{"id":624990,"date":"2026-04-24T06:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624990\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:29:14","slug":"why-nascars-fuel-saving-problem-wont-go-away-at-talladega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624990\/","title":{"rendered":"Why NASCAR\u2019s Fuel-Saving Problem Won\u2019t Go Away at Talladega"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who\u2019s known for his superspeedway racing prowess, says the fuel-saving strategy implemented at Talladega and Daytona won\u2019t change until the NASCAR Cup cars return to a wheel that needs five lug nuts instead of the single one now used.<\/p>\n

The wheel used on the current Cup car is much wider and lower than the one used in NASCAR\u2019s O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series and attaches with a single, center-locking lug nut system. It\u2019s 18 inches in diameter, 12 inches wide, and made of forged aluminum. The O\u2019Reilly Series wheel, which is identical to the one previously used in the Cup Series, is 15 inches in diameter. 9.5 inches wide and made of steel, thus allowing five lug nuts to be used.
<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

NASCAR has said a five-lug system wouldn\u2019t be safe for use on the alloyed aluminum wheel. The single, center-locking lug nut system has enabled four-tire fuel stops to be made in 10 seconds or less. It now takes longer to fuel the car than it does to change tires. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have to pit in a Stage, I\u2019ll still save fuel because when you do come down pit road, you\u2019re still gonna want the least amount of fuel as possible,\u201d said Stenhouse, whose four NASCAR Cup victories have all been at Talladega or Daytona. \u201cThat\u2019s still our limiting factor. Until you go back to five lug nuts, the fuel is gonna be the issue.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"twoSusan Wade<\/p>\n

The NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series wheel on the left, the Cup wheel on the right.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the Cup teams developed a fuel-saving strategy at NASCAR\u2019s two biggest speedways because that allowed them to spend less time on pit road. In an effort to derail that strategy in Sunday\u2019s Jack Link\u2019s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR reversed the length of the Stages, making the first Stage the longest one. For the 188-lap event, NASCAR set the first Stage at 98 laps and the final two Stages at 45 laps each, which is the approximate fuel window. John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said the teams could possibly make one stop in Stage 1 instead of two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere probably will be a little cat-and-mouse to figure that out within the first five to 10 laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spire Motorsports Competition Director Matt McCall said there definitely was an opportunity to complete Stage 1 with only one pit stop. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really think it dictates on how the pace of the race starts,\u201d McCall said. \u201cThere probably will be a little cat-and-mouse to figure that out within the first five to 10 laps. If a caution falls in the middle of it, that will change everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stenhouse noted that everyone knows the amount of fuel their competitors possess. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you can always kind of pick and choose who you feel like you need to pit with,\u201d Stenhouse continued. \u201c(If) you have to take a second less fuel than other people \u2026 you\u2019re going to come off pit road by yourself and (have to) wait for everybody to catch up with you. You want to pit with the people that need the same amount of fuel you do so you can leave pit road and get hooked up as quick as you can.\u201d <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

McCall said that drivers comprising the lead pack will determine how the race unfolds from the beginning with the pace being determined by the first 10 cars. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur approach right now is to be as aggressive as we can because, obviously, we need points and you want to maximize each Stage,\u201d says McCall, whose team fields Chevrolets for Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar.<\/p>\n

However, McCall notes you want your drivers as close to the front as possible when the 45-lap final Stage begins. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that stands out that is going to be a ton different, except most likely, you won\u2019t have leaders running 50 percent unless there\u2019s an OEM that commits to trying to maintain that speed to start the race,\u201d McCall said. <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who\u2019s known for his superspeedway racing prowess, says the fuel-saving strategy implemented at Talladega and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,234365,784,1642,634,234364,82,183339],"class_list":["post-624990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-39cccad0-d64b-4d4b-aba3-120a981cd520","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-why-nascar-fuel-saving-wont-go-away-at-talladega","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}