NASCAR: 2017 Sprint Cup rules package announced

NASCAR released the 2017 Sprint Cup rules package on Friday, highlighted by measures to reduce downforce and improve safety.

"The objective there is to give the drivers, put the driving back in their hands a bit more ... take less aero dependence off the car," Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR senior vice president of innovation and racing development, told NASCAR.com. "That's the big thing. The amount we are taking off the front and the rear is the same proportion; we try to keep the balance of the car identical. So it's been taken off in the same proportion to maintain the balance of the car as it was last year."

Stefanyshyn said the goal is a 1,200-pound downforce figure.

According to officials, the package will include:

• Rear spoiler dimensions of 2 3/8 inches-by-61 inches for non-restricted events (reduced from 3 ½-by-61).
• Splitter measurements for 2017 remaining the same as those for the 2016 Kentucky and Michigan races, with a 3-inch reduction in the outboard (side) areas;
• A tapered rear deck fin
• Net rear steer setting of zero.

The new package is a modified version of aerodynamic adjustments NASCAR made forraces at Kentucky and Michigan in 2016, with mixed results. The changes for these races consisted of a reduction in spoiler height from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches, a splitter reduction of two inches and a re-sizing of the rear deck fin to complement the spoiler change.

"This low-downforce package is racing really well, but it doesn't really matter what downforce package you have when you've got two cars really tight on you from behind and on the side you just have no air on your car and there was nothing I could do," Brian Scott said after Kyle Larson got into the back of him, sending him into Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger.

Echoed Buescher: "Everybody keeps begging for less and less downforce, and we keep seeing more and more incidents because of it. I think it has made better racing at a lot of race tracks, but it's not easy to get into Turn 3 [at Kentucky] side by side."

The 2017 package is expected to reduce downforce by about 500 pounds, landing in the 1,500-pound range. In 2016, downforce was reduced from 2,7000 pounds to about 2,000 pounds.

NASCAR also made several safety enhancements, including a mandatory stronger interior driver compartment at superspeedway events (optional for additional 2017 venues); a previously announced thicker anti-intrusion plating in the cockpit and plating areas not currently covered; mandatory toeboard foam and a roof hatch at superspeedways (optional elsewhere); steering column mounting; and a garage-only fuel coupler.

Superspeedway aero packages will remain the same except for a restrictor plate size decrease from 57/64ths to 7/8ths of an inch and a 20-pound vehicle weight increase to accommodate structural changes to the car.

Teams will now be required to start each race on the tires they used in qualifying. The tire allotment will also be reduced.

"We've been tracking tires for two or three years now and we see how many are purchased and how many remain," Stefanyshyn told NASCAR.com. "We are seeing that there is an opportunity to trim some tires. ... Also we're starting to creep up to trying to bring some strategy around the tires. It's not a huge reduction, it's a comfortable reduction but it's kind of moving in that direction."