FONTANA, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 01: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars in the NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 01, 2020 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
(Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)NASCAR officials have announced a change that will likely leave a lot of lug nuts on the unemployment line. Starting in 2021, race car wheels will be attached with one lug nut instead of five.
While the move might not sound terribly safe, the reduced number of lug nuts will lighten the load on pit crews, who are charged with changing tires at breakneck speed during races. Besides, the cars' new 18-inch aluminum wheels -- which are three inches bigger than the old ones -- are better equipped to handle fewer lug nuts, according to NASCAR officials.
"The answer became pretty clear that we needed to go single lug nut," VP John Probst says. "Once we decided 18-inch aluminum wheels was the primary driver, the engineering solution was pretty clear."
Moreover, aluminum wheels can actually perform worse when five lug nuts aren't equally tightened, Probst says.
"It's almost never the case that all five lug nuts are literally tight to the wheel, and if we don't have five lug nuts tight to the wheel, the durability of an aluminum wheel drops," he adds. "If all lug nuts could be guaranteed tight, five is a workable solution."
