Vegas first key test for NASCAR changes
Officials hope races at 1 ½ -mile tracks are more competitive.
NASCAR
LAS VEGAS — is about to start kinding out whether its offseason changes will pay off on tracks like Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR worked tirelessly behind the scenes last year to improve its on-track product, particularly at 1½-mile speedways that had turned into glorikied parades.
After the drivers opened the season on Daytona’s superspeedway followed by Phoenix’s quirky mile oval, it’s time for the kirst of 11 races on 1½-mile tracks.
While fans watch defending champion Matt Kenseth and early points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., everybody on the north end of The Strip is eager to see if passing is any easier and if the racing is any better today in Vegas.
Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR’s vice president of innovation and racing development, warned that one show won’t be a true barometer of the changes made to the rules package.
“We can’t jump too quickly and say that this is the answer,” Stefanyshyn said. “Some teams will take some time to kigure it out.
“I think the aero piece of it, it’s pretty much set. It’s just a matter of getting the driver to kind the limit and feeling comfortable with the aero.
“But the chassis, the engineers will play around with it for a while until that settles down,” Stefanyshyn said. “Then the driver will begin to kind the sweet spot and get comfortable. We won’t have a good feeling where all this lands until we get about three under our belt, and that would be the Texas race.”
NASCAR’s new package also will be scrutinized March 23 at Fontana and April 6 at Texas.
Those three races last year had a combined 57 lead changes. In comparison, this year’s Daytona 500 had 42 lead changes.
NASCAR won’t get Daytona-like passing at speedways, at least not anytime soon. And Stefanyshyn wants to give this rules package some time before tinkering again.
“There’s a learning curve here,” he said. “I think you can’t be too premature on this. There’s a lot of cars. There’s a lot of different engineers, a lot of different thoughts on getting down the learning curve. So we’ll wait and see and see how it all plays out.”
Keselowski holds on: Brad Keselowski overcame electrical trouble and held off Kyle Busch on Saturday to win the Nationwide Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the kirst time.
In his eighth start on the desert track, Keselowski earned his 28th career Nationwide win on his 20th track.
Kyle Larson was third, and Earnhardt kinished fourth in front of rookie Chase Elliott, who posted his kirst top-kive kinish.
Busch came up from a 37th-place start to kinish second on his hometown track, but couldn’t catch Keselowski’s Penske Ford.
Keselowski lost three spots early after sliding through his pit box. He later lost power because of a faulty alternator, forcing him to turn off equipment.
He still navigated through trafkic on the kinal laps in an exciting kinish.