Another NASCAR rules change is coming for Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said this week that officials are likely to adjust the superspeedway package again before the October race.
O’Donnell made the comments on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.
“So I think there’ll be another tweak potentially for Talladega, like directionally to kind of continue that and see how that goes.”
The current package debuted in August at the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR cut the rear spoiler from 7 inches to 4 inches to reduce drag and dropped horsepower from 510 to 465 to account for the lost downforce. The goal was to break up the locked-together packs that had defined Next Gen racing at the big tracks. That style of racing has been one of the most debated topics in motorsports since the car arrived in 2022.
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O’Donnell’s review of that first run was honest rather than triumphant.
“At Daytona, did we say, ‘Wow, that was unbelievable in terms of where we’re at?’ No, but directionally, I thought it was better.”
“I thought that you at least could pull out. There was some more movement, where it wasn’t just three-wide all the way through, lockdown. You couldn’t move, you know, that’s not, that’s not what we want.”
The Qualifying Problem Is Part of It
The package was written for Daytona first. It was then extended to Talladega, though that has not been added to the official rule book. Qualifying is another piece O’Donnell wants cleaned up. Speeds at the Coke Zero 400 came in slower than expected, which led to drivers hanging an arm out the window for extra speed. Joey Logano used a glove at Atlanta for the same reason.
“I know we’ve talked about back in Daytona, qualifying speeds, versus a guy holding their arm out the window, which we put drivers in that position that was on us. But yeah, it’s not a great look for the sport. So we’re not there yet, but some, some good things.”
Horsepower is on the list for next season too. Harvick asked O’Donnell about short-term goals for 2027, and the CEO said the sport is thinking further out than a single race.
“So it’s more long-term thinking, and ’27, we got some more things we’re going to look at. I know there’s a horsepower discussion.”
Talladega Is the Last Test Before Daytona
The YellaWood 500 at Talladega on Oct. 25 is the eighth race of the Chase and the final superspeedway race of the season. That makes it NASCAR’s last live look at the package before the 2027 Daytona 500.
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O’Donnell also signaled that the cars are not the only thing under review. He said the sport wants to talk about how superspeedway races are structured.
“And hopefully that continues to go in the right direction, and then I think even looking at how those races play out in terms of formats. We want to have those discussions in the future as well.”
NASCAR has not said what the Talladega tweak would be or confirmed that one is final.
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