TALLADEGA, Ala. – NASCAR is reducing the size of the restrictor plate openings for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series from seven-eighths of an inch down to 55/64 of an inch for the remainder of the race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
The change will be in effect for both Busch Pole Qualifying on Saturday and the GEICO 500 on Sunday at the 2.66-mile, high-banked tri-oval.
Officials from the sanctioning body made the move after exceedingly fast speeds were posted in the draft during Friday’s two practice sessions, with Ty Dillon leading the opening round at 202.959 mph and Jamie McMurray pacing final practice at 203.975 mph.
McMurray then went for a wild ride later on in Happy Hour, losing a left-rear tire going down the backstretch and spinning in front of Ryan Newman, who hit McMurray’s door and sent the Joplin, Mo., native tumbling end-over-end down the straightaway.
After rolling over six times, McMurray’s No. 1 DC Solar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to rest, with McMurray climbing out unhurt and later being checked and released from the infield care center.
A spokesperson for NASCAR said the change was “absolutely a safety issue,” and also cited the series’ tendency for reaction any time a car lifts off the race track or goes airborne.
NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Elliott Sadler appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during the day on Friday and stressed that he felt speeds were too high on the Cup Series side.
“The Cup cars, in my opinion … are going too fast,” said Sadler. “The fans in the stands can’t tell the difference between cars running 180, 185 or 190 miles an hour and 200. We can put on just as good a race at 180 miles per hour as we can at 210 or 205 here at Talladega. The track is so wide that handling is not really an issue.
“Someone smarter than me – one of the engineers from NASCAR – will have to tell me at what point, what miles per hour we start creating lift when cars go sideways. I don’t know what that number is, but I know we’ve worked to make that number higher. The question is, are we on the edge of that?”
During his media availability following final practice, 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski addressed whether he thought the speed threshold was too high, saying that it wasn’t something that could be easily quantified.
“Too fast is subjective. We could run around here at 260 mph and I would be okay with that. It would probably not be what a lot of people would expect when they buy a ticket though, because we would be spread out across the whole track like it was in the mid 80s,” said Keselowski. “I think a lot of people expect pack racing. But no, it’s not too fast for me as a driver. This is what I signed up for and I am happy to go whatever speed.
“However, I’ll make this point: it is too fast for those that expect to see pack racing on Sunday.”
The smaller plate, which will reduce airflow into the engines, is expected to slow the Cup Series cars by 12 to 14 horsepower.
