“Is it right or wrong to evolve?” The final lyric from The Warning’s song “Evolve” might be what NASCAR is scratching its head about. This year, the Cup Series saw history being made at Nashville Superspeedway—five overtime restarts were unprecedented in NASCAR’s premier tier. The recently unfolded Michigan race also added to the sport’s overtime tradition, with Martin Truex Jr. in the middle of it.

Yet fans are growing tired of the green-white-checkered rule. Fairness seems overstretched, and the thrill factor is overlooked. As the season progresses, it seems overtime is becoming a permanent fixture in races. So, is it finally time to change the rule established in 2017?

NASCAR is getting on people’s nerves

The sport has a colorful history of overtime rules. The green-white-checkered rule was first introduced in mid-2004 when only one attempt was allowed for drivers to fight it out in overtime. That lasted until 2010 when NASCAR increased the number of attempts to three. The 2016-2017 period saw a short interval with a unique rule—the overtime line—which varied in terms of location and track. Then, in 2017, the current rule came into effect, allowing unlimited overtime periods.

That led to the chaotic finish in Nashville, where the race witnessed five overtimes. Most of the drivers were wiped out either due to fuel tanks running dry or sudden wrecks, while Joey Logano dragged it out to the end. A similar scenario emerged at Michigan International Speedway, although it was not as lengthy as the Ally 400. The FireKeepers Casino 400 race was delayed due to rain, and then some incidents stretched the finish.

Martin Truex Jr. started 24th and looked poised to secure a top-five finish. Yet, with six laps to go, his fortunes plummeted as the No. 19 Toyota slid against the wall. That began the overtime story at Michigan and dropped him back to 24th place. On the next restart, Alex Bowman hit the backstretch wall, and playoff hopeful Ross Chastain spun to the inside. Ultimately, Tyler Reddick edged out William Byron in a double-overtime finish.

This NASCAR trend has been recurring quite a few times now—Kyle Larson won the Brickyard 400 race under caution on the second attempt in overtime. Then Austin Dillon executed his rogue stunt in the overtime spun off by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece’s encounter in Richmond. This repetitive story of overtime restarts has gotten on the nerves of fans, who feel it is clobbering the entertainment aspect.

Overtimes rile up NASCAR community

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If you watch Martin Truex Jr.’s incident again, you may notice that it hardly called for a caution flag. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota barely touched the wall. So NASCAR fans ridiculed the need to stretch the race into overtime. One fan expressed their frustration: “What’s happening is Nascar throwing bullshit cautions again to get an overtime finish. There was NO need for a caution for Truex!!” 

The Michigan race marked the 9th race this year that went into overtime. So Another fan quipped that the sport’s officials seem to have a soft corner for this overhyped rule–“I think NASCAR just loves overtime.”

The sheer number of times that the same finishing story has unfolded this year is mind-boggling. Before the crazy Nashville race, NASCAR saw five overtime periods only once—the 2018 Xfinity race in Daytona. So the consecutive overtime races, and officials overlooking Austin Cindric’s wreck earlier, surprised one fan. “It’s getting repelling at this point. 3 straight races with overtime. What makes it worse is there was similar moment with Cindric early in the race but NASCAR didn’t throw a yellow.”

Some exasperated fans suggested possible changes to this dilemma. The racing product is turning drab in favor of following the rules to the letter. So someone suggested a replacement for the 2017 overtime rule: “Kill the Overtime rule. Have stage cautions stand behind it to save bullets.” 

Another fan drew up a hilarious scenario. Given NASCAR’s pace in drawing up overtime periods in races, very soon a special rule will cater to that specifically. And it would even have a special flag alongside the usual yellow and green ones. “New rule for NASCAR in 2025: with 2 laps to go in all races, officials with throw the yellow flag to set up overtime. Might introduce a new flag called the overtime flag. (Flag will be a yellow and black checkered flag).” While there isn’t a specific “overtime flag” like the one described, the idea of introducing a new flag to signal overtime is an intriguing concept!

Evidently, the overtime stories are falling out of favor with the NASCAR fanbase. Let’s see if the officials can work on tweaking the climactic narrative a little bit in future races.