Pit This Time may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It never affects our coverage. Learn more.
Former Cup Series champion crew chief Cole Pearn said superspeedway races should be run with “no engineers, no internet,” after a fuel-saving first stage at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday let three RFK Racing cars break away from the field.
Pearn posted his idea on X on Sunday, while the race was still being run.
Pearn’s proposal
“Speedway races should be called with one crew chief with a radio, clipboard and a calculator. No engineers, no internet, cell blockers up. No way the racing won’t be improved,” Pearn wrote. He added that it would also save teams money and time.
https://x.com/colepearn/status/2114452418436210705
Pearn won the 2017 Cup Series championship as crew chief for Martin Truex Jr. at Furniture Row Racing.
What set it off
Most of the field saved fuel through the 98-lap opening stage of Sunday’s race. Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski ran flat out together instead, built a big lead and finished the stage 1-2-3, with Buescher winning it.
Preece said after the race that teams would make sure the move never works again, and that teams will race to whatever the rules reward. “No matter what you got, no matter what rule they change, we will find a way to, whatever is going to maximize, what we need to be right there at the end of the stage,” he said.
What NASCAR has already tried
NASCAR has made several changes this season to cut down on fuel saving at Daytona and Talladega. For Sunday’s race, it set the stages to end on Laps 98, 143 and 188, the same breakdown as the spring Talladega race. NASCAR said in its announcement of the change that shorter final stages were meant to reduce the incentive to save fuel and encourage “a full-throttle race to the checkered flag.”
NASCAR also cut the rear spoiler from 7 inches to 4 inches and reduced horsepower for the August race at Daytona, a change RACER reported was aimed at fuel-saving strategies, and cut the spoiler to 3.5 inches for Talladega.
Analysis: Why it’s hard to fix
Pearn’s idea goes after the information teams use to make fuel calls during a race, not the cars. But a crew chief with a calculator can still work out that saving fuel pays. As long as stage points are awarded only at the end of each stage and the race can be won on fuel mileage, teams have a reason to save early, which is the point Preece made about lap money.
What’s next
The next superspeedway races are at Daytona in February. The Cup Series races next at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Leave a Reply