When we introduced stage racing we took an element of strategy away from the event, Sawyer. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The winner and all other positions are decided in the third and final stage. The sport of NASCAR may not be as rich as the multi-billion-dollar NFL, but that doesnt mean its poor, either. These criticisms are all fair. A pit road penalty or bad pit stop early has consequences. Brad Keselowski was initially against the premise of stage racing when rumors first spread about the concept in the early 2010s. The last stage is always the longest distance of the entire race, and usually involves a pitstop as well. Joe is the owner and creator of this website. Because the sport intended to improve the broadcast product by introducing greater urgency during the middle sections of a race, all NASCAR races in the three major series feature stages. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. But why did NASCAR start stage racing? Then-NASCAR CEO Brian France addressed the media upon announcing stage racings implementation and was confident the leadership group made the correct decision. They talk about giving points for qualifying. FORECAST: Weather Underground Mostly cloudy with a high of 59 degrees and no chance of rain at the start of the race. This brings the total laps to 130 and sets the field up for a 70-lap shootout to the end. The truth is that every time NASCAR green-flags a restart, there is a good chance of a great pass or a big wreck happening. Ross Chastain finished third. NASCAR doesn't have pit crews for the race at Bristol. Now more rewards are given more frequently to racers at each stage, and points and stage endings replace multiple cautions per race techniques. There are some folks out there who just can't grasp stage racing in the spirit of what they view a race should be. These playoff points are added to the drivers point total at the beginning of the playoffs if they qualify for the 16-car field. Bill France Jr., former NASCAR president, did too. I thought Austin did an awesome job with what we had at Martinsville, running 12th there, that was good. What things can we look for and try to do. . This, along with the five points given to the race winner, adds up to a grand total of 61 points. On average, the races have lasted seven minutes longer this season than in 2016. The race was Pooles first Cup start of the season. That's OK. Let's just think about the stages themselves. The caution laps counting seems kind of right but so wrong. There will be no stage breaks for Xfinity races at Circuit of the Americas (March 25), Sonoma (June 10), Chicago street course (July 1), Indianapolis road course (Aug. 12), Watkins Glen (Aug. 19) and Charlotte Roval (Oct. 7). ARCA * All cars must be equipped with a Race Safe light system. This quirk technically makes the Coca-Cola 600 the most valuable points race in NASCAR because it has 1 extra stage worth of points available. This creates a higher sense of urgency, forcing drivers to fight hard for every position much earlier in a race than what used to occur prior to stage racing implementation. How do they work in Cup Series races, and why did NASCAR opt to bring them in in the first place? When NASCAR races first began, there were no required interruptions during all of the action. Fortunately for the sport, a lot of younger fans seem to dig into the Saturday night dirt heat feel of the race stages, and aren't turned off by it. Stage winners and the overall race winner both get playoff points. Stage racing was implemented in NASCAR to remove the chance of race domination by single race drivers. The piece highlighted several factors explaining why stock car racing has yet to recover from the slump caused by the 2008-09 economic crash: A less affluent audience base than other major. The only road course events that will have stage breaks will be Xfinity standalone races at Portland (June 3) and Road America (July 29) and the Truck standalone race at Mid-Ohio (July 8). When did NASCAR implement stages? How NASCAR Stages Work. Generally, the first two stages are a quarter of the total race distance each, and the third stage is the remaining half, although that exact split is usually not that easy per existing track lengths. Each Cup race with the exception of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (with four) has three stages.2022-02-20. It helps television with commercials because there is no action missed. These numbers are all added together to give the number of points each driver has gained from the race. Race wins are worth 5 points, while stage wins are worth 1. NASCAR currently has no plans to get rid of stage racing in favor of a traditional, unsegmented race format. Although there are caution laps and times when racing is under a yellow flag, it can be difficult to time commercials perfectly and still give clients the required airtime. ET Monday. This race has 4 because it is NASCARs longest race, 100 miles longer than the next highest event. The obvious reasons why this change was made in 2017 can be blamed on numerous things, starting with the most important. NASCARs equivalent of the home-field advantage found in other sports is playoff points. Busch will start on the pole and Dillon in the last starting spot in Sundays Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway after qualifying was cancelled Saturday. