- Five days from today,
NASCAR is coming to a football stadium
and they're bringing their brand new stock car,
The Next Gen.
(car revving)
We here at B2B got some insider information
on the car specs.
So we're gonna nerd out while we NASCAR out here today.
You ready to getcha let's go get her (speaks gibberish).
Let's go!
Let's go around the circle!
Left hand turns only!
Let's go!
(soft music)
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- To see the Next Gen in action,
check out The Clash this Sunday, February 6th.
That's the exhibition race
which has kicked off every season since 1979.
For this year, instead of Daytona,
NASCAR is coming to LA's Memorial Coliseum.
The stadium that's better known for football,
but was updated with a brand new quarter mile asphalt track
in just six weeks.
It's pretty sick.
I'm gonna be there.
So if you wanna come see me, come to that race, I guess.
I'll be there.
We already made a video on B2B
about the next Gen's body and frame,
new gearbox, and independent rear suspension.
We spent hours talking with NASCAR insiders
to get all the Next Gen info,
and we've learned some new cool things.
So in today's episode, we're gonna see more
of what's new with the Next Gen.
Of course, not everyone is happy about the new venue,
or the new car.
You probably are not gonna be able to convince
Florida NASCAR fans that The Clash coming to LA
is a good thing.
But we can explain why Next Gen is exciting,
and why NASCAR is making the change.
The main reason is to make NASCAR grow
by attracting new teams, sponsors, manufacturers, and fans.
And one way to do that is by making their race cars
more like the road cars that you and I can buy.
Well, kind of can buy in like 20 years.
Something you won't find on performance road cars
is 15 inch wheels.
So the Next Gen has been updated with 18 inch wheels.
Those are forged aluminum as well, so they're light.
But the new wheels aren't just for road car looks
or less weight on the track.
The old 15 by nine and a half steelies
weighed 27 pounds each.
The standard 12 inch wide tire adds another 24 pounds
for a combined weight over 50 pounds.
Now next Gen Wheels are 18 by 12 inch.
And if those were made out of steel,
the wheel alone would weigh close to 50 pounds.
The Next Gen tires are also larger at 14.4 inches wide,
and that means steel wheels would have crew members
wrestling nearly 80 pounds over the wall for pit stops.
Can you imagine carrying around 80 pounds?
Now you know what your grandma feels like
when she had to carry your mom around when she was a baby.
Mom burn!
At the time we recorded this,
official weights for the new wheels
haven't been announced, but like I said,
we got the insider info.
Our contact over at NASCAR says
the new aluminum wheels weighed 26 pounds.
That should keep the total weight
of the wheel and tire about the same,
and shouldn't have pit crews working any harder.
In fact, the job might be getting a little easier
because those new aluminum wheels
use a single center locking lug nut.
Most race series like Formula One use a single lug.
Some fans are worried this will fundamentally change
NASCAR pit stops.
But single center lugs require greater fastening torque.
The wheel guns in Formula One can apply
2,000 pound feet of force.
And according to NASCAR, their lugs will require more torque
than any other racing series.
Initial testing has shown that it takes half a second
for a wheel changer to fully engage a NASCAR single lug.
So pit stops should only be slightly faster.
But pit stop speed isn't the reason for the change.
During a tire change, getting 20 lug nuts evenly torqued
in a matter of seconds doesn't really happen.
With steel wheels, that's okay though.
A wheel won't be damaged or fly off
if one lug isn't tight enough.
But aluminum wheels, they're different.
They warp or deform more easily than steel.
According to NASCAR, an aluminum wheel
attached with five lugs has a 30% higher chance of failure
than a steel wheel.
So switching to a single center lug
ensures there's even pressure holding the wheel on,
and less chance of damage.
The change to larger lighter aluminum wheels
isn't just for looks or for the convenience of pit crews.
Those wheels also let Next Gen run new tires and new brakes.
We made an entire episode about how larger wheels
are going to change Formula One for 2022,
and a lot of that applies to NASCAR as well.
Wider wheels means wider tires.
The old NASCAR tires are 12 inches.
Next Gen tires, they're 14.4 inches.
That's like two something inches bigger.
That means more grip while accelerating,
cornering, and braking.
Switching from a 15 inch to 18 inch diameter wheels
also means lower profile tires.
Old NASCAR tire had a 6.6 inch sidewall.
Next Gen? Five inches.
Tire sidewall does some of the suspensions job
absorbing bumps and keeping the tread
in contact with the road.
But sidewalls aren't tuneable like springs and shocks.
So shorter sidewall flexes less,
and that lets teams dial in the suspension more
for sharper handling and more precise direction changes.
The Next Gen tires are a newly developed
Goodyear Eagle race compound that's softer than before.
They'll have higher initial grip, but also more fall off.
That means that the tires
are gonna wear faster, losing grip.
Our insider at NASCAR told us
that predictable tire degradation
to increase the role of tire management strategy
is one of the goals for the new compound.
If you follow F1, that probably sounds familiar.
