Speed Rankings: How NASCAR’s rules package changed speed’s effect on results
New York TimesWelcome to The Speed Rankings on The Athletic. This column highlights Central Speed for the NASCAR Cup Series, a statistic exclusive to subscribers of The Athletic that compiles and ranks speed-per-quarter averages while omitting crash damage aberrations. A result’s relationship with pure speed is an enduring dependency in all forms of auto racing, but in the NASCAR Cup Series, there’s more built-in parity — races are long, often hitting the 500-mile mark, and the opportunities for track position are ample. NASCAR’s goal with its low-horsepower, high-downforce rules package this year was to steer away from the engineering-first world of low downforce, high speeds on corner entry and tire wear volatility, and create a product with more parity, allowing drivers to claw for victories via hard side-by-side racing. Though drivers may not be able to eyeball a heightened dependency on speed — a difference of 20 percentage points is big on paper but potentially imperceptible to the naked eye — the sport’s fastest driver noticed a shift in the relationship between speed and results.
History of this topic
Kevin Harvick, NASCAR’s voice of reason, will be missed — on and off the track
New York Times
AUTO RACING: From small to big: ‘Dega is next for NASCAR
Associated Press
Speed Rankings: The new “fastest car,” and confirming the origin of Chase Elliott’s road course dominance
New York Times
Speed Rankings: A peculiar regression is happening on the moderate 1.5-mile tracks
New York Times
Speed Rankings: How Stewart-Haas regaled with raw speed in Michigan – yet still emerged winless
New York TimesDiscover Related