NASCAR adjusted the stage lengths for the April 26 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega to crack down on saving fuel as a strategy in the race.
CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR adjusted the stage lengths for the April 26 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega to crack down on saving fuel as a strategy in the race.
© Vasha Hunt | 2025 Oct 19 The first stage will now end on lap 98, instead of lap 60. The second stage will end on lap 143, instead of lap 120. The final stage will still end with the checkered flag on lap 188.
In recent years, hyper fuel saving has dominated superspeedway races. This has drawn criticism from fans, drivers and others in the sport, who pointed out how lap times slowed by as much as five seconds when the cars run three- and four-wide, mostly at 50% throttle.
NASCAR acknowledged that fuel saving won't completely go away and may still arise in the first stage. However, they hope the changes could lead to a race where there's less reliance on the strategy.
“It could be interesting, as well, in that first stage, the length of it, if there’s some that try to do it on one stop versus some that try to do it on two. We think that if there are some that try to do it on two, they may drag the group that tried to do it on one along with them to where they won’t be able to do it in one, so it’s got the potential there for some pretty interesting strategies," said John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer.
The first stage will be 98 laps while the final two stages will be 45 laps each. With a fuel window of around 45-50 laps, green-flag pit stops will mostly be relegated to the first stage.
“If you look at generally how a lot of our speedways were laid out it was a short stage, a short stage and then a long stage to the end. Going into Talladega, we’re going to flip that and adjust the lengths of the final two stages such that we’re confident that the last two stages are short enough to be made without a fuel stop," Probst said.
Beyond the spring Talladega race, NASCAR is looking at making more technical changes that teams said they couldn't sustain midseason.
NASCAR announced last week they plan to bring back a version of Preseason Thunder to Daytona to test some of those technical changes.
The April 26 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega will go green just after 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.