After the third Superspeedway race in the ongoing season, fans aren’t very pleased with the state of things in NASCAR. Sunday’s event in Talladega saw drivers engaged in fuel saving once again – a strategy through which they can reduce their pit stop times by running slow during the race and make up positions on the pit road.
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As concerns over this method continue rising throughout the horizon, Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Rodney Childers opened up to reporter Matt Weaver on what he thinks is the only solution for the predicament. He brought forward the option of increasing the number of stages in these races and reducing the number of laps in each.
“If the stages were 40 laps instead of 60 laps, there wouldn’t be any fuel saving,” he said. “So, if you had two 40s and whatever else or however you want to split it up… that’s the only way I can see how you’re gonna control it. It is what it is. That’s kind of your only option.” Childers’ opinion came with the self-awareness that his suggestion would limit the strategic options that he had as a crew chief.
“It’s tough,” he continued. “Until something like that changes, until that fuel-window changes… That’s really all that’s gonna matter.” He concluded that he knew NASCAR was actively looking for ways to improve the racing product and that it was doing its best. Childers’ driver, Josh Berry, finished his race in Talladega in 16th place. The #4 Stewart Haas team is yet to finish inside the top 10 this year.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. proposed the same solution as Rodney Childers did to eradicate fuel saving
After the 2024 Daytona 500, the same criticisms that are now found after the Talladega race were omni-present. Speaking on his podcast at the time, racing icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. proposed making the stages shorter to balance the fuel saving from drivers. He said, “To take fuel mileage out of the equation, you need to have the stages short enough so that they can run the entire stage on one tank.”
“That’s one way of doing it. I don’t like that but it would create these little 50-lap sprints, right? So you could do it like that.” Despite proposing the solution, Dale Jr. admitted that there was little chance that the promotion would follow through with it. With an increase in fuel cell size also out of the question, NASCAR could be forced to look at the solution that Dale Jr and now, Childers have put forward.
