Daytona 500: NASCAR Makes Changes On Cars To Slow Speeds

When cars started running at 206 mph in last week's Budweiser Shoot Out, many knew that NASCAR would be announcing changes to slow up the cars before this week's Daytona 500. So when NASCAR announced that changes would be made to the cars' cooling systems—so that two car drafts couldn't stay together for more than a few laps—no one was surprised.

However, that wasn't the only change that NASCAR decided to make.

After doing some more research on Monday and Tuesday, NASCAR announced Wednesday that restrictor plates would be changed yet again. This type of change seems to be happening a lot when the series goes to super speedways. 

And while some drivers approved of the change, others weren't as excited to slow down the cars.

"I thought that going bigger would be better, simply because the faster we go, ultimately the handling will come into play eventually," Denny Hamlin told NASCAR.com. "If we're going a certain speed ... the cars really can't handle the corners being pushed. I thought [the plate openings] being bigger would be an advantage for getting the pack back together. The pack would be able to catch the two-car tandems very, very quickly if the plate was bigger. Obviously they felt that they didn't want the cars running 206. There's a big safety concern when the cars are running 206. Not necessarily for us, but the flag man especially."

Speeds in Thursday's Gatorade Duel looked to be more along NASCAR's lines, as no changes have  been announced and none are anticipated.

The Daytona 500 will air on Fox at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.