By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
When you bring up the start of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season to Wayne Auton, managing director, the inflection of his voice changes.
Why does it change? In the first 10 races of the season, there have been 10 different winners. Auton’s voice also changes because the gap between the front and the back of the field has closed.
When it comes to the changes made for NXS this season, Auton was quick to mention GMS Racing, who won at Talladega, and JD Motorsports, a team that is outperforming what their budget would suggest.
The series is coming off the Dash4Cash, a four-week program that began in 2009 to showcase the talent of the series. In 2018, the program was limited to those who have declared points in the series. This year’s program included Bristol, Richmond, Talladega and Dover.
For Auton, he is proud of the way the NXS regulars showcased their talent during the four events. This year’s program saw 11 different drivers compete for the prize with Daniel Hemric and Elliott Sadler winning it once and Justin Allgaier scoring the bonus twice.
Outside of the competition on the racetrack, many drivers and NASCAR executives take part in investing in the local communities around the tracks. For Auton, seeing Xfinity’s investment into the local economy during the program is something that makes him proud.
“What Xfinity does for the local economy for the kids is what made me proud, if anything, to have the Dash4Cash this year with $10,000 donation going to the QUEST Foundation for Washington County Schools in Bristol to Code Virginia in Richmond to Boys and Girls Club in Gadsden, Alabama to Boys and Girls Club of Greater Dover—that’s what it is all about and that is why we are proud to be part of NASCAR racing for outside of the racetrack and for the show the drivers put on a show for the fan,” Auton said.
Another new addition to the series this year is the composite body. The body is used at all racetracks except Daytona and Talladega. This move was a collaborative effort between owners, crew chiefs, drivers and NASCAR to help contain costs and increase the competition for the series. On an average week, there are about 34 to 35 cars running the composite bodies.
The series will run the composite body for the entire season in 2019. According to Auton, the move to use a steel body car for Daytona and Talladega in 2018 was from input from team owners because superspeedway cars were already built.
In just 10 races, the owners are beginning to see the cost-savings efforts because you can “buy a car in a box and bolt it to the chassis.” The main goal for Auton and NASCAR was for the car to look like the steel body.
“If you look at the cars today, you couldn’t tell if it was a steel body car; that was one thing that we emphasized very strongly when we went to the composite body, so owners didn’t have to buy all new templates,” Auton said.
The proudest moment for Auton and NASCAR with the composite body is how well it had performed and withstood contact. The first test was at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February.
“We have seen cars bounce off the wall thinking they were done, but they pass and run in the top-10. The body itself has performed a lot better than we thought it would,” Auton said.
As the managing director of the series, Auton has the opportunity to cast the vision for the series. Auton’s vision for the series is two-fold. The first goal is to keep putting on great racing.
“We all know that NXS is where names are made is definitely doing its job. If you look at the 16 drivers that are competing for the Cup playoffs in 2018, right now, seven of the 16 are from NXS. My vision for this series is that I want to keep the competition as close as we can like we have seen this year,” Auton said.
The second vision Auton wants to see the mantra, “Where names are made,” continues to move forward. From his perspective, he sees that the sport as a whole is in a good spot with the talent on the racetrack.
“Number two is that we continue going forward using the motto, “Where Names Are Made”, to keep making names in NXS for the fan. I know NASCAR is in a good spot with talent with the racing we have seen on the racetrack. We look forward to continuing the success we had in the last five years that I have been part of this series,” Auton continued.
Overall, the goal for Auton is to continue to break records every year, especially the record from 1988. However, at the end of the day, it’s all because of the fans.
“I hope that we keep breaking records every year. We had a really good car count, really good owners and it’s all because of the fans, making sure we put on a great race for them.”