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First day of 2019 NASCAR rules test makes one thing clear: Intermediate track racing will look different

nick bromberg
College football and motorsports writer


NASCAR’s 2019 intermediate track rules got their first big test on Thursday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And yeah, there are a lot of differences in the racing.

The sanctioning body has increased downforce on Cup Series cars for the 2019 season and has cut horsepower at tracks 1.5 miles or longer. It’s also added air ducts — in an attempt to increase a drafting effect for trailing cars — to cars at certain intermediate-length tracks. The two-day, 14-car Vegas test is the first major application of the combination of air ducts, downforce and reduced horsepower.

“We’ve taken the driver’s skill away from the drivers in this package,” Kyle Busch said. “Anybody can go out there and run around there and go wide open. It’s a lot more of a mental game.”

Busch has been a critic of the 2019 intermediate track specs ever since they were floated as a possibility. The 2019 specifications are based on what NASCAR ran at the 2018 All-Star Race. Horsepower was reduced and downforce was added because NASCAR wanted to keep the cars closer together on the track and produce more entertaining racing.

“This new package, the way that it drives, it is as radically different as when we switched to the Car of Tomorrow,” Kurt Busch said referencing when NASCAR switched to a new car style in the 2007 season (via NBC). “That’s how much a dramatic difference it is. It’s a lot to adjust to, lot of differences. It’s wide open all the way around but when you do crack the throttle, you do lose a lot of speed and lose a lot of momentum and you’re trying to keep focused on the handling.”

Yes, both Busch brothers said “wide open” in reference to a lap at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The combination of increased aerodynamic grip and loss of horsepower means a driver doesn’t have to lift off the gas or apply the brake with fresh tires. It’s obvious to the naked eye of a NASCAR fan that the cars are much slower in a straight line and don’t have to slow down hardly at all in the corners.

The All-Star Race was entertaining because it was a novelty. The novelty effect will wear off quickly over the course of the 2019 season, especially if the same racing issues exist in 2019 that existed in 2018. The All-Star rules were implemented in an attempt to prevent the leading car from running away from the rest of the field thanks to the undisturbed air ahead of him. From Kyle Busch:

“It reminds me a lot of the trucks when we were with the truck race last spring with myself and Brett Moffitt. We ran 1-2 and kind of drove away. We could get in a draft and kind of drive away from the rest of the field. We were the ones that weren’t lifting as much as the rest of the competition was and I had a hard time passing Brett. I couldn’t get by him. I was behind him for 30 laps and couldn’t do anything to get by him. There’s just not enough off-throttle time for handling to come into play.”

Off throttle time was a selling point in NASCAR’s previous rule changes. The sanctioning body had reduced downforce on Cup Series cars over the past few seasons hoping that drivers would be able to maneuver around each other in the corners as they had to wait longer to accelerate onto the straightaway.

Those plans didn’t work out as well as they should have — in NASCAR’s eyes, anyway — given that the sanctioning body is now going in the total opposite direction with its rules in 2019. The hope is the creation of a compelling product that will get the television viewers who have fled the sport in recent years to tune back in.

“We’re encouraged by what we saw on the track,” NASCAR vice president John Probst said (via NBC). “But by no means, we’ve all done this long enough, we’re not going to sit here and declare victory or anything. We know that teams are going to keep massaging on this package and we’ve just got to stay with them to make sure that we put on some really exciting races for our fans.”

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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