The 2024 Daytona 500 featured a rather embarrassing fuel-saving strategy from drivers. In a bid to save time on pit stops, they raced half-throttle at many points during the race. With NASCAR returning to Superspeedway racing this Sunday in Talladega, Team Penske star Joey Logano has expressed that teams will be swayed to do the same once again.
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There are few methods for teams to gain an advantage in drafting-style race tracks. While manufacturer alliances are one of them, fuel-saving is another that has become a trend of late. Talking about the major strategies that will be deployed for the upcoming race, Logano mentioned the same on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and noted that every team is now big on saving fuel to reduce pit stop times.
He voiced, “We saw it in Daytona, we saw it the last few years, but now every team is on it. Everyone saves fuel during the beginning part of the stage so they can shorten up their pit stop.” Continuing to express how this can be stopped, the former champion pitched having more tire wear – an idea that he quickly nullified himself.
“If you needed tires, you wouldn’t be waiting on fuel anymore and you would be wide open the whole time,” he said. “So, if you had more tire wear that would probably get rid of that. I don’t think we will. I don’t think we will this week.” Whatever the opinion might be about the strategy, it does not break the NASCAR rulebook at the end of the day and Logano is aware of it.
He said that fans will be seeing more of what they saw in Daytona this Sunday and that it will all be about the pit exchange. He concluded to make peace with the fact that there isn’t much to be done about it and quipped that the strategy was just another evolution of NASCAR, on the lines of what’s usual in any other sport. The Talladega event will be the third superspeedway race in the ongoing season.
Kyle Busch’s regret at having to resort to “disgraceful” strategy in Daytona
2X Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was one of the biggest names who was completely uncomfortable with the way drivers raced in Daytona. He said in his media availability, “I felt disgraceful, myself, being a race car driver – wanting to go fast, lead laps, and win the Daytona 500, and that was our strategy that we had to employ at the start of the race because everybody was doing it.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin also expressed their disappointment with the matter at the time. Not long after NASCAR’s VP of competition, Elton Sawyer, assured that his team would be scrutinizing the strategy. But unfortunately, there hasn’t been a word flown out of the Daytona HQ regarding the issue since.
