NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell was happy with the on-track product he saw in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3, noting that the 2019 aerodynamic rules package for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on 1.5-mile tracks is an improvement from 2018 but it's still a work in progress.
"We've said from the beginning that this is going to be a season that we're going to analyze,” O’Donnell said. "We're not going to every race say, was that a good race, was that not. I know fans do that, but for us, directionally, are you improving upon where we wanted to be, and if you look at last year versus 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, and 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.”
The Pennzoil 400 was the third race of the Cup Series season, the second with some variation of the new aero package. But it was the first featuring all components of the package — aero ducts, tapered spacer and bigger rear spoiler and front splitter. The package for the Feb. 24 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway didn't include the aero ducts.
"We saw almost two different races within a race, because stage one was different from stages two and three,” O’Donnell said of the race at LVMS.
The Pennzoil 400 was won by Joey Logano after he led the final 24 laps of the race. That 24-lap distance was the second-longest tally of consecutive laps led by a single driver in the 267-lap race. Kevin Harvick led the first 43 laps between starting on the pole and making a green-flag pit stop.
"We saw almost two different races within a race, because stage one was different from stages two and three,” O’Donnell said.
In all, the race included 19 lead changes among nine drivers. The race ran incident-free with the only two cautions coming past laps 80 and 160 to divide the race into two 80-lap stages, followed by a 107-lap third stage. Some of the lead changes were results of varying strategies during three cycles of green-flag pit stops.
"What we said from the beginning is we wanted to see the best cars still win,” O’Donnell said. "We wanted the ability to look in the corners and see second and third place in the same shot as the leader, and for them to have the ability to pass each other. We saw that. You certainly saw the last stage, 100-lap green-flag run with no cautions, top four within 2.5 seconds. So. directionally, I think better, for sure, but we’re not satisfied. I'm a race fan first, and liked what I saw, but I think there's also more to come, hopefully.”
The Cup Series next races at the one-mile ISM Raceway near Phoenix on Sunday.
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