Cup drivers say more changes are needed to improve short-track racing

Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway left questions about what NASCAR could do to change the racing and how soon it could happen.

Some drivers again called for NASCAR to give them more horsepower to make passing less challenging. But it came on a day when, according to NASCAR’s statistics, there were more green flag passes than in either of last season’s two Martinsville races combined.

Still, there was evidence of how tough it was to pass.

Joey Logano finished second despite having an average running position of 21.0 — the worst average running position for a runner-up finisher in a Cup race since at least 2008, according to Racing Insights.

Logano, the reigning series champion, started at the back of the field because of an unapproved adjustment before the race. He was lapped in the first stage and got his lap back at the stage break. Logano was lapped again at Lap 275 and didn’t climb into the top 15 until a green-flag pit cycle on Lap 292 of the 400-lap event as others ahead of him pitted.

“You got 30-something cars out there that run within a tenth (of a second),” Logano told NBC Sports after the race. “I was racing cars that I didn’t think I’d be racing, cars that in the past you would pass with ease. I couldn’t do that. … There’s just not enough speed difference in the cars.

“They’re almost the same. There’s not much fall-off. We need more fall-off, and we need a lot more horsepower.”

Denny Hamlin also lobbied for more horsepower after finishing fourth.

“We’re in a box with these engines, and NASCAR’s leadership wants us (with these) engines, they keep lowering horsepower, which makes us have to shift,” Hamlin told NBC Sports after the race.

“So I don’t know if we’re ever going to fix this until we put more