NASCAR recently debuted a new set of equipment for its drivers. A lower downforce and higher horsepower engines. And it was first debuted at the Nashville Superspeedway on Monday, June 1.
And of course, as when anything new anywhere is introduced, there were some teething issues. According to Whiskey Riff, the increased load on the brakes caused some pretty substantial problems. Brake rotors ended up failing on a load of different cars.
The flying debris not only messed up the days of some of the racers, but also the fans. While Connor Zilisch, Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and Chris Buescher all ended up crashing due to the motors not working, with Ryan Preece even having his day ruined after a piece of Chastain's brake rotor smashed up his radiator, fans also got a piece of the action too.
Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez also reported braking issues as well. But luckily, they didn't end up getting into any gnarly crashes or anything of the sort.
But, in quite the bad way. One fan on Reddit posted, "My wife had to go to the medical tent along with some other fans. A couple are bleeding. We think it's from the Chastain incident." I mean, if it went so far that it smashed a competitor's radiator, that's not an over-exaggeration of the power!
Another commentor wrote, "A piece of rotor went down my shirt and holy s*** was that hot."
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NASCAR Drivers Spoke Out About the Brake Incidents
Of course, the fans weren't the only ones suffering. While I'd imagine getting sprayed with hot metal shards doesn't sound ideal, being in a car with no brakes is infinitely worse.
AJ Allmendinger weighed in on what he thought the issue was. "The pedals never went soft and I didn't feel like I was over-using the brakes, so it was a shock when it happened. Obviously we've seen that's been an issue here."
"I don't know if it's lower downforce or carrying more speed with more horsepower down the straightaway and you're using more brake. I've never felt like this is a heavy braking race track in general, so I'm not really sure."
