New NASCAR Rules: No More Sideways Looking Cars???

NASCAR has issued a new rule on car setups and that new ruling, starting next week at Chicago, is that NASCAR will be limiting the size of the rear suspension bushings to a maximum of a quarter of an inch.

These bushings look like sleeves made of rubber or other materials, located near the rear mounting points.

These sleeves also helped create the crappy looking crab angle effect you would see on the cars.  You know the one, where when they're coming straight at you, you can still read the side of the car because the back end is sticking out to the right so much.  But that crab effect also helped cars turn left a bit better.

Some think this new rule, pointed out by Brad Keselowski, was directed at the Hendrick teams, but NASCAR denies that perspective.

Plus, it wasn't just HMS that was using this modification.  Other teams were using it also, but HMS may have been more successful with the change.  You know how it can be, when you're beating the snot out of someone, the non-winners tend to make noise about having their butts handed to them.  This wasn't an illegal mod, just one that sat in the grey area of the rules.  Now that grey area has been painted a bit more black and white.  And Keselowski made the noise and now the rule is in effect, starting next weekend.  You can do the math any way you'd like.

Personally, I hated the crabbed look of the cars.  It's not a real car race if these things are sliding sideways.  My street car does not do that and it had always been distracting.

Also, with teams limited back to the quarter inch size, do you think this will be a disadvantage to teams who have been deploying this trick?  They'll have to come back to a setting that other teams that haven't pursued this mod as aggressively.  Those teams might have a leg up for a week or two.

Then again, The No. 48 team of Johnson/Knaus have been dangerous every time NASCAR has made changes.  If you think about it, Johnson's 5 titles came when the car bodies were changed and some big rules changes were effected.

So, we'll see!

[ESPN]