NASCAR Cup Series: The new superspeedway package delivered at Talladega

The new package for NASCAR Cup Series races at superspeedways delivered in a big way in its debut in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

There was much anticipation surrounding the debut of the new package for NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway races, a package that made its debut in this past Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

This 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Talladega Superspeedway oval in Lincoln, Alabama was the first race at the track for which restrictor plates were not used since the 1987 season.

Restrictor plates had been used to reduce the horsepower produced by the engines, thus lowering the maximum speeds and creating pack racing. The package for Sunday’s race, which you can read more about here and here, created a similar type of racing, and it delivered in a big way.

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Sunday’s race wasn’t a wreck-fest like many people expected that it would be, even after it looked early on like it would be after Richard Petty Motorsports’ Darrell Wallace Jr. triggered a big wreck involving himself, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Front Row Motorsports teammates Michael McDowell and Matt Tifft and Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer on lap 11.

Despite how close the racing was throughout the entirety of the 500-mile event, aside of this early crash, the race featured only two caution flag periods as a result of on-track incidents, and these caution flag periods took place late in the race, which is expected in superspeedway races no matter what package is used simply because of the rise in aggression level at that point in the race across the entire field. One of these caution flag periods began on lap 183 and the other took place for about the final half of the race’s 188th and final lap.

Additionally, despite the fact that the race did not feature many wrecks and therefore did not feature a whole lot of restarts, there was passing throughout the field throughout the entire race, including at the front of the field.

The race featured a total of 38 lead changes, the highest lead change total for a race at the track and for a Cup Series race in general in several years. The last Cup Series race to feature at least 38 lead changes was the race at Talladega Superspeedway in October of 2014. This race featured exactly 38 lead changes. The last Cup Series race to feature more than 38 lead changes was the race at the track in May of 2014. This race featured a total of 48 lead changes.

Also of note is the fact that Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who won the race, did so after leading only 44 of the race’s 188 laps, and no driver led more laps than he did. Additionally, no driver led the race for more than 19 laps at a time. Elliott recorded the longest stint of laps led when he led the race for 19 consecutive laps from lap 94 to lap 112.

This package delivered a competitive race, a relatively clean race and a race that contained excitement from the drop of the green flag to the waving of the checkered flag. Compared to last October’s single-file restrictor plate race/parade at the track that only truly became exciting when the leaders ran out of fuel on the final lap, it marked a major improvement and one that should certainly force fans to circle future superspeedway races on their calendars.

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What are your thoughts on the new package for the NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway races? The next race for which this package is set to be utilized is the Coke Zero Sugar 400, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 6. This race is the 18th of 36 races on the 2019 schedule, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC from Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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