What’s Happening?

A keen-eyed observer on social media, Diego Alvarado, noticed something strange on social media. Joe Gibbs Racing blurred out Denny Hamlin’s back windshield in a recent post on social media. Why do race teams blur out their cars on social media?

Can someone smarter than me tell me why JGR blurs out their rear windshields in their teardown videos. I thot we weren’t supposed to be messing w them pic.twitter.com/TrCezsMRHv

— Diego Alvarado (@DiegoxAlv) May 1, 2024

• NASCAR race teams are notoriously secretive with their information. They try to keep as much of it from the public eye as possible, and that’s primarily down to just how competitive NASCAR is.
• However, blurring out a windshield specifically is odd. That being said, rear windshields have impacted cars in the past.
• Fans are intrigued by this. They see things like this, but, they don’t always know what they mean.

Why Are NASCAR Teams So Secretive?

The simple reason for why the windshield is blurred is that there is some sort of information that JGR does not want the public to know. This is not an uncommon practice.

NASCAR on Fox implemented a “Drivers Eye” camera that provided a clear view of the telemetry data on the dashboard. Clint Bowyer explained to PetaPixel that the move was made to protect the team’s “Proprietary information”. James Picarreto later explained in the article, “They don’t want rival teams copying RPM data, gear ratios, other engineering data during a race. That could lead to some teams trying to come into a gray area that could be a huge challenge toward the industry of NASCAR.”

NASCAR teams are always searching up and down for new information, and they look to all areas of the car to find and gain speed. We cannot see exactly what was on the rear windshield, but, maybe there were some notes inside the window that they didn’t want competitors to see. Either that, or, there’s some unique modification to the windshield that has helped Toyota, and, yes, a rear windshield does impact the car.

How a Windshield Impacts a Car.

Aerodynamics are critical to a stock car going fast, and the shape of the rear windshield makes a big impact on the aerodynamic properties of the car. During the height of the “Aero Wars” of the 1980s, Chevrolet put a bubble rear window on their car to improve airflow to the rear spoiler.

Dale wheeling the @Wrangler Chevy at Riverside in 1987. #NASCAR #WinstonCupWed pic.twitter.com/ztiiHXmgpH

— The Glory Road (@The_GloryRoad) March 28, 2018

We’ve even seen windshields modified as recently as 2018. Kevin Harvick dominated the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading 214 of 267 laps, but, NASCAR and competitors quickly noticed the rear window was dented. NASCAR penalized Harvick 20 points, and suspended crew chief Rodney Childers 2 races.

By no means are we claiming that Denny Hamlin and his crew were trying something illegal here. However, the Harvick incident showcases that windshields impact the speed of the car.

Obviously, there was something on the windshield that JGR did not want the general public to see. Whether it provides some sort of a competitive edge, or, if there were some notes they didn’t want the public to see. We don’t know, and we probably never will.