When it comes to the fuel saving debate generated from the Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, the league‘s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer has two minds about it.
There is a personal opinion and a professional opinion representing NASCAR and he shared both on Wednesday morning during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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Once drivers started racing for the stage and race wins, it became incredibly hard to pass, so those are the factors Sawyer said NASCAR needs to consider when pondering any potential rule changes for future superspeedway races.
“With all that being said, we are looking at it, and if we feel like there needs to be a change, and I don‘t know that there is a fix, we can look at things in collaboration with our TV partners and our teams to make a change if we all feel like we need to,” Sawyer said.
But again, Sawyer urged, that any changes would result in a new unintended consequence and that the history of the sport is full of those examples.
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The most common change suggested by the garage, if a change has to be made, is that a fourth stages would eliminate the need to save fuel. It would also eliminate green flag pit stops — a key competitive variable.
Is that on the table?
“I don‘t think there‘s anything that‘s off the table,” Sawyer said. “We look at it as do we want to take fuel mileage completely out of the event? And sure, we could do that, with where we put stage breaks.
“But does that add to the entertainment value of superspeedways? Does that take away from it? I‘m sure there are fans that for the most part enjoyed what they saw on Sunday and there are those who have a different view.
— Sportsnaut —
