NASCAR Overhauls Talladega Cup Series Race Ahead of Jack Link's 500

"So when you look at what's in the sporting bucket, these are things like the stage lengths and the order of the stage lengths," Probst explained on the NASCAR podcast. "If you look at generally how a lot of our superspeedway 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 are confident that the last two stages are short enough to be made without a fuel stop. 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."

So, the point of this is to eliminate fuel saving in the final stages. They want teams to be able to make it on one single tank of fuel from the beginning to the end of the stage. Probst hints that the longer first stage could create some strategy differences, but we will have to wait and see about that.

Talladega has been lacking lately. There are times when the three-wide parade actually produces some interesting moments and racing. There have been some bold moves made in that giant pack. However, for the most part, teams are not willing to try a breakaway strategy and potentially put themselves a lap or two down in the event things go sideways. So, the fuel saving strategy has been king.

There are still many fans who would like to see stage cautions go away. Remember that little test with the road courses a few years ago? It felt like NASCAR moved on too quickly after having a couple of lackluster races under that format. Let's see if this new strategy of changing the stage lengths works out.