Officials say fast practice speeds at 'Dega no concern

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Does NASCAR have a 200 mph speed limit at Talladega Superspeedway?

Speeds in Friday's first Nextel Cup practice came very close to that number, as Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte and Martin Truex Jr. all exceeded 198 mph and 11 others ran laps in the 197 mph range. That came one day after NASCAR officials ordered Busch Series teams to use restrictor plates with smaller hole sizes because of higher practice speeds.

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said he didn't expect a similar ruling for Sunday's Aaron's 499, but officials would be keeping an eye on speeds for the rest of the weekend.

"Right now we don't think it's a problem," Hunter said. "We think the speed is more around the 195 mph range. With the draft and with the guys catching up, the rate of closure is so much better here.

"We'll monitor it in this second practice session and again [Saturday] in qualifying."

Hunter said it was unclear why speeds seemed fastest early in the session.

"I don't really know unless some of the guys had blocked off the cars and set them up in qualifying trim to just get an early look," Hunter said. "That could be an answer. They might have made some adjustments on the cars as far as handling that could have slowed them down some."

Hunter said he expects a decrease of between 15 and 20 horsepower as a result of the revised restrictor plates for the Busch Series.

Speeds during Nextel Cup's final practice -- held under mostly sunny skies and higher track temperature -- were slightly lower.

Talladega was repaved between the two Nextel Cup race weekends last year. David Gilliland won the pole for last fall's race at 191.712 mph, the fastest pole speed since Joe Nemechek turned a lap of 198.331 mph in 1998.