If you watch F1 and NASCAR, leave a comment down below.
You're one of the three people that do.
One thing that nobody wants degrading during the race
is the brakes, and the new wheels help there too.
The current NASCAR brake discs are 12.7 front and rear.
Bigger wheels means Next Gen could fit
15 inch disc in the front and 14s in the rear.
Those do a better job preventing brake fade.
Just like a larger radiator,
the greater surface area of a larger brake disc
will dissipate more heat and prevent that fade.
If you wanna learn more about brakes, click right here.
We did a whole episode on it.
Went to Wilwood.
Sick.
Got 'em on the catfish now.
What's up?
Whether it's NASCAR or Formula One,
every team has to deal with the same basic issues
of things like grip, heat, pitch strategy,
and how to conquer all those problems to win races.
One of the biggest challenges
in any form of racing, aerodynamics.
A lot of what's new about the Next Gen
is specifically targeted at the problem of dirty air.
Competitive exciting racing depends on cars
being able to make passes.
Dirty air is the turbulent wake that a race car produces
as it moves through the air.
That can slow the cars behind it
making it difficult or even impossible to pass.
On the straight, dirty air isn't always a problem.
The hole that the front car leaves in the air
can actually improve the speed
of the cars behind it through slipstreaming.
But in corners, that same hole means
that there's less undistributed air
for the trailing car's aerodynamic parts
to generate downforce.
Less downforce means less grip and lower cornering speeds.
The Next Gen car has two big changes
that not only increases downforce,
but also cleans up dirty air.
A flat floor, and a rear diffuser.
If you look underneath the old cup car,
say when one goes airborne,
you can see all the suspension, the drive line,
even the bottom of the engine.
All those nooks and crannies and exposed mechanical bits
slow the air traveling underneath the car.
That creates a high pressure area,
which like an airplane's wing, creates lift
or reduction in downforce.
The uneven surface also creates turbulence,
and that air escapes out the back as dirty air.
Now, Next Gen uses a flat carbon fiber floor
that seals the underside.
Air can flow more quickly underneath the car
with a flat floor, creating less pressure.
Next Gen combines that with a rear diffuser.
That acts like an expansion chamber
increasing the speed of the air
that's escaping from underneath the car,
further reducing air pressure.
That creates down force,
It also smooths that air's reintegration
into the higher pressure ambient air,
reducing the car's turbulent wake.
Meaning, Next Gen racing's gonna be tighter than ever.
And with new stronger carbon fiber
reinforced plastic body panels,
it'll be able to fricking take a little dash and bash.
So we can slam into each other a little (indistinct) racing.
You ever heard of bumper car racing?
That's not a thing.
The aerodynamic changes have created a problem
because the Next Gen cars have more drag than ever before.
As speed increases, the engines have to work harder
to overcome the aerodynamic effect of the new bodies.
At Next Gen testing, drivers noted that high speed passing
was now harder because there wasn't enough power
once all that downforce started working.
That's actually one problem that's pretty easy to solve.
All you need is more power.
And one thing that's not new with the Next Gen
is the power plant.
Unrestricted NASCAR engines are capable
of over 900 horsepower,
but that's way too much for most races.
With the old cup cars, that power was restricted
depending on the type of track,
and can be as little as 550 horsepower.
So initially, 550 was gonna be the base power package
for Next Gen as well.
And they combined that with an eight inch rear spoiler
that created a lot of drag,
and this got some fans complaining
expecting the cars to be too slow.
But after testing and listening to the drivers and teams,
NASCAR decided the baseline for Next Gen
will be 670 horsepower with a relatively small
four inch rear spoiler.
Ensuring that there's plenty of power on tap.
670 will be the power for all tracks
other than the Super Speed race.
But spoiler sizes, they're gonna vary
according to our sources.
With it's focus on handling,
it's clear that the Next Gen car
is built more like a road racer
and less like an oval track car
than anything that's come before it.
But overall, the new car is designed to manage challenges
that every race series has to deal with.
Tire strategy, dirty air, and keeping the competition
as close and exciting as possible.
As for NASCAR's future, we can expect to see
even more changes in years to come.
Even said that Next Gen puts the sport on a path
to incorporate electrification.
Uh-oh.
And we were also told that the Next Gen
is just a first step towards having car technology
in a race series that's attractive
to European manufacturers.
- It looks pretty good.
- Donut has posters?
- Yeah, Donut has posters.
- Donut has posters?
- Yeah, Donut has posters.
- Donut has posters?
- Yep, Donut has posters.
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Hang 'em in your bedroom, your office,
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- Thanks guys so much for watching this episode of B2B.
We appreciate you.
You guys like NASCAR stuff?
You're gonna go to the NASCAR race?
I'm gonna be there.
So if you're gonna be there, hit me up.
I'll be walking around the pits, I'm sure.
In the stands cheering on.
Follow us here at Donut @donut media.
Follow me @JeremiahBurton,
Click like, subscribe, all that good stuff.
That really helps us out.
'Til next week.
Bye for now.