The drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series have suggested some exciting changes for the 2023 season.
NASCAR got itself in a bad situation in the 2022 season with many drivers complaining about the lack of communication and feedback between them and the management.
As an attempt to redress that situation, NASCAR decided to hold all-driver weekly meetings for the rest of 2022 back in October. The meeting was initiated after the season saw some serious injuries due to the Next Gen car, leading to drivers missing races.
Denny Hamlin in 2023 could find himself in the same situation as Kyle Busch in 2022
However, the meeting is not only limited to safety concerns but is rather a place for drivers to voice their opinions regarding various kinds of changes. And some of the changes suggested by the drivers are regarding the restart zone and advantage on the pit road. Speaking about the suggestions by the drivers, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:
“We’re going to continue to meet with the drivers, there has been a few things come up about different ways that we could look at things. The starts and restarts, potentially, one of the suggestions from the drivers was to lengthen the restart zone and then you couldn’t really anticipate when the leader was gonna take off quite as easy with the longer restart zones. Some things on pulling up to pit and making sure the leader has the advantage that they earned on the race track coming down pit road. A few things like that but we will be obviously engaged with the drivers and our internal crew along the way as we develop plans for that.”
It seems that drivers are of the opinion that the leader should have the advantage during the restart zones and the pit road.
NASCAR has been very open to suggestions in recent times but it remains to be seen what changes come to fruition in the 2023 season.