In case you haven’t noticed, superspeedway racing in the NASCAR Cup Series tends to change a lot.
With new rules packages, cars and drivers comes a new wave of speedway racing on a relatively consistent basis. Fans are usually split on how they view superspeedway racing, but it’s clear that with every generation of car it’s going to differ.
In the early years of the Gen-6 car, superspeedway racing featured a bubble of air that surrounded all the cars and made it relatively hard to pass, especially when you were tasked with trying to pass the leader. In the later years of the Gen-6 car, superspeedway racing was defined by huge runs and bigger crashes that were often a result of ill-timed blocks.
With NASCAR’s Next Gen car, racing at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway (Atlanta is a different beast in its own right) has gone through another shift.
So, as the Cup Series gets ready to head to Talladega for Sunday’s (April 27) Jack Link’s 500, here are some notable characteristics of Next Gen superspeedway racing that you should be looking out for.
Fuel Conservation
Fuel mileage has always been an important part of NASCAR competition, especially at superspeedways. But with the Next Gen, pretty much everyone in the industry and every fan goes into races at Daytona and Talladega knowing that fuel conservation will usually play a huge role in at least the first half of the race.
Most teams opt to split the stages in half — or close to it — and fuel conservation ensures a shorter pit stop that will gain them crucial track position. Pit road being an integral part of a race isn’t an inherently bad thing, but some have criticized fuel conservation during these races for drastically slowing the pace and creating manufactured action.
The field may be three- and four-wide while the fuel saving is happening, but aside from the width of the pack, there’s not much else to look at.
Good Luck Coming From the Back in a Hurry
With previous rules packages and generations of car, staging a late charge at Daytona and Talladega wasn’t just a possibility but a reality Kevin Harvick was seventh when the white flag waved at the 2007 Daytona 500, but when the checkered flag waved, he beat Mark Martin to the line in an incredible photo finish.
Dale Earnhardt went from 18th to first in the final five laps at Talladega in 2000 to score the 76th and final victory of his career.
But any driver that tries to impersonate Earnhardt will find themselves up a creek without a paddle. If you want to win a superspeedway race, you can’t wait to make your move. Decisiveness and having plenty of laps left on the ticker are the keys if you’re mired in the back and want to make a run at victory.
Track Position, Track Position, Track Position
Well, duh.
Track position is what racing is all about, after all. But modern superspeedway racing is truly all about being where you want to be ahead of schedule.
In the past, it wasn’t always advisable to be the leader on the final lap at a superspeedway. Now, any driver outside of the top five or top 10 will be hard pressed to find victory lane on the last lap without a major incident occurring in front of them. This is why gaining every spot you can on pit road is crucial, as a longer stop or a pit road penalty can get you stuck in the back.
And unlike years past, there’s not a great chance you can find your way back to the front, at least not in a hurry, without some help.
Qualifying is perhaps as crucial as it’s ever been at superspeedways since the turn of the millennium. With track position being so important, keeping your car up front through pit strategy and a lack of pit road mistakes is also more important than ever.
Daytona and Talladega are still inherently unpredictable, but superspeedway racing is turning ever so slightly back to the days where the best teams and drivers usually found their way to the front early and stayed there, barring a catastrophic incident that’s always a possibility at two of NASCAR’s most treacherous tracks.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.