Saturday night's race at Daytona International Speedway featured a first-time Cup Series winner. It also had one car completely flip and another start flipping before Joey Logano knocked it back onto its wheels.
"We've got to figure out how to keep the cars on the ground. We're not doing enough to fix that," Logano told media members after exiting the infield care center.
Take a look at what happened on the backstretch at @DAYTONA. @joshberry exited the vehicle and gave a thumbs up to the crowd. pic.twitter.com/C67wMUvXvD
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 25, 2024
Flipping cars is nothing new in NASCAR. It has happened for decades. However, Saturday night's incidents occurred after NASCAR implemented changes to increase the velocity needed for a car to leave the ground.
The sanctioning body mandated a new "shark fin" on the right-side window of the Cup car, a move made after wind tunnel testing as well as Corey LaJoie suddenly flipping at Michigan. The new shark fin matched the one already used on the left side of the Cup car.
Multiple drivers said ahead of Saturday's race that they didn't know how the new fin would affect how their cars handled superspeedway racing. Daytona's summer race does not have practice, so they did not have an opportunity to test the fin before taking the green flag on Saturday night.
Saturday night's race had two more cars leave the ground. Josh Berry's car completely flipped over while Michael McDowell's went partially over.
"It's speedway racing. It's a lot of fun until it's not," Logano said. "...McDowell just got turned and came down in front of me with nowhere to go. I think he's OK as well. Some pretty big hits there, and then horrible to see Josh Berry there a second ago upside-down into the wall."
NASCAR stated after the race that the No. 4 of Berry would go back to the R&D Center for further evaluation.
This is not the first time that Logano has spoken about the Cup cars flipping. He also did so after the 2021 spring race at Talladega Superspeedway, a race that he exited after his No. 22 Team Penske Ford flipped at the end of the first stage.
Unlike the Next Gen cars, however, the roof of Logano's Ford collapsed to the point where it was touching his helmet.
.@NASCARONFOX takes a closer look at what happened on Lap 60 at @TALLADEGA. #GEICO500 pic.twitter.com/47l7VhWaD6
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 25, 2021
"It's a product of this racing," Logano told Fox Sports' Jamie Little after his wreck in 2021. "On one hand, I'm so proud to drive a Cup car that's safe, that I can go through a wreck like that and get out and speak about it. On one hand, I'm mad about being in the crash, the other hand, I'm just happy I'm alive.
"But on the other hand, I think when are we gonna stop? This is dangerous doing what I'm doing. I've got a rollbar on my head. That's not Ok. I'm one hit away from the same situation Ryan Newman went through (in the 2020 Daytona 500). I just don't feel like it's acceptable."
NASCAR responded to Logano's crash in 2021 by mandating package changes for the remaining superspeedway races in 2021. The list included mandating a smaller tapered spacer featuring a smaller opening (57/64-inch to 53/64-inch).
The package change also made it mandatory to have the reinforced roll bar behind the driver compartment. Finally, the new package removed the wicker from the spoiler as NASCAR sought to reduce the speed of the Cup cars by up to 10 mph on superspeedways.