NASCAR chief confirms major rule change '95 percent done'

NASCAR's Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde has revealed that a major Cup Series rule change is 95 percent of the way to being official.

Forde was talking about a huge change to the Cup Series race weekend schedule, with reports that teams could soon be set to get a lot more practice time moving forward emerging late last week.

According to The Athletic, NASCAR is set to change the practice format from two groups given 25 minutes of practice each to a single 50-minute session for all cars.

This would double the available practice time for all Cup Series teams, with The Athletic's report arguing that this move is being made to help mid-sized teams find performance gains that they do not currently have time to find.

The Athletic claims that the changes will come into place as soon as New Hampshire next month, and be in place at all tracks bar Daytona and Talladega, where Cup Series teams do not have any practice.

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NASCAR chief on Cup Series practice changes

Speaking on this week's edition of the Hauler Talk podcast, Forde addressed the above report and revealed that it was accurate, but that it was not 100 percent official just yet.

"Accurate report from Jordan [Bianchi]. We're not 100 percent there, I'd say we're probably 95 percent there, there's a couple more boxes to check," Forde explained.

"Just need to get aligned with Goodyear; I think we're pretty much there as well, but tire allotments...we need to update the rule book as well with the tire allotment chart, communicate with the teams officially that we're doing something. Just need to button up a few things, but it's looking like it's heading that way, and if you read Jordan's report, he also mentioned that it'd start in Loudon [New Hampshire].

"We're about a month away, so we do have some time. That is also accurate, that's when we're looking at it. I know Denny [Hamlin] also mentioned that there was some discussion around how we would do it. If we did a 25-minute practice, then a break, then another 25-minute practice and everyone can go out, or do we do a full 50 and have people do whatever they want with that 50 minutes.

"We're looking at doing the latter - a 50-minute practice just like you saw at North Wilkesboro on Saturday."

Could NASCAR return to having multiple practice sessions?

While the above would reflect an increase in practice time compared to recent seasons, it doesn't go all the way back to the way that NASCAR used to practice prior to the pandemic back in 2020, when multiple practice sessions would take place over the weekend and on multiple days.

Forde says never say never on returning to that kind of format in the future, but that those changes would come much further down the line, if at all.

"I'd say that [multiple practice days] is way down the road," explained Forde. "Never say never; there are a lot of things – the old is new again – everyone's talked about that they're surprised that this has happened, so you never know.

"I think what happened here is that a large portion of the garage was supportive of a 50-minute practice. I think it helps get seat time for some of the younger drivers and mid-level teams that don't have the OEM support or as much of the OEM support, it gets them more track time. We listened to the industry and the stakeholders; it's a collaborative decision here.

"What we wanted to avoid was having another inspection period. It's still going to be an impound inspection, so what that means is there'll be an inspection period prior to any on-track activity, then a practice session, qualifying session, impound cars, and then race on Sunday or Saturday night.”