Denny Hamlin worried after the test at Daytona
The previous two days the drivers had tested the next-gen NASCAR cars. The drivers performed testing at Daytona International Speedway. Eight drivers took part in testing these cars. Among them was the winner of the last race held at Darlington, Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs racing driver interrupted a long series of races on the mentioned track, in which he failed to record a victory.
After the test race, Hamlin showed some concern about next-gen cars. The biggest problem with the car is too much heat. Of course, there are certain novelties that Hamlin and other drivers have to adapt to. New tests should be held on the mentioned track in January when a much larger number of teams will participate.
Hamlin was one of the drivers to test the Next Gen car, which is set to debut in the 2022 season, at Daytona. While the main objective was to develop a tire with Goodyear that the car would be using but the test also released major defects in the car.
“It’s a race car,” said Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner. “It’s got four tires and a steering wheel. So, from my standpoint, it doesn’t change greatly. But still, there are some nuances. Your vision is a little different. The shifting is going to be different, especially when you go into road courses. So you’re going to want to get as many reps as you can to learn that. Any chance that I can get to get in it to be better acclimated, the better off I’ll be.”
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Denny Hamlin tested the Next Gen car at Daytona. What he had to say today about the safety aspect of that car and the concerns over the heat in the cockpit. pic.twitter.com/uyry7Hdy7J
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 9, 2021
Denny Hamlin: “It’s a race car”
We worked with some different packages to try to make the car suck up and draft. Obviously, our number one priority is to put on a great show when we come back. We’re trying to figure out how we can make these cars draft and put on the greatest shows that we worked on for 20+ years with the other car. It’s a learning process.
“We’re really focused on the heat of the car, trying to get the heat out. Those are our main focuses for the day.”
In addition to Hamlin, seven other drivers took part in the test. Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, William Byron, Cole Custer, Ross Chastain, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
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“Overnight we changed the tapered spacer and made it smaller, to about 510 horsepower, and reduced the rear spoiler to seven inches,” said John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing innovation. “That had the desired effect today, we did slow the cars down some. The feedback from the drivers was that it wasn’t a radical change from one to the next, so we feel like we now have that data to evaluate coming back here.”