Two days removed from Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway and the accolades continue to pour in about the new rules package debuted during this weekend’s event.
The low-downforce package put things back in the drivers’ hands, removed a good bit of the dreaded aero-push and led to more side-by-side racing in the pack throughout the event.
Drivers, fans and members of the media liked what they saw out of the new rules package, and apparently so did NASCAR. On Monday, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive” the sanctioning body was “definitely pleased” with what they saw on-track this weekend.
“We set out to improve the racing specifically at Kentucky,” O’Donnell said. “The data, (there are) still some initial returns we’re pouring through, but doubled the number of green-flag passes, 22 green-flag passes for the lead, which was a track record.”
While the passing and competitiveness of the race was up, O’Donnell said the work to make racing at the front of the field even tighter continues.
“Still work to do, obviously, with the leader getting out front,” he said. “But all-in-all, the ability for the drivers to mix it up on the racetrack, lots of passing throughout the field, we feel like it’s a really good start for us to build on.”
NASCAR is working closely with the competitors to break down their thoughts from this weekend and how best to move forward.
“We certainly look at all the feedback we get,” said O’Donnell. “We’re in the process of talking to a lot of the industry about what they felt in the car and what they saw. And, ultimately, the fans are going to speak loudly. I think in this case it’s been pretty positive, which is great. We’ll continue to build on that and manage expectations.
“This was a Kentucky-specific package we’re going to build on. We’ll go to Darlington with a specifically built tire with Goodyear,” he said. “We’ve got the similar track specific packages coming at Indy and Michigan, and then a new tire at Richmond, so we’re really excited about the potential for all of those.”
