After first Cup practice, Goodyear says "no concerns right now"

NASCAR’s debut of the lower downforce package at Kentucky Speedway in 2015 sparked an evolution for competition — and unprecedented collaboration between teams and the sanctioning body.

This weekend, NASCAR will run the newest edition of its competition package, the current prototype for the 2017 Cup cars. It’s the same configuration teams used last month at Michigan, where there were 12 lead changes among seven drivers before Joey Logano edged Chase Elliott at the line by 0.889-seconds.

“If you go from where we were a year ago to where we are now with what they call the 2016 package, it’s been a marked improvement and that much better,” said Carl Edwards, who helped spearhead the low downforce movement. “We’ve been able to race better and the passing. I believe the lower downforce package is another step in the right direction.

“NASCAR did a really great job at responding and implementing a lot of that stuff for this season. After some of these races, it’s got a whole different feel for it. It really has been a good time. There have been good races. At the end of the day, the fans are the ones that benefit. It’s pretty cool.”

So far, so good

Edwards, who posted the top speed (186.451 mph) in Thursday's opening Cup practice, said the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team spent most of the first practice scuffing the new tires that Goodyear introduced for the weekend. At a NASCAR organizational test last month, 12 teams ran the same tire as in the Michigan race but the compound blistered after 22 laps.

Goodyear’s Greg Stucker told Motorsport.com that, while it’s still early, all the reports were positive after the first day in the Cup garage.

“There are no concerns right now,” Stuck said. “I think everybody is getting prepped for longer runs tomorrow so we’ll have a better look at it then. But I think everybody is heeding our recommendations, getting some tires scuffed and then we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.”

Following the two-day test last month, Goodyear opted to change the tire from what was run at Michigan to something more similar to the Las Vegas compound, citing an unusual amount of wear.

Relearning the track

With the changes in the banking in Turns 1 and 2, Edwards also spent the session relearning the track. Although he posted his second top-five Cup finish last year and earned his first NASCAR win in a truck at the Sparta, Ky. track in 2003, the new pavement along with the changes in banking provided a challenge for the teams.

“I’m looking at the little nuances of the track, where are the bumps, the grip level, exactly where is the speed,” Edwards said. “This track is difficult, we were talking about the differences between turns one and two and three and four, it’s a bigger difference than any of the mile-and-a-halfs we go to. It’s huge. Determining how you’re going to balance the car to be aggressive and how loose you need to be here or there, it’s kind of hard to figure it out.”

Edwards believes it will be difficult to get a proper read on how the lower downforce package has progressed here at Kentucky — since track officials repaved and reconfigured the 1.5-mile track earlier this season. And although this weekend is expected to be the last time the lower-downforce package is raced until next season, there has been discussions between NASCAR and the teams about possibly making tweaks and bringing it back to Michigan next month.

While Edwards doesn’t believe continuing down the low downforce path will offer his team — or others — a competitive advantage, the driver admits he’s in favor of adopting less downforce than the current cars.

“I’m up for anything,” Edwards said. “Any amount or any aero dependency we can take away from the cars, I’m fine trying it at any time. Really I think it’s a balance and I’ve talked to Steve O’Donnell (NASCAR, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer) and those guys a little bit, they’re just balancing it with the teams, making sure everyone is okay with trying these things at different places. You guys know where I stand on it – I’m always for it.”