CONCORD, N.C. - The physics of racing in the draft are certainly nothing new to drivers, crew chiefs and even most fans.
If you need a quick refresher, might we recommend 1990's "Days of Thunder" in which Tom Cruise gives Nicole Kidman a quick summary using a couple of sugar packets?
In a nutshell, the car in front pokes a hole in the air, allowing the car behind to use less throttle to achieve the same speed. The car behind can also catch up and give the front car a push or utilize the additional momentum to slingshot past.
And, if the car behind is using less throttle, it also stands to reason it's using less fuel. Thus, the opportunity to save a bit in a pinch has long been there for drivers to take advantage of.
It's been seen on occasion throughout the history of the DAYTONA 500. At Hendrick Motorsports alone, Geoff Bodine in 1986 and Darrell Waltrip in 1989 took advantage whenever they could in the closing laps, stretching their gas tanks to the limit in winning efforts.
RELATED: Hendrick Motorsports enters 2025 with unprecedented stability in driver lineup
Since the Next-Gen car arrived at the start of 2022, however, fuel conservation has been taken to a new level at Daytona International Speedway and at Talladega Superspeedway. Sure, throughout history there's been a few instances like Waltrip's or Bodine's, but now, the entire pack of cars are all seemingly at half throttle, running seconds off of top-speed pace with nobody seemingly willing to get out in front and take the brunt of the air and the corresponding emptying of the tank.
The style of racing - complete with little-to-no passing and side-by-side, two-lane ride arounds - has drawn the ire of fans and pundits. But while most of that criticism has been pointed toward the Gen-7 race car, could it really be that simple? After all, if drafting has always been a major part of superspeedway racing, why hasn't fuel mileage always been a top priority?
We asked a couple of guys in the know - No. 9 crew chief Alan Gustafson and No. 24 crew chief Rudy Fugle - and their answers may surprise you.
"I think in the old car, it would've been the same we just weren't smart enough to do it, to be honest with you," Gustafson said. "The old races you almost felt like Superman because everybody is good, everybody has a shot. So, I think everybody would focus on racing hard or taking advantage of the car."
Fugle agreed that the information and the theory have long been there. The difference now, is that technology has helped bring it to the forefront.
"It's been part of the races for a little while now, it's just become talked about more," Fugle said. "I think more people have access to SMT (Speedway Motorsports Technology) data and are able to see how much throttle people are running. And then everybody wants to have a problem with something or have a solution to fix it, so that's part of it too."
As for the Next-Gen's involvement in the stylistic shift, well, it's certainly not innocent. The car came as a result of NASCAR's desire to level the playing field and create more parity in terms of race winners. Along with cars more similarly engineered and designed comes more difficulty in passing and even pack racing hasn't been immune to that challenge.
But both Gustafson and Fugle agree that the Next-Gen isn't solely to blame. In fact, if the reason for fuel-mileage racing at superspeedways was a pie chart, the Next-Gen car would take up only a small wedge. And there are plenty of other factors.
"They repaved both superspeedways (Daytona in 2010, Talladega in 2006), so handling went out the window when that happened," Gustafson explained. "So, it was hard to get any advantage whatsoever. You have the repaves and handling doesn't matter. And now, everybody's car is the same and you literally can't pass. The pushes here and there make a little bit of difference but you're not going to do anything on your own, so we had to figure out a way to get in the position we wanted to be at the right time another way and I feel like we got on that, us at the (No.) 9 and Hendrick Motorsports in general.
"We got on that program and were able to exploit it and do really well with it for a while but now everybody knows and it's going to have to evolve. I know it's not a huge thing that the fans love and NASCAR loves but the good news is now that everybody's doing that, it's going to evolve into something else."
RELATED: Ricky Rudd inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame
Perhaps race fans got a sneak peek as to what the next iteration of superspeedway supremacy might look like in April of last year. While most of the pack was peddling around the 2.66-mile superspeedway, a small but sufficient group of cars went full throttle and got off sequence, attempting to negate the time spent with an extra pit stop with quicker lap times. And the plan seemed to be working until a crash between them took out a few cars and brought the field back together via caution.
So, was that throwing-caution-to-the-wind, go-for-broke strategy an omen of what's to come?
"It's possible," Fugle admitted. "It's easier to do that at Talladega because the corners have a bigger radius and it's easier to get away with than it is at Daytona. We've just all tried to think of a strategy of how to counter it. If somebody does this, what do you do? That's strategy no matter what kind of sport you're in. Not, 'This is what I'm going to do,' but it's also, 'OK, what am I going to do if this person does that? How do I counter it?' That's what's fun about it."
And that's what will be on the plates of Fugle, Gustafson and every other crew chief up and down pit road this week. The goal is to have an answer for anything and everything and Fugle believes his team is ready.
"(The alternate strategy at Talladega last spring) definitely surprised everybody but them and we all probably didn't know how we'd react to it and we didn't have to because there was an accident," Fugle said. "But now, I think we have a plan of what we want to do. Whether it works or not, I don't know, but we have a plan."
No matter what that plan is or what it may look like, it will just be the next chapter in the constant evolution of superspeedway racing along the lines of the hemi engine, restrictor plate and yes, the Next-Gen car. The only guarantee is change.
"I think it's a matter of time before something else evolves. I think it already is transpiring," Gustafson concluded. "Everybody else is already trying to evolve the process to get an advantage."