NASCAR Confirms the Return of Fan Favorite Pre-Season Event in 2027
What’s Happening? For the first time in over a decade, NASCAR will host its Preseason Thunder test at Daytona International Speedway…
NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell pitched a new idea for NASCAR’s superspeedway races during a recent podcast episode. This idea, however, is already drawing backlash from the NASCAR community.
After years of complaints from fans, NASCAR is finally addressing the fuel saving seen during NASCAR superspeedway races.
During these races, due to the difficulty of passing during superspeedway races with NASCAR’s Next Gen car, teams will drop off in speed, hoping to save as much fuel as possible and spend as little time on pit road as they can.
Last week, NASCAR EVP and Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst said on the Hauler Talk podcast that the sport hopes to overcome these on-track strategies by reconfiguring stage lengths at the upcoming race at Talladega and with the return of NASCAR’s pre-season thunder testing at Daytona in 2027.
But, during a recent appearance on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast, NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell pitched a new idea, one already causing drama in the NASCAR community.
During a discussion about fuel saving and NASCAR’s hopes to at least limit it amongst teams in the Cup Series during superspeedway races, O’Donnell said NASCAR is considering requiring a four-tire change at every fuel pit stop.
“We’re not looking at it this year, but for next year four tires you got to take with fuel.” – Steve O’Donnell
O’Donnell then confirmed to host Freddie Kraft that he, in fact, meant that if a team were to pit, they would have to make a full-fuel and four-tire stop.
What’s Happening? For the first time in over a decade, NASCAR will host its Preseason Thunder test at Daytona International Speedway…
While O’Donnell did not confirm that this plan is set in stone, NASCAR fans in the online community quickly latched on to the idea, with negative pushback, as a required pit stop to alter the style of racing is not what some had in mind when it came to fixing the superspeedway product.
On Reddit, one user responded to a post about the topic, “I hate when teams are ‘required’ to do something at the discretion of the sanctioning body and removing strategy. Telling teams when to use rain tires is my biggest gripe when it comes to this, but this is going to be up there if they follow through- would be the dumbest thing.”
The conversation has even crossed over to the NASCAR X community, where fans have had less-than-stellar things to say about the idea, “Let’s make the artificial entertainment racing more artificial! Exactly what everybody asked for!” user @brettbphoto said.
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