LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Following Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell said he saw signs of better racing with the new rules package, but also insisted “we can continue to improve on that.”
In the third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the year, Joey Logano edged Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski in thrilling fashion. Sunday’s race also featured aero ducts for the first time in 2019 to go along with a tapered spacer that limits the horsepower in the engine to just 550, as well as other aerodynamic tweaks intended to keep the cars closer together and produce better racing.
O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer gave his evaluation of the race:
“What we said from the beginning was we wanted to see the best car still win,” he said. “We wanted the ability … if you look up in Turn 2 or Turn 3 during a run, we wanted to see the leader and the ability for second or third to be at least in that shot and have the ability to pass. We saw that.
“We certainly saw the last stage, 100-lap, green-flag run, no cautions and the top four within 2.5 seconds. So directionally I think better for sure but not satisfied. I’m a race fan first and liked what I saw but also think there’s more to come hopefully.”
But O’Donnell maintained its not up to him to be content.
“I think it’s not really up to me,” he insisted. “It’s the fans. You want higher ratings and you want more butts in seats ultimately. You want rivalries out there and drivers getting after it. I think what happens in that situation is you have more passes for the lead, and you have cars closer together. I think we’re on the march to do that. I think we saw some of that today, but we can continue to improve on that.”
But, where will that improvement originate?
“I think over time,” O’Donnell insisted. “We’ve said from the beginning this is going to be a season that we analyze. We’re not every race going to say was that a good race? I know fans do that.
“For us, directionally, are you improving upon where we wanted to be, and if you look at last year vs. this year, I would say we are. Was it tremendous improvement? Probably not, but again as a fan you want to see lead changes. We saw that today. I think if you would have looked in the past with no cautions, we would have seen someone check out all race long and we wouldn’t have seen a lead change.”
Sunday’s race, the second consecutive race won by the new Ford Mustang saw 19 lead changes among nine leaders, the most since March 2016.
According to NASCAR’s loop data, eight of the 19 lead changes were exchanged on the track. The remaining lead changes occurred through green-flag pit stops when the leader pitted or during stage brakes.
Ironically, both stage breaks saw lead changes. Atlanta winner Brad Keselowski took the lead with a two-tire stop after the end of first stage, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch inherited the lead after the second stage when he did not pit in lieu of clean air.
To the amazement of most, Sunday’s race only produced two cautions only for the stage breaks.
“I think you never forecast a caution-free race other than the stages and that’s what you had,” O’Donnell sounded. “You had cars sticking together for a longer period on a restart. What we really wanted on an intermediate track was if you had a long green-flag run, the ability to make a pass during that stretch vs. one-second, two-, three-, four- (second lead), almost what you saw in stage one vs. the second and third.
“I think it was good to see directionality that guys could come up through the pack and make a pass for the lead. Still, work to do. It’s early. Three different winners in three races. We’ll take this one and head to Phoenix.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
