With stages being announced by NASCAR earlier this year, the governing body has now set stage lengths for races at Watkins Glen and Pocono.
NASCAR has introduced many new rules and regulations ahead of the 2017 season. One of them involves having three stages during each NASCAR race and a revamped points system rewarding drivers running well at the end of those stages. Earlier this week, NASCAR set the stage lengths for two of the tracks.
Watkins Glen, which hosts a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and an XFINITY Series race in the first week of August, is one of two tracks to have announced stage lengths. For the XFINITY race, Stage 1 and Stage 2 will be 20 laps each while the final stage lasts from laps 41-82.
On the other hand, Pocono Raceway hosts two Monster Energy races annually. The Pocono 400 on June 11 and the Pennsylvania 400 on July 30 will have identical stage set ups. Laps 81-160 cover the final stage of the race while the first two stages each last 40 laps.
The stage length consistency at both Pocono Raceway races makes sense. It’s the same track and each race lasts about 400 miles. Pocono is unique in the fact that the track is more triangular in nature than a big oval. This changes up driver strategy, but the strategy doesn’t fluctuate between both races at the track.
NASCAR is wise to start announcing stage lengths early on in pieces. It shows they aren’t hiding anything from the fans or the drivers. Likewise, this is the first year with stages embedded in a race, so there will likely be some things tweaked along the way.
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Overall, stage lengths throw a wrench into NASCAR strategy. It finally rewards those who do well throughout the race but may get knocked out later on. These announcements by NASCAR should happen on a consistent basis for other races.