After rallying from two laps down and passing a ton of cars to finish third in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, Denny Hamlin served up his analysis of NASCAR’s new rules package, which was used for the first time in the race.
“This is what race-car driving’s all about,” Hamlin said. “And I feel like now it’s back in the driver and crew chief’s hands to get their car handling like it’s supposed to. Not just an arms race of who built the fastest cars in the shop.”
Indeed.
Like a lot of his fellow drivers, Hamlin was pleased with the new package, which featured less aerodynamic downforce on both ends of the cars. In its baptism under fire at Kentucky, the results were impressive.
According to NASCAR’s loop data, there were 2,665 green-flag passes in the Kentucky race, up from 1,147 last year and 1,650 in 2013. When a driver in a faster car came up to a slower car, he could pass. That made for a better show and happier drivers.
The contrast between the old package and the new one was most striking at the end of the race. Kyle Busch ran down Joey Logano and was able to make the race-winning pass, despite Logano’s attempt to disrupt his line.
Back in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Hamlin was leading the final segment of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race with Kevin Harvick about two-tenths of a second per lap faster in second place. Harvick rapidly closed on Hamlin and appeared to be in certain position for a victory. But when Harvick got to Hamlin’s bumper, Hamlin moved his line and took the air off Harvick’s nose, allowing Hamlin to win with a much slower car.
Not this time.
“When I got to Logano there late in the going I knew he was going to come up and block my lane and take my air,” said Busch. “But when he did, it wasn’t as bad as it has been with I think the other aero package where you just stall out and that guy can basically manipulate whatever you’re going to do. And I could move down, I could turn down and I could get underneath him and we kind of swapped the lead a couple times for a couple laps and then finally I was able to get by him and move on away.”
Busch’s car owner, Joe Gibbs, understandably gave the new package an enthusiastic endorsement after his team won the race and put four cars in the top five.
“The thing I thought tonight was really great is we saw the 2 car (Brad Keselowski) go all the way to the back, come back to the front,” said Gibbs. “The 11 car (Hamlin) went all the way to the back, came all the way to the front. I think that we saw a lot of passing, I think the racing was — I felt like it was really improved.”
The improved passing came despite the fact that the tire selection was less than ideal for this race. Goodyear will come with a softer tire to use with this package at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend.
“I think it’s a little bit too early to judge it considering we don’t have the soft tire yet, but I think it put on a good race,” said runner-up Logano. “I’ll have to re-watch to know for sure, but I felt like there was a lot of passing out there. I felt like I could enter behind cars and not get as out of control, so I think that’s good.”
Jeff Gordon, the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver in seventh place, was less sanguine about the race.
“We’ve got to get the right tires on it. This is not the right tire,” said Gordon. “It is still way too hard. It doesn’t have near enough grip at the beginning of a run. It doesn’t really fall off. The only way you can make a low downforce package work is to have the proper tire on there. I’m glad we tried it, did a little more work. I’m looking forward to trying it again.”
VIDEO: Highlights from the Quaker State 400 won by Kyle Busch at Kentucky Speedway
