NASCAR Betting: Gen-6 Car, New Rules Take Centre Stage

Changes to NASCAR’s 2013 Sprint Cup

For NASCAR fans, this is the dawn of a new era in racing. As the 2013 Sprint Cup season approaches, NASCAR hope that a number of major changes will help its product become even more fan friendly. This year, NASCAR is not only rolling out a new car, but a number of rule changes to qualifying and testing. So, whether you’re into NASCAR betting, a fantasy league, or an old-fashioned gearhead, here’s what you need to know before the season begins Feb. 16 with The Sprint Unlimited.

Generation 6 Car

The biggest change in NASCAR this season is the introduction of the Generation 6 car. The Gen-6 car is sleeker and slightly smaller than before. The new car is 2.3 inches shorter, three inches wider and 150 pounds lighter than last year. The Gen-6 vehicle just looks cooler, while also allowing better driver and team branding. NASCAR’s new changes will try to help viewers to distinguish between a Toyota car and a Chevy car merely by its shape. Each car will also have each driver’s name on the top of the windshield. So far, most drivers seem happy with the new ride, which is expected to be at least slightly faster than last year across the board.

“Some of the things that we’ve worked on, where we get our downforce, how we evacuate air from up under the car if a team chooses to do so with different ductwork and cooling hoses and so forth, that’s all in an effort to make the cars run a little bit better in groups or in packs,” NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton told Speed.com. “We know that we’ve worked hard, we know that we’ve made gains, we know the car is better than the last car. There’s more drivers out there that like this car better than the last car, and when you put all of those things together, it should equate out to be better racing.”

The Rules are the Rules

There are a number of changes to rules and procedures ready to be rolled out for this season as well. Drivers that finish 39-43 in Sprint Cup Series races will receive $4,000 less than the position ahead of them, a move that hopes to increase competition at the back of the pack. Time trials are now based mostly on speed, rewarding the 36 fastest cars and qualifying order will return to a random draw. Testing is also coming back after being banned in 2009. Now that a new car is in the mix, each organization is allowed four separate testing sessions at any Cup track.

“We need to learn as much as we can learn,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. told reporters. “We have got a lot of rule changes in the cars. A lot of things are different so we need to try to find where our package needs to be and get a good comfortable idea of where to start when we go to the different tracks.”