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FONTANA, Calif. -- NASCAR will slow the cars and try to keep them from going airborne at Talladega with two rule changes, series officials said Friday at Auto Club Speedway.

John Darby, Sprint Cup series director, said the restrictor plate will be reduced 1/64th of an inch to 59/64. He estimates that will slow the cars by 12 horsepower.

Also, teams will be allowed to use a side wicker, something they had not been permitted to do at Talladega. Darby said that should settle the rear of the car "a little bit.''

The move is made as the series prepares to visit Talladega on Nov. 1. That will be the first time the series has raced there since Carl Edwards' last-lap crash where his car flew into the catchfence and seven fans were injured.

Edwards was leading on the final lap when he blocked Brad Keselowski heading to the finish line. Edwards spun after the contact and was bumped by Ryan Newman's car into the fence. Keselowski won. Edward was uninjured but after the accident he said: "I guess we'll do this until someone gets killed and then we'll change it.''

Talladega and Daytona will both raise their fencing from 14 to 22 feet and add cable to the fencing.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said Friday the unique aspects of Edwards' crash make prevention difficult for series officials.

"When you review the accident what sent (Edwards' car) up was being impacted by another car,'' he said. "There's not an aero fix for something like that.''

Newman took exception to Helton's comment.

"There's an aero fix for everything,'' Newman said. "You can glue the race cars down on the race track aerodynamically. Carl's car was airborne before I hit him. I know that.''

Helton defending NASCAR's action.

"There's ... things you just can't prevent,'' he said. "We'll do everything we can. I think our reputation says that we're going to do everything we can make these cars as safe as they are. But also you have to give some understanding of the fact that circumstances on the race track are going to do things that we can't predict.''

Said Newman: "There are things we could do. I don't care what they studied, there are always things that we can do to make the race cars safer. We've built different race cars. We've built roof flaps. We've built wings over spoilers. We've built a lot of things that have changed racing from a safety standpoint, so saying there's nothing we can do to prevent something like that, I don't think it is necessarily a true statement.''

REUTIMANN RUN DISALLOWED: Denny Hamlin won the pole for Sunday's race and David Reutimann qualified second, but NASCAR later disallowed Reutimann's qualifying run. NASCAR confiscated the rear shocks in Reutimann's car for exceeding the gas level limit. Reutimann will start 42nd.

Hamlin won his first pole of the season with a lap of 183.870 mph. Greg Biffle assumes the No. 2 starting position with Reutimann's run not allowed.

Jimmie Johnson will start third with Juan Pablo Montoya fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth.

PIT STOPS: Kyle Busch, who was ill Friday, blew an engine in Cup practice. &ellipses; International Speedway Corp., remains committed to giving Kansas Speedway a second race by 2011 provided a casino license is granted for that property. &ellipses; NASCAR will run the Nationwide Car of Tomorrow in four races next year: Daytona in July, Michigan in August, Richmond in September and Charlotte in October.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com