What
new rules will NASCAR mandate for the next plate race?.
Photo:
Adam Sewell |
This past week,
two rumors have surfaced about new rules that could be set
in place for this October’s race at Talladega. For the last
few years, the fall race at Talladega has been NASCAR’s 500
mile test session to see if a new wild idea will make or
break the Daytona 500 in the following February.
One rumor has
NASCAR mandating that the teams install a smaller fuel cell,
holding13 gallons. This comes from the notion that if there
are more green flag pit stops, the field would get spread
out more. All I can see this doing is causing headaches for
the teams and the fans. With current gas mileage at
Talladega, this would result in a pit stop around every 25
to 30 laps. Judging off the races at Talladega from the
past few seasons, the cars all get bunched back up
eventually anyway.
Danielle Frye, a
spokeswoman for NASCAR, mentioned in a statement Saturday
that NASCAR has not made any rules changes to mandate a
smaller fuel cell. She did say, however, that such a
change is an idea that is being discussed by NASCAR
officials.
The second rumor
has NASCAR mandating a smaller engine, roughly half the size
of the 358 cubic inch engines the teams run now. This would
give approximately 2 months for the teams to research and
build new engines.
There are also
reports going around that NASCAR has scheduled a major test
session within the next two weeks at Talladega for the
Winston Cup teams with the tentative date set for August
13th. It is unclear what the test will center on at this
time, of course it could be any number of things. This
could be a huge blow to the teams since they are in the
stretch of the season that holds no off weekends. NASCAR
just needs to remember that one of their largest goals is to
keep the cost to the teams down.
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