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Directing air under the car isn't bad. I've noticed that a lot of people do stuff like use front skirts and lower cars to reduce drag. They'll even use a completely vertical air dam- a front air brake! IMO, stuff like that is misguided. Someone posted an article little while ago about how the myth of lower = better arose, and that an aerodynamic underside is better.
If you direct air under the car, it speeds up and creates downforce. It's like the car is an upside-down wing. Indycars are like that... or were some years ago.
If the car is high enough, it probably doesn't take much energy to compress the air either.
Edit: Also, with the shovel nose, the air that gets funneled under the car then decompresses in the rear and fills in the vacuum. So you spend some energy to compress the air, and get something in return that may be even better.
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