NASCAR has answered an important question. The sanctioning body has revealed the updated stage lengths for Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 26.
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NASCAR previously announced that it would change the lengths for the superspeedway in order to combat the aggressive fuel saving by teams. Instead of having the final stage be the longest, the race would essentially flip.
Now, the opening stage of the April 26 Cup race will end on Lap 98. Stage 2 will end on Lap 143. The final stage will end on Lap 188, marking 500.80 miles.
How will this change the race? According to NASCAR, the final two segments will be short enough that teams can make them without a fuel stop. This means they can focus on racing hard instead of trying to save so their pit stop is shorter.
The first segment will still require at least one fuel stop, so teams will work on saving early in the race. NASCAR notes that some teams will try to complete the first stage with only one pit stop while others will try to divide the stage into thirds.
"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," said John Probst, executive vice president and chief racing development officer. "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."
The drivers like that NASCAR is making changes to the stages to combat fuel saving. They certainly don't like that part of the current superspeedway experience. Yet, they don't know if this will fully end the strategy.
"Yeah, I think I'll probably still save fuel," Ricky Stenhouse Jr. told FanBuzz. "Because, you still have to make a pit stop after the stage is over, and so you're still going to want to put as less.....especially the second stage, going into that third stage, you're still going to want to put the least amount of fuel in as possible.
"So, you know, you got nine seconds to change your tires, and if you're going to change four, then you need at least only put nine seconds of gas in. You don't want to sit there any longer, so I'm sure we'll still, you know, save some fuel. I don't know if you're going to spend a lot of time saving, but you're still going to save fuel."
