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NASCAR To Use Single Lug Nut Design For Next Gen Car
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NASCAR officials have announced that the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen vehicle will feature a single, center-locking lug nut on its wheels. The announcement goes in hand with the news that the Next Gen car will feature an 18-inch wheel.
Currently, Cup Series cars feature a five-lug pattern, which has been used for decades.
John Probst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development, told NASCAR.com that the move away from a 15-inch steel wheel was part of an overall goal to provide more relevance and a stronger correlation to today’s production cars with an 18-inch wheel. As such, a strong enough fastener that could hold up under high-speed conditions was a necessity.
“For us, we felt like, from a standpoint of the wheel, is that we wanted to get to an 18-inch wheel, an aluminum wheel,” Probst said to NASCAR.com. “Once you get to an 18-inch aluminum wheel, the next step for us is to make sure that from a durability standpoint under racing conditions is that it will accept the durability that we need to finish races and then also finish multiple races. To do that, the single nut was our only option.”
“I think from a fan standpoint, the choreography of the pit stop will look unchanged,” Probst continued. “I think that a lot of times when we say single lug nut, people fear that it’s an open-wheel style pit stop where people will be on their knees waiting for the car to come in. We don’t intend to change anything with respect to how the pit stop flow is executed.
“There will still be guys coming off the wall, there will still be a premium for that athlete to come off the wall, get to the right side of the car, make that tire change, get over to the left side of the car and make the tire change. From the look and feel of the pit stop, we don’t see any significant changes.”
The single lug-nut design made its debut earlier this week during the Next Gen prototype’s fourth on-track test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The wheels used in the Next Gen testing were manufactured by BBS, a German company with its US headquarters in Braselton, Georgia.
For more information, visit nascar.com.
Photo courtesy of NASCAR
Currently, Cup Series cars feature a five-lug pattern, which has been used for decades.
John Probst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development, told NASCAR.com that the move away from a 15-inch steel wheel was part of an overall goal to provide more relevance and a stronger correlation to today’s production cars with an 18-inch wheel. As such, a strong enough fastener that could hold up under high-speed conditions was a necessity.
“For us, we felt like, from a standpoint of the wheel, is that we wanted to get to an 18-inch wheel, an aluminum wheel,” Probst said to NASCAR.com. “Once you get to an 18-inch aluminum wheel, the next step for us is to make sure that from a durability standpoint under racing conditions is that it will accept the durability that we need to finish races and then also finish multiple races. To do that, the single nut was our only option.”
“I think from a fan standpoint, the choreography of the pit stop will look unchanged,” Probst continued. “I think that a lot of times when we say single lug nut, people fear that it’s an open-wheel style pit stop where people will be on their knees waiting for the car to come in. We don’t intend to change anything with respect to how the pit stop flow is executed.
“There will still be guys coming off the wall, there will still be a premium for that athlete to come off the wall, get to the right side of the car, make that tire change, get over to the left side of the car and make the tire change. From the look and feel of the pit stop, we don’t see any significant changes.”
The single lug-nut design made its debut earlier this week during the Next Gen prototype’s fourth on-track test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The wheels used in the Next Gen testing were manufactured by BBS, a German company with its US headquarters in Braselton, Georgia.
For more information, visit nascar.com.
Photo courtesy of NASCAR
