NASCAR impounds cars from each marque for "mid-season evaluation"
NASCAR impounded six cars following the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway for what NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell called a "mid-season evaluation."
Photo by: NASCAR Media
The Pocono results table may be a bit misleading to the casual viewer ... Ford drivers finished 1-2, followed by a quartet of Chevrolets. The highest Toyota was Denny Hamlin in seventh, but that isn't even close to indicative of how they've performed throughout the 2016 season.
In 21 races, Toyota drivers have won on nine occasions with considerably less cars than their rivals. The TRD-backed teams of Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Hamlin have consistently led the pack in regards to performance.
Well now that the Sprint Cup season has crossed the halfway point, NASCAR is taking a step back to look at the state of the competition. After the Pocono race, six cars -- two from each manufacturer were impounded for an extensive inspection.
"What we're doing is it's really a mid‑season evaluation for us," explained O'Donnell. "If you look at kind of where the mid‑season falls, typically you're at Daytona, a superspeedway race, then we're at Kentucky with the new rules package. Pocono presented the best opportunity for us to really evaluate where we are from both an aero and engine standpoint.
The cars impounded:
Toyota: No. 18 (Joe Gibbs Racing/Kyle Busch), No. 11(Joe Gibbs Racing/Denny Hamlin)
Chevrolet: No. 4 (Stewart-Haas Racing/Kevin Harvick), No. 5 (Hendrick Motorsports/Kasey Kahne)
Ford: No. 2 (Team Penske/Brad Keselowski), No. 16 (Roush-Fenway Racing/Greg Biffle)
"We will take those cars back to Conover and then we will have them go through the wind tunnel and we'll also evaluate the engines, as well. It was something we took the initiative to do, where NASCAR historically ‑‑ we did this at the All‑Star Race, but the All‑Star Race is obviously a shorter race.
"This was our first chance to really take a look mid‑season, get the cars exactly as they were on the racetrack, take them from here, and then perform the analysis post‑race."
The question is, after NASCAR's evaluation, will they make any changes moving forward to level the playing field?
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