Teams unsure of impact of rules package at Indy

It's near impossible to get a stock car to race well at a flat track like Indy. Some say they shouldn't be racing at IndyCar's hallow ground anyway. The racing stinks compared to IndyCars

Tony Gibson's race car led the final practice Friday for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the crew chief was apprehensive rather than excited to see what driver Kurt Busch could do with the #41 Chevy on Sunday. "I am a little nervous," Gibson told USA TODAY Sports after the final session, led by Busch with a 181.987-mph lap around the 2.5-mile speedway. "But that may be that was just what we had going on. We made our car better, but I am just nervous about it. We got around other cars fairly quick and could do nothing with them just because we got so loose. Typically, we're not like that here and the bigger tracks. Here it was like the whole car come out of the track."

Gibson said his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates had similar problems. Gibson said he doubts the new high-drag, high-downforce package being utilized this weekend and on Aug. 16 at Michigan International Speedway will engender more slingshot passing at Indianapolis. Cars will close quickly, he said, but seemingly lose the ability to pass because they become unstable when close to each other because of downforce loss.

General Motors Sprint Cup program director Alba Colon said the true characteristics of the high-drag, high-downforce aerodynamics package deployed this weekend will not be determined until the race Sunday. Although NASCAR added a third practice to the schedule Friday, teams are diverging on strategy in terms of qualifying runs and drafting, making it difficult, Colon said, to determine if the package will augment passing and slingshot-style maneuvering as is the mandate from series chairman Brian France.

So far, drivers don't seem optimistic about the package. Kyle Busch tried drafting off Tony Stewart in the second practice, only to curse in frustration after he couldn't complete a pass. And Denny Hamlin, who was fastest in the first practice, seemed to bite his lip when asked how the new package was working. "Passing will be tough — to say the least," he said. But Hamlin quickly noted NASCAR is "trying something new" and "I can't fault them for trying."
Several drivers, including Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth, shrugged their shoulders and said it was difficult to predict how the race would turn out until green-flag conditions. USA Today