NASCAR drivers have differing opinions after short track test at Phoenix

Over the course of a couple of days, NASCAR tested out new aero packages among other changes at Phoenix Raceway. Short-track racing has faltered in the Next Gen era. Fixing that is the goal. However, there are many ideas on how to get there.

Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Corey LaJoie, Christopher Bell, and Erik Jones were the participating drivers. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there were a number of tests done. They worked with the splitter, the mufflers, and more.

While this wasn’t a tire test, Goodyear did bring new tire that seems to have made a difference for some of the drivers. Meanwhile, others didn’t notice much if any change between the various setups.

For Ryan Blaney, the NASCAR test showed a “massive” difference.

“We unloaded exactly how we were here in the fall with this car,” Blaney said to Cole Cusumano of Kickin the Tires. “Ran a couple hours on it and then did the different splitter – big difference. Massive with the way it drives. I mean, there’s so much downforce taken off of it with that. It drove hugely different, which it should. I mean, it’s a massive aero loss when you do that.

“Hopefully we can continue to tweak it a little bit. I think we can get a little better.”

Don’t get too excited. Kyle Larson didn’t feel it was much of a change at all.

“Ride quality and stuff changed with the different splitter, but I don’t know how it races any differently in traffic or anything like that,” Larson said.

Erik Jones felt NASCAR test went well on tire side

Again, this was not a tire test. This was more of an aero test. While NASCAR planned on testing a different transaxle and gearbox, that didn’t happen. Engineers and teams felt it was a waste of time for how marginal the differences would be.

The good news, the tire ended up being the best part of the test. Maybe that wasn’t the intention, but according to Erik Jones, the tire was great.

“Tire stuff was really good. I think Goodyear’s got some good notes from that and probably it’s going to apply to a lot of places,” Jones said. “We’ll see how durability does with the tire that we tried that everybody kind of liked.

“It was definitely – this isn’t really a tire test – but of all the tires I’ve tested over my career, by far, probably today was the biggest I’ve noticed a difference.”

So, do with that information what you will. The lack of a transaxle swap is disappointing. However, there was progress with the splitter and tires. On top of those tests, a new muffler was tested and drivers seem to like what they hear – a quieter car.