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. NASCAR had to make some changes to ensure the survival of the sport. Many would say yes. The regular season point and playoff point systems are used for all three series; thus, each stage winner receives ten regular season points and one playoff point. USA TODAY Sports asked about 200 fans at tracks, on the phone and on social media who have reduced their racetrack trips to explain why. Stages split NASCAR races into 3 segments and afford the opportunity for more points if a driver runs well all race. The reasoning behind the change in how the NASCAR races were set up all boils down to one thing. NASCAR stages are competition yellow flags in the middle of the damn race! The winner of Stage 2 will start second for the final stage provided that driver finishes 15th or better in Stage 3, and the Stage 3 winner will start third in the final stage. If a driver is pegged back every 65 laps or so as is the case at the Daytona 500 it will ensure they cant get to far away. It is also less exciting because there is less chance of someone quietly nailing the strategy in the background to emerge the winner in the last pit cycle. So, its kind of pathetic. In his free time, you can find him tinkering with his own vehicles, trying to make them faster and more exciting. Despite the fact that NASCAR prioritizes driver safety in some cases, on some superspeedways, things can actually become more dangerous. and then runs 40 percent of the race in the final stage. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. STARTING LINEUP: Dover Cup starting lineup. Translation: the drivers are paying for the pleasure of racing. Although it has caused quite a controversy, stage racing is now a standard feature of NASCAR competition, and its something we all need to deal with. This applies to all top 3 levels of NASCAR competition: the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Truck Series. NASCAR has come to accept a lot of artificial excitement into their product, and stage racing is a result of that. DISTANCE: The race is 400 laps (400 miles) on the 1-mile track. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. The higher the rank, the more points they earn, which is reason enough for most drivers to race hard.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'motorracingsports_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-motorracingsports_com-banner-1-0'); Al lifelong Motor Racing Fan, with a particular love of NASCAR and IndyCar racing. And coming off pit road under caution after Stage 1, Hamlin made it off pit road first to keep the lead -- just as the left front wheel came off his car and zipped past him at the exit of pit road. 06.06.2017. NASCAR has transformed the football field at the Coliseum into a quarter-mile track and hopes Sunday's race attracts football fans who wouldn't normally watch racing. Confused yet? 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. Contrary to Dewars proclamation, not all fans enjoyed the new stage racing format. All NASCAR races across the 3 major series have stages because the sport wanted to create a better television product by adding more urgency during the middle portions of a race. Why did NASCAR implement stage racing? The longest stage of the race is always the final one. Like, every year. Dover Cup Series race rained out, moved to Mon. They could round to 90 and then it would be 95, 95 and 187 - which makes Stage 3 pretty long. It gives drivers reason not to coast (especially at restrictor-plate races) and fans a reason to watch. The organization didn't implement the idea of stage racing until 2017 in an attempt to make racing more exciting and award teams stage points. Go figure. Until 2017, the races were merely qualifying events that awarded no championship points. NASCAR races were once run start-to-finish with no mandated breaks in the action. The breaks abounded for 4.8 percent of the race. Be the first one to comment on this story. A stage winner also receives one playoff point to their tally. Based on the outcomes of the single-car qualifying event earlier in the week, half of the field competes in each. The main reason is there are no commercial breaks at live race events that can interfere with active racing moments. After a near-miss between drivers Casey Mears and Dale Jarrett at the Sylvania 300 in 2003, NASCAR opted to implement the rule to halt all racing whenever there was an incident on the track, and the beneficiary rule allowed slower cars to catch up. 20 in 2018, Keselowski: Current car design not up to par. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Adding stages breaks up these types of leads and brings the audiences attention back to the field every time the next stage of green-flag racing starts. The closer the pack is together, and the more incentives they have to go for the lead, the better the entertainment will be for all the fans. Bigger changes have happened seemingly out of nowhere. A racer that gets an early start will most likely not be ahead the entire race as race conditions change and the race stops and starts at least twice more. Some still wonder, wanting to see how it plays out with stage winners earning one playoff point and race winners earning five. There were heat races to select the field for this race, but there were no stages for the main event. This is especially true of teams near the playoff bubble as the season progresses because they know every single point matters. Continue with Recommended Cookies. It's also an incentive to race as hard as you can, no matter what lap it is, which has made for some good racing in the past. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It is time for the 65th running of the Daytona 500, NASCAR's biggest event on its biggest stage, kicking off what many believe could be one of the sport's biggest seasons . The formula for NASCAR has been pretty simple in terms of race format. Rewarding guys who hit the wall early or make some other silly error but decide not to pit at the end of the stage with more points than anybody else in the field in the stage is just flat-out ridiculous. Stage racing is impossible in 150-mile races; therefore, NASCAR drivers complete all 60 laps without any pauses. Depending on the course, the first stage can be anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of the races overall duration. