Kevin Harvick: NASCAR needs to do more than aero tweaks to improve overtaking

NASCAR is stipulating a further aero tweak to Sprint Cup cars from next week at Kentucky in an effort to increase overtaking at intermediate ovals, following less action-packed races at those venues.

Side skirts have been raised by a half inch on both sides of the car in an attempt to take downforce away and make cars less aero dependent. A first step towards such changes was made in May, but it failed to have any significant impact on the cars' handling in traffic.

Harvick reckons NASCAR might need to take more radical action, such as Formula 1's use of Drag Reduction Systems and deliberately challenging Pirelli tyres.

"In F1 they had to basically create passing zones with different tyres and the wings opening and things like that," said Harvick. "I think you are going to have to get more drastic than some side skirts and things like that.

"The cars are very dependent upon the aerodynamics to just go around the corner and you put them right on the edge. As soon as you drop the green flag you have turbulent air around every car that is not leading. I don't believe it will be that simple, maybe it is."

Besides the new aero rules, NASCAR also announced modifications to the rear sway bar mounting, hoping to control what teams do with the set-up of the device, as some were getting additional benefits to controlling roll.

Harvick said Dale Earnhardt Jr's Hendrick team, winner at Michigan last week, was among those experimenting with such set-ups but admitted his Richard Childress Racing crew also went down that path.

"I think that there are obviously some people that have been running with the bars that won the race last week and their cars have been fast," said Harvick.

"I think everybody has caught on to what they were doing with the bars and the trailing arms and the bushing and everybody was getting ready to venture down that road and spend a lot of time.

"There is some significant speed in that particular package. To me that was the biggest part of the rule change."

Earnhardt shrugged off the changes and said he does not expect the sway bar tweak in particular to affect how he runs next week at Kentucky Speedway.

"That particular rule change went over my head a little bit," he said. "I don't know exactly what they were trying to do, what they were trying to prevent. It shouldn't bother us any. [Crew chief] Steve [Letarte] seems pretty confident that we won't miss a beat."