NASCAR is planning some changes for the upcoming playoff races. The first two races of the playoff season have been electric, and the venues have witnessed some intense and open-ended racing in the last two weeks. Due to this, NASCAR hopes to preserve the quality of racing by eliminating unnecessary interventions in the next few races.

On Tuesday, NASCAR authorities announced some changes starting at Charlotte Roval. Notable takeaways from the announcement were the introduction of stage cautions and a restart zone on the frontstretch chicane at Turn 1 of the track. Veteran Brad Keselowski has also advocated for this decision, calling for the move to avoid the restart ruckus.

Brad Keselowski is pleased with NASCAR’s new implementation

NASCAR has had some thoughts about revolutionizing the way race restarts take place for a long time now. In its latest change, the Charlotte Motor Speedway will see restarts begin from the turn 1 serpentine curve instead of the oval part of the track. Initiating the restart from the oval portion implies less space for the cars and presents a situation with higher chances of contact and chaos.

Brad Keselowski, being one of the most vocal and experienced members on the grid, is in constant touch with NASCAR over the required changes and additions to tracks, cars, and more. Crediting the Next-Gen cars as the perfect machines with their durability to carry out these restarts, Keselowski explained,

“I think the restart thing just trying to avoid some turn 1 calamity and these cars are just so durable. They race a lot differently and they need to be stretched out a little bit. I think it’s a pretty welcome move, and I think it’s hard to find somebody that doesn’t like that restart zone change, at least from my perspective.”

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NASCAR has tried this solution previously as well. This year’s Indy Road Course race is a notable example of the perfect execution of their plan. Road courses are more susceptible to piling up incidents on restarts, and it looks like this move could help drivers out with it.

What NASCAR plans to see out of this change

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Senior vice president of competition for NASCAR, Elton Sawyer, explained the motive behind the initiative earlier. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Sawyer said that NASCAR believes that bringing in the restarts onto the chicane will only improve the quality of racing and reduce the conundrum during late restarts.

“One thing we looked at, as far as the road courses, we had a situation at Indy a couple of years ago, where late-race restarts really put our guys in a bad spot there, with five or six-wide – which is great racing,” claimed Sawyer.

A recent example of drivers losing their positions due to a late restart would be Denny Hamlin losing his lead at Kansas. The JGR driver was sent to the fourth row and eventually lost the race to Tyler Reddick following an overtime restart. Road courses, on the other hand, make it even more difficult. Hamlin probably wouldn’t have finished in P1 if Sunday’s race was on a road course.

“But it also becomes a bad spot for them and can tear up a lot of vehicles, and end up with multiple overtime restarts. We changed that at Indy this year, the competitors really liked that, felt like it gave us some great racing, as well as Chicago, and as you look at the ROVAL, we’ll do the same thing,” Sawyer continued.

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“The restart zone relocation will be as you exit the frontstretch chicane, so it will give us some separation in the first two or three rows as they head off into Turn 1.”

It is great to see that NASCAR is aware of the issues drivers face amid a situation of intense pressure. Feedback from drivers like Brad Keselowski has also been crucial in their motive.