2022 NASCAR Rules Closer After Charlotte Testing

Tyler Reddick scored the most spins

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(CONCORD, NC – DEC. 17, 2021 – RIS) Two days of testing the 2022 "Next Gen" NASCAR Cup cars concluded Friday, Dec. 17, with further progress made on determining the configurations for the coming season of racing.

 Unofficial test speeds from organizational Next Gen testing Dec. 15 and 17 for the NASCAR Cup Series on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s oval layout. Note that times are unofficial, with no technical inspection conducted before each session.

Wednesday's sessions tested three different configurations, combining two different engine tune levels and different rear spoilers. 

1: 550 horsepower, with a centered 7-inch spoiler — a 1-inch reduction from the recent Charlotte test.
2: 670 horsepower, with a centered 6-inch spoiler.
3: 670 horsepower, with a 6-inch spoiler offset to the right (passenger) side.

An additional combination tested later on Friday used the 670 horsepower tuning with a four-inch spoiler centered on the car.

Several cars spun during the tests, notably William Byron, who spun on Wednesday morning after a left rear tire lost pressure. His No. 24 Chevy suffered a slight scrape to the rear bumper. Tyler Reddick also spun Wednesday, in nearly the same place as Byron, driving away from the spot, but then spun again in nearly the same spot, this time hitting the sand barrels at the entrance to pit road and halting the test for cleanup.

Reddick then spun twice more on Friday, with the second spin resulting in Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon spinning to avoid. This incident ended the day's action a few minutes early with only 12 laps clocked in the planned 30-lap race simulation session.

During a morning break in Friday's activities, Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR managing director of aerodynamics and vehicle performance told a press conference that they know where we're at. It'll definitely be one of the goals has been to move a little bit more downforce toward the front because we were having to run so much rearward to add stability to the car. It seems like now that the car's a little happier, better behaved at different ride heights, I think we're pretty comfortable with where we're at.

"I think depending on what comes out of today, we're like 95% there as far as the pieces here," Jacuzzi added. "Making the final aero package, I think early next week, we'll be there. Then obviously, superspeedways. We have the Talladega test, so we're just looking at speeds and whether we can kind of unify the intermediate and speedway packages, but that all depends — safety, how fast we're going. We always try to do that and we will, but we'll be in much better shape early next week."

The top speeds seen in the tests were some 15mph slower than Kevin Harvick's track record pole speed of 27.357 sec / 197.39 mph set in qualifying for the 2014 Bank of America 500.

The 2022 season starts on Feb 6 with the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, marking the first time the event has not been held at Daytona. 

Day 1, Wednesday, Dec. 15:
Unofficial speeds
Pos, Car, Driver, Time, Diff, Speed
1) No. 12 Team Penske Ford, Ryan Blaney, 29.668 sec, -, 182.014 mph
2) No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Ross Chastain, 29.671, -0.003, 181.996
3) No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, Kurt Busch, 29.831, -0.163, 181.020
4) No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Alex Bowman, 29.839, -0.171, 180.971
5) No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, 29.848, -0.180, 180.917
6) No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron, 29.851, -0.183, 180.898
7) No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 29.851, -0.183, 180.898
8) No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyta, Martin Truex Jr., 29.936, -0.268, 180.385
9) No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, Brad Keselowski, 29.973, -0.305, 180.162
10) No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Aric Almirola, 29.984, -0.316, 180.096
11) No. 42 Petty GMS Racing Chevrolet, Erik Jones, 30.022, -0.354, 179.868
12) No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, 30.053, -0.385, 179.683
13) No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Corey LaJoie, 30.059, -0.391, 179.647
14) No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Daniel Hemric, 30.096, -0.428, 179.426
15) No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Austin Cindric, 30.161, -0.493, 179.039
16) No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Chase Briscoe, 30.327, -0.659, 178.059
17) No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Harrison Burton, 30.336, -0.668, 178.006
18) No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Todd Gilliland, 30.370, -0.702, 177.807

