Every season, NASCAR comes up with a jaw-dropping change. In 2022, it sent off ripples of anticipation in the Cup Series with the Next-Gen car’s debut. The sanctioning body permanently abandoned the time when drivers used to work on their race cars. These single-source vehicles ran differently on short tracks and superspeedways. Legends like 7-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson are still trying to wrap their heads around it, yet to notch a single top-25 finish in 12 races.

Now NASCAR is back with another revolutionary change. Inspection of race data is crucial for the sport, as it can make or break a driver’s fortune. After heavy allegations came in 2024 accusing NASCAR of inconsistent race decisions, now the sport is ready for a technological innovation.

NASCAR looking to micro-manage races

Well, questionable executive decisions last season still linger in the racing community. Standing atop this list may be the Charlotte Roval incident during the playoffs. NASCAR found Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet too light in post-race inspection. This automatically vaulted Joey Logano back into the playoffs although he was eliminated. Then the Damaged Vehicle Policy was another bone of contention. While Josh Berry’s wrecked car was not allowed to be repaired in Kansas, Chase Elliott got the same privilege in Talladega. To prevent such egregious problems, the executive board has finally resorted to a solution – greater inspection of drivers’ cars.

For that purpose, NASCAR is installing a new technical setup. According to a new rule, the sport will require Cup Series cars to have a GPS tracker. NASCAR journalist Jerry Jordan updated on Twitter: “New Rule:@NASCAR will require teams to install a GPS antenna on their cars in 2025. “Effective February 12, 2025, each vehicle must have an IDAS GPS antenna installed in the right rear window as illustrated in the following image:” Jordan shared a picture of the little device as well, to be installed at the bottom of the window frame.

This rule update follows a slew of other regulation tweaks. These include allowing international drivers a confirmed slot in Daytona or limiting Cup teams’ capacity to four cars. These are all aimed at further solidifying NASCAR’s grip over races. Jordan further clarified that the GPS tracker data will be solely in the possession of the sanctioning body. “The new antenna is part of the required Incident Data Acquisition System that cars will also be required to have. Interestingly, “NASCAR shall own any and all IDAS data generated and/or collected by the high speed camera and shall control the use and dissemination of such data.”

In fact, NASCAR’s efforts at gathering data have been going on for years.

Partnering with a $3 trillion tech company

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Early NASCAR would never have been able to do much of micro inspection. Back in the 20th century, officials relied on photographs and the bare eyes to decide race results. However, rapid digitalization in the 21st century has allowed the sport to access live data such as RPM, braking, throttling, speed, and lap split times from each vehicle. Like its GPS tracker introduction in 2025, NASCAR introduced an iconic partnership with Microsoft – with a valuation of almost $3 trillion currently – back in 2016 for the same purpose. 9 years ago, the sport started using a Microsoft app, ‘Race Management’ to monitor live video feeds and transponder data from cars.

This allowed the sport’s control booth to have central access to live data. The NASCAR Cup Series also began to use Microsoft Azure for data storage. Anthony Morgante, then a Microsoft director for sports partnerships, outlined why technological innovation is crucial for the sport. “NASCAR is one of the sports that probably generates the most data, just because of the nature of the sport – the cars have a bunch of sensors in them, there’s computers on the car, camera technology aids with other metrics.”

Hopefully, the newly introduced GPS tracker will help in making sound race judgments. As the 2025 season is less than a month away, these updates only get us more excited!