Before Sunday’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch proposed a NASCAR rule change that would give drivers the choice between having a rearview mirror camera in their car or having a spotter. After a camera-aided win at Dover, Denny Hamlin weighed in on Busch’s idea.
In Monday’s episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin said he would support removing the rearview cameras because of how much of an advantage leaders have with the Next Gen car.
“Cameras, I’d be okay with getting rid of those….Especially with Next Gen, there is such an advantage by moving your car in the wake of the car behind you…You don’t want to make it easier for the drivers to do that.”
Denny Hamlin on kyle Busch’s proposal for getting rid of rearview mirrors/cameras
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As Hamlin’s last two wins at Dover have shown, mirror driving gives the leader an added advantage with the Next Gen car. This effect is more pronounced on certain tracks, but the current Next Gen build gives a massive edge to the leading car in clean air.
It has made passing even harder, reducing the number of lead changes during races. Drivers noted during the hour-long rain delay at Dover that the car that got ahead on the restart and had clean air was likely to win well before the checkered flag waved.
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Technically, Busch left the door open for some peers to keep the rearview camera if they gave up their spotter. However, no driver is willing to sacrifice everything a spotter brings at oval tracks.
Currently, drivers in the Cup Series leading the field should use their rearview cameras to aero-block, as it increases their chances of protecting the lead and winning. Since NASCAR is unlikely to make changes to the Next Gen car that would make passing easier, removing the rearview cameras would at least reduce the effectiveness of aero-blocking somewhat.
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