NASCAR 2025 Schedule: Fans Furious at NASCAR’s “Dumb” Decision to Delay Playoff Race

For the most part, the NASCAR community appreciated the effort put in by the sanctioning body with the 2025 schedule. With the return to historic venues and international events in Mexico, it was the perfect balance of catering to the traditional as well as new NASCAR fans. But the latest development regarding the timing of the fall events during the playoffs seems to have caused quite a stir.

The timing of the NASCAR events is crucial, as not all the racetracks on the schedule have lights for a night race. Almost all major NASCAR venues have undergone changes and are now open for night events. But the likes of Talladega Superspeedway and Brickyard still haven’t been set up with lights. This is why NASCAR’s latest move has quickly become a major talking point.

Bob Pockrass from FOX Sports wrote this on X: “Let me clarify this is the truck race — NASCAR announced a time change for the Talladega truck race in October (Oct 17), that it will now begin at 4pm ET instead of 3:30 p ET.” A lot of fans misunderstood this timing with the Cup Series playoff race, but this update cleared all doubts.

Although Truck Series races are relatively short, a 4 pm start time at Talladega in October is certainly sketchy, to say the least. Now we all know NASCAR doesn’t race without the lights, and this would likely see them call the race official without running the scheduled laps. Fans certainly were livid with the decision and took to social media to express their opinions about tweaking the timings of the Truck Series playoff event.

Fans react to NASCAR’s ingenious idea of tweaking race time at Talladega

It has to be noted that the Truck Series playoff race at Dega is 85 laps long and divided into three stages. The first two stages will be 20 laps each, and the final stage will comprise 45 laps. However, the Truck Series race on a track like Talladega is likely to bring out multiple cautions and wrecks. This will only eat up more time from the race, further pushing the fate of the race with a limited amount of daylight. “Yeah, we all know there’s gonna be a red flag for some big crash in the race and then we’ll be fighting daylight because it’s in the middle of October. Ik dega can’t have lights. But would be cool if they did.”

NASCAR has brought in a new rule that they set out a timer in case there are any rain delays or red flags that bring the race to a halt. Now, this timer is put to use at the facilities without the lights, and it was used at the Chicago Street race. But, still, the 4 pm start time wasn’t convincing enough for the fans, “It’s still to long for a truck race cause it’s always a wreck fest and takes forever to cleanup.”

Some fans didn’t pull punches in calling out the decision-makers at NASCAR for purposefully creating chaos and drama. Going by the weather statistics online, the sunset timing in Talladega in October is around 5:55 pm. This is why the newly tweaked timing of the playoff race has got this race fan fuming. “Are people who run this sport or times just dumb? I don’t get it. Unless Dega is getting lights that’s really late for a fall race.”

There were reports about NASCAR using artificial intelligence to improve their on-track product and tweak the racing format. Not sure if they have made use of AI to bring about these changes in the schedule. But this race couldn’t help but bring this to light given how illogical the new timings for the Dega race were set up. “Probably the ai that nascar is talking to instead of people that actually watch the races.”

One of the factors that might have forced NASCAR’s hand is a potential clash with NFL games, which might result in a dip in TV ratings. But this fan wasn’t bothered about it, as the NFL usually does well in terms of ratings. He even proposed a new time that could suit the Truck race at Talladega. “Stupid, these people do not know what the hell their doing. All the Fall races should start no later than 2pm. EST. especially if the track doesn’t have lights.”

What is your take on NASCAR’s new changes surrounding the Truck Series playoff race timing at Talladega?