O’Donnell ‘satisfied’ with rules package debut, offers explanation of non-call

Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, talked shop shortly after Sunday's checkered flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway, weighing in on the new rules package, a rescinded penalty for the team of runner-up Martin Truex Jr., and a scoring dispute caused by a caution period that disrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops. RELATED: Race results | Keselowski prevails O'Donnell spoke with the media on pit road after Sunday's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. He first assessed the 2019 rules package: a reduced-horsepower set-up with increased downforce, which made its intermediate-track debut on Atlanta's 1.54-mile layout. "I saw a fairly entertaining race," O'Donnell said. "I think like we said going into this race, we didn't know what to expect either. We thought that this package would showcase itself more as we got to the West Coast, but with some really long green-flag runs, I think you saw the ability to get back up to the leader and make a pass, which was encouraging. So all in all, we're satisfied with the outcome. A lot of work to do to go back and review it, though." O'Donnell indicated that Atlanta's characteristics increased the pre-race uncertainty levels, especially with the track's well-worn surface, which was last repaved in 1997. "I think this one was more of an unknown," O'Donnell said. "When you looked at this race going in, I think for us, this was the biggest question mark as to how it would play out, so hard to say this is exactly how we predicted. Ultimately, we wanted cars to run closer together, we wanted a battle to play out for the lead at times, which we saw during the race. Some things certainly to work on, but ultimately I think it was the direction where we wanted to go." Regarding a rescinded late-race penalty on the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota team, O'Donnell indicated that the Pit Road Officiating (PRO) trailer initially spotted a crew member over the pit wall too soon during Truex's final pit stop. A further, manual review of the infraction was inconclusive and the penalty was retracted. "It was a non-penalty, so it automatically goes to the penalty sheet regardless of whether we override it in the (scoring) tower," O'Donnell said, "and that was one that we couldn't confirm that the foot was down via the camera angle, so we didn't make that call." MORE: Truex irked after runner-up finish O'Donnell also touched on questions raised by Hendrick Motorsports' No. 9 team and driver Chase Elliott about where they were scored after the last of the race's five yellow flags flew on the 273rd of 325 laps. The timing of the caution period came mid-cycle with pit stops, catching several cars a lap down and in need of a wave-around. Elliott and Co. argued that they had returned to the track ahead of Joey Logano, who was scored as the leader for the final restart. "It's very clear on the camera, so we'll show the team exactly what happened," O'Donnell said, "but it was about a five-second differential in terms of what it was."