Day 2, Friday, Dec. 17:
Unofficial speeds from first practice session (6-inch offset spoiler):
Pos, Car, Driver, Best Time, Difference, Best Speed
1) No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Joey Logano, 29.572 sec, -, 182.605 mph
2) No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Austin Cindric, 29.696, -0.124, 181.843
3) No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, Brad Keselowski, 29.722, -0.150, 181.684
4) No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, 29.726, -0.154, 181.659
5) No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron, 29.785, -0.213, 181.299
6) No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, 29.957, -0.385, 180.258
7) No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, Kurt Busch, 30.016, -0.444, 179.904
8) No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, 30.045, -0.473, 179.730
9) No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Justin Haley, 30.074, -0.502, 179.557
10) No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Cole Custer, 30.109, -0.537, 179.348
11) No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 30.115, -0.543, 179.313
12) No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Harrison Burton, 30.199, -0.627, 178.814
13) No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., 30.287, -0.715, 178.294
14) No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Todd Gilliland, 30.312, -0.740, 178.147
15) No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Daniel Suarez, 30.316, -0.744, 178.124
16) No. 42 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet, Ty Dillon, 30.528, -0.956, 176.887
17) No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Aric Almirola, 30.633, -1.061, 176.280
18) No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Corey LaJoie, 30.743, -1.171, 175.650

Unofficial speeds from second practice session (6-inch centered spoiler):
Pos, Car, Driver, Best Time, Difference, Best Speed
1) No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, 29.909 sec, -, 180.548 mph
2) No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron, 29.957, -0.048, 180.258
3) No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, Brad Keselowski, 29.966, -0.057, 180.204
4) No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 30.058, -0.149, 179.653
5) No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, 30.059, -0.150, 179.647
6) No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Corey LaJoie, 30.158, -0.249, 179.057
7) No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Justin Haley, 30.159, -0.250, 179.051
8) No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Joey Logano, 30.177, -0.268, 178.944
9) No. 42 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet, Ty Dillon, 30.182, -0.273, 178.915
10) No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, Kurt Busch, 30.225, -0.316, 178.660
11) No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Daniel Suarez, 30.238, -0.329, 178.583
12) No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Todd Gilliland, 30.472, -0.563, 177.212
13) No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Cole Custer, 30.486, -0.577, 177.130
14) No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Aric Almirola, 30.507, -0.598, 177.009
15) No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., 30.577, -0.648, 176.719
16) No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Harrison Burton, 30.565, -0.656, 176.673
17) No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, 30.643, -0.743, 176.223
18) No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Austin Cindric, 31.141, -1.232, 173.405

Unofficial speeds from third practice session (4-inch centered spoiler):
Pos, Car, Driver, Best Time, Difference, Best Speed
1) No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron, 29.979 sec, -, 180.126 mph
2) No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, Brad Keselowski, 30.231, -0.252, 178.625
3) No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., 30.249, -0.270, 178.518
4) No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Daniel Suarez, 30.278, -0.299, 178.347
5) No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, 30.321, -0.342, 178.094
6) No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch, 30.373, -0.394, 177.789
7) No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 30.379, -0.400, 177.754
8) No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Aric Almirola, 30.400, -0.421, 177.632
9) No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Corey LaJoie, 30.429, -0.450, 177.462
10) No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, Kurt Busch, 30.450, -0.471, 177.340
11) No. 42 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet, Ty Dillon, 30.535, -0.556, 176.846
12) No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Joey Logano, 30.587, -0.608, 176.546
13) No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, 30.601, -0.622, 176.465
14) No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Cole Custer, 30.802, -0.823, 175.313
15) No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Todd Gilliland, 30.824, -0.845, 175.188
16) No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Austin Cindric, 30.861, -0.882, 174.978
17) No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Harrison Burton, 30.920, -0.941, 174.644
18) No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Justin Haley, 31.125, -1.146, 173.949