NASCAR News: NASCAR Makes Massive Road Course Change on Stages, and Fans Are Furious

NASCAR has just rolled out the stage lengths for the 2024 Cup series, and guess what? There’s a new change coming up. Remember how stage racing became a thing in 2017? Well, they tweaked it a bit for road and street courses in the seventh season, back in 2023. And now, they’re shaking things up again.

This time, the spotlight’s again on road racing. According to the latest tweet from Bob Pockrass, the 2024 season is set to bring back the mandated caution of stages at road course races in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, fans aren’t very happy about it.

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Back in February 2023, NASCAR dropped a bombshell before the season kicked off, as they decided to ditch the stage break cautions at road and street courses, aiming for a more seamless flow in each event. However, the races still had their stages, but they scrapped the idea of throwing a caution flag at the end of each, opting to just hand out points to the top 10 in the running order.

Without those stage break interruptions, the last two Cup road course races—at the Indy Road Course and Watkins Glen in New York—each saw just one caution. These races wrapped up in just a smidge over two hours. But now, for the 2024 season, NASCAR’s doing a U-turn and bringing back those cautions and stage breaks.

In the mid-2023 season, they already tested the waters by reintroducing cautions for the Charlotte Roval Race. The reasons given by Elton Sawyer, then, for Charlotte are likely the same ones driving this broader change: striving for consistency in race officiating and jazzing up the races.

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From 2017 to 2022, stage breaks in road course races added a spicy wrench of strategy. Teams had the playbook; they knew exactly when the yellow flag would wave and planned their moves like chess masters. Some pitted before the stage ended to leapfrog into position for the next round, while others hung in there to rack up stage points.

But the unpredictability of not knowing when that yellow flag would pop up also snatched away a piece of the strategic puzzle. Now, with these changes back in play, fans are up in arms, steaming over the flip-flop in the rules.

Fans give the stock car racing organization a piece of their mind over recent changes

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NASCAR’s decision to bring back cautions at the end of stages on road courses has ruffled some feathers. One fan, clearly not thrilled, lamented, “Just ruined my whole week, Bob.” Well, their mood took a nosedive.

Another fan, looking back at the caution-filled days from 2017 to 2022, couldn’t hide their frustration: “Why does nascar not learn. They should have gotten rid of all stage cautions.” Then there was the fan who couldn’t resist a sarcastic quip: “Need 20 stage cautions per race. 10 lap shootouts all day.” Another fan didn’t mince words, keeping it short and bitter: “Stages SUCK.”

There was also the fan who just wanted to see a race flow naturally, especially on road courses. They shared, “I don’t mind the stages, just wish they’d let the race play out naturally on road courses. What was really the issue with that?” And then there was a straightforward critic: “Hate this. Hate wasting laps under yellow for no reason, hate artificially influencing strategy, hate artificially packing the field. Cup’s biggest problem is that most races take too long, and stage breaks only make it worse.”

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When one boils it down, stage breaks seem to be nothing more than a tactic to bunch the cars up at certain times, aiming for tighter racing. While NASCAR might see the upside in such a strategy, it’s no shock that fans who only tune in for the final stage are voicing their displeasure loud and clear.