Daytona test to serve as innovative look at potential future – Nascar

BUY TICKETS: Buy tickets for Daytona and all 2017 races

Liftoff panels, ride heights and aero ducts will be on the menu today at Daytona International Speedway as NASCAR and Goodyear officials, along with five Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams, begin a two-day test at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Erik Jones (Furniture Row Racing Toyota), Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet), Joey Logano (Team Penske Ford), Danica Patrick (Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) and Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) are scheduled to take part in the program.

“We’ve got three bodies of work we’re going to try to do,” Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR Senior Vice President Innovation and Racing Development, told NASCAR.com. “Once we learn from that, we take the best solution and that will go into the Goodyear test (on Wednesday).”

Simulation and wind tunnel testing have shown that liftoff panels, which are installed underneath the rear of the car, can further reduce the likelihood of liftoff by a vehicle on the track.

But what officials don’t know, Stefanyshyn said, is “when we put cars together (out on the track), will it screw up the racing?”

“We have two versions of the liftoff panel,” he said. “We know they both work. Is there one that’s better for racing? They could both hurt the racing and if that’s the case, we’ll scratch it.”

If it doesn’t hamper the quality of competition, work in that area will continue, likely with a battery of additional tests in the wind tunnel before such changes would be implemented for competition.

MORE: Evolution of track repave on display at Texas