New Season? What's Changed?

By Carly Signor

NASCAR Sprint Cup racing is back and is two races into their 2013 schedule.  Like every other year, many things have changed a bit over the short offseason.  Here are some things that have changed:

AP Photo/ Jim Cole

·       Generation 6 Cars This year’s Sprint Cup season comes with a brand new car.  Replacing the “Car of Tomorrow” the nicknamed “Gen 6” cars are an attempt to get back to the times when NASCAR’s racecars looked like actual stock cars you could buy at your local car dealership.  If you look at each manufacturer’s car, you will see the differences, especially with the nose of the car.  Toyota and Ford stayed with the Camry and Fusion, respectively.  Chevrolet switched it up from the Impala, to the SS, which is hitting the market later this year.

·       Drivers with Different Teams There was a slight shuffle in drivers with different teams over the offseason.  Most notably, Matt Kenseth has moved from Roush Fenway Racing, to Joe Gibbs Racing.  Look for him in the No. 20.  As for his old ride, the No. 17, rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be driving it in his first full time Cup series schedule.  And what happened to Joey Logano whom Matt Kenseth displaced? He is now driving the No. 22 for Penske Racing.

·       Penske to Ford Speaking of Penske, the team decided last season to part ways with Dodge and move to Ford.  Penske was the last team with Dodge as their manufacturer. Therefore, Dodge currently does not have any cars in Sprint Cup.

·       Qualifying We have seen the last of the days where the last practice speeds set the field for qualifying.  NASCAR is back to creating the order of qualifying based on a random draw.  In addition to that, NASCAR has instated the 36-6-1 rule. The 36 drivers with the fastest time will make the race automatically.  Then, the six drivers highest in the points that didn’t qualify on time, make the race.  Lastly, there will be one spot for a past champion if they haven’t made it into the field yet.

·       Testing In the past five years, NASCAR has banned outside testing at tracks, but this year, they are allowing teams the opportunity to test on any four tracks.