NASCAR president Steve O'Donnell has suggested that the sport might make a controversial change to superspeedway racing next year.

Speaking on the Door Bumper Clear podcast this week, O'Donnell revealed that the sport might mandate four-tire stops at tracks like Talladega and Daytona from 2027, in an effort to combat fuel saving.

The theory appears to be that if teams are forced to change all four tires when they come to pit road, they will be stationary for long enough to get loaded up on fuel – as opposed to the current situation, where teams stop for just a couple of seconds at a time for fuel-only stops, leaving with half empty tanks.

O'Donnell said that NASCAR is 'looking at a lot of things' to make superspeedway racing more interesting, with the pit stop idea just one of many.

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Superspeedway racing set for shake-up

“We're not looking at it this year, but for next year, four tires that you got to take with fuel, whatever," he said on the podcast. "We're looking at a lot of those things.”

The replies under a tweet about the comments by writer Austin Konenski showed very little support for the idea, with a number of frustrated fans calling for NASCAR to stop papering over the issue and instead make the long called-for adjustments to the cars' superspeedway package.

Another non-car related change was confirmed this week, with stage lengths for this month's spring race at Talladega being altered dramatically – with a 98-lap Stage 1 followed by two stages of just 45 laps apiece.

NASCAR chief on Talladega stage length changes

Speaking on the Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst explained: “If you look at generally how a lot of our speedways were laid out, it was a short stage, a short stage and then a long stage to the end.

“Going into Talladega, we’re going to flip that and adjust the lengths of the final two stages such that we’re confident that the last two stages are short enough to be made without a fuel stop.

“It could be interesting, as well, in that first stage, the length of it, if there’s some that try to do it on one stop versus some that try to do it on two.

"We think that if there are some that try to do it on two, they may drag the group that tried to do it on one along with them to where they won’t be able to do it in one, so it’s got the potential there for some pretty interesting strategies.”

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