NASCAR confiscated the hood louvers off the four Hendrick Motorsports cars, as well as the No. 31 Kaulig entry.
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Thumbnail Cred: @TeamHendrick on Twitter, FOX Sports
0:00 Sammy Smith
2:03 JR Motorsports
5:22 NASCAR confiscates Hendrick parts
53 comments
Eric’s notification woke me up
The king has been summoned
Same here lol
Daylight savings times screw up my morning on my day off lol
@StevenP727better Then not your day off lol
Hood vent was probably modified to reduce venting which in turn reduces airflow across the radiator which creates more down Force
Hendrick sus?
and more downforce means the car is “planted in the racetrack more” which creates higher speeds
@DarkCrypto actually, more down force means less speed, more control. Downforce = drag
@Tanner Travis Exactly. Downforce and grip are for handling, not speed.
@WALTRIPFLAIRPheonix is a short track so u want downforce to turn.
If you never get caught trying to push the boundaries you’re not trying hard enough. Also, when it comes to “being creative” you always do something obvious to cover up what you’re really doing…
Exactly If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying. DW
@Jonathan but last year RFK was Dirty Rotten cheaters. The Hypocrisy of NASCAR fans
@Robert Stone and JGR too. bias in fans is huge.
@Ryantheamazingest And SHR…
You HMS fans ok with HMS cheating but when other teams are caught your calling them out .i Hope NASCAR hand HMS the maximum penalty. They deserve it for cheating
Those louvers are more about exiting air from the radiator thus creating downforce and reducing lift than anything to do with cooling the engine bay.
Couple things, tape on the nose of the car was more for downforce advantage then engine performance. Yes it effected engine performance in the sense of temperature, thus you would have to either move or remove tape when in traffic versus being top5. So with these Louvers, it’s more of a downforce advantage as it gives the car a way to create a negative pressure underneath the car causing better grip. The opposite of what nascar and teams have been trying to create for these smaller tracks to make them harder to drive. I feel it’s the same infraction if not possibly worse than RFK or Penske as it’s a deliberate attempt to car performance and not a safety item. I feel penalty should equate to the same as a year ago. My two cents
We both know that they’re not going to give the same penalty out did they did to RFK or to front row. Hendrick Gibbs and Penske will be handled with kid gloves because that’s where the superstars of the support our and then sport isn’t going to do anything to jeopardize the show at the end of the day it’s about entertainment and if the stars aren’t competing for a championship then the sport has failed to entertain the maximum amount of people for the maximum amount of dollars. The same reason that Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan never got called for traveling or the New England Patriots got the Tuck Rule made up for them right there on the spot not saying that the season is scripted only that it is manipulated and pushed for certain teams to be in the championship every year. Whatever rule changes waivers or inconsistency Nascar has to do to make sure the Chase Elliott and Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain and all the other big-name drivers make it to the championship or at least have a shot at it the more money NASCAR makes the more viewership they get throughout the season the better the sport does financially the better the people running the sport do financially
Great explanation, my bad for leaving out that key difference!
but like imagine being Josh Berry this weekend…
gets spun twice in xfinity and now has parts confiscated for cup…
Double whammy☠️
JR Motorsports drivers have hit everything but the lottery this year
Heard the louvers might actually be a manufacturer problem that’s it’s happened to more than the Hendrick and kauling cars. But we’ll have to see.
I heard they may have been “smoothed” for greater air movement
Saw that report as well, which is why they could argue that they were modified for safety purposes. Not sure if NASCAR will agree with that argument though.
Well RCR did not have that issues
@Eric Estepp Penske wheels at Daytona was the same reasoning right?
It is a problem as they are not fitting correctly, so NASCAR told them to work with the manufacturer to fix them. But the parts in question were taken, so no race advantage was gained in the race. Not sure why NASCAR allowed them to use them in practice and not qualifying or the race though.
One team stands above the rest. They fooled around and they’re about to find out. ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Keep up the great work Eric!
No they won’t let scroll through RFK or front-row a huge penalty because they’re not a major team Hendrick Gibbs Penske they get handled with kid gloves
@Robert Stone more Hendricks and Gibbs,
“Teammate on teammate violence.” -Eric Estepp 2023
Nascar fans after hms gets caught cheating: “if u ain’t cheating u ain’t trying!!!!!!!”
Nascar fans if literally any other team gets caught cheating:
Almost commented this same thing, oh it’s part of the history say the hendrick fans. “Oh I’m happy they’re doing it”. They are a Top tier race team, why do they need the extra advantage, say over rick ware .700 off the pace lmao
I hate HMS
It is a shame that Hailie Deegan didn’t get that chance to go straight from ARCA to Xfinity. Now, I believe that she is going to be stuck without an opportunity to drive in a more respectable series.
Exactly trucks are a joke. Literally nothing about driving a truck fast has anything to do with driving Xfinity fast.
I’ve been say the same thing while nascar media likes to say if she doesn’t do good this season in trucks she’s done. But I believe that she would be better off in Xfinity. That’s more her style, and beside she took the 07 car and finished in the top 13 last year.
Yeah, but them’s the breaks. I wouldn’t worry too much, tho’; if Kaz Grala can find his way up to Xfinity, Deegan surely can.
@John SnowOr with Cup really. Look how long it took Bell and Byron to adjust to Cup really.
A few of yall in comments bring up a good point: Hood louvers and tape on the nose also add downforce, in addition to altering engine performance.
I’m not the best at explaining technical or aero changes, so I appreciate yall clarifying haha.
If i were to guess, they altered the louvers to increase flow out of the engine compartment, there is an F1 tech talk that recently came out about pourposing that has visual aids that you should check out to
explain why it would add downforce, i would assume they peppered them with microscopic holes, or weekend the structure enough at key points so the louver would alter shape under aero load
Less air out of the hood means less air flowing through the front grill the same as if u added tape. If u stall the air exiting then more air has to go around the nose gaining aero downforce.
@Doug FungusI think u are wrong. Less air out stalls the air coming in creating a air dam infront of the grill pushing more air around the nose increasing downforce and actually possibly creating less drag by having the air hit the pocket of dead air first and not the cars bodywork.
@John Snow maybe, agree to disagree
This is why I pray NASCAR splits and all the top owners pull out of NASCAR and start their own racing series.
JRM will work it out. Mark my words
It all goes back to the simple mantra,
“If You’re not cheating, you’re not trying”.
Eric I love the idea of you covering the trucks and Xfinity series what a great idea. They don’t get enough attention and those are the future stars of our sport
Eric, It’s getting to the point where nASScar may as well lust tell the drivers to put the wrap on a random car and run that and find out which brand it’s supposed to be later. They are taking all of the fun out of racing and trying to legislate total equality on every thing and make it so that nobody can pass any one else. It looks like it’s time to go back to the grass roots of racing and just “run what you brung”.
Eric, the tape was done for aerodynamics primarily. Creates less drag by not allowing as much air in the engine and creates some downforce also on the front.