24 of the 38 starters in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway led at least one lap. The 188-lap race featured 70 lead changes and a photo finish with a margin of .012-seconds. On paper, one could say the NASCAR Cup Series race on the 2.66-mile Alabama track delivered.

However, is this superspeedway package a finished product? Heavens, no. Safety helped in regard that no cars went back to the R&D Center to learn from the crash damage like they did at the last race here in the spring and the last race at Daytona in August.

That’s a plus.

But, the third lane never fully has materialized like they’d like it to. Ryan Blaney noted that it did a little more than normal on Sunday in Talladega, but it’s still not like it used to be.

Superspeedway’s are more of a track position game now. It’s not easy to make it through the pack as it used to be either. Which puts an onus on pit stops and pit strategy.

“It’s honestly just a massive fuel mileage race now,” Blaney admitted. “Where the stages are, how — you know, the less time you can spend on pit road the better, and you gain your track position.

“Literally the first stint of each stage everyone is just saving gas. I mean, I ran 50% throttle damn near the whole first stint of each stage just to save gas so I’m on pit road the less amount of time, take less gas, you jump the cars that are using more gas.

“When the leaders of the bottom lane, the middle lane, start doing that, the through lane develops because you have guys that are, like, screw it, I’m not going to save. I’m trying to get to the front.

“So I think that’s why you have all these fluctuations. Third lane goes, middle goes, it kind of fades. It depends on who is leading that lane, who is saving fuel or not.

“It’s a weird thing as a driver because we got back I think in the second stage. I was almost at the very back of the pack, but I just saved a ton of gas on the bottom, and I came out, like, third in our group because I had to take less gas, and that propelled us towards the front.

“So it’s a weird kind of game. It’s different than what it has been, but everyone is kind of catching on to the saving fuel type situation. That’s really what brings the third lane up there a lot.

“At the end of the race when everyone is not saving gas and you are pushing hard in the first lane and second lane, the third lane doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s kind of a funky deal.”

Which is why the lead changes took place. If you’re leading, you’re burning more fuel. By swapping here-and-there, it helps. It’s also easier to pass when you’re up front because of the hole this car is punching in the air, plus the drag created in it.

But, when you’re mid pack on back, the dirty air, plus the car having nowhere to go kind of stalls you out. Hence why the third lane comes in at times but not fulling a three by three pace lap throughout the field.

That’s also why sidedrafting isn’t as easy as it once was too. This car used to have a lot of side force that you could use on the right side. Which is why they used to run at the top of the banking to use that air pocket between the car and the SAFER barrier to push you forward. It also kept a car from using your right side to side draft you.

Now, it’s not there anymore due to the construction of the Next Gen.

Without the aid of that plus fuel saving and the third lane not coming in yet, it forces you to see what you saw on Sunday. A good race but not a finished product.

Still, maybe this is one fans will embrace. Not much carnage. Doesn’t look like a shit show and a clean race at the end.