Stage Cautions Hurt the Product

            The NASCAR/Indycar double header at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road course led to some of the most exciting racing NASCAR has seen in the last several years on a road course. The Indycar race showed what a road course race with only natural cautions could lead to. It led to a driver on what seemed like the wrong strategy after being last at the end of the first lap storm through the field to win the race in Scott Dixon. After watching that race, I was excited for the cup series race the following day because there would be no stage cautions.

            The Xfinity series race was exciting but had the issue of a lighting delay for 45 minutes that led to NASCAR needing to make strange decisions at the end of the race in order to actually finish it. The last few laps of that race had people driving off track and hitting things but did not feature a caution because any caution would have effectively ended the race due to darkness.

            The Cup race was very exciting because drivers were able to make many different strategy decisions. There was no rule closing the pits two laps before the end of a stage, there was nothing that slowed down the cars without a safety issue on the track, and various drivers were able to make decisions to either maximize stage points, or to try to win the race. Michael McDowell managed to do both on Sunday. I do not think that he would have been able to hang on to the lead or use the strategy he did had there been cautions at the end of every stage.

            There was side by side racing and overtaking, but there were also strategy calls and drivers needing to make decisions about fuel and tire life. These things combined led to a very exciting road course race where every aspect of driving a racecar was tested and the person that did the best on aggregate across all aspects ended up winning the race! I was excited seeing Chase Elliot close in on the 34 the last few laps without a restart. Had there been a restart, the 34 would not have been able to win the race because the other teams with better pit crews would have been able to get their drivers out ahead of him.

            I believe that NASCAR should look at removing the stage breaks in all races except those in the lower series that are stand alone races and in ARCA because it will lead to more exciting races with many more decisions to be made by driver and crew chief. In ARCA and stand alone races, the stage cautions are a necessary evil to ensure that teams are actually able to bring a pit crew to the track and there is competitive balance. Leaving the stages and the awarded points in place without the cautions may lead to a new golden era of American stock car racing.

 

 

 


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