NASCAR announces major rule changes to fix superspeedway racing - with less horsepower

NASCAR has announced some major changes to its superspeedway package in an attempt to improve the racing on show.

Daytona and Talladega have become fuel-saving races above all else in recent years, but NASCAR hopes that a new set of regulations, brought in for the regular season finale at Daytona next month, will go some way to fixing that.

The rear spoiler will be shortened three inches, from seven inches to four (the same height as at intermediate tracks), in an attempt to reduce drag, while horsepower will be knocked down from 510 to 465 to compensate for that change.

NASCAR has indicated that it expects that to make cars around 3mph faster on single-car runs, but keep the pace of cars running in a pack around the same – albeit with drivers able to move better through the pack.

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Speaking to NASCAR.com, long-time crew chief and commentator Steve Letarte said of the changes: “When I watch superspeedway racing currently, it seems like the leader is basically at terminal velocity. It’s very easy to get a run on the leader and very hard to do anything with it.

"You pull out of line, you hit this wall of air, and for that reason, they’re just kind of stuck two-wide around the bottom. When superspeedway racing is most entertaining for me, it takes more work to generate an advantage or a run.

"But when you do generate that run, you are paid off in a dividend of overtaking. And really, I think it’s as simple as that.

“I think what I see currently is our biggest track-position races of the year are the superspeedways. That’s never been their signature. And we can talk about fuel and strategy, but the garage is going to try to win the race. So if the strategy demands track position, they’re going to do everything to get it.

"If the aero changes can allow teams to overtake to have faster cars and slower cars, I think it could open up the field a little bit and have just varying-speed cars because right now they all look like they run the same speed.”