A NASCAR executive has pushed back against the notion that the Cup Series has a superspeedway problem, citing the post-race statistics.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition, pointed to the number of lead changes and the number of lanes in last weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway as reasons why the on-track product is not as poor as some fans and teams have proclaimed.
"When you're sitting in race control and we're standing up and watching, our fans are standing on their feet," Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during his weekly appearance.
"We're four wide, in some cases we're five wide, then they're back to single file. Our fans are standing up, they're cheering.
"Then you get looking at the metrics and you look at the stats after the race, and you have 67 lead changes among 23 different drivers. So, when we look at all of that, it's like, what are we trying to fix? What's not going the way we would like it?"
According to NASCAR's post-race report, last weekend's race featured 67 lead changes. Ty Gibbs led the way with 32 laps led while Joey Logano (24) and Chase Briscoe (20) were just behind. A total of 23 drivers spent time at the front of the pack before Austin Cindric won for the first time this season.
The post-race loop data said that the Cup Series drivers combined for 19,410 green flag passes. Alex Bowman led the way with 703 green flag passes. Yet, he was not particularly optimistic about the racing when AltDriver spoke to him on pit road.
"The vibe? We ride around half-throttle for most of the stage, and then we go at the end," Bowman said. "It's interesting because it gets pretty hairy when you're all packed up four-wide, but you just run really easy, for the most part, for most of the day and then go at the end."
Bowman added that the field was only two-wide in the closing laps as Ryan Preece and Cindric raced for the win. He had a good view of the traffic jam, considering that he was in the third row behind teammate William Byron, but he could not get out of line to try and build a run.
Bowman and his Hendrick teammates had to simply stay in place as two Ford drivers controlled the lanes in the closing laps. The lack of passing opportunities became a problem even though Hendrick had the most drivers in the top 10.
"We had the No. 48 (Alex Bowman) behind us, and he was doing a good job pushing," Byron said after the race. "It just seemed like we couldn't get enough help from the third guy in line, and that's what it takes."
The field ran three- and four-wide during the early stages of the race as drivers tried to conserve fuel, something they predicted would happen when speaking to media members earlier in the weekend.
The field moved down only two lanes when the drivers pushed the pace. The bottom lane was dominant, which helped several cars build an advantage while the second lane lagged behind.
Any time one or more drivers tried to create a third lane, they would lose all position. They ultimately stopped trying to make moves and just settled for finishing the race.
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
"The package just doesn't like it," Ty Gibbs told AltDriver about trying to create a third lane in the closing laps. "It only works when we're all saving, so that's why you see all these lanes start going once everybody starts saving.
"Then once nobody's saving and we're all hammered down, it's either single file and the guy's six rows back, or they can get a run and get the lead, and they fall back. It seems like that's all we get out of this package."
Drivers and teams have indicated that the superspeedway package and/or the car have created a problem in the Gen 7 era. Based on Sawyer's comments on Tuesday, NASCAR does not necessarily share this opinion. Although he noted that the sanctioning body will continue to examine its product to see where it can make improvements.
"I get it, when we start talking about short track packages, when we have a guy that leads in a 400-some laps of a 500-lap race," Sawyer said. "Okay, we're going to do our best to try and work on that and figure out what we can do.
"But when you have 67 lead changes among 23 different drivers, I'm not really sure what we're going to work on there. But as always, we want to get better."
"So, we want to have 70 lead changes, we want to have 25 or 30 different drivers that lead races. So, I think a lot of words there, but the short answer is we're always looking at our product, whether it's superspeedway, road courses, intermediates, short track, we're always looking at it, trying to make it better."