NASCAR's new superspeedway package puts cars 'closer to the edge'

The revised superspeedway package NASCAR debuted at Daytona in August will be in effect again this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

While the horsepower (465) will stay the same as it was at Daytona, the spoilers on each NASCAR Cup Series car will be reduced to 3.5 inches from 4 in an effort to reduce drag and afford drivers the opportunity to move around more in the pack. 

In an effort to reduce the amount of fuel-mileage racing, NASCAR will keep the same stage lengths it used in the April 26 Cup race at Talladega of 98, 45 and 45 laps, respectively. 

Expect more wide-open racing at Talladega

"There is certainly a substantial change made," said Billy Scott, crew chief for the No. 45 23XI Racing team and driver Tyler Reddick, speaking Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "I think they did a pretty good job of getting to a point where we could correct it where it didn't need a test session and didn't have to go through elaborate changes to get there, that we were able to make enough adjustments going into the weekend at Daytona.

"Throughout that race, we did have a decent-handling car, but it's a lot closer to the edge. Daytona was at night, so we had some of the coolness to offset the handling side of it a little bit, but it was borderline. We saw some wrecks that happened just from people not even getting a push."

Scott also said that he thinks most of Sunday's race will be spent with drivers at full-throttle rather than saving fuel. 

"It is gonna be a lot different [of] a race than we've seen at Talladega over the past few years," Scott said.

That unpredictability could make for a wild afternoon at the Alabama superspeedway, particularly in regard to the Chase. The top-seven drivers in the Cup standings enter the 34th race of the season separated by only five points with three races to go.