MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 26, 2016) – Following a rules change for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race to reduce both sideforce and downforce, NASCAR has unveiled rules updates for the races at Michigan International Speedway (June 12) and Kentucky Speedway (July 9) that will continue that trend.

NASCAR’s rules tweak for the All-Star race included welded truck trailing arms and new brake-cooling rules. The changes, which will further reduce downforce and sideforce for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars, produced close racing during the annual non-points event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

One of the rules in place for the All-Star race involved setting the rear toe to zero to reduce skew-generated sideforce, and that has been adapted for Michigan and Kentucky as well. In the aero department, the spoiler has been shortened an inch from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches, the splitter has been reduced to two inches and the deck fin has been resized to match the spoiler height.

"I think we look at it as a never-ending journey; if we can improve we're going to do that," Steve O'Donnell, executive vice president of competition and chief racing development officer, told NASCAR.com. "We wanted to go the direction of low downforce, see how that worked, not kind of go all the way in and hope that we are directionally right. And we are seeing that play out. We've seen some great racing at the beginning of the year.”

NASCAR states that the current rules package has generated some of the closest racing in years through the first 12 races of the 2016 season, and these additional updates are designed to make the great racing even better.