NASCAR Cup Series

Restrictor-plate racing could look familiar

Published Dec. 15, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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NASCAR officials are considering a series of changes to alter the style of racing seen at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway in recent years.

NASCAR on FOX’s Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds say that the series is talking to teams about not sharing radio communications during the Sprint Cup races at the restrictor-plate tracks in 2012. NASCAR confirmed, via Twitter, that is in talks with teams at this point.

"On radio communication: #NASCAR is having and will continue to have discussions with the race teams about radio communication, in particular, teams communicating between one another during events and expects to have a policy in place for the 2012 season," a tweet from the sanctioning body's official Twitter account stated.

In the past few races at the tracks, drivers have utilized two-car tandems in which one can talk with another as they hook up on the track. The driver in the car that is pushing someone else cannot see the field ahead of them and is dependent on communication from the lead driver and spotters to know where to go on the track.

Drivers would now be more dependent on hand signals and spotters to know the moves of others, and in combination with other changes, could return to the big packs of cars that were the constant in the past at these tracks.

Walltrip says that the sanctioning body is also going to reduce the size of the rear spoiler.

“Now that is a big aerodynamic change for the cars that run at Daytona and Talladega,” he said in a column on FOXSports.com. “When you take spoiler off a car, you are going to take away downforce. That causes the car to drive a lot freer with less rear grip.

“See the drivers have been complaining because with that big’ol spoiler back there, they can’t see over it. So the drivers have been testing this new spoiler and are becoming more comfortable with it. NASCAR is taking the opinions and feedback from these tests and is implementing it.”

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