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the PRN broadcast. While there are usually three stages in each NASCAR race, the exception to the rule is the Coca-Cola 600, which is given a fourth stage due to the longer distance. In a stunning development, NASCAR announced Sunday evening that Chase Elliott has been declared the winner of the M&M's Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono Raceway after both Denny Hamlin and Kyle . It is frustrating when green flag racing is interrupted by a commercial break, leaving fans mostly clueless as to what is happening. But why did NASCAR start stage racing? Can You Go To A NASCAR Race While Pregnant? Stage points incentivize racing throughout the race and not just for the win and to offer more passing opportunities during the race. Common critiques of stage racing from these fans usually revolve around the idea that stage racing is gimmicky. Do fans, especially those watching on television, like these breaks as real breaks when talking about events that often last more than three hours? With NASCAR, it is always possible future officials could change course in favor of something new and inventive. Midway through the season -- 18 races down, 18 to go -- it's a smart time to wonder if NASCAR did something right in dividing all of its races into three stages. Playoff points are extremely valuable during each 3-race round of the playoffs. The pending end of a stage. But some drivers say it makes superspeedways even more dangerous; lets look at why NASCAR started stage racing and what the stage racing format is. Still, due to circumstances beyond either of their control, way back when, the Cup series left the city. The Weather Underground forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a high of 60 degrees. I know it used to be, but nowadays, its like its almost not even necessary. Stages break the race up and give drivers new ways to strategize using pitstops and other racing necessities to gain more points and do better in each stage. After racing back to the caution was eliminated, the green-white-checkered rule was implemented to help avoid a race from finishing under caution, particularly in the middle of a lap. A driver who wins the first 3 stages would earn 30 points and 3 playoff points at this race, whereas sweeping stages at any other race only earns the winner 20 points and 2 playoff points. That is just the nature of that beast of restrictor plate racing.. (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, which has an extra stage) These stages are not equal in length in miles and are divided based on the total length of the track and the mile goal of the event. The Stage 1 winner will start on the pole for the final stage - if that driver finishes 15th or better in Stages 2 and 3. What is stage racing and why does NASCAR do it. I was side-by-side with (. (Chastain). Instead of the field being strung out halfway through a race, the leaders are suddenly brought back together, creating more intensity. This is important because it reduces the number of full-screen commercial breaks during green flag racing, something that often irks fans watching from home. NASCAR isn't quite ready for that, aside from the Busch Light Clash, so in 2017 the sanctioning body came up with the ideas of breaking up races into three stages. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The shorter portions of races create different race day strategies that tend to make for a more explosive and action-packed race. All Cup races have stages now, and every Cup race has at least 3 stages. The 2017 NASCAR season saw the implementation of stage racing. Rockingham Motor Speedway will begin a new life as a dedicated used car storage centre for the owner of Cinch and WeBuyAnyCar. The leaders know they will vie for that stage win and the regular-season points that go with it. Obviously, we have our ups and downs, and I would say that we have struggled at times for sure, Martinsville being the worst. I could go on the short run, but not the long run. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. And what's not to like? NASCAR has been a common household name for decades. There are 3 stages in nearly all NASCAR races. Now the drivers do get credit for strong starts. STAGE WINNER: @dennyhamlin battles back on the outside to take Stage 2 in The Great American Race! Yeah, we get it. Each three-race playoff round is a crucial time to earn playoff points. It usually takes about 40 to 50 percent of the whole races duration, making it nearly invariably the longest stage. So, I think it was the No. But after the first season with stages, Keselowski said I like stage races because there is a reward at the end of each one of them.. If there was a wild wreck or two, it was even better. Even some drivers were skeptical about the pending changes, wondering aloud if stages would negatively impact races. Stage racing is one of many controversial topics in NASCAR, and there are certainly things that NASCAR needs to fix before stage racing. Sometimes this gamble pays off and other times it backfires greatly. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. NASCAR deemed Stenhouse was in the lead when a caution was called on the final lap of the race.Ross Chastain topped Stage 2, while Brad Keselowski picked up a Stage 1 win. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Brennan Poole: Ross Chastain probably needs his butt whooped, Monday Cup race at Dover: Start time, TV info, weather, I feel like I just got ran over, Poole said. So, in a nutshell, stage racing has achieved what NASCAR anticipated: adding interest and strategy to the sport. NASCAR introduced stage racing in 2017 as a way to adapt its traditional long-duration races to a larger digital audience. Now, they buy their way in. By nature, stage racing also creates another unnecessary element that takes away from the competition itself. It appears as an artificial way to bunch up the field and give teams extra time to make adjustments. Stage points will still be awarded at the stage-ending lap, but the green-checkered flag will not be displayed and there will not be a caution period to interrupt the action. