TRENDING College football updates NFL injury updates Brewers take Game 1 Tatum downplays beef Knicks change ring tune Story by Story by Two Crew Chiefs Break Down Sunday’s Talladega Strategy Andrew Ravens Sat, October 24, 2026 at 5:23 PM UTC · 3 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two Toyota crew chiefs expect fuel saving early at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, then hard racing the rest of the way. They also weighed in on how contenders will race in the NASCAR Chase.
James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe , spoke Thursday on The Gluckcast with Jeff Gluck. Charles Denike, crew chief for Bubba Wallace , spoke Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio .
NASCAR's Talladega package uses a 3.5-inch rear spoiler, half an inch shorter than the one used at Daytona in August. Stages end on laps 98, 143 and 188.
NASCAR has also asked teams to bring a 4-inch spoiler as a backup in case of an issue with the 3.5-inch version.
Denike expects the shorter final stages to produce flat-out racing.
"Stage 2 and 3 will be go hard the whole time, and so will be the end of stage one. So you'll have the hardest racing that we've had probably with this package in a long time," Denike said.
Small said the long first stage will be the trickiest to manage.
"Obviously, the first stage here being very long is probably the trickiest, just if it goes green," Small said. "There's still going to be a lot of strategy involved in the good old fuel savings to make sure you get that green flag cycle right."
Small was also asked about Denny Hamlin 's Talladega outlook. Hamlin predicted big crashes at the end of each stage as contenders chase stage points.
"I think it'd be a little more nuanced than that," Small said. "But definitely likely how it's going to play out."
Small said contenders could start racing hard earlier in each stage.
"So are we now going to start pushing earlier? Is it going to start getting racy with 20 to go or 15 to go, rather than five to go?" Small said.
He also pointed to a problem for Toyota. Four of the top seven drivers in the standings are Toyota drivers: Christopher Bell , Briscoe, Hamlin and Tyler Reddick . Leader Kyle Larson is the only Chevrolet driver in the top seven, while Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano drive Fords.
"With Chevrolet, there's only really one car they have to worry about. Ford really only has two," Small said. "And then, for us, we've got four in the top seven, and there's only nine of us in total."
"It doesn't really work out for us as well as we would like, cause we're almost kind of racing ourselves as well," Small said.
Denike said teams asked for more speed after the August race at Daytona, which led to the smaller spoiler.
"So we left Daytona saying it'd be nice if the cars went a little bit faster. So take a half inch of spoiler off, and we'll rerack them here at Talladega and go from there," Denike said.
Wallace is 12th in the standings, 162 points back, but Denike expects him to contend Sunday. Wallace won at Talladega in October 2021.
"Bubba is very good on the superspeedways. We have good cars, and it's an opportunity to go win another race," Denike said.
At 2.66 miles, Talladega is the longest oval on the Cup schedule and one of the fastest tracks in motorsports . Sunday's race opens the final three-race stretch of the Chase.
Source: Sports
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