Hamlin indicated teams have already made gains to get some of the downforce back that was taken off the cars at the start of the season – and they’ll continue to do so. In the last nine races, he has two tire violations and an improper fueling violation.
Advertisement
To that, the drivers say, bring it on.
Fast facts: The All-Star format has been tweaked for this year’s race.
With mainly light and scattered showers expected on Wednesday and Thursday, NASCAR expects to get all practice and qualifying races in without problems. It should be a short, fun, wonderful race. In what was going to be a storybook finish no matter which of the first three won, Kenseth earned his first win since September 27, 2015.
-The race will be set up in three segments of 50, 50 and 13 laps. The remainder of the field will stay on the track, with the cars with new tires behind them on the restart.
All five of the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers – including Martin Truex Jr. – should have somewhat of an edge, but with the format in the final 13 laps being kind of weird, that edge is taken away a little bit.
NASCAR also introduced rear toe alignment changes meant to decrease the amount of skew, or slant, allowed in a car’s setup.
The tire issue – how quickly the Goodyears “fall-off”, or wear down – will be paramount. It was about 20 or 30 seconds later that it finally got transmitted to me that we had won, and it was a long 20 or 30 seconds, but it was really exciting to be part of a finish like that. “What’s the tire going to be like?” “There’s going to be a lot of strategy played with crew chiefs and drivers”. After taking the checkered flag, Edwards heavily damaged the front end of his vehicle when he spun across the infield grass to celebrate the victory.
“There’s definitely a lot of variables coming up this weekend at Charlotte, between the rules package and obviously the format”, he said. He entered a silly companion race dubbed the “Battle of the Beach” with every expectation to have some fun in the event.
“I think from the fan standpoint, they won’t see physically anything different with the cars”, said Denny Hamlin, who won last season’s all-star race. But the rules testing may put more emphasis on making it to the finish so that drivers and teams can evaluate under racing conditions what might become standard rules next season. “I’m very confident by the time we get to the next month or two, we’re going to have some of these bugs worked out and we’ll be contending for wins like our teammates are”.
Advertisement
“Anytime you slow the speeds down, racing will always be better”, Hamlin said.
