When NASCAR’s best Cup Series drivers spin out by themselves, even hardcore race fans often lack the understanding of what happened.
Did the driver just lose focus? Did he “run out of talent,” to use a common racing expression? Did he try too hard instead of being smarter about how much to push?
It’s not easy to imagine for someone who has never raced, drivers say, but the reality involves pushing their cars to the maximum they can go without wrecking — just to avoid finishing at the rear of the field.
“Until you take a vehicle built for racing — not built for comfort — and you go and put it over the limit of what it can do and then bring it back without crashing, it’s hard to describe that,” Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain said.
But that’s only been emphasized more with the current Cup Series car — the series’ seventh generation of vehicle known as the “Next Gen” car. All of the Next Gen cars have the same major parts and pieces, and NASCAR’s rules require them to be built within a tight tolerance. There is little to distinguish one car from another, and thus they largely run at the same speed.
So when drivers try to make passes, particularly at racetracks not wide enough to give them many options aside from the primary racing line, even the best of the best feel stuck.
And what do they do to counteract it? Try to push their vehicles harder. Except the Next Gen in particular doesn’t like that; drivers say that, without warning, the car suddenly snaps around on them with no chance of saving it, whereas other types of race cars might slide first.
“Every time you go into the corner, you have to be full commit, 100 percent — but you’re just guessing, ‘Where is my grip level going to be?’ as it’s getting worse every lap (because the tires are wearing out),” 2023 NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney said. “Being able to feel that in the seat of your pants is what makes race car drivers — finding the edge of control each lap without going over it.
“And you see us step over it all the time, right? You go bust your a—, you’ll wreck. That’s because you’re always on the limit, and it’s a really fine line.”
So if drivers are so close to the edge of disaster on every single lap around the track, why don’t they just back off a little bit to make sure they don’t crash? That seems logical, no?
Well, the problem with that line of thinking is each driver in the Cup Series is already going all-out, so if a driver decides to play it even a bit safe, “you’re running 30th every week,” Blaney said.
“That’s how you have speed and that’s how you win races,” he added. “It’s just a matter of ‘How close to the edge do you want to get?’”
That word — “edge” — was used by every driver The Athletic asked about this topic. It’s the best way for them to describe how close to the limit they really are, and the bravery and trust in their car it takes to truly go fast in NASCAR.
It’s why Christopher Bell spun twice while battling for the lead at Dover last month. It’s why Kyle Larson will suddenly crash on his own sometimes. It’s why Kyle Busch suddenly looks mortal at Richard Childress Racing after mounting a Hall of Fame career at Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I’m trying to make our stuff go faster than it’s capable of going,” Busch said. “That is what has gotten me to 63 wins in this sport, being able to push the fastest cars to that limit and just destroy everybody. Now we’re trying to do that with where we’re at, just to get ourselves into the top 10.”
Kyle Larson’s car was damaged after he spun out at the Darlington race in April. (Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
But Busch feels like he doesn’t have a choice. The drivers who run up front every week — from Gibbs, Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske — race for teams who have figured out how to have a fraction more grip in their cars or have elite pit crews that gain them valuable track position instead of having to make passes on the racetrack.
The only way for Busch’s RCR car to run with the top organizations on a normal week is to push harder, except that creates a scenario where he’s constantly close to crashing — and sometimes does.
“If you’re not leading the race and driving away, then you’re probably driving over 90 percent,” he said. “It’s the nature of this car.”
The same goes for second-year Cup driver Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports, who said he has noticed other drivers appear to be more in control than he is — but he feels that’s the only way for him to extract the speed he needs to compete. Hocevar is one of the fastest drivers in the series, but he also makes plenty of mistakes that take either himself or another driver out of contention — often drawing the ire of other competitors.
“This car is super easy to spin,” Hocevar said. “In the Truck Series or anything else I’ve driven, it’s like you get loose and you hold the wheel straight and it’ll save it for you. Where here (in the Cup Series), you lose downforce the looser you get and it starts chattering the rear because the sidewall (of the tires) is so short.”
That creates a scenario where the car suddenly turns around with little warning, often before drivers have a chance to try and avoid a spin. Hocevar said he’s proud to have saved his car from wrecking a few times this season, which doesn’t happen regularly with the Next Gen.
“That’s just what it takes to be fast,” Hocevar said. “If you’re on the edge, you’re able to separate yourself from the guys who aren’t or can’t get their cars to do that. So in a world where the cars are super, super close, that can be an advantage — but a lot of times when you’re on the limit, your intensity is really high.”
RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece, who grew up racing open-wheel modified cars, said there are two ways drivers can approach finding speed: Either “try to tip up on it” gradually — which sacrifices speed — or “jump on the other side and wreck.” That’s because even though the objective is to be as close to the edge as possible without overstepping, it’s a moving target as to where the line actually is.
That goes for all teams, whether they’re racing in the middle of the pack or the lead. Because even for the fastest cars, the advantage in the Next Gen is so small that drivers must push it to the edge and try to survive the race without going over the line.
“When you’re right,” Preece said, “that’s what it takes.”
(Top photo of Christopher Bell spinning during last month’s Dover race: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)