BROOKLYN, Mich. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers said immediately after the FireKeepers Casino 400 that they liked the low downforce package used at Michigan International Speedway today.
“I absolutely love it,” said Tony Stewart, who finished seventh. “The package is good. The aero package is starting to catch up now, the whole equation to this to make it all where everybody wants it to be are tires and aero. Up to this point, Goodyear has been way ahead of NASCAR. NASCAR is finally catching up. So, now we are all getting the split between the two groups closed up.
"The good thing is Goodyear is primed and ready to do all the stuff they need to do. They have been waiting on NASCAR. It’s coming around. It’s going back to … you know how today we got to drive the cars. We got to make a difference in the cars and manipulate things. That is what we have all been wanting. We are not running Mach 12 around here in the middle of the corner. I don’t know what everybody else is going to say, but I thought it was pretty good. It may not be perfect yet, but it is more than definitely going in the right direction for sure.”
Kasey Kahne, who finished 13th, said it was “definitely hairy” driving in traffic.
“If you chose the right spot or got put in the right spot you were good,” he said. “If you didn’t you were in bad shape. There was a lot going on with this package for sure. We are going to test Kentucky the next two days so hopefully we can make a few gains and understand it a little better for that race. That surface is going to be very interesting I would imagine.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was involved in a multi-car accident on Lap 60, didn’t have much to say: “It’s not a whole lot different than the other package. I think we talk about packages too much.”
Carl Edwards, who finished sixth, said the package was a work in progress.
“I applaud NASCAR for taking downforce away and the speeds are still so high because the surface is good and the Goodyear tires are good and everybody is working hard on their cars,” Edwards said. “They just keep working in this direction and we’re going to keep having better and better races. Those restarts, as crazy as they were, they were actually kind of fun.”
Joey Logano, who piloted his Ford to victory, described the cars as “out of control”. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“I remember after qualifying. ... I was signing an autograph and my hand was shaking,” he said. “I couldn’t even write my name. That’s cool. That’s how on edge you have to be to go fast, and it was like that for 400 miles today, you know, and that’s awesome. We don’t want to – I don’t want to drive slow. That ain’t no fun. That’s the sport part of this. It should be a challenge. It should be on the edge. It shouldn’t be easy, and at this level it definitely isn’t.”
Sipple writes for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK
