NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COCA-COLA 600
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY Q&A
MAY 27, 2016
PAT SUHY, CHEVROLET RACING NASCAR GROUP MANAGER, ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW RULES CHANGES IN THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES:
HOW DID THE NEW TWEAKS TO THE RULES PACKAGE COME ABOUT?
“I really think it started in discussions between the teams and NASCAR about where the teams are spending their resources; and wondering if this is really an area they want to race in? NASCAR knows that over time, teams have gained aero performance, whether it’s increased downforce or reduced drag, as they spend more and more time in the Wind Tunnel and as they have worked on the tires to have more grip and more give-up. Gaining back more of the downforce they lost by whatever means, jeopardizes all the work that has been done and fans could see racing return to what it was like last year. I think as a problem to solve it was the question of, ‘Well, where are you guys gaining downforce? How come the cars have all this skew in them?’
“I think there were other discussions going on about electrical loads and battery life and stuff like that. You come to realize that the two things that were just done, reducing the number of fans underneath the car and reducing the skew in the rear of the car, were two of the areas the teams had been working in to gain back a lot of the performance that the body change was supposed to eliminate. Collectively, I think the teams and NASCAR agreed that limiting those things wouldn’t be a bad way to slow the progress down that path and allow them to focus their resources elsewhere.”
HOW WILL THE NEW AERODYNAMIC CHANGES AFFECT HOW THE CARS DRIVE?
“The low downforce package that was tested at Michigan last week fundamentally probably won’t change things a lot as far as the way the cars handle. I believe NASCAR and the teams that participated with them on the project directly did a really good job of doing things that were sensible to maintain the aero balance and be simple to implement. The aero balance really didn’t shift very much from where it is today. What is going to probably change is the way the cars behave in traffic. Based on what we saw at Michigan, we are going to see corner entry speeds go up, and mid-corner speeds go down. It’s going to put a lot of the ‘driver’ back in the car. It is partway back to the package we saw last spring at Michigan when they tested the 2015 low downforce package there. The speeds were still too high, but I think between the engine changes that happened this year and the fact that they didn’t go all the way to that low downforce package, we are going to see a pretty racy package that a lot of the drivers have been talking about wanting.”
WHAT TYPES OF DATA ARE YOU AND YOUR TEAM PROVIDING TO THE CHEVROLET TEAMS TO GET THEM UP TO SPEED TO ADAPT TO THESE CHANGES?
“We have a vehicle model, a driver in the loop simulator, and we have actually been discussing ways that we can try to help our teams get ahead of it in terms of understanding what engine torque curve and chassis sensitivities look like with this new aero package versus with the old aero package. What kind of chassis balance do you need to go along with the aero package? Even though it’s the same aero balance, maybe the chassis needs to be balanced differently? I think there are just some fundamental questions that we can help answer. We can’t do it alone and have had great success working with a team or teams to apply our tools to help answer some fundamental questions.”
DO YOU THINK TRYING THESE NEW CHANGES IN THE ALL-STAR RACE AND THE TEST AT MICHIGAN WAS ENOUGH EXAMINATION TO IMPLEMENT THESE CHANGES?
“I think the truck arm rule and the fan rule are done for the rest of the season. I don’t really think that needed a lot of testing. That’s just a matter of trying to get some of the gains that the teams have made in downforce out of the car so they are more like what we had at the beginning of the season. As far as the new future aero package being tested at Michigan and Kentucky, I do think that is adequate testing. Actually, that is probably more than adequate based on what we know and how the test went last year on the two packages versus how the racing turned out. My opinion is you might have been able to do it just based on the tire test at Michigan.”
ARE THERE FURTHER STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN TO REDUCE DOWNFORCE?
“You get to a point where you can take more downforce off the cars, but there are diminishing returns in terms of the racing quality. I think there is a sweet spot there. Along the way you can’t stop working on tires. Another thing you could to if you really want the cars to be harder to drive, I think, is to put some of the horsepower back in them. There are a lot of things you can do if it’s about making the drivers drive the cars. I think the teams are working well with NASCAR. I think the whole competition committee that NASCAR has together is coming to grips with the fact that we, as an industry, have to decide our points of difference. Where do we want to race each other? Do we want to race each other with pit guns, or tire fans, or do I want my driver to determine if my car is the fastest?”
Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy, follow us on Twitter @TeamChevy, and add +TeamChevy into your Google+ circles.
Team Chevy racing photos are available at:
About Chevrolet:
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
