Denny Hamlin was among the drivers who expected a lot from the short-track package used at the Darlington Raceway on Sunday, as it had done wonders in Phoenix earlier this season. He believed it could lead to unpredictability of sorts, but the impact actually ended up being very minimal. Drivers were barely able to notice it.
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In light of this, Hamlin was asked on the Actions Detrimental podcast if the Goodyear 400 was overhyped throughout last week. He agreed that it was to a certain extent and added, “The aero and the horsepower change were equal to me.
“It was a very small change as it was. The downforce is a bigger change than the horsepower was, but it wasn’t that different,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
The disappointment was apparent. But Hamlin did point out that there are many positives to take away from how the package affected the racing. “What was encouraging about it is very similar to last week at Las Vegas,” he continued. “Good cars drove from the back to the front. And that’s what we’ve been asking for, right? I mean, we shouldn’t have a problem with what we saw.”
Fans, too, Hamlin believes, will have liked what they saw, and that makes the overall vibe around the weekend positive. Everybody knew that there would be more horsepower, less downforce, and lots of tire wear. The team that figured out how to handle all these factors in the best way was always going to win, and 23XI Racing did with Tyler Reddick.
Drivers compliment the short-track package
The consensus in the field is that the package did just enough. The narrow lanes of Darlington made things a bit difficult, but the package still allowed drivers to move up and down the field. Good cars could make a lot of overtakes, as evidenced by Carson Hocevar’s run from the rear of the field to fourth-place.
Ryan Blaney, who finished in third place, said about the package, “You could [expletive] the bed quickly if you were kind of rough on your stuff, which was good. So, that part was good. There were tons of fall-offs. I think you saw guys kind of get too much early, and then they were done.”
He found himself allowing drivers to pass him with the confidence that he would easily catch up to them as the race progressed. That’s the kind of confidence that the package gave. Brad Keselowski, who finished as the runner-up, was pleased with it as well.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The cars were a bear to drive. You really had to be careful. You couldn’t be a foot offline.” Up next on the calendar is yet another short-track race. It will provide better clarity on how useful the package is.
