‘What are we trying to fix?’

When the Daytona 500 begins next Sunday, the entire field will immediately go into fuel conservation mode and it frustrates a portion of the fan base every year.

The reason drivers spend large portions of the race at half throttle or less in the Great American Race is that using less fuel will allow them to need less when they come down pit road.

Because the competition package with this car especially is so tight, and so wound up, on-track full speed passing comes at a premium. So, the thinking is, drivers and teams try to spend as less fuel as possible so they can get their track position leaving pit road before each stage break and then the end of the race.

Again, a portion of the fanbase wants NASCAR to consider all manner changes from larger fuel cells to stage break adjustments. No such changes were made over the winter but senior Vice President of competition Elton Sawyer says they are aware of the narrative.

“The short answer is that we’ve talked about it,” Sawyer said during a NASCAR R&D briefing with the media this week. “Here’s where it’s conflicting for us. John (Patalak) and I will sit there in the tower, watching the race and listening to the broadcast and scanners, and if we turn that off, they’re five and six wide, and (fans) don’t know how fast they’re going … they’re all standing up and cheering.

“So, it’s like ‘okay,’ and John has said this many times, ‘what are we trying to fix?’ We can change something but what is it really going to fix? I think that’s the question we ask ourselves, and we do, but Scott Miller runs all kinds of different models with presumptions and how we would change the stages but what are what are wanting to change? I don’t think we can actually fix it.”

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Sawyer says that because the consensus is that any change doesn’t change the fact that teams will have to come down pit road eventually. And no matter what change they make, needing to come down pit road will give teams the incentive to spend as much time saving fuel so they don’t have to spend as much time on pit road when they get there.

Sawyer doesn’t say that to dismiss fans and pointed to changing the championship format to the Chase for the Championship as a reflection of their willingness to listen.

“I would say that the priority list for things like that, I think we can take the news of the championship format, the Chase, which was high on that list, and we can put that on the green column,” Sawyer said. “We tackled that one, and then that list of other things, fuel mileage, is …

“I’ll say this. If you look at other big races, let’s take the Indy 500, they drop the green flag and they are in fuel conservation mode, immediately. So, I think it’s a narrative that is out there, that we have to at some point, back to John’s point, do we want to change something or what exactly is that we are we trying to fix?”

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– The Motorsport.com Team