Clean air. Track position. Both terms have long been in the NASCAR vernacular, but they seem to have grown more prominent in 2015 as drivers struggle regularly with an unforgiving rules package that’s made passing a challenge and has exceedingly increased the value of every position.
Although getting ahead of traffic and strategy have always been paramount to winning, just once in the past four races has the driver who had the fastest car went on to claim victory. That was Martin Truex Jr., who won last Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Before that, however, Carl Edwards won the Coca-Cola 600 on fuel mileage, while Jimmie Johnson went to victory lane by not pitting and using clean air to his advantage at Kansas Speedway and Dover International Speedway.
NASCAR’s current tepid state stems from a horsepower and aerodynamics reduction prior to the season intended to enhance the on-track product. Unfortunately, the opposite occurred. Passing is now harder due to drivers running nearly identical speeds due to the engine limitations, which has also made the cars actually easier to handle.
The essential leveling of the playing field has created a pervasive sense of frustration within the garage. More and more frequently numerous drivers have spoken out about the current rules package, calling for NASCAR to act with many wanting increased horsepower and even less aerodynamics.
NASCAR is apparently listening to the cries of its participants, with changes possibly enacted as soon as the July 11 race at Kentucky Speedway. Though the extent of what officials are considering isn’t specifically known, any effort to improve a product many view as sub-par would be met with encouragement.
“Are you kidding me? I’d be in favor of anything that makes the cars able to race around each other and to put more of the speed into the drivers hands,” Carl Edwards said Friday at Michigan International Speedway. “I know NASCAR is all for the same thing. Everybody wants this thing to be the best possible show for the fans and I don’t think NASCAR is scared to make changes.
“I have a sense that there will be some neat things coming.”
Kentucky is an appropriate site for NASCAR to gauge the effects of any potential aerodynamic changes. At 1.5 miles in length it is the same size as a majority of ovals on the Sprint Cup schedule, including five of 10 tracks that host playoff races.
“From what I understand, they’re looking at doing it at Kentucky, which is just for one race,” Martin Truex Jr. said. “We’ll have to see how that goes. I don’t know. I have as many questions about it as everybody else. What’s it going to be like? Is it going to do what they think and what some of the drivers think it’s going to do?”
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But before whatever awaits at Kentucky next month, drivers will have to cope with track position and clean air as the likely predominant factors in deciding Sunday’s Quicken Loan 400.
Prior to a 2012 re-pave, Michigan featured multiple grooves where drivers could run three- and sometimes four-wide. However, the new surface turned the 2-mile track into the epitome of the kind of speedway where NASCAR has recently struggled to stage consistently entertaining races with the field now largely spread-out and running single-file.
“Last year was the first year that I felt we could run the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2 and not be really slow,” pole-sitter Kasey Kahne said. “You actually could make some passes down there, make some gains. In (Turns) 3 and 4 you have been able to do that for the last couple of years. That was a benefit last year.
“Maybe it will even widen out and get wider towards the top of the race track like it used to be. That is what I’m hoping for. If it’s like that, yeah, we will be able to pass. We will be able to draft up and make moves if you have that momentum.”
But the optimism expressed by Kahne and others is stunted by the current rules package where drivers are off the accelerator so little that opportunities to pass are often limited. Any gains that may have occurred over the past few years were likely undone over the offseason.
“It’s really tough to say exactly how (Sunday) is going to go because the off throttle time right now is not very much,” Kahne said. “It’s going to need to be more and I think as the track gets rubbered in and tires get hot you will see more lifting and at that point hopefully we will pass more.”
