Adding a stage, fuel cell mod all on table to fix superspeedway fuel saving

NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran says the number one priority upon reaching the offseason will be solving the superspeedway fuel saving dynamic before the green flag waves on the Daytona 500 in February.

Despite numerous attempted fixes, teams continue to find a reason or way to spend half the race at nearly half throttle to spend less time on pit road, including on Sunday at Talladega when NASCAR warned them with the risk of a black flag.

“We want to correct that,” Moran said on Wednesday during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It's all got to do with strategy, fuel mileage, one can. There's so much engineering in the sport now, which has made some great improvements, but there's some downside to it as well. This would be one of them. …

“We changed the stage (lengths) in the spring to make the longer stage the first one. So, we didn't see anything like that in the second half of the race, but we didn't like it. There's not much we could do about it with the current rules and the way things are set up for 2026, but ourselves and the entire industry are going to, we're going to figure it out.

“So, we're going hard to work at it and we're going to talk about a lot of different things and look at different strategies and we're going to come up with a fix for it.”

Two potential ideas are adding a fourth stage to ensure there are no reasons to save fuel or a smaller fuel tank that will force teams to come on pit road sooner between stints of all-out racing.

NASCAR also has continually reduced the drag on the superspeedway package with a 4” spoiler and then a 3.5” spoiler on Sunday. The idea was that less drag will make passing easier in the draft, making the acquisition of track position on pit road less of a priority.

“Really, we feel we're in a good place with the car and there's multiple things we can try to do,” Moran said. “First of all, adding another stage, yes, that would be one way to correct it. Whether broadcast partners and the industry would like to go down that direction, it's a possibility.

“We could look at different size fuel cells. There's different ways to do it, but you need to have a way that can't be beat. If there's any strategy, these guys are all out to win these races. They have a lot of engineers working on it and they put a lot of strategy into the races.

“If there are any opportunities for them to win the race and give up the beginning of the race, they take advantage of that. So, there are tools, there are things that we could do that are going to probably be quite a change if we do any of them, but we are going to do something to correct the problem.”

NASCAR CupEvery time NASCAR took a win away due yellow line violations

NASCAR CupNASCAR warned nearly the full field at Talladega for minimum speed violations

Moran also echoed the messaging from his office that had been delivered all week, that in NASCAR’s estimation, Kyle Larson did not go below the double yellow line in passing Todd Gilliland for the win.

“We have cameras set up all the way around Talladega looking at the yellow lines throughout each corner, through the corners, down the straightaways and through the tri-oval,” Moran said. “And in NASCAR's judgment, there was definitely a portion of Larson's tires that remained on the line. You have to have your two left side tires clearly below the yellow line to be penalized. We certainly looked at it. We reviewed it -- and in our judgment -- the 5 car was definitely on the line, not below it. So that was our take on the 5.

“We also looked at the one with (Carson Hocevar). (He was) below the line just at the exit of four. And we called that one basically accident avoidance there. (Todd Gilliland) was coming down and we called that ‘just a part of racing.’

“And when it's that close coming to the checkered flag, that call we felt was to prevent a wreck, which we've called it that way in the past as well.”

Moran also addressed the claim some fans, but no other team, made on Sunday that the likes of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Hill and William Byron lifted per Chevrolet orders to give Larson a near-championship-deciding win.

Moran said he felt the narrative was absurd but NASCAR did look at SMT data, and listened to radio transmissions, and saw nothing but drivers full-throttled and spotters telling their drivers to push for the checkered flag.

“Those guys are not going to give up an opportunity to win a race for anybody, just knowing them” Moran said. “But anyways, the data showed that there's no doubt in it and it's kind of just, to me, it's kind of silly that someone would think that they would actually lift off to let the 5 win the race. That wouldn’t happen.”

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