Denny Hamlin was the deserving winner of NASCAR’s All-Star Race Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. When he needed a great restart he executed. As did his pit crew, the best in the game, who propelled their driver to victory by getting him off pit road first when it mattered the most.
What Hamlin didn’t have was the best car. That honor belonged either to Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick or Kurt Busch, or Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski. But super quick pit work jumped Hamlin to the lead for the final 10-lap dash to the checkered flag. And because clean air is king in NASCAR, it was a lead he never relinquished.
“Aero means so much with these cars nowadays that the person out front just has a huge advantage,” Hamlin said.
Though deserving, Saturday night became not a testament about Hamlin’s ability or Joe Gibbs Racing, an organization that’s been in existence since 1992, winning its first ever All-Star Race. Instead, the annual exhibition was a further indictment of NASCAR’s current product thanks to a rules package that tilts the advantage heavily towards whomever is leading.
It’s why Hamlin could hold off Harvick and Busch, who’ve consistently had the fastest cars all season and Keselowski, who led a race-high 49 laps and won two of five segments, despite a JGR intermediate track program clearly lagging.
The benefit of being out front and not in dirty air is what spurred Keselowski to speed on pit road during his final stop. Any hope of victory hinged on needing to be ahead of Hamlin, who had the best pit stall thanks to having started on the pole, for the final heat otherwise Keselowski had little chance.
“Whoever gets the clean air with this format and this rules package is gonna drive away,” Keselowski said. “We’ve seen that for the last three years and with this particular car it’s probably even more so. I thought [Busch] and [Harvick] were probably two- or three-tenths faster than everybody without clean air and it doesn’t matter.”
What transpired at Charlotte and many times over in recent seasons isn’t likely to change soon. The dreaded term “aero push” has been part of the sport’s lexicon for years with numerous attempts to correct the issue.
When NASCAR unveiled its 2015 package featuring a horsepower and downforce reduction it was with the intention of creating more side-by-side racing. The opposite, however, has played out. With less engine power drivers can now carry increased speed — upwards of 18 to 20 mph at some tracks — through the corners due to minimal deceleration. Which only exasperates just how challenging it is to catch and pass someone.
“It’s hard to pass,” Joey Logano said. “There’s no other way to put it. It’s hard to pass, so on restarts you have to be aggressive. All the cars are so close that you get in the dirty air and this race track is just a tough place to race at. It’s tough.”
If they had their druthers, drivers prefer additional horsepower and even less downforce, which would make the cars more difficult to handle and therefore give them more control over performance.
Initially NASCAR seemed receptive and toyed with using this past weekend’s All-Star Race as a forum to test such ideas. Yet recent public comments by high-ranking officials give indication no modifications are forthcoming. Why? Firstly is due to the exorbitant costs incurred by team owners, who’ve recently footed the bill for a completely new car and other competition initiatives. The second reason centers on what is the exact direction to go with its rule package.
“There will not be anything significant at all,” NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France told Sirius XM Radio last week. “Drivers have their own individual interests — as they should. Some like a car loose, some like it different ways.
“What we do is very simple. We want a package that gives us much closer competition — more lead changes, more drivers that have an opportunity to get up and mix it up if they’re good enough and if their team is good enough and putting them in a position to achieve that and safety and cost are paramount as well.”
So though drivers continue to gripe and fans lament the current on-track product, don’t expect a reprieve anytime soon. The modern NASCAR isn’t just about who’s the best driver and team in a given race. No, it’s also about getting in clean air; just as Hamlin demonstrated Saturday night.
