As NASCAR closes the 2017 season this week in Las Vegas, an issue becomes if manufacturer parity will be a reality in 2018.
Toyota, which debuted a new Camry before the 2017 season, didn’t win the most races in the regular season — Chevrolet did with 10 — but Toyota won eight of 10 playoff races and won the championship with Martin Truex Jr. (Chevrolet went winless in the playoffs).
Toyota’s dominance was an issue Ford driver Brad Keselowski raised toward the end of the regular season. Toyota driver Kyle Busch had a sharp response to Keselowski’s comments at Chicagoland Speedway on the opening weekend of the playoffs.
NASCAR America’s Kyle Petty and Jeff Burton addressed the issue of manufacturer parity.
“Is the parity of the manufacturers, is that such that you’re going to have to do a (car) submittal every year?’’ Burton said. “So that Ford can go back … (and) resubmit the same car to be able to shift that downforce. I don’t think a Toyota makes more downforce than a Ford. I think it makes more rear downforce and less front and that was advantageous this year with the rules. That’s a tough situation for NASCAR to get a hold of.’’
Chevrolet debuts the Camaro ZL1 next season in Cup. That will leave Ford with the oldest model among the three manufacturers
“It’s going to be interesting to see what NASCAR does or how they try to balance the field,’’ Petty said. “If they want true parity, they’re going to have to look at this at some point in time and try to figure out how to weigh it.’’
Watch the video above for more from Petty and Burton on the issue.