TALLADEGA, Ala. — Drivers are even less certain than usual about what to expect at Talladega Superspeedway given a new package that NASCAR is still adjusting on the fly.

To Clint Bowyer, that unpredictability at least makes it anything but boring.

“If you woke up every day of your life and knew what the future held, that would be a boring life,” he said Friday. “That’s what’s cool about Talladega.”

If that’s the case, the Cup race could be especially cool Sunday. Drivers turned practice laps Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, beginning to get some inkling of what the race might bring minus the restrictor plates .

But NASCAR made tweaks after the opening practice session, adding a one-inch wicker to the spoiler and allowing teams to switch between the two gears until qualifying. Speeds ratcheted up in afternoon practice, when six cars topped 204 mph.

“I think pretty much everyone coming here thought that there was a pretty large potential for an audible along the way,” Brad Keselowski, who lead active drivers with five Talladega wins, said in between sessions. “I’m not frustrated. I’m just focused.”

Gone are the restrictor plates that had sapped horsepower to reduce speed since 1988, oft-maligned devices geared toward improving safety at the nation’s fastest tracks. They’ve been replaced by tapered spacers.

So at Talladega and Daytona, in July, drivers will have 550 horsepower, about 140 more than with the restrictor plates. The changes didn’t go into force until after February’s Daytona 500.