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The reasons NASCAR implemented stage racing is myriad, as outlined in the info that follows. NASCAR also had a an issue when it red-flagged a stage at Pocono after the pits were closed and then issued a one-lap, green-flag dash to the end of the stage, which didn't allow time for drivers who possibly had driven through debris a chance to pit. Kyle Larson rolled into the crash area with nowhere to go and slammed into Poole. The final stages decide the races placement, giving them even more points. Why did NASCAR implement stage racing? Older fans, however, believe this was a crucial blow to NASCAR's diehard fans. NASCAR also had a an issue when it red-flagged a stage at Pocono after the pits were closed and then issued a one-lap, green-flag dash to the end of the stage, which didn't allow time for drivers . You shouldnt be better positioned to make a playoff run because you were leading a random race on lap 130 of lap 250 or something and ended up 28th while someone who ran 11th in the races early stages gets nothing playoff-wise with a second place finish. We also participate in other affiliate programs which compensate us for referring traffic. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". In its press release, NASCAR termed stage racing competition format enhancements. NASCAR hopes viewers will be more engaged in watching miniature races within the framework of a traditional race. Drivers have an opportunity to accrue points in the regular season for qualifying in the championship competition. Stage victories are worth one point, whereas race victories are worth five. Problems with racing back to the caution Safety The race will be broadcast by FS1, Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The total number of laps in the race remains mostly unchanged but how races progress through these laps changes drastically. NASCAR competition officials announced rules changes Tuesday with the intent to slow Cup Series cars by approximately 7-10 mph at superspeedway events. The new structure seems to be bringing more fans who like to see 150-mile races and then an additional race after these miniature races that is about twice the distance. The stage points drivers win can add more energy and excitement to races that used to only have one race winner per event. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. The 2017 NASCAR season saw the implementation of stage racing. Those who do not make the cut are left to prepare for the next racing season. Stages, like the playoffs themselves among other changes NASCAR has made over the years, have been criticized as being gimmicky, and they certainly dont fit the mold of what youd expect from a sport that thrives off its grassroots fanbase. Stage points are available at the end of stages 1 and 2 for the top 10 drivers. Sometimes stages work out as a 40/60 split, with 30% each for the first and second stages and the remaining 40% representing the final and longest stage. Your favorite teams, topics, and players all on your favorite mobile devices. Typically only the winner of the racing venues gets playoff points and is the singular winner of the event. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. While it is true that 10 points for winning a stage is nowhere near 40 points for winning a race and sacrifices are often made, such as not making a late pit stop, to finish stages in the top 10, those point totals still add up. They claim that NASCAR just wants more restarts because a certain type of NASCAR fan only tunes in to see big crashes. These points all go towards the playoff points, which either get them into the racing after the primary season or not, depending on actual race wins as well. The playoffs start better for drivers with a string of triumphs than those who have to work their way through the regular season with no wins. The main reason is there are no commercial breaks at live race events that can interfere with active racing moments. It also has the added strategy of teams pitting during a stage by dividing the length of that stage in half or thirds, depending on the number of pit stops anticipated during the stage. At each stage, you also win awards you playoff points, which are added to your overall postseason score. Cars would pit when they could, hoping to get a caution so they could come in and get some fuel and new tires. The field for the Daytona 500 is determined by the two qualifying events known as the Daytona Duels. A profound loss of a racing icon changed the way NASCAR viewed safety. 30% for Stage 1 would be 110 laps, so it would be 110, 110 and 147, which makes Stage 3 pretty short relative to Stage 1 and Stage 2. I think 100 laps turned out to be a nice compromise. START: Actor, director, author and podcaster Kevin Smith will give the command to start engines at 12:01 p.m. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 12:10 p.m. PRERACE: Cup garage opens at 9 a.m. Driver introductions at 11:30 a.m. Dan Schafer, pastor of Calvary Assembly of God in Heightstown, New Jersey, will give the Invocation at 11:53 p.m. JAGMAC will perform the national anthem at 11:54 p.m. It all just comes down to excitement and incentive at the end of the day. The NASCAR racing stages are very easy to understand once you know how it works. The reasons that the stages were added to NASCAR racing all boil down to one thing. The final stage often accounts for between 40% and 50% of the entire distance, whereas the first and second stages typically make up roughly 25% to 30%.
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