NASCAR has confirmed that it took steps to limit aggressive fuel saving at Talladega Superspeedway after teams fell below minimum speed.
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Early in stage 1 of last weekend's race, the entire field ran three-wide. Some used only 25-32% throttle while others used more. It all varied based on their placement in the pack.
Regardless of the amount of throttle being used, the end result is that nearly the entire field ran approximately 10 seconds off of the pace. The drivers fell below the minimum speed, which should have resulted in them being black flagged and sent down pit road.
NASCAR took a different approach, as VP of racing communications Mike Forde detailed on the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast. Teams received a stern warning.
As Forde explained, the minimum speed varies between the different track types. At Talladega, minimum speed is 12.5% of the pole-winning speed, whereas at Darlington, it's a larger cushion due to the amount of tire wear on the aged racing surface.
According to the No. 2, the field is 1 second slower than minimum speed...
— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) October 25, 2026
"So it was (12.5%) for this, and I think it was 57.1 — I want to say — seconds was the minimum speed for Talladega," Forde said.
"I believe they — like 75% of the field at one point, I think it was only for one lap, maybe two — were all under minimum speed. So they were breaking the rules there."
Now in normal circumstances, NASCAR will radio the offending team and tell it to pick up the pace within a set number of laps.
Talladega presented a different challenge, considering that nearly the entire field raced below the minimum speed while trying to aggressively save fuel. So in this situation, NASCAR used Microsoft Teams to send a direct message to everyone.
"We can IM individual teams or the entire, all of pit road," Forde said. "And so we IM'd all of pit road and said, 'Hey, there are X amount of cars that have not reached minimum speed. If you guys don't pick it up, then we're going to have to step in.'
"And soon after, they picked it up. So that message was delivered. And so that's why we did not black flag anybody."
The field picked up its pace both after receiving the message from NASCAR and after the three RFK Racing drivers began to run at 100%. At that point, the rest of the teams in the field realized a potential for being lapped in stage 1. This would have completely shaken up their respective strategies.
The majority of drivers remained on the lead lap through the end of stage 1, at which point, they were able to focus on something other than saving fuel.
The final two stages of the Cup Series race had few enough laps that drivers could just race all-out without a planned pit stop. Kyle Larson went on to win for the third time in the Chase, and he built up a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin in second place.
Meanwhile, NASCAR left the track with the knowledge that more discussions should be had about the aggressive fuel saving and how to curtail it.
