Short-track racing and next-gen cars haven’t been the perfect match, and lots of folks, including Dale Earnhardt Jr, have been pulling out all the stops to spice things up. They’ve been adding more short-track action to the Cars Tour series, with Junior even jumping behind the wheel himself here and there. NASCAR’s not sitting on the sidelines, either.

They’ve been tinkering with short-track packages for a bit, aiming to dial up the excitement for the hardcore fans. Now, with NASCAR planning to roll out its new short-track package in next weekend’s races at Phoenix for a real-world test, it looks like Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is all geared up and ready to hit the ground running with these latest changes.

Ryan Preece has just let everyone know that Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is all set for Phoenix

Even though Phoenix Raceway isn’t technically a short track, it’s chosen as the battleground to test out the next-gen package. This very package got a test run at Phoenix last December, with top drivers like Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, and more giving it a whirl. The feedback was mostly thumbs up, but the real test is seeing how it performs in the thick of race day action.

So far, it’s been crickets from other teams, but SHR just dropped a clip where Ryan Preece shares the lowdown on their preparations for Phoenix. He’s said, “What’s up, guys? We have our new short track package this weekend. Smaller to smaller rear spoiler. smaller rear diffuser. over here. We have my cruise check along with No windshield wipers. So Less for a downforce, less downforce period. Hopefully, we can move around and make the race exciting.”

Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is all in, aiming to make some waves this weekend at the track. To shed some light on how the new package is shaking things up compared to the old setup, NASCAR guru Steve Letarte took to Motorsports on NBC to break it down. While everyone was chanting for more horsepower, that’s not the direction in which things went. Instead, the focus was on dialing down the downforce to make the cars easier to handle and more agile for overtaking. Yet, Letarte was quick to point out that this tweak isn’t the magic fix for the short-track challenges NASCAR’s been grappling with.

Given the Next-Gen car’s struggles on tracks under a mile, expecting one package to solve all the problems is a tall order. And really, Phoenix might not be the ultimate test lab for this experiment. It’s almost a short track, but not quite. The real litmus test will come in places like Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond. If this short-track package does its job, it’ll be a step in the right direction for sorting out those short-track puzzles.

At the heart of these adjustments is a streamlined rear diffuser aimed at trimming downforce, paired with a beefier rear spoiler, jumping to 3 inches from 2, to balance out the downforce dip. But, what’s the big idea behind these tweaks?

NASCAR’s VP of Vehicle Performance shared insights on the rationale and expectations behind the implementation of these changes

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In January 2024, as NASCAR was rolling out its new short-track package, Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, the big brain behind NASCAR’s vehicle performance, spilled the beans to nascar.com about what they were aiming for. “One of the things going into the Phoenix test, we said, ‘let’s do a simplified diffuser. Let’s see what it does when we put it in traffic,’ and what we actually found was it appeared to be an improvement. Then another interesting effect was that it did not lose rear downforce when it yawed, which is an issue we fight with the current car.”

EXPLAINED: NASCAR’s New Short Track Package Being Used at Phoenix and Its Impact

He mentioned that the hope was to get the cars and drivers to be a bit more in control on the short tracks, not having to tiptoe around when hammering down the power. NASCAR thought that’d be a good thing, and the drivers testing it out agreed.

They found the cars more lenient, allowing for some sliding—not over the top, but definitely more than usual without costing them speed. However, note that Bristol Motor Speedway and Dover Motor Speedway won’t see this update just yet.

Furthermore, NASCAR’s also bringing back stage-ending cautions on road courses in 2024, to add that extra pepper to the strategy game.