Last Sunday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was one of many first for the NASCAR Cup Series. It was Ice Cube’s first-ever show at a NASCAR sanctioned event, so it was for the dutch base team Kauling Racing at the very top of the stock car racing pyramid. More importantly, Sunday dropped the green flag on the new NASCAR and the next-gen car. This is what came out from The Clash in Los Angeles.
Those Cars are Fun
This is the first thing to catch the untrained eyes of those watching both at home and at the former home of NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. The new car is really fun to watch. It can bump, it can run and it can bang and trade paint making it to the finish line without shreds of thin foil flying all over the race track.
Tires lock and pitstops are impressive thanks to the first-ever single lug wheel and bigger tires. Not all that much faster but much more fun to watch too. Machines put on a nice show for what is still uncharted territory for the series as the closest they’ve ever been to Hollywood were the two miles of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
With that out of the way, let’s get a little bit more technical.
Keselowski Might be in Trouble
Brad Keselowski‘s new car was not up to par with the rest of the top cars last weekend. Yes, this was an exhibition race but his lack of pace was more than evident. The lack of space to race in the tight quarter-mile track didn’t make things easier for him as he was found facing the wrong way around a couple of times during the qualifying heats.
There’s nothing to tell about his performance at the main 150 laps race because he wasn’t there. Misfortunes and the aforementioned lackluster performance kept him at the back of the pack. Two weeks from now, his new number 6 Mustang (Which he co-owns alongside Roush Fenway) will have his first real test at Daytona International Speedway for the duels and the 500; intermediate and superspeedway speed is yet to be seen under regular race circumstances, nonetheless, short tracks such as Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond and Darlington could be a massive problem for him.
Up and Down don’t Like Getting Him from Behind
Among the many changes in the car is the new sequential transmission. Pretty simple to understand for every car person across the globe: you go down for upshifting and straight up downshifting. Easy right? Not so easy (nor strong) is the gearbox that powers the whole thing.
The old transmission has been replaced by what is known as a “transaxle” located at the rear of the car and integrated into the back axle as the name suggests. There’s the problem.
If you hit it too hard, something inside the novel mechanism for NASCAR will break and that could very well be the end of the race for an unlucky driver. Such was the case for Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, and Denny Hamlin. All of them reported transaxle issues after hours of bumping. None of them finished the main race.
The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum was, of course, a set of extreme circumstances as stock cars don’t normally ram into each other for four hours straight. Nonetheless, this is a problem that could present itself during the season, one that mechanics, crew chiefs, and drivers will have to keep an eye on.
Should they Stay, or Should they Go?
According to the series himself, the attendance for the race was estimated at around 60,000 fans at the former home of the Summer Olympics. All of them watched qualifiers and a 150 laps main race around a one million dollars “disposable” racetrack. One that will be packed and stored in two weeks leaving nothing but the traditional football field behind.
NASCAR must make a decision; just like the one that came before to ditch the Daytona oval for the Road Course in what is now the “old” Clash. Within 90 days, the top stock car racing organization in the world must decide whether to leave or stay for another year at the Coliseum.
If they stay, they might shake things up. Go the Super Truck way and race the road course or, venture outside the venue just like the old X Games rally cars. On the other hand, if they leave, they will most likely go to another stadium and turn the race into a touring event. Hard Rock Stadium at Miami, Lucas Oil Stadium at Indianapolis, or even the stadium section at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez south of the border. Possibilities are and will be endless.
Just a Peek
The race is done and so is playing time. Everything from here on will be as serious as ever as the new car will endure their first-ever season with a high bar to clear giving the debut season of the old Gen 6 cars a decade ago.
If anything was clear after Sunday is that this was a peek, just a peek into the future of the sport and stadiums races. Now, we will have to wait for two weeks for the Daytona 500. Those two weeks will feel like two centuries thanks to a thing they call the “Super Bowl”.
Note that, that other thing won’t be as fast or as exciting as the new NASCAR.
Featured Image Credit: Los Angeles Times.
