Ryan Preece certainly enjoyed the new NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway package on Saturday night, though his enthusiasm was hardly surprising given the outcome.
“I mean, yeah, I won,” Preece remarked. “I like it. Did you like it?”
That question is better directed toward his competitors, beginning with team owner Brad Keselowski, who spoke to reporters earlier during the post-race press sessions.
“Honestly, I could not tell a difference,” Keselowski admitted. “I couldn’t tell they changed the rules at all. My car drove almost identical to what it did. I was really shocked by that. I thought it would drive poorly, particularly here in the summer. I still call this a summer race.
“I was a bit caught off guard by that. I don’t expect it to look much differently at Talladega.”
In an effort to discourage fuel-saving tactics and address the cars’ notorious inability to pass due to excessive drag, NASCAR shortened the rear spoiler from seven inches to four inches and reduced horsepower from 510 to 465.
Fuel conservation remained the dominant strategic theme, as minimizing time spent on pit road translates directly into track position. Several teams attempted to complete entire stages without stopping at all, and with reduced horsepower, this approach became a more viable strategic option.
Regarding the drag issue, most drivers reported they could detect little change from previous NextGen superspeedway races, though Chase Briscoe stood as a notable exception.
“I thought the package was way better,” Briscoe commented. “Who knows if there’s still more to go, but I thought compared to what we had, it was really good. You could make moves and make passes. It was more like traditionally how you would race here.
“The fuel saving was still there, but it was just how the stages wind up. You have to save fuel to not have to pit, so I don’t know what they can do to fix that part of it. If the stages were short enough, I think we would just run as hard as we could and it would be really, really good. Not sure how to fix that, but definitely interesting how it all played out.”
Denny Hamlin viewed the changes as a step in the right direction. He believed the package was only a few stage-length adjustments away from producing full-throttle racing throughout.
“I didn’t think it was quite as log-jammed as what it was in the past,” Hamlin noted. “If you wanted to get to the front, I felt like you could. Just the way the stages worked out was interesting. In stage 2 and 3, fuel saving came into play.”
Christopher Bell described his disappointment as “perplexing,” attributing it to the limited grip these cars produced even with the significantly shorter splitter. He had anticipated a “totally different race” but felt the reduced horsepower made things worse by further distorting fuel strategies.
“It turned into even more fuel saving, and we just haven’t figured it out yet,” Bell concluded.
William Byron arrived at a similar conclusion.
“I think the underwing creates so much drag on these cars, and there isn’t a lot of power either,” Byron observed, though he expressed optimism that additional races with this package could yield better results over time.
Erik Jones, speaking after being released from the infield care center, echoed these sentiments.
“Unintended consequences, more fuel saving than ever,” Jones stated. “We took so much power away that we could make every stage. Kind of a bummer. I didn’t think the racing was any better. It was still super hard to pass and the cars just drove more terrible.
“Back to the drawing board.”
Watch: Briscoe calls new Daytona package ‘a lot of fun’
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