NASCAR Mailbag: Will the Camaro have an edge on the competition?

Why are the drivers not in the car during tech inspection? At my local dirt track the drivers are in the car for inspection. It brings me to my second question which is with how well the engineers design the cars, are they possibly designing parts on the car to move after the driver gets in the car? - From Willy

Willy, drivers don't need to be in cars during inspection because the minimum weight of each NASCAR vehicle must be met without including the weight of the driver. NASCAR does, however, have a sliding scale on driver and car weights. The lighter the driver, the higher the minimum weight for the car. As for your second question, many of the rules violations of the last several years have come as a result of teams attempting to get parts of the car "to move," specifically in terms of the rear suspensions. With NASCAR's new inspection system that includes a laser scan of the entire body, the opportunities for teams to continue that practice would seem to be very low. – Jim Utter

What are your thoughts on the stage racing (with how) they just take the rundown and give the drivers points and keep racing? - From Kenneth

Hi Kenneth, I’m a huge fan of stage racing as it plays out now. It breaks up some of the monotony for the longer races and allows for races inside of the race. Like the end of a quarter, period or inning, it allows fans and competitors to get a drink, snack or make their own pit stop.  And perhaps you have noticed, there has also been less cautions for debris since stage racing was introduced. – Lee Spencer

So I know it's a least five years before NASCAR will consider a completely new track. With Formula 1 variety of tracks and Indycar attempting to build a beefier schedule, do you see NASCAR considering this approach -- for example instead of having two races at Bristol, you make the night race at Bristol a marquee event and only selected tracks have two races? Plus I want to hear your take on a manufacturer like Mercedes coming to NASCAR or even Ferrari. If it's not star power then maybe brand power will attract new eyes. - From Juan

Juan, the problem with bringing in a completely "new" track is the schedule remains fixed at 36 races (in Cup for instance). Neither of the two primary track owners - SMI and ISC - are going to voluntarily give up a Cup race date to allow a track owned by someone else to be brought into the schedule. A more likely scenario would be for one of the current track owners to buy a new track and then take one of its existing Cup dates and move it to the new track. Even during the five-year agreements, that can still occur as is evident by SMI moving a race date from New Hampshire to Las Vegas this season. As for your second question, the decision of a manufacturer like Mercedes or Ferrari to enter NASCAR competition would have to be made by the manufacturer, not NASCAR, and then they would have to submit a vehicle and engine for approval. Starting from scratch - including the need to participate in lower series first like Toyota did - would be a several years process at a minimum. I do believe new manufacturers - and along with them new car designs - are one way to generate more interest. – Jim Utter

With Chevrolet bringing the Camaro to the Cup Series this year, do you think this new car will have a big advantage over the Fords and Toyotas? - From Mike

Hi Mike, Chevrolet will likely have a slight advantage over the Fords, but I don’t see the factory Toyotas slowing down any time soon. I don’t think it will be long before Ford unveil’s the Mustang but until then the Blue Oval will be challenged to compete with a car that was introduced in 2013. Ford made modifications to the front end two years ago, but the Camaro ZL1 is a complete overhaul. 

Brad Keselowski remains optimistic. The Team Penske driver believes NASCAR’s new inspection process with the Hawkeye System will be the great equalizer.

“I think the biggest thing to me is seeing what happens with the Hawkeye system,” NASCAR said. “That will be the determining factor on what manufacturer is successful this year. If the Hawkeye system comes in working fully I think we will see a very level playing field in 2018 and we are capable of winning.” – Lee Spencer

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Fans submit your questions each week to NASCARmailbag@motorsport.com. Responses will be reported generally once a week during the NASCAR season (Usually on Thursdays) Please submit your questions to the above email address.

You can also reach Jim Utter, Lee Spencer, Nick DeGroot and Tim Southers on Twitter at @jim_utter,  @candicespencer, @ndegroot89 and @TimSouthers, respectively. Use the hashtags #AskJim, #AskLee, #AskNick or #AskTim when submitting a question through Twitter.