One of the biggest stories regarding the 2024 Daytona 500 was the extreme fuel strategy that occurred throughout the majority of the day.
Drivers had reported running at as little as 50% throttle under green instead of racing. At one point, AJ Allmendinger was running down the lead pack by himself. Even more ludicrous was the fact that he had been running them down by as much as two seconds per lap.
Since the checkered flag fell, drivers have expressed their disappointment in the lack of racing in favor of saving fuel.
“This is probably to the extreme,” Erik Jones said after the race. “I wish there was something we could do about it, but it’s definitely frustrating.”
Jones wasn’t the only driver with frustrations. Denny Hamlin, Noah Gragson, Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace have all gone on record stating their frustration with the extreme fuel saving that occurred throughout much of the race.
Elton Sawyer, senior vp of competition for NASCAR, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that NASCAR was going to look into the fuel saving.
“Ultimately, we want to drop the green flag on the race and they’re racing as hard as they can until they drop the checkered flag,” Sawyer said. “There’s some strategy in between there, and we will definitely take a much deeper dive into this particular situation and the strategy that goes into it.”
Fuel mileage has always been a part of the culture of trying to win NASCAR races. Even the Daytona 500 has seen awesome fuel mileage finishes before, most recently in 2017 when Kurt Busch outlasted the likes of Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott to win it.
However, the frustration in fuel mileage is the slow pace that can be set. It’s one thing to save on a track such as Charlotte Motor Speedway by lifting earlier in the corner than one normally would to save fuel intermittently. But on a track like Daytona International Speedway, running half throttle for 190 laps doesn’t really promote racing at all — especially in a marquee event like the Daytona 500.
If there was any bright side to the nature of trying to save fuel the whole time, up until around 10 laps to go, there was only one caution for cause in the first 475 miles, which was for a big accident on lap 6. Following that, the typical train racing that fans are accustomed to on superspeedways dominated the majority of the afternoon and evening.
Can NASCAR fix the fuel saving to allow something like that in the future? On non-superspeedways, the way drivers save fuel seems harmless, and the way stages line up on most tracks, the need for fuel saving is slim. On superspeedways, however, the stages typically end just after a fuel run, which is why drivers would rather save fuel to minimize pit stops during the stage.
Some people, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., have theorized that shortening the length of stages one and two could allow drivers to make it through stages without even having to stop, meaning the notion of saving fuel wouldn’t have to happen. Others have suggested implementing a fourth stage on superspeedways, with similar reasoning to Earnhardt’s.
Then there’s the ever-strong camp of fans who would rather not see stage cautions at all. While they are indifferent about awarding stage points after a certain lap, getting rid of stage cautions and letting the drivers race the full distance and letting natural cautions fall where they may could be one of the better solutions to this issue.
In a world that is completely driven by data and statistics, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if NASCAR was able to track throttle control to the point where if drivers go below a certain percentage of throttle (say, 80%), then a penalty could be issued. That way fuel saving is still encouraged, but the race pace doesn’t slow to a crawl.
It’d be very difficult to outright ban fuel saving; it’d be way too difficult to enforce. But there might be a way to limit it when it comes to big races such as the Daytona 500. And with Talladega Superspeedway having somewhat similar stage lengths, one can only wonder if we’ll see more of the same extreme fuel-saving tactics there, too.
And that is probably why NASCAR is taking the initiative now to investigate and see what it can do before we head to the next superspeedway race at Talladega in April. While Atlanta Motor Speedway is technically a superspeedway race now since its repave, to see as extreme fuel-saving measures for at a 1.54-mile venue would be pretty surprising.
We’ve waited all offseason to go fast. It’s not too surprising people, particularly drivers, are upset by starting off the season … well, rather slow.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.