Too-slow Chevys to draft together at Dega

Chevys drafting together

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About 10 Chevrolet cars ran together in Friday’s final Cup practice at Talladega Superspeedway, a sign that Chevrolet wants its teams to work more closely together after some partnered with Toyotas during the Daytona 500.

To reaffirm the message, Jim Campbell, Chevrolet’s U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, met with Chevrolet drivers Saturday.

“The benefit of working together is too great versus the penalty of not working together," Campbell told NBC Sports.

“We have to work together as a team but also be adaptive. That’s what we’re trying to balance."

Talladega pole-sitter Austin Dillon said “we’re just unified as a group now."

While Chevrolet teams work on projects together off the track, they haven’t always been so cooperative on the track, whether it was because of philosophy or disparity in performance. That contributed to Chevrolet’s decline at Daytona and Talladega — the manufacturer has won one of the last 15 races at those tracks.

To combat Ford’s strength, Toyota and the Chevrolet team of Hendrick Motorsports worked together in the Daytona 500. During the second stage, a six-car train of Toyotas and Hendrick cars controlled the pace. Crashes later in the race lessened the maneuver’s effectiveness but a strategy against the Fords had been created.

David Ragan's Ford. In race trim the Chevy Camaro gets smoked by the Fords and Toyotas week-in and week-out.

That particular pairing of Chevrolet and Toyota teams, though, will not be repeated.

“I think some of the other Chevys probably griped about the Hendrick guys working with us," Hamlin said.

There have been multiple meetings about Chevrolet teams about working together since February.

“They’re laying the law down," Bubba Wallace told NBC Sports.

The result was 10 Chevrolets went on track together Friday in practice. They ran about 15 laps, came to pit road together and exited together to simulate a green-flag pit stop.

That could be critical Sunday. Teams have found this weekend that the more cars in a line, the faster it goes. Last fall, Stewart-Haas Racing’s four cars ran single-file and pulled away from the pack. That’s not expected to happen Sunday with rule changes that include teams having another 100 horsepower to 550 and the larger rear spoiler (with the wicker added to the spoiler Friday).

“At tracks like this, numbers win," Jimmie Johnson told NBC Sports. “So the more organized we can be, and if we can ever get more quality cars, more quality Chevrolets working together, we can hopefully have that upper hand in those rare situations of pitting under green." NBC Sports