Drivers explore ‘chess match’ of new rules package in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The game of chess requires thoughtful decisions, the weighing of risk versus reward and most of all, strategy.

Likewise, strategy is what drivers and teams may need more of during the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season with the new rules package, which 14 drivers tested on Thursday and Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“It’s a lot more of a mental game,” Kyle Busch said. “… It’s going to be a lot more chess match, thinking, how you’re going to make moves and how daring you’ll be making some of those moves and how hard of a time the guy you’re trying to pass is going to give you back and suck you around or spin your or whatever it might be.”

He wasn’t the only one who compared the rules package to a chess match; drivers had plenty to unpack during the two-day show, as they navigated the new package that impacted the front splitter, rear spoiler and horsepower among other changes.

RELATED: Inside the new rules package

One of the most crucial elements of the test were the drafting sessions that the drivers participated in each day to see how the cars would handle bunched up with one another. The sessions produced several three-wide — and sometimes four-wide — runs, an atypical sight for an intermediate track like Las Vegas.

“I thought we got pretty aggressive,” Austin Dillon, who was also one of the drivers testing, said on Thursday after his first draft run. “I was three-wide a couple times off of Turn 2 and that’s good. We can see what the package can do and I’m sure a lot of guys are like, whoa, we gotta change our direction because some guys were really good, some guys weren’t, some guys were OK.

“I think a collaborative effort is great, so that’s good for our sport.”

Dillon also spoke of the side-by-side battles, something that NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell pinpointed last year as an area NASCAR wanted to amplify with the 2019 rules package.

“… The side-by-side battle was pretty intense and it created three-wide,” he said. “I think you’ll see a lot of three-wide this year to clear someone. Because if a guy is slower and a guy goes under him and can’t pass him for a lap, the next guy gets a huge run from that bubble and can create a three-wide pass down low. So, I think there’s draft studies that will continue to go on from each team to figure out where to place their car to make the best pass.

“It’s definitely going to be hard. But you’re going to see passing; it’s going to be more passing than we have in the last couple years I feel like. … You’ll be able to make moves, I believe.”

RELATED: Watch teams in drafting practice at Las Vegas

The two-day test served as the industry’s first real glimpse at the package, which will come into play at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Feb. 24 (the season-opening Daytona 500 will still use traditional restrictor plates). Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development John Probst, who was part of NASCAR’s two-year collaborative process in designing the package, was clear that although they were pleased with the testing results, they’re not “declaring any kind of victory.”

“We feel like all the big places are in place here, we’re encouraged by what we saw on the track,” he told NASCAR.com on its live stream from Las Vegas on Thursday. “By no means, we’ve all done this long enough we’re not going to sit here and declare victory. We know we gotta keep working, these teams gotta keep massaging this package. And we just gotta kinda stay with them to make sure that we put on some really exciting races for the fans next year.”

Excitement on the track was one of NASCAR’s goals with the 2019 package, particularly from a fan perspective.

“It’s really one voice that matters and that’s the fans …” test participant Clint Bowyer said on Thursday. “That’s the voice that we’re all working for, no different than it’s always been. Any business that’s a sporting event, whether it’s a football game, basketball, baseball, NASCAR, doesn’t matter what it is; it’s all about the interaction and the fans showing up and enjoying what they see.

“The entertainment value of our sport’s always been great. And this is a step obviously to try to make it even better.”

But even entertainment value shouldn’t inhibit the most important part of racing: the competition. As drivers and industry personnel continue to work through the package throughout the season, that’s a key component for Probst.

“We’re trying to make it as competitive as we can from the top to the bottom,” Probst said. “I think the one thing we know that’s important out of this is we’re not trying to create some artificial level of competition. I think you’re still going to see, the good guys are going to go out and win, compete for wins. And that’s kind of the way we wanted it to be and that’s probably the way it should be.

“We want to have entertainment but we want to keep the competition in it as well.”

MORE: Scenes from the Las Vegas test

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