Remember when Corey LaJoie’s car flipped and did a barrel roll into the grass in Michigan? That had everyone holding their breath! Luckily, LaJoie walked away without a scratch, but it raises the question—what about next time?

With Talladega Superspeedway coming up, NASCAR’s focused on making sure we don’t see another scary flip. Roof flaps help, but they’re not foolproof. So, with the playoffs in full swing, officials are adding new safety measures, including a Sharkfin spoiler, to keep cars grounded and drivers safe.

NASCAR’s innovation to avoid disasters, thanks to Denny Hamlin

NASCAR called a meeting for all the drivers with the idea of changing the cars to make them safer for Talladega. The idea that they proposed was to add a verticle ‘sharkfin-looking’ spoiler of sorts on the roof of the cars to stabilize the cars aerodynamically. Initially, the idea of the Sharkfin was introduced, but it was soon rejected after the feedback from the drivers.

In the September 30th episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, Hamlin spoke about what everyone learned about NASCAR’s plans. Looking at the design, many drivers were turned off by the looks of the added fin, and Hamlin happened to be one of them. The JGR driver explained his understanding from the meeting, saying, “This was just fantasyland of ‘here’s what I would do if I were to fix it,’ just because it was a big topic I saw on social media last week.”

The No.11 Toyota driver then revealed, “This weekend we got briefed from NASCAR on changes that they’re proposing for Talladega, which include running that roof rail over our front windshield. And obviously, the drivers were not in favor of that. For one, it looks like ass. And second, you know, it hurts visibility.”

Denny Hamlin referenced Bozi’s tweet, which showed his understanding of the design that NASCAR is planning to implement. Turning down the design, Hamlin explained, “But the problem is that, you know, we take tear-offs off our front windshield, and superspeedways are some of the worst tracks for debris on the front windshield. So we need to get those tear-offs off.” With the mechanism of the tear-offs taking space on the windshield, Hamlin believed that NASCAR’s idea would only decrease visibility for the drivers.

On October 1st, Bob Pockrass revealed that NASCAR has decided to scrap the sharkfin idea. However, in the initial design, the sharkfin was not the only change NASCAR wanted to implement in the car. So let’s take a look at all the modifications that NASCAR will implement to keep the NextGen cars from getting flung into the air.

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More fins to the cars ahead of Talladega

To make sure that no car goes airborne, NASCAR is putting maximum effort into ensuring driver safety. As an idea from the governing body, NASCAR wants to add an extended-height roof rail, an extended rocker panel skirt, and fabric beneath the right-side roof flap.

The roof rail will be a 2-inch polycarbonate fin. Think of it like a little wing that helps push air over the car to keep it grounded when things go sideways (literally). It has some gaps to let air through and trigger the roof flaps to pop up, which helps keep the car on the ground.

Next, under the right-side roof flap, there will be a parachute-like fabric that’s attached to the car’s roof. And lastly, the rocker panel skirt is getting an aluminum extension. This closes the gap between the car and the track, helping with aerodynamics and preventing the car from lifting.

With these changes, NASCAR believes that the cars will be safer to drive on the Superspeedway. So what do you think of this idea?