Opinion: A year of aero changes have changed NASCAR for the better

Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway marked the halfway point of the 2016 Cup season but it also marked one year since NASCAR unveiled its first version of new aerodynamic rules packages to improve the quality of racing.

The use of a “low downforce” package got its first on-track test last July at Kentucky and from all accounts was well-received.

The lower downforce package, first used at Kentucky and Darlington, S.C., last season and modified this year share some common characteristics, including inducing more off-throttle time and a decrease corner speeds, both of which have been championed by many of the sport’s drivers.

In theory, those changes were to help create more passing zones over the entire track, and allow for multiple tire combinations.

Last year’s Kentucky race, however, marked just the beginning, not the end of an extensive project involving NASCAR, its teams and manufacturers to help reshape the competition in NASCAR’s highest profile series.

Still a work in process

The package used this past weekend is not the final product, either.

Much work remains before the rules are cemented for the 2017 season, including a possible additional on-track test before this season’s championship Chase begins in September.

There is no denying, however, that the results over the past year – both quantitatively and aesthetically – have proved successful.

Four races were run with new aero packages in 2015, and two of those were with a higher drag package second Michigan and Indianapolis). But NASCAR entered 2016 with plans to use the lower downforce package wherever practicable.

So far this season we’ve seen the following:

• A Phoenix race decided with a margin of victory of .01 seconds – tied for seventh closest since the inception of electronic timing and scoring in 1993.

• Auto Club Speedway (51), Bristol Motor Speedway (40) and Atlanta Motor Speedway (44) set records for green-flag passes for the lead.

• Richmond’s spring race (which also moved from a night to a day race) saw an increase in overall passes (2,083) and green flag passes for the lead (18, the most since 2010), as well as a last-lap pass.

• The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which also featured a change to the cars’ rear skew, had 17 green-flag passes for the lead compared to nine in the 2015 edition of the race.

Saturday night’s Kentucky race didn’t get near the rave reviews as a year ago, but the track also underwent a repaving and reconfiguration in the offseason that forced Goodyear to bring a more conservative (harder) tire to the race, particularly after a blistering problem showed up in a test less than a month before the event.

Still, compared to many other first races following repaves, the quality of racing seemed much enhanced, particularly the longer the race went on and the racing groove grew wider.

An enormous amount of time and money has been spent over the last year by nearly everyone involved in the sport in an effort to enhance the on-track product.

It is not an exact science, in large part because the number of unforeseen variables continues to change from track to track.

Clearly, though, NASCAR is on the right path. And if wants fans to continue to flock to race tracks across the country, it can’t afford to be on any other.