There were bizarre scenes during Stage 1 when almost every driver elected to save fuel dramatically to the point where cars were running at around 160 mph.
“All right, this is some crazy shit,” Denny Hamlin radioed to his crew.
“This is like the Richard Petty Driving Experience at a race.”
The pace was so slow that NASCAR warned its teams and drivers that they were under the minimum speed.
The minimum speed varies from track to track but at Talladega is 12.5 percent under the pole-winning speed.
Pole position was a 186 mph lap (299 km/h) at 51.4 seconds, meaning minimum speed was 162 mph (260 km/h) at 57.1 seconds.
However, shortly after being warned by NASCAR through Microsoft Teams, the pace picked up.
Once the cars finally got going, the top speed achieved during the race was 200 mph – setting a new record for the NextGen car.
On the latest Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde explained the strange scenario.
“I believe 75 percent of the field at one point, I think it was only for one lap, maybe two, were all under minimum speed. So they were breaking the rules there,” said Forde.
“I think that was a conversation also in the extended NASCAR podcast universe of we should have just black-flagged everyone.
“How that works, in this case, and in most other cases, is we’ll give a team a couple of laps to get it.
“What we’ll say overt the radio typically is ‘car number X you were under minimum speed, we’ll give you a lap’. If he doesn’t do it, you’ve got to take it in. That’s what we did.
“We can [instant message] individual teams or the entirety of pit road, and so we IM’d all of pit road and said, ‘hey, there are X amount of cars that have not reached minimum speed. If you guys don’t pick it up, then we’re going to have to step in.’
“And soon after, they picked it up. So that message was delivered, and that’s why we did not black flag anybody.”
Forde said the minimum speed can change on the fly based on tyre wear in-race, forcing NASCAR to adjust its expectations.
He added that the minimum speed requirement largely relates to the damaged vehicle policy, which gives teams seven minutes to work on their car on pit road before going behind the wall.
“We’re not looking to put cars out of the race,” ” said Forde.
“There are sponsors that are paying good money to be part of our sport, and there are fans that come to race and want to see – even if their driver is not in contention and might not win – they’d at least like to see them on the race track.
“We’re not in the business of putting cars out too often. We’d rather give them the benefit of the doubt.”
The NASCAR Cup Series continues at Martinsville on Monday, November 2.