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 morning, 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.”
Later in the afternoon, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France also joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to discuss the package, echoing many of O’Donnell’s comments.
“Well, we saw some things that we liked, and that was pretty obvious,” France told Dave Moody. “There was more passing, there was no question about that. The cars were harder to drive. You saw some additional cautions as a result of that. There’s a little bit of that possibly with having little practice time, but there was some sliding a little bit more. Therefore you saw more cautions and you saw more passing.”
Despite the competitiveness, France indicated the sanctioning body would like to see the race become even closer, including more drafting throughout the pack.
“Our mission, and you’ve heard me say it many times, is we want the cars as close as possible. We want as many lead changes as possible. Most importantly, we want the drivers that have got the talent and the teams to have their talent and hard work take them a long way to give them a shot. We’re going to keep working at it to make sure that’s the hallmark of NASCAR. We definitely saw some things we liked, there’s no doubt about that.”
While drivers such as Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards gave the new package rave reviews, the third-generation NASCAR leader said each competitor’s feedback is important.
“We take that into consideration, but what we’re really looking for is how tight is the racing? How many lead changes are there? How much passing through the field is going on? How many more teams are competitive by a given package? Not that we favor a handful of drivers who are outspoken and love one package or another. But what accomplishes those goals best? That’s how we go about trying to sort it out.
In the end, France said the Kentucky package was “definitely an improvement” on previous races at the 1.5-mile speedway, and he indicated he was looking forward to the upcoming races at Indianapolis and Michigan to see how the high-drag package performs.
