Fuel saving was still the strategic narrative, as spending less time on pit road means gaining track position, and some teams outright attempted to make full stages without pitting whatsoever. And with less horsepower, that became a more plausible strategic option.<\/p>\n
As for the drag, most drivers said they couldn\u2019t tell much of a difference from previous NextGen superspeedway races, although Chase Briscoe was a rare exception<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the package was way better,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cWho knows if there\u2019s still more to go, but I thought compared to what we had, it was really good. You could make moves and make passes. It was more like traditionally how you would race here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fuel saving was still there, but it was just how the stages wind up. You have to save fuel to not have to pit so I don\u2019t know what they can do to fix that part of it. If the stages were short enough, I think we would just run as hard as we could and it would be really, really good. Not sure how to fix that, but definitely interesting how it all played out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin thought it was directionally positive. He felt like they were a couple of stage length changes away from having drivers race all out.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t think it was quite as log jammed as what it was in the past,” Hamlin said. “If you wanted to get to the front I felt like you could. Just the way the stages worked out was interesting. In stage 2 and 3 fuel saving came into play.”<\/p>\n
Christopher Bell called his disappointment \u2018perplexing\u2019 and said it came down to how much grip these cars had even with the drastically shorter splitter. He felt like this was going to be a \u2018totally different race\u2019 and felt like it was worse because of the reduced horsepower and how that altered the fuel strategies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turned into even more fuel saving and we just haven\u2019t figured it out yet,\u201d Bell said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where William Byron landed too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the underwing creates so much drag on these cars, and it just, I don\u2019t know, there isn\u2019t a lot of power either,\u201d Byron said, while having hope that more races with this package could eventually produce better results.<\/p>\n
Erik Jones, upon being released from the infield care center, said the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnintended consequences, more fuel saving than ever,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe took so much power away that we could make every stage. Kind of a bummer. I didn\u2019t think the racing was any better. It was still super hard to pass and the cars just drove more terrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack to the drawing board.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Watch: Briscoe calls new Daytona package ‘a lot of fun’<\/p>\n
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