NASCAR: Stage racing returning for 2018, tweaks possible

NASCAR isn’t about to abandon a major change to its races that has been positively received after just one year.

Whoever makes the green and white checkered flags for NASCAR, your job is secure for the foreseeable future.

We’re talking about stage racing, where points are given out for finishing in the top 10 at designated intervals during a race in one of the sport’s top three series. Stages were introduced for the first time this year, and they’ve received mostly positive feedback from teams and fans alike.

NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell told Sirius XM Radio (vie NBC Sports) earlier this week that stage racing will be sticking around for the time being.

"“Definitely here to stay. We’ll sit down with the same group that kind of came up with that concept. We really liked what we’ve seen, and the industry does as well, the strategy that is playing out.”"

O’Donnell did say that the stage racing format could be tweaked this winter in preparation for the 2018 NASCAR season. A few of the potential changes he mentioned by name included:

• Adding more stages to some races. NASCAR experimented with this already, adding a fourth stage to the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. That made sense for the longest race on the calendar, but adding stages to races lasting 500 miles or less would be a bigger change.
• Varying the stage lengths. We’re assuming O’Donnell means just modifying the lengths of stages from one year to the next. He could also mean that the first two stages of a race might not be the same length in 2018, which would be a headache for crew chiefs in terms of strategy but could prove interesting.
• Not counting the caution laps between stages or taking them from the final stage. The one glaring weakness of the stage format as it currently stands is that there’s an automatic caution at the end of each one, and usually a fairly lengthy one. It’s a plus from a fan experience standpoint since it provides a natural break to hit the bathroom, get food, etc., but not so great for the race itself since the second stage, especially ends up artificially shortened. Not counting the laps would help greatly, though it would require an adjustment of thinking since historically, all yellow flag laps count toward the race total.

Martin Truex Jr. should be the happiest driver in the garage at this news, as he’s benefited from stages more than anyone else. Truex has won 11 stages in 2017, more than twice as many as the next closest competitor, and the bonus points he’s accumulated for doing so would make him the No. 1 seed in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs if they started today.

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In any case, this seems a wise move by NASCAR. The year after a huge change is the time for tinkering, not throwing the whole thing out and doing something else drastic, and it’s possible that a few years from now, that green and white checkered flag will feel as familiar as its black and white counterpart.