Drivers rave about new low-downforce package

Drivers had mostly positive reviews for the reduced down force package used last weekend at Atlanta. Now, heading to Las Vegas, they must figure out how to finetune the new rules.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> Drivers had mostly positive reviews for the reduced-downforce package used last weekend at Atlanta. Now, as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas to start a threerace West Coast swing, they must figure out how to fine-tune the new rules.

Kevin Harvick led 131 laps at Atlanta but faded to a sixth-place finish. Asked after the race how he must approach Las Vegas, where he’s the defending race winner, Harvick said it was simple.

“Don’t worry about how fast you are in practice,” he said. “Make sure it drives good.”

The 2016 rules package reduced downforce approximately 25 percent by shortening the spoiler and front splitter and moving to a smaller radiator pan. The drivers pushed for the package most of last season because lower downforce makes the cars more difficult to drive — which allows the drivers to show their talent.

“This is real racing. We’re driving hard,” Carl Edwards said. “You can see the guys out here just digging for everything they’re worth. I’m worn out. That’s a tough race and just a lot of fun.”

The new package is also supposed to help improve passing, particularly at the front of the field.

“I love that the cars are harder to drive,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “I think all the drivers wanted that, and I think all the drivers will get out of it after (Atlanta), even the ones that didn’t run good, and say, ‘ This is the right direction to go.”’

The race at Atlanta was not a true indicator of how the package could improve the racing because the first 210 laps last week were caution free. There were just three yellows at Atlanta, and it made for a spread out field with limited passing. Only 12 cars finished on the lead lap.

But Earnhardt said Atlanta was an anomaly because it’s “a unique racetrack.”

“We run from the apron to the wall, so you’re not going to have debris laying around on the track for NASCAR to find and for cautions to develop as often as you will at other racetracks, because we keep that track pretty clean by running on it and using every inch of it,” he said. TRUEX’S START >> Martin Truex Jr. has used the first two races of the season to prove his inclusion in the championship finale last year was no fluke.

Truex was seventh at Atlanta and second in the Daytona 500, where he lost the closest finish in race history to Denny Hamlin.

Truex has 24 top-10 finishes since the beginning of the 2015 season, and only three drivers have racked up more than him: Kevin Harvick (30), Joey Logano (29) and Brad Keselowski (26).

Now he heads to Las Vegas, where in the last 10 starts, Truex has completed all but four of the 2,691 laps for a 99.9 percent lap completion rate. The four laps he didn’t complete were at the 2009 race.

Truex was runner-up to Kevin Harvick at Las Vegas a year ago.

Truex did get some bad news Wednesday: His crew chief was suspended one race and fined $50,000 for a rules violation at Atlanta.

Truex also was penalized 15 driver points and team owner Barney Visser was penalized 15 championship owner points.

Furniture Row Racing said it will appeal the penalty.