NASCAR Cup Daytona 500
Bubba Wallace: NASCAR Next Gen aero still a “world of unknown”
Last year’s Talladega winner Bubba Wallace says there’s “a lot to figure out” about how the NASCAR Next Gen car works in the draft and revealed that Toyota held a two-hour aero meeting before they even arrived at the track for Cup Series practice at Daytona.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Feb 17, 2022, 7:33 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Toyota’s six drivers, spread across the Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI teams, were the first to file up in line and practice drafting on Tuesday as the Next Gen cars hit Daytona’s high banks for the first time in anger.
Five of its Camrys ended the opening practice in sixth through 10th on the speed charts, topped by five Ford Mustangs that teamed up later. Fords then swept the top 10 spots in the second session under the lights.
“The aero platform of this new car is a little bit different,” said Wallace. "There will be a lot to figure out.
“Hopefully, we will do a lot of that in the Duel to see what we can really do with this car and what we need to work on when we go to Talladega and back here to Daytona. It’s a world of unknown that takes a lot of digesting and dissecting that makes us better than we were with last year’s car.
“We had a two-hour long aero meeting before we got on track to try to figure out where to position our car. Things are a little different, but at the end of the day it’s driving racecars. When you’ve got the run, make the most of it and utilize that. Put yourself in the right position.”
Kurt Busch, 23XI Racing, Toyota Camry Monster Energy
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Wallace’s new teammate at the expanded 23XI Racing outfit, Kurt Busch, revealed the extent of Toyota’s preparation coming into this first superspeedway event for the all-new car.
“One thing at 23XI that I’m really excited about, and the information from TRD and Toyota, is all of these different channels of information,” said Busch, who drove for Chip Ganassi Racing last year. “There’s this app, there’s this drawing, there’s this graph.
“There was an 82-page wind tunnel report on drafting with this car and this final rule package. It’s endless with the amount of information that you dig through, and you have to pick the right things to stack on top of each other now to just find that one-tenth of a second.”
Read Also:
- Will Hamlin's Daytona advantage remain despite new car?
- Logano on change in NASCAR: "If you sit still, you get passed"
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Will Hamlin's Daytona advantage remain despite new car?
Next article Blaney expects “smart” racing in Daytona Duels, Logano disagrees
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
Latest news
Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Charlotte II
5 h
Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
7 h
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
9 h
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
Charles Leclerc admits he missed a chance against Max Verstappen – but not the obvious one
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
10 h
Charles Leclerc admits he missed a chance against Max Verstappen – but not the obvious one
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe