NASCAR, drivers, and teams often find themselves at odds over various aspects of the sport, including the charter system and the rules that shift like sand. And as such, another topic of debate is stage break cautions. These planned interruptions in road course races, meant to add excitement and strategy, have always drawn mixed reactions from everyone. 

NASCAR did end up removing stage-break cautions from road courses to improve pit strategy scenarios, as they said. And not just the teams, but even fans heaved a sigh of relief. But alas, it came back, becoming a heated topic again. Tyler Reddick and Michael Mcdowell recently weighed in and they didn’t mince their words. 

Tyler Reddick calls out NASCAR for aiming to create chaos!

Have you heard the saying, “Caution creates cautions”? Well, it perfectly describes the situation with stage breaks returning to road courses. While they were removed, they have been brought back because of a few bad runs last year at Sonoma and Watkin Glens and NASCAR believes no-stage breaks are the reason. Without stage break cautions, the race seemed to lack “drama” and NASCAR believes that’s what fans and television partners want. 

But many have spoken against it time and again. This time too at Chicago, the stage break cautions seemed to have rubbed some drivers the wrong way. When reporters asked Michael McDowell about the second stage and all the caution laps, he kept his firm stance on it. He said, “I say, at all the road courses, remove the stage breaks again. That was more fun. Let’s do that.  I don’t think we need the breaks here because they sort of have an organic flow at the road courses. I really do. Indy was an anomaly, right, obviously.” And to add to that, he said, “I don’t think it’s super organic as far as it all plays out. I think the fastest car should win, and stage breaks take that away.”

Well, one of the drivers of the fastest car in Chicago, Tyler Reddick, was just seated beside him and didn’t hesitate in backing him up. According to Reddick, it just takes away the strategy, and he openly called out NASCAR for wanting chaos, painting a clear picture of what the authorities want from these races. Tyler Reddick said, “I’m kinda with Mike, alright, that stage breaks take away from the strategy a bit. But obviously, they want to see restarts, want to see chaos, some controlled chaos, I guess. So in the situation given today, half of them would be happy about it, and the other half upset.”

These similar views were also highlighted by a veteran reporter, Jordon Bianchi. In an interview with Athletic last year, he said the return of the stage break cautions was predictable, and he too said the lack of chaos may have something to do with it. He said, “It felt inevitable that NASCAR would change its mind on doing away with stage breaks on road courses. The lack of chaos and caution at these races was noticeable, and there is now a greater possibility to generate what NASCAR must feel its fans and television partner(s) seek. That doesn’t, however, mean this is the right decision.” 

Not everyone is siding with NASCAR on this matter. As Reddick said, there are always going to be situations where half of the people are happy about it and half not. For Reddick, today’s race was particularly heartbreaking, as he was pretty close to taking the checkered flag first!

Another near miss for Reddick

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At the Chicago race, Shane van Gisbergen was the dominant force, but his early exit left the field wide open. With the top choice for the winner out of the way, the remaining drivers likely felt a surge of confidence in their chances of taking the win home. Tyler Reddick did pretty well himself and finished in second place. But he isn’t too happy about it! However, nothing to be surprised at. It’s only natural that frustration would set in, given his repeated close calls with victory. 

When the race restarted for the final stretch, he was in 13th place. He gained 11 spots over five laps—no minor feat. And on the final lap, he was battling it out with Alex Bowman and he did end up bridging a significant gap. Everyone thought he was going to overtake him, but alas. But in the heat of the moment, Reddick’s zeal to win got the better of him. A slight mistake in turns 4 and 5 saw him brush against the wall, losing all his hard-won hopes. Certainly, as drivers race, one lapse in focus can turn a sure win into a missed opportunity. That’s the harsh reality of racing!

A similar close brush with victory happened to him at Nashville and there, he even lost the p2 position as Zane Smith had found an opening and finished before him. He ended up P3 last week and P2 this time, one spot gained, and it remains to see if he can come out p1 at the next race!

Reddick also told Speedway Digest that he could have gotten the win at Chicago but the mistake just killed his momentum. However, Reddick has been consistently showing great performance and now he is just 23 points behind race leader Kyle Larson.