The worst of NASCAR's superspeedway product on display at Talladega

“Really, the only thing is push (Hocevar) out far enough to feel like he needed to defend the top lane and playing both sides,” Bowman said. “Once he starts moving, there might be an opportunity to get clear but that didn’t happen.

“I don’t think there was an opportunity for me to move up and I don’t think I would have, statistically, because these races are mostly won from the bottom. It’s hard to say if I could have done anything differently.

Chase Elliott was third on the outside and didn’t have any options on the table either.

“It was tough to do anything,” Elliott said. “You just kind of get yourself in line and do the best you can. For me, that was pushing (Ricky Stenhouse) and try to give him the best pushes I could and hope something would form for me, with that.

“It seemed like we couldn’t get a big enough run to make our lane do something different. We tried and those runs just didn’t go anywhere.”

“It’s really hard to do anything"

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports

Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports

And the third line was not an option.

“It’s really hard to do anything,” Elliott said. “You’re just stuck in that situation. The first stage was interesting. I didn’t know who was going to stretch it or two stop it. But we were going really slow doing it. I felt like we were going really slow.

“You get to the end and it’s just a death trap to pull out of line and try a third lane. It just doesn’t go when everyone is pushing at that pace on the bottom two lanes.”

Alex Bowman says solving this dilemma is going to take ‘a massive change’ with the race car.

“Fundamentally, if that’s downforce, horsepower or drag; tire,” Bowman said. “I have no idea. I personally feel like the car is so draggy that when you pull out of line, you just stop. You see the third lane make hay for a second and they just die. So, they have to knock speed out of them with horsepower, and knock some drag out of them, I don’t know.

“They can’t just take all the drag out because then we’re going to go 220 mph, right? They’re in a box. I’m sure there are some really smart people trying to figure it out or maybe they’re happy with it. I don’t know.

“I finished third so I’m not that mad about it but it doesn't seem like you guys (the media) are happy with it, so I don’t know.”

Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing, Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing

Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing, Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing

Joey Logano was involved in the Lap 115 and is perpetually frustrated with this car on this style of race track.

“We’ve got round bumpers in unstable cars,” Logano said. “Cars that you’re able to pop the bubble real easy and get to each other’s bumper, but when you get there, you’ve got to be careful because they’re not stable. It’s like pushing two basketballs against each other. It’s not going to push straight. They’re not two bricks against each other. It’s frustrating.

“That doesn’t help. You’re running on rear limiters. The cars are so solid. There’s no suspension. All those things together. Like I said, there’s no bubble behind the car. You really just get right to the back bumper really quickly. The runs are massive. If you’re not lined up just perfect when you push, you’re going to upset the car in front of you.”

So, is there a solution?

“I plead the fifth,” Logano said. “Yes, but I’m not going to say it.”

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