FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott questioned the “entertainment factor” of Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, but a NASCAR official said that the 2019 rules package, which features less horsepower, could enhance the action there next year.
Drivers talked after this weekend’s races about the challenges of passing at the high-speed 1.5-mile track.
Martin Truex Jr., who started at the rear of the Cup race after an engine change and finished ninth, said passing was “unbelievably impossible.”
Elliott was more blunt.
“I don’t know what genius decided to pave this place or take the banking out of (Turns) 1 and 2,” he said after finishing sixth. “Not a good move for the entertainment factor, in my opinion.”
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, said next year’s rules package should work well at the track. Teams will have 550 horsepower at Texas next year, along with aero ducts, a larger spoiler, new splitter and radiator pan to help with aerodynamics.
“I don’t want to take away from anything Kevin Harvick did,” O’Donnell told the media after Sunday’s race. “Having said that, I think we would all agree on the race entertainment quality between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there’s a difference. I think we also know that we’ve got a new rules package in place next year that again some of you have not too been too positive about but there’s a reason we’ve got to that, and I think this would be one of the reasons.
Denny Hamlin suggested on Twitter that that is another key ingredient to improving the racing.
Winner Kevin Harvick, who led 177 of 335 laps but had to pass Ryan Blaney late to win, was diplomatic about the challenges of Texas.
“Look, repaves are difficult,” he said. “I think they put in as much effort here as anywhere that we’ve gone. Two years in a row we’ve won a race on the high side. It’s just one of those things where you just have to give it time.
“It’s a really fast racetrack that they came and changed the tires from the first race (this year), so we kind of fixed that problem from the tires blowing out and everything that we had happen in the spring race.”
Texas Motor Speedway was repaved and the banking in Turns 1 and 2 dropped four degrees to 20 degrees. The changes were made before the track’s 2017 races and were a result of issues drying the track that led to a 76-day postponement of the IndyCar race in 2016 and the delay of the 2016 Cup playoff race.
Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway, responded on Twitter to fan complaints about the racing Sunday and asked fans for patience.
