his finishes in the last two seasons (20th in 2024 and 21st in 2025) are single-season career-worst performances for him. However, if he can recapture what he had at the beginning of his tenure at RCR when he rolled off three quick wins and without the “win-and-you’re-in” rule, it’s not out of the question that Busch could produce consistent enough results to break his postseason drought.
A Gathering in Remembrance will be held on Friday, Jan. 16, to honor the lives lost in the Dec. 18 plane crash in Statesville, North Carolina, including NASCAR great Greg Biffle.
The memorial, open to the public, is set for 11 a.m. ET at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Biffle, wife Cristina, daughter Emma and son Ryder, as well as Dennis Dutton, his son, Jack, and Craig Wadsworth, will be remembered. Fans unable to attend the gathering in person can watch the ceremonies via live stream on NASCAR.com, Facebook, YouTube and The NASCAR Channel to pay respects to those who were lost.
Biffle, the 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and 2002 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, was named as one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023. The Vancouver, Washington native was a 19-time winner in NASCAR Cup Series competition, earning all 19 victories while driving the No. 16 Ford for team owner Jack Roush.
Biffle was honored as the 2024 NMPA Myers Brothers Award winner for his outstanding rescue and aid efforts in Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut driving the No. 45 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway, the team announced Wednesday.
Stenhouse, the 2023 Daytona 500 winner and two-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, has never made a Truck Series start despite competing in NASCAR’s national series since 2009. The Mississippi native will compete in each of the first two truck races of 2026 for Niece, driving the No. 45 J.F. Electric Chevrolet at both Daytona and EchoPark Speedway.
“I’ve always wanted to run a truck, but never had the opportunity to put something together,” Stenhouse Jr. said in a release. “When Cody (Efaw, Niece’s CEO) called me, I definitely had a lot of interest to see what all they have been building here at Niece Motorsports, especially looking at their level of competition. With it being at Daytona, obviously winning the 500 was awesome, and I’d love to win a Truck Series race there, too. I’ve always wanted to race a truck, but I wanted it to be competitive — and this checks all of those boxes.”
Stenhouse has won four Cup Series races and eight O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races across a combined 582 starts. All four of his Cup victories have come on superspeedways — two at Daytona and two at Talladega Superspeedway.
“We are all very excited to welcome Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to our team for his first time racing in the Truck Series,” Efaw said. “I’ve known Ricky for several years now dating back to our time at Roush (now RFK Racing), and he’s always been a natural on superspeedways. I believe he will have a true shot at contending for the win at both Daytona and Atlanta.”
J.F. Electric CEO and chairman Greg Fowler became part of Niece Motorsports’ new ownership group in 2025 along with Josh Morris, CEO of DQS Solutions & Staffing.
“Josh Morris and I are thrilled to welcome Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to Niece Motorsports for his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Daytona,” Fowler said. “There’s no bigger stage for a debut than Daytona, and we believe Ricky gives our team a real opportunity to contend for the win. We’d love nothing more than to be celebrating together in Victory Lane at the end of the race.”
The Fresh from Florida 250 begins the 2026 truck season at Daytona on Friday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Team outlook: Continuity will be key to improvement in 2026 for Front Row, which turns the page after a year of transition. FRM entered last season with two new faces in Gragson and Smith, who joined forces with Gilliland as the organization expanded to a three-car outfit. Results were mixed, with just three top-five finishes (one for each driver) over the course of the year, but the foundation of the team’s lineup is mostly intact, as are aspirations of returning to the postseason after a two-season drought.
NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 4 FORD
Experience: 2 full-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 111 starts 2025 stats: 34th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 1 top five, 3 top 10s, 0 poles, 7 laps led
Driver outlook: Gragson is back for a second season in the No. 4 Ford, but with a new face atop the team’s pit box. Longtime race engineer Grant Hutchens will take the helm from Drew Blickensderfer, starting his first full-time crew chief role in the Cup Series. He’ll be working toward establishing a better performance baseline with the 27-year-old Gragson, who absorbed eight crash-related DNFs last year, a contributing factor to his total of just 16 lead-lap results in 2025 — next-to-last among Cup Series full-timers. His brightest spot last season was a fourth-place effort at Talladega in April; expect the superspeedways to be a place for potential positives until the pairing builds chemistry.
TODD GILLILAND, NO. 34 FORD
Experience: 4 full-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 144 starts 2025 stats: 27th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 0 poles, 23 laps led
Driver outlook: Gilliland enters 2026 again as the most-tenured driver at Front Row, though he’s the youngest of the trio at just 25 years old. His most recent campaign represented steps forward in some ways (a career-best 20.8 average finish, plus a career-high second place at Talladega in October), but steps back in others (a five-spot drop in the final Cup Series standings and leading 107 fewer laps than the year before). Achieving his own performance upswing and assuming a leadership role will be crucial for the team’s composure.
