When it comes to the debut of the new short track package at Darlington Raceway, there might be a Venn Diagram overlap between those who had really good cars and those who felt like it improved the racing.
As a result, there may also be a similar overlap for the opposite.
Ultimately, most drivers said the increased horsepower and reduced downforce configuration did not fundamentally change the racing product but with such a narrow racing groove, Denny Hamlin says that changes were always going to be on the margins.
“It wasn’t drastically different,” Hamlin said. “It was still very difficult to pass. This is a narrow track, so there’s just not many places to go to avoid the wake of the car in front of you. I thought the good cars could pass, and the mediocre ones were hanging on.
“We’re still in track position-type racing. I just don’t know whether you’re really going to get away from that no matter what you do. Especially with as close in speed as all the cars are. You need a good .3 advantage to overtake here at this track. Maybe .2. That’s a lot of difference in speed.”
Hamlin says that’s why teams try to either short pit, or run long, whatever it takes to get track position.
“I just didn’t notice that much,” Hamlin. “It just felt a little bit more out of control on the old tires, but everyone kind of adapted to it.”
From a purely factual standpoint, green flag passes and lead changes were up year-over-year.
3,216-to-2,966
16-to-4
Overall, this was statistically an above-average race in terms of passing and competition for the lead. And while there was a lot of hype for how out of control drivers could be on Sunday, it seemed like crashing was reduced because drivers simply drove conservative races to hang onto their cars deeper into a run.
That did allow for a lot of comers-and-goers, even if there wasn’t a lot of side-by-side racing, which isn’t exactly Darlington Raceway’s brand in the first place as detailed by Ryan Blaney.
“This is like the first time I think in my Cup career that I would let a guy go, like a few laps into a restart if he’s hounding me or come off pit road and I said to myself, ‘I’ll see you in about 20 laps and that happened,” stated the 2023 champion.
“I don’t know if that would have happened in the other package so I think it was a success. It was good. Definitely not worse.”
And visibly, the cars looked like they were able to follow a leading car easier with this package, and Blaney confirmed that too.
“Yeah, a little bit better to follow,” Blaney said. “You still get the front-end nose wash pretty hard behind guys but I think it was a little bit better today. Just a little bit of a tweak here and there, and I think we could get something truly spectacular.”
To that point, race winner Tyler Reddick said a leading car couldn’t air block the way they could the past four years.
“I mean, it was harder to defend, in my opinion,” Reddick said. “Brad (Keselowski) made a really good move on me in 1 and 2. I feel like the move that Brad made on me in 1 and 2 with the old car would have kept me behind him. I would have lost the nose.
“But with this car and just less overall grip I was able to cross over. When he did cover the move, I didn’t want to run into him but I never would have been able to make contact, you know what I mean?
“Just how that whole move that got me to the lead played out, I feel like with the old car he would have been able to defend that and keep me behind him.”
Ryan Preece said the words ‘it was different’ but also wants to do more tire testing because he believes Goodyear still can go way more aggressive on fall-off now that teams have vowed to not blame them for teams crossing over the limits.
Preece says this is a three-pronged conversation: Downforce, horsepower and tires.
“The aerodynamics plays a huge part in how much tire is placed onto the ground and how it wears,” Preece said. “Horsepower is how much you can put the throttle down, and those three are the key factors, and no one has the secret formula. This takes testing and takes time. I can only give my feedback of what I feel.
“Outside of Cup racing, I have done a lot of tire testing (in Tour Type Modified racing) … and understanding with 15” wide tires what it takes. So, I have beat the drum for a long time that we need to soften up our tires.
“A lot of people have given me sideways looks, like we needed to go back to a 12” wide tire, but guess what, the racing got better (when they got softer) and I’m not saying I know everything, but I know 15” wide tires.”
Overall, his boss Brad Keselowski, said the cars were ‘harder to drive’ and that they were better in traffic.
“When you’re around other cars, you have to be really, really smart and really, really careful,” Keselowski said. “I thought the cars were a lot better in traffic today than what they’ve been, so I think that was a gain.
“I think NASCAR is doing the right thing, trying things, but it’s so tough at a track like this because there is a lot of tire falloff and it’s such an unforgiving racetrack.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
