NASCAR officially announces changes to Next Gen cars for Talladega

NASCAR announced Tuesday it will institute aerodynamic changes to all Cup Series cars for this Sunday’s Round of 12 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Among the changes: an extended-height roof rail, extended rocker panel skirt and fabric beneath the right-side roof flap. The changes to the Next Gen car are intended to “reduce the chances and effects of a vehicle getting airborne in the event of an on-track, high-speed incident,” per Alejandro Alvarez of NASCAR Digital Media.

Motorsports reporter Alan Cavanna provided photos of the changes to the Next Gen car.

NASCAR announced changes to the ahead of Talladega to “to increase the liftoff speed of the cars.”

Right-side roof rails, rocker skirt and new fabric on the roof flap pic.twitter.com/rFprYrPDoB

— Alan Cavanna (@AlanCavanna) October 1, 2024

NASCAR looking to prevent cars from going airborne at Talladega

Keeping cars on the ground has been a major point of emphasis for NASCAR this season. In the penultimate regular season race at Daytona last month, it was Michael McDowell who got airborne and slammed into the hood of Joey Logano. A few laps later, it was Josh Berry turning over on the backstretch and violently hitting the wall.

Logano said it was paramount for NASCAR to find a way to keep the cars from going airborne.

“Gotta figure out how to get the cars on the ground,” Logano said after the race. “We’re not doing too good on that part, so hopefully we can figure out how to do that better.”

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, acknowledged that additional work needs to be done to prevent cars from flipping over at superspeedways.

“It’s a complicated situation there when you’re running the speeds that we’re running. And you put multiple cars close together and how they affect each other,” Sawyer said last month. “Our guys in the back, I know they’ve been working since Saturday night to kind of recreate all that. And still some additional work on our side to be done.”

Green flag for the YellaWood 500 is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET this Sunday.