By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Following the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR executive and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell met with members of the media.
Atlanta Motor Speedway featured a hybrid of the 2019 aero rules for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The aero package at Atlanta featured a 550-horsepower engine, a tapered spacer and a taller spoiler.
Here is what O’Donell had to say post-race:
What did you see today?
I saw a fairly entertaining race. Like we said going into this race, we didn’t know what to expect either. We thought this package would showcase itself more when we go to the West Coast. With some really long green flag runs, I think you saw the ability to get back up to the leader and make a pass, which was encouraging. All in all, I think we are satisfied with the outcome. There is a lot of work to do, but we will go back and review it.
Were there any shortcomings? Anything that stood out in your mind?
There is nothing that comes to mind. I thought we saw a pretty entertaining race with a good battle for the lead there at the end that was precipitated by a late caution. That is ultimately what you want.
Can you explain the Truex non-penalty and how he was positioned where he was?
It was a non penalty. It automatically goes to the penalty sheet regardless if we override it in the tower. It was one that we couldn’t confirm that the foot was down via the camera angle, so we didn’t make the call.
Are you happy with what you saw on the track?
You certainly can look at where to improve. The race just finished, right? So we have to go back and look at the metrics and see what we can improve upon. All in all, we wanted to come here and have a decent race for the fans and go to the West Coast. I think that is what we did. The storyline, again, was about the battle at the end of the race.
Did the race play out with the data you had from the simulator?
I think this one was more of an unknown. When you looked at this race going in, this was the biggest question mark for us with how it would play out. It’s hard to say that this is how we predicted. Ultimately, we wanted cars to run closer together and we wanted a battle for the lead to play out at times. There are some things to certainly work on, but I think it was the direction where we wanted to go.
The most positive thing about the race was that only one race car got wrecked. Otherwise it was a typical Atlanta race. Overall I fel the new package didn’t provide anything to the show. It is early in the season and we will see how things work out after several more races on 11/2 mile ovals.
What is up with the Hendrick Team? They were totally out to lunch today.