NASCAR Tries to Thin Pack

A brainstorming session between NASCAR and team representatives Thursday produced aerodynamic rule changes designed to eliminate dangerous pack racing before next year’s Daytona 500.

The two-hour meeting, attended by about 80 drivers, crew chiefs and car owners, was called by NASCAR for teams to voice their complaints about racing at Daytona and Talladega.

Carburetor restrictor plates and aerodynamic devices are used to keep speeds under 200 mph in the interest of safety on the circuit’s two biggest and fastest layouts.

When the meeting was over, NASCAR had agreed to a new set of aerodynamic rules that will be used on the cars when they go to Daytona in January to test for the season-opening event.

Under the current aero rules, used the past two years at Talladega and Daytona, one large pack of cars runs bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side. It often leads to multicar wrecks, most recently a 16-car pileup that occurred on the final lap at Talladega last month.