Taking heed of Busch woes made for better Cup event

After watching Saturday's Busch Series race from Las Vegas, I figured a column bewailing the effects of a newly reconfigured track would practically write itself following the conclusion of the Sunday's Nextel Cup race. The opening paragraph was to bemoan the confluence of a slick racing surface, hard, untested tires and record speeds -- all adding up to a dreadful, caution-filled race.

Instead, the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 was a reasonably entertaining race with fewer cautions than anyone predicted.

Skill takes over

The racing surface at renovated Las Vegas was an issue. So were the tires. But a debacle the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 wasn't, says David Caraviello, thanks mostly to driver talent.

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It's not that predictions of gloom and doom were unwarranted. Changing tire compounds after the track's one and only test session was indeed risky. And changing it to the hardest compound Goodyear has ever produced for NASCAR put teams on edge and had them working desperately to get both ends of the car to stick in the middle and the exits of turns.

Also, judging by the sheer volume of driver complaints, it seems that the quality of the new pavement can be legitimately called into question. There's also the problem all newly paved asphalt surfaces face: the shedding of sand and grit from its top-most layer as it's broken in. There was good reason for concern for all parties going into Sunday.

But guess what? The unpopular tire may have ended up being the right solution to a legitimate competition problem. Consider this: After watching the Busch Series race, drivers and teams learned the importance of not bombing the turns like they have in the past with softer tires.

Left to their own devices, drivers will always choose the stickiest, fastest tire. But by purposefully dumbing down (so to speak) the tire technology, the drivers were forced to be patient and finesse their cars to the front -- similar to what they have to do at Darlington.

The way I see it, races are far more interesting when driver skill under less-than-ideal conditions proves more important to winning than, say, raw horsepower or shock absorber valve selection.

Plus, the knowledge that all the cars would be on a knife's edge of control all race long seems to have put the drivers on their best behavior -- Robby Gordon notwithstanding. I'd be willing to bet NASCAR had that in mind the whole time.

Most everybody survived this weekend intact, but the core problems remain unresolved. The track surface is not right. The tire compound was ridiculous. And after listening to post-race interviews, it's safe to say that few drivers enjoyed racing there this weekend.

Before NASCAR returns to Las Vegas next year, all of this is going to have to change. And if, as rumored, NASCAR campaigns the Car of Tomorrow at every race next year, much of it certainly will.

Let's hope it's enough.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.