Smaller restrictor plate for Talladega

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will be using a restrictor plate with openings of 7/8ths of an inch when the series travels to Talladega Superspeedway for next month’s Aaron’s 499.

That’s slightly smaller, by 1/64th of an inch, than the openings of the plate that were used in this year’s Daytona 500.

Daytona and Talladega are the only two tracks on which the plates, which reduce the amount of airflow into the engine, are used.

The use of a smaller restrictor plate at Talladega is not unusual, due to the track’s slightly larger size – 2.66 miles compared to 2.5 for Daytona.

Teams competed with a 15/16ths of an inch openings in the plates in the last Sprint Cup race at Talladega last October. During practice for that race, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin turned laps of 201 mph.