Joe,couple things...
You keep talking about all the new cars down south...when actually,
The only"new chassis" are the Pat Carney built cars He's built a few for his brother& friends,but Carney doesn't do it for a living.He has a regular 9/5 job,& happens to own a jig& is an excellent fabricator.for him it's cheaper to build than buy.
Last year Rob Madrid dominated both Cruces& El Paso til he sold his car...it's an 08 GRT.
Sherman(Barnett)was winning in a 12 yr. old Harris til he wadded it up...now he's in one of Christy's older hand me downs.
Greg Gorhams's TRE chassis was an 09.
Kenny Medina runs up front and wins a few,his car's so old&convoluted,his dad told me he has no idea what type chassis it is,much less what year.
The influx of newer chassis,hasn't adversely affected car counts...they opened the season in Cruces couple weeks ago with 25/26 cars both nights.
The stuff down there IS newer,but you gotta remember,they've been doing the X mod thing for several years& a lot of the original older cars have gotten wadded up as well.
Another thing...
Couple guys here have taken "OLD" cars and had them profesionally updated...to the tune of several thousand dollars.
IMO,woulda been cheaper to just buy a Newer,Shaw,TRE,GRT.(Which have significantly better front end geometry).
The reason those guys are so friggen' fast has less to do with newer chassis,and more to do w/the set ups they're running.Ingenious bastages are doing stuff nobody thought would work.
Case in point...couple months ago,I call my chassis builder&order some parts for my X mod.
I tell him what set up I'm gonna run...(got it from a buddy down south).
He tells me...Won't work.
I ask ,you mean won't work on my chassis.
He tells me won't work on ANY chassis.
...didn't have the heart to tell him it,it does work Really well down south.They've proven it.
Key to the X mod deal is keeping it exactly the way it is,not allowing "speed creep"(ie.more speed equpment.)...couple years ago guy here tried to do just that(roller tip rockers,stud girdles,aluminum intakes),he was shut down.
X mods are the most bang for the buck class going...what other class can you take a 5/10 even 15 year old car and be competitive.
...might be why there's gonna be so many of them at Napa this year.