Next weekend NASCAR heads to the beast of the sport. The spring race at the formidable Talladega track witnessed a slew of mishaps. Those ranged from excessive fuel-saving to spine-chilling wrecks. Whereas the former did not drum up a lot of concerns, the latter did. Especially after Corey LaJoie’s mysterious multi-time flip at Michigan, which prompted NASCAR to introduce a slight adjustment to the car.

So the sanctioning body spun off whispers about doing the same to prevent pile-ups at Talladega. However, given the close-to-zero impact of its efforts in Daytona, fans are not particularly excited. They reacted harshly to a rumor that has started doing the rounds on social media.

NASCAR’s ‘band-aid’ to problems

Granted, Talladega Superspeedway’s fearsome nature has been the pivotal point of safety trends in NASCAR. For instance, the 1993 Winston 500 saw Dale Earnhardt bumping Russell Wallace and sending him flying and spinning mid-air. When his car finally landed, it rolled over the grass with its parts strewn all over. This terrifying crash instigated NASCAR to introduce roof flaps on the tops of cars. Similarly, when LaJoie flipped in Michigan, officials thought introducing a new right-side rear-window air deflector would help.

But as the Daytona race panned out—Josh Berry spun out in an even more scary wreck towards the end—this measure had not worked. Despite this failure, NASCAR is dropping hints that the same safety hack would be in place for Talladega Superspeedway. Bob Pockrass updated the idea on X: “NASCAR talked to drivers at their meeting today about potential changes to cars just for Talladega. They said no decisions final. Drivers mentioned one change could potentially impact visibility as NASCAR apparently considering air deflector of sorts on right side of windshield.”

Talladega Superspeedway has a history of NASCAR’s desperate attempts to uplift the racing product. Before the 2000 Winston 500 race, the race teams were mandated to make aerodynamic changes and restrictor plate changes to the car. This improved throttle response and also increased horsepower. Barry Dodson, a former crew chief, was excited about it, as he noted, “It should lend to great, great racing because just about anybody with drafting experience will have a shot to get to the front and lead the race.”

However, the 2.66-mile dreadful drafting track’s newest update does not carry the same enthusiasm.

NASCAR fans bash faulty measure

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The Talladega track jitters drivers anyway; they often feel that they have little control over their fortunes at the drafting-dependent track where the “Big One” is not a rare sight. The news of having it in the semi-final round in 2025 was particularly shocking to some. So, NASCAR possibly messing up the 2024 schedule has also irked fans. “Oh for f-ks sake. Here we go again. Who’s ready for Dega to su*k now. Lol.” 

Another fan chimed in with the same sentiment, rolling their eyes at yet another chance for a bad race. “Oh god we have to deal with Talladega bullsh*t next week.”

People also observed how the ‘shark fins’ in Daytona did not work. Despite its explicit objective to prevent flips, we saw Josh Berry flip and also Michael McDowell go sideways on top of Joey Logano’s car. So one fan pointed out NASCAR’s short-term memory loss: “You can’t fix flipping you dumba-es.”

Another fan was concerned that a lack of wisdom may offset NASCAR’s good intentions. “If we’re adding fins to the windshield we’ve lost the plot.” The real problem may not be in fixing the windshield, but in fixing the aerodynamic nature of the car.

However, NASCAR is not ready to go back to its 2000 motivations. So one fan commented, “If I were guessing they’re still in the “bandaid before we fix it” stage but I’m actually starting to doubt any real major shift will come for the aero package of the car.” 

Evidently, the recent Talladega news has not enthralled fans. We can only wait and see how NASCAR’s measure makes an impact on the drivers.