As Martin Truex Jr. celebrated his newly won 2017 Cup Series championship with a Champagne bath in Homestead-Miami Speedway’s victory lane, Brad Keselowski was in the media center looking ahead to the next season and what he saw he didn’t like.
Chevrolet and Ford enter 2018 NASCAR season seeking speed to keep pace with Toyota
How can Toyota’s dominance be curbed? Chevrolet is rolling out a new Camaro to close the performance gap, while Ford is hoping NASCAR’s new stringent inspection system will level the playing field.
By Keselowski’s estimation, Ford was going to struggle to keep pace with Toyota and Chevrolet, thereby putting Keselowski’s Team Penske outfit and other Ford-backed organizations at a serious disadvantage. After all, Toyota had just won its second consecutive manufacturer’s championship and was showing no signs of slowing down, while Chevrolet is introducing a new model in the form of the aerodynamically-improved Camaro.
”As to what will happen for 2018, I don’t know,” Keselowski said Nov. 19. “I would assume that Chevrolet will be allowed to design a car the same way that Toyota was for this one, but Ford doesn’t have any current plans for that. If that’s the case, we’re going to take a drubbing next year.”
But with the season-opening Daytona 500 less than two weeks away, Keselowski’s once-pessimistic outlook has become rosier. A change in how NASCAR will technically inspect cars has the 2012 Cup champion hopeful that Ford can close the competitive gap on Toyota and Chevrolet.
The new inspection process, referred to as the Hawkeye system, will scrutinize cars in a more precise manner utilizing 17 cameras. Previously NASCAR used lasers and metal templates to measure to cars, a practice where the accuracy was frequently questioned, something Keselowski says every team manipulated to its benefit.
“If the Hawkeye system comes in working fully I think we will see a very level playing field in 2018 and we are capable of winning,” Keselowski said Jan. 24. “It is inherent to the designs of the cars that some things weren’t able to be policed before that were designed into other cars that, with this system, it will eliminate it.
“I think everyone at Ford is fully endorsing the Hawkeye system to fully and properly police the cars aerodynamic capabilities.”
Ford could use the boost. Toyota drivers won 16 of 36 races last season, including eight of 10 playoff races. Chevrolet and Ford both won 10 races overall.
The performance contract between manufacturers was especially noticeable on mile-and-a-half tracks, the sized speedway that hosts 40 percent of playoff races including the championship finale at Homestead. Truex and Busch finished first and second in that race, while the other two finalists, Keselowski and Kevin Harvick, lacked the same raw speed in their Fords.
No Chevrolet driver qualified for the title round, the first time it failed to place a driver in the final four. Chevrolet is replacing its SS by rolling out the Camaro, featuring a nose design not all that different from the Toyota Camry, which was redesigned prior to the 2017 season.
Chevrolet won’t likely know where it stacks up against Toyota until mid-May after intermediate-track races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and Kansas Speedway.
But if preseason testing is any indicator, Chevrolet’s new model appears promising with Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing posting the fastest single lap last week during an organizational test session at Las Vegas. William Byron and Ryan Newman, both driving Chevrolets, were second and third, respectively.
“It seems fine,’’ Larson said of the Camaro. “It doesn’t seem too much different than the other car. Maybe it will be different once we get in traffic and stuff, but at a test you don’t really get to simulate that. It seemed to have good speed.”
Ford is expected to switch models for the 2019 season, likely to the Mustang. It currently runs the Fusion, last redesigned prior to the 2013 season.
“I would love to have it right now,” said Ford driver Kurt Busch of Stewart-Haas Racing. “I would love to go with any new technology and the way that the rules are. I was surprised we had a 2018 Camry racing in 2017. That was a little bit of a surprise to start last year. With the Camaro this year, Ford will get its chance but that is all part of the game behind the scenes.”
See More:
