NASCAR Michigan 2015 recap: High-drag rules package didn’t work, but will likely lead to better racing

Cars clumped together circling Michigan International Speedway with drivers regularly executing slingshot passes as if they were at Daytona or Talladega was the vision NASCAR officials had when they instituted a high-drag aerodynamic package for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

If nearly nonstop action was the idyllic scenario than what actually unfolded during the Pure Michigan 400 was the antithesis. Outside of restarts and a few laps thereafter, passing was largely stifled and side-by-side absent due to a rules package that produced not titillating excitement, but wide gaps between cars.

Kenseth led 73 percent of the laps Sunday (146 of 200), the highest percentage by a driver in any of the 23 races this season. He won by a robust 1.7-second margin over second-place finisher Kevin Harvick and with a couple of brief exceptions, wasn’t seriously challenged.

The competition so lackluster Harvick and Brad Keselowski, two former Sprint Cup champions who are rarely shy about sharing an opinion, essentially bit their tongues when asked about the high-drag package.

“It doesn’t matter what my thoughts and observations are, it is what NASCAR wants,” Keselowski said. “Whatever they want to do.”

Harvick, the defending series titlist, provided a non-answer answer to the same question, all but doing an impersonation of Seattle Seahawks running Marshawn Lynch during Super Bowl XLIX media day.

“I’m really proud of my team and the things that they did to prepare for the race,” Harvick said. “We had a good, strong day.”

The frustration expressed by Keselowski and Harvick is understandable. Just as it did last month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when it made its debut, the high-drag package manufactured a dud of a race at Michigan. And that’s with expectations already being lowered to the bare minimum.

“We certainly would have liked to have seen more out of the race package,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, Monday morning to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We’ve said repeatedly with each and every package we put together we want to look at the ability to pass throughout the field and the ability to have multiple lead changes at the front and we didn’t get that Sunday.”

That NASCAR recognizes it erred is a positive. Officials took a chance with a rule configuration that it hoped would mimic IndyCar Series races on intermediate speedways where passing is in abundance, but in swinging for the fences instead embarrassingly struck out. It should be commended for thinking outside the box.

But now that NASCAR knows the package it’s pushed hard for is ineffective, shelve it permanently. No more 9-inch rear spoiler (3 inches taller than standard), a 1-inch wicker bill, a bigger radiator pan and bumper extensions.

The package NASCAR needs to focus its attention to stimulate competition and lessen the impact of dirty air is the low-downforce package ran to great fanfare last month at Kentucky Speedway and to be used again Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Considering the rarity in which they agree on anything, it speaks volumes that drivers are in almost universal agreement in the direction NASCAR should head. And the numbers supported their conclusions. Kentucky produced a track-record 22 green-flag passes for the lead and 2,665 green-flag passes throughout the field, which more than doubled last year’s total of 1,147.

“If this is worse and Kentucky is better then let’s just keep going that direction,” Carl Edwards said Sunday. “I really hope we do. NASCAR says they’re working on it and they want the best product for the fans and this was something that they tried. It could have worked, but I think it was obvious today that it was pretty tough to pass.”

Michigan wasn’t a great race; it wasn’t even an OK race. What it wasn’t, though, was a failure. The high-drag package may not have worked as intended, but if in the long run it leads to the full-time implementation of the low-downforce package then Sunday should almost be regarded as a success.