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NASCAR leadership and members of the sport’s competition group met with Cup Series drivers Saturday morning at Charlotte Motor Speedway to discuss safety and to give an overview of Wednesday’s crash test results conducted in Ohio on the Next Gen car.
Chief among the items discussed were tests to the rear clip, rear bumper structure and center clip for changes that would be implemented in 2023 for all Cup cars and all Cup races. A NASCAR spokesperson said those tests went well.
Saturday’s meeting lasted 75 minutes, and speakers included NASCAR President Steve Phelps, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation John Probst and NASCAR Managing Director of Safety Engineering John Patalak. Also present were NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France and NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell.
Joey Logano, driver of the Team Penske No. 22 Ford, said of the meeting, “I mean, there were good, open dialogue throughout the meeting, which was good. We didn’t get through all their slides or even close to it because there was a lot of conversation, which I think was probably the most important thing that we needed to have was just open conversation about where we’re at, where the drivers feel like they’re at, where NASCAR feels like they’re at and figure out how to move forward together.”
The meeting came after two drivers, Kurt Busch of 23XI Racing and Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports, have missed multiple races this season because of concussion-like symptoms they suffered following crashes.
Bowman, who was competing in the NASCAR Playoffs, has been sidelined since a Sept. 25 crash at Texas Motor Speedway and was ruled out for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400, the second consecutive race he has missed.