New aero package rules the night at Kentucky Speedway

In his victory in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, Kyle Busch once again led the most laps on track where he has always enjoyed success.

Just more of the same?

Hardly.

The celebration in Victory Lane may have seemed a familiar one – Busch now has two wins and four top-five finishes in five career Sprint Cup Series races at Kentucky – but how it came about may have ignited a much-needed fire of enthusiasm in NASCAR this season.

The race featured the debut of what are now five planned track-specific aerodynamic rules packages, and to say it was a success may actually be an understatement.

“I think the aero package (created) options for us drivers to be able to move around and try different things,” said Busch, who earned his second win of the season in just seven starts. He missed the first 11 races of the season because of injuries sustained in a wreck in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona in February.

“When I got to (Joey) Logano there late in the going I knew he was going to come up and block my lane and take my air,” he said. “But when he did, it wasn’t as bad as it has been with I think the other aero package, where you just stall out.

“I could move down (the track), I could turn down and I could get underneath him, and we kind of swapped the lead a couple times for a couple laps and then finally I was able to get by him and move on away.”

Busch was far from the only driver to praise the rules change after the race.

And even if he was, NASCAR had plenty of data to back up what was arguably the best race of the 2015 season from start to finish.

There were 2,665 green-flag passes throughout the entire field in Saturday night’s race, compared with 1,147 last year and the most since Kentucky began hosting Cup series events in 2011.

There also were a record 22 green-flag passes for the lead, with the previous best (19) set in 2011.

From Kentucky Speedway standards, there was easily a visually discernible difference in the quality of the racing throughout the field, with cars at times three- or four-wide racing for position.

“This is what race car driving’s all about,” said Denny Hamlin, who came from two laps down at one point to finish third. “I feel like now it’s back in the driver and crew chief’s hands to get their car handling like it’s supposed to.

“It’s not just an arms race of who can build the fastest cars in the shop.”

The good reviews were not reserved to those in Victory Lane or running up front, either.

Clint Bowyer, who has struggled this season at Michael Waltrip Racing, came away with a 19th-place finish but sounded as excited after the race as he has all season.

“I hope the fans enjoyed that because I sure did,” he said. “I thought we were going to have a little better finish there. We were running decent for a while, but toward the end I kind of brushed the wall. There wasn’t really any damage, but after that the handling just wasn’t the same.”

Drivers were adamant much work still remains on improving the racing product – Goodyear didn’t even have time to create a new tire for the package at Kentucky.

Clearly, however, NASCAR seems to have hit on something.

“I could actually drive the car, I was steering and sliding, I about wrecked a few times,” said Carl Edwards, who finished fourth. “You know, I felt like I was doing something, not just sitting in line.

“So, I was really excited about the racing. I hope it looked good. I’m not just saying that because we ran well, I made that decision about halfway through the race. Regardless, I was having a good time.”

This story was originally published July 12, 2015 at 6:48 PM with the headline "New aero package rules the night at Kentucky Speedway."