ZANE SMITH, NO. 38 FORD
Experience: 2 full-time seasons in NASCAR Cup Series; 81 starts 2025 stats: 28th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 1 pole, 22 laps led
Driver outlook: Smith’s first career pole position (at Talladega in April) stands as a highlight from last year, but so does a third-place finish at Bristol and top 10s at Phoenix, Michigan and Atlanta. The Cup Series progress has been measured so far for Smith, who delivered a Craftsman Truck Series championship to Front Row in 2022 and returned to the organization’s Cup side last season. Finding more gains on those first-year highlights — in whatever increment, and on an array of track types — will be a necessity for the No. 38 team.
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — The quiet of NASCAR winter just received a rumbling bit of offseason thaw.
A one-day organizational test provided that much-needed jolt Tuesday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where Cup Series teams got back on track for their first unofficial laps of 2026. The sound of engines echoing through the Brushy Mountains that surround the revered 0.625-mile oval was a familiar signal of the approaching season, but also a nod toward the NASCAR-mandated horsepower bump for a majority of tracks this year.
Fifteen teams — one from each chartered Cup Series organization — participated Tuesday as NASCAR competition officials deployed a handful of setup configurations to draw a bead on the series’ short-track balance. The day’s constant was a 750-horsepower baseline, an increase from the 670 target engine output on road courses and tracks measuring less than 1.5 miles in recent seasons. The switch was a well-received rules wrinkle, based on the earliest impressions.
“The more horsepower, the better, yes,” said Hyak Motorsports veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. “I think if we can continue in that direction … Goodyear’s continuing to do a good job of bringing us tires that wear out, and they’re continuing to evolve that. I think all of us, drivers and teams, are on board with that. So you pair that with NASCAR adding horsepower, I think everybody in the garage has been on board, but I think everything’s going the right direction to get us even better racing.”
The prep session comes ahead of the Cup Series’ return to North Wilkesboro for the Window World 450 on July 19 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The historic track has hosted the non-points All-Star Race the last three seasons, but this year’s 450-lap event will mark the circuit’s first points-paying meet since 1996, when the Cup Series’ original 48-year run here ended.
Tuesday’s test initially was set for a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET window, but competition officials extended the on-track time by two hours into the evening after working through a list of proposed rules and configurations. NASCAR tested — both individually and in multiple combinations — different settings with the rear suspension/camber, a softer tire compound and some minor aerodynamic adjustments.
Weather conditions warmed in the afternoon sun, but were still far cooler than what’s expected when the Cup Series makes its midsummer return. The wintertime chill increased the grip level, which offset the potential finesse that drivers might need to manage the horsepower boost. A far different effect is anticipated come July.
“I don’t see the power hurting the entertainment factor of the race, and hopefully it allows us to have to pedal the cars at some point throughout a run,” Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott said. “There’s a lot of grip out there today, I feel like, but even by the end of 40 laps, there’s a good bit of fall-off, even for the temperatures that we have today. So I would have to imagine you come back here in the summer months … certainly it’ll be warmer than it is today, and kind of combine that with more cars being on the track, I do think there’ll be some wear. Then obviously the power will impact that another step as well. So I feel like the tire changes that Goodyear made last year were some really good steps in the right direction, and hopefully we just kind of keep inching up on making these long runs more of a challenge.”
The rare test day also presented an opportunity for new team, driver and crew chief pairings to get better acquainted in an at-track setting. Four of the 15 participating teams Tuesday were breaking in new combos — Kyle Busch and new crew chief Jim Pohlman at Richard Childress Racing, Erik Jones with newly appointed crew chief Justin Alexander at Legacy Motor Club, Ross Chastain and crew chief Brandon McSwain at Trackhouse, and new driver Daniel Suárez joining Spire Motorsports and incumbent crew chief Ryan Sparks.
For Suárez — the lone new driver in a new place at Tuesday’s test — he was pleased to have a familiar voice with spotter Frankie Kimmel going with him to Spire’s No. 7 team. The rest of the “getting to know you” session, he said, was an all-new experience.
“It’s been super-productive for us, just to learn from each other, learn to communicate, learn about the car,” Suárez said. “I already have a list of items that I want to improve, because what you see in the car in the shop is one thing. When you have the opportunity to make some laps, it’s a whole new perspective. So with everything being new for me, I already have my list of items to improve once we get back to the shop, but the main thing also is the communication, just to make sure that we’re on the same page.”
