Another late-race caution led to another late-race restart at the Go Bowling at The Glen race earlier this month. And as it typically does, the result was chaos for NASCAR Cup drivers as they fought for the same real estate, like William Byron and Brad Keselowski who came together, with the help of Joey Logano and put the race back into yet another full-course caution. The chain of events ended with Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet launching into Keselowski’s — with the front end jammed into the rear quarter window of Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford.
The whole thing looked fairly alarming at a glance, especially as this type of incident is quite unusual for road courses. To happen, it relied on Byron’s car to have just the right approach angle, with Keselowski turned at also the perfect angle, to end with Byron’s car launching up into the rear quarter panel of the No. 6 so that his helmet was just inches away from Byron’s splitter and tire. And just seconds later, both were able to drive away without issue. But that wouldn’t have been the case had it not been for an update made to the cars following another unrelated incident just the year before.
NASCAR Cup at Talladega Superspeedway in 2023 — Kyle Larson was racing at high speed in a large pack of race cars when an impact sent his car up the banking of the track in front of oncoming cars. Ryan Preece could not avoid Larson and hit the right side of Larson’s car at high speed. The outcome left damage to Larson’s safety cage and a piece of tubing coming loose.
Following Larson’s incident, NASCAR R&D studied his damaged car to understand what happened and how to prevent something like that from creating more damage. They focused on reinforcing the right side of the car but also realized that they could add additional tubing to the left rear corner of that center section to protect the driver even more.
The tube was intended as additional support for the center section overall, but it also created another barrier to help protect the driver from directly behind their seat. That’s what helped protect Keselowski at Watkins Glen.
Keselowski wasn’t relying on the strength of that safety cell to minimize a wall impact but instead the new piece of tubing acted as a barrier — catching Byron’s splitter as it was jammed through the rear window at speed. In photos shared by RFK Racing on social media, we can even see where the impact happened as there appear to be marks on that specific tube where the splitter impacted.
Willy B was here 😳 pic.twitter.com/Jy2karmrNG
— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) September 16, 2024
NASCAR adjustments went beyond just making the center section stronger, but also developed changes to the front end of the car in order to make it crumple better for those impacting another car or the wall. Similar changes in the past softened up the rear clip so that it crumples when drivers go backwards into the wall, which also reduced stress on the driver. These pieces were made less stiff by removing material so that there are gaps that can buckle in case of an incident.
Keselowski ended up with less damage inside the car than expected, and was able to continue his race with only bodywork and window damage visible. His window net stayed intact as did the tubing in the safety cage around his seat. The piece that took the most impact inside of that car and what prevented Byron’s splitter from getting anywhere close to Keselowski’s seat. That piece did not exist when the NASCAR Next Gen chassis was introduced.
While there have been some growing pains since the introduction of the Next Gen car, constant updates and iterations have resulted in a car that has become much safer. Add in the fact that this same car is raced on a variety of tracks, resulting in further safety advancements which have helped prevent devastating outcomes in situations the R&D team may not have even considered — inadvertently allowing drivers to further come out of incidents more unscathed than expected.
