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 The goal for low downforce cars is to put the racing back into the
hands of drivers, to create ebb and flow at the front of the field.
Sure enough, the Kobalt 400 had more "comers and goers" than the
crap tables on the Strip. At various stages, it appeared that pole
winner Kurt Busch, four-time Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson, smooth
moving Matt Kenseth, Penske Racing's Joey Logano or Kyle Busch might
have won it.
Known for some occasional trash talk, Keselowski was all business
amidst the flying paper as he drove back from a speeding violation
midway in the race. His Penske Racing team then gambled on pit
strategy before Keselowksi chased down hometown favorite Kyle Busch
in the sunny closing laps to win.
How well this plays with NASCAR fans remains to be seen. But the
majority of the tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule are 1.5 miles, the
same distance as the Las Vegas oval. Not only does the lower
downforce and emphasis on tire management and mechanical grip keep
competition close on these tracks. For the first time in recent
memory, drivers are getting out of their cars at race's end and
expressing fatigue, an indication they're not joy riding around at
the expense of ticket buyers.
Joy, on the other hand, also describes the mood of the drivers when
it comes to the new rules. Last week in Atlanta, the sentiments were
equally upbeat in the first race on the "throttle" tracks after the
season opener in Daytona.
Beach, where restrictors keep horsepower in check. But the slippery
surface in Atlanta and its broad avenues in the corners are a bit
iconoclastic. The racing went well on the high-grip Las Vegas oval,
however, confirming what happened in Atlanta was no fluke.
Once he gained second place by passing his teammate Logano,
Keselowski ran down Busch within three laps when the race was on the
line. That's the premise of low downforce. Cars come ahead as they
work relatively better during a green flag segment or start to fade
if their tires begin giving up. It depends on drivers and the
choices made by crew chiefs on car set-up and adjustments on the
chassis during pit stops. It can be said crew chiefs are earning
their seven-figure salaries these days, too.
"I thought it was a really good balance," said Keselowski of the new
rules package. "The challenge is for NASCAR that we've got all these
race teams spending millions of dollars to develop the aerodynamics
on the cars because there's such a competitive advantage to finding
more downforce, finding more side force, reducing the drag on the
cars. It will only take us about half a year to a year's time to
where we remove all the benefits... like we saw today with a lot of
passing for the lead."
Another positive sign is that teams are able to respond between
races and make adjustments under the low downforce package, which
limits the width of the pan under the radiator at the front, the
extension of the front splitter and the height of the rear spoiler.
The Penske team had some homework to do after Atlanta, including a
90-minute post-race debrief last Tuesday. "When we unloaded at
Atlanta, didn't have quite the speed we were hoping for," said Paul
Wolfe, the winning crew chief. "That was a little frustrating. We
worked hard, didn't qualify where we needed to be. Got our cars
better for the race, but still not where they needed to be to
contend for wins.
"From there, I think there were a few late nights back at Team
Penske where guys worked really hard. We felt like we needed more
potential out of our cars. We worked very hard on some aero pieces,
some different things. Felt like when we unloaded here at Vegas this
week, we kind of showed that all that hard work paid off in
qualifying, having both cars up front. As we translated into the
race today, we showed the strength in race trim."
After Logano also got past Busch, the result was a one-two finish
for the Penske Fords. That certainly helps the 50th anniversary
celebration for team owner Roger Penske, whose IndyCar team will
begin its season this weekend in St. Petersburg.
The result gave NASCAR three different teams and manufacturers in
Victory Lane in the first three races. Over-all, it was a victory
for NASCAR's new effort to coordinate decisions with manufacturers,
drivers and teams while experimenting on new aero packages last
summer. Back then, teams collectively gritted their teeth about
having different rules packages from race to race, which also
included a high downforce approach that was eventually scotched.
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In Las Vegas, there was plenty of gripping drama due to some
relatively sticky Goodyear tires and the adhesion of the track's
asphalt instead of griping. Kyle Busch, for example, catapulted from
sixth place to first in less than a lap on a late-race restart to
get into the lead. He drove around Johnson on the outside of Turn 2,
then dove inside the two Penske cars on the backstraight.
Eventually, tire wear caught up with him as Keselowski came charging
to the fore.
Busch was edged for third place by Johnson at the finish stripe and
pointed out that he and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kenseth both had
their Toyotas passed for the lead under green. "We have some work to
do," said Busch when asked about the Gibbs team's 1.5-mile track
program.
"There's definitely guys that are better than us. I think as a
company, we're not bad. I think we're fourth to eighth -- out of all
of us, that's kind of where we run and we need to get a little
better to where we're the guys that can be up front and lead laps."
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished eighth, strongly endorsed the new
rules in Atlanta after Hendrick Motorsports Chevy teammate Johnson
won and felt similarly after the Las Vegas round. Evidently,
watching Johnson lead 76 laps gave confidence to Earnhardt Jr. that
his Hendrick team is on the right track on the 1.5-mile ovals. The
cars, he said, handled well despite crosswinds that gusted up to 45
mph, making life tricky in Turns 2 and 3, not to mention the
constant flurries of paper trash that could cause engine overheating
if stuck in radiators.
The shorter spoilers have eliminated the dreaded "aero push" that
made it difficult for a trailing car to close on the car ahead. "The
one thing that I really like is I can drive up to guys with that
little spoiler on the back, I'm not really stuck behind people like
we used to be," said Earnhardt Jr. "A lot of the drivers are wanting
to keep going in this direction and even further. I wasn't really so
sure about that but now I feel like that might be a good move to go
even less downforce."
Earnhardt Jr. suggested shorter rear spoilers or changing the sealed
undersides of the cars might be a solution to even less downforce.
Winner Keselowski agreed that NASCAR will have to keep trimming
downforce if it wants to keep the ebb and flow.
"I think the challenge for NASCAR is just to continue to stay ahead
of that with segments and changes, knowing that the teams will
continue to develop," said Keselowski. "There's a lot of different
interests, of course, in this sport. The interest of the teams is to
be the fastest. Quite frankly, when we have the fastest car, we just
want to be fast, we don't care if it makes the racing great or bad."
As if to second that notion, on Saturday Kyle Busch led 199 of the
200 laps in the Xfinity Series race in one of the Joe Gibbs Racing
entries.
The sanctioning body certainly cares about competitive races due to
struggles with ticket sales and TV ratings. Over the past several
years when aerodynamics and "aero push" took over, fans grew cynical
about caution flags flown for debris that were designed, in their
opinion, to close up fields for restarts and more passing.
One of the cautions on Sunday was for debris - a piece of metal up
by the wall and not for a water bottle lying on the track, whose
photo was tweeted and retweeted during the race. In the end, the
race stayed green as Keselowski chased down Busch and passed him
with five laps remaining. For one rainy, windy and dusty day in the
Nevada desert the weather may have been really lousy, but the racing
was really good.
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