There was no shortage of feedback following the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
This was the first race with the complete version of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rules package with increased downforce, throttled (550) horsepower with a tapered spacer and aero ducts on the front fenders.
Last weekend’s event at the Atlanta Motor Speedway required brake ducts instead of aero ducts due to the abrasive nature of the Georgia racing surface.
The first stage was quickly strung out, single-file, with drivers wide open on the throttle for a majority of both runs. The cars were expected to stay closer together, but leader Kevin Harvick drove away to what averaged out to be a five-second lead.
The remainder of the race provided more action.
The second stage began with Brad Keselowski leading the field to green on just two fresh tires, in front of the rest of the contenders on four fresh tires. That kept the field bottled together longer.
Joey Logano and Kyle Busch then engaged in what was arguably the highlight of the race, a 15-lap battle in which they exchanged the lead in lapped traffic and stayed nose-to-tail until green flag pit stops — a segment in which Busch was flagged for speeding on pit road.
That allowed Logano to go largely unchallenged.
The final stage began with Kurt Busch’s team opting to stay out on older tires, and he held off Harvick for 20 laps: a testament to the power of clean air on a less abrasive track. Kurt Busch earned a top-five out of it.
And throughout it all, there were times, especially early in a run, where there were three-wide scenarios from about 10th on back.
But cars were very much single-file after about five-10 laps and only a handful of cars were able to overcome dirty air and draft well.
The finish saw Keselowski close on Logano on the final lap but come up just short with a last-lap effort to get under and around his Team Penske teammate. Keselowski spent the previous nine laps following in Logano’s wake but tried a different line in cleaner air and it almost carried him to the lead in turns three and four.
"I just kept trying different things," Keselowski said.
Like what?
"That's for me," he said with a laugh.
The raw numbers provided a mixed bag of data.
On one hand, the race had 47 green flag passes for the lead and 3,345 total green flag passes, both the most all-time for a Cup race at Las Vegas. For the record, a green flag pass counts for any time a driver completes a pass over another.
On the other hand, there were so many different strategies that it inherently resulted in more passing, especially when it came to pit sequences, two-tire and four-tire stops.
But the biggest issue in NASCAR remains that clean air is the key to success.
Denny Hamlin said his car didn’t "suck up" well in the slipstream but he wasn’t sure if that was a package problem or a car-specific issue.
"Once it gets strung out, with all the on-throttle time, the bottom is the place to be," Hamlin said. "But if you're second on back, you can't run there because the wake is so big. It'll work on some tracks, and other tracks, it won't."
Hamlin said he was only "barely lifting," and that it means the middle and top becomes less valuable.
Kyle Busch, one of the most vocal critics of this package since it was announced last year, said there was nothing he could do behind the wheel to make up the difference in third place to catch Logano and Keselowski at the end.
"Nope, we’re about flat out," Busch said of his on-throttle time.
When Busch was told the race was competitive, he simply said, "Was it?"
Busch said the racing was challenging, but not in a traditional motorsport way.
"It’s all about who can hold it down the longest," he said. "Trying to find your balance when you’re flat-footing it. Cars are faster on the corner. There are more loads on us. That’s more physically demanding. But the wake is so big that you just can’t follow the guy in front of you."
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