NASCAR decided to take away the stage cautions for road course racing during the 2023 season and it was on full display at Circuit of the Americas last weekend. It was a welcomed sight to many race fans as they have grown to dislike the long breaks between green-flag racing.
The elimination of stage cautions at road courses also brought up another interesting question. Why does NASCAR need to have stage cautions on oval tracks and could the sport simply scratch stage racing?
There are several valid points on each side of the argument; however, one NASCAR owner talked about stage racing and it could be the same opinion that many drivers within the garage area share overall.
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NASCAR owner discusses the future of stage racing in the sport
NASCAR introduced stage racing in an effort to break up the events and award points to those who were in the top 10 spots at a certain point. This allows drives to be rewarded for consistency during the race instead of the points only being given out at the end.
Some NASCAR fans have not enjoyed the change and would prefer to go back to the old format while others enjoy the breaks. This helps creates more entertainment as drivers fight for points throughout the entire event.
Denny Hamlin, the owner of 23XI Racing, talked about stage racing on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, and debated whether NASCAR could go away with it in the future. Hamlin was pretty blunt in his response to the situation.
“The stage racing has to stay. Absolutely has to stay. It was put in place because our TV partners didn’t know when a caution was going to come so they could start airing commercials. We have to air the commercials which is why you see they try to front-load them as much as they can to give us the most green flag racing at the end of the races as possible…it’s an absolute must.”
Denny Hamlin on the future of stage racing in NASCAR
Honestly, Hamlin is completely right. The idea of stage racing helps the networks with commercials and allows the audience to see more green-flag racing. Without stages, there would be less green-flag racing shown on television.
The same idea applies to road courses with no stage cautions. At least the networks have a point in time where they can say, “OK, let’s put a commercial at the start of Stage 2 even if there is no caution.”
Plus, the idea of handing out points throughout the entire race is really smart. It rewards consistency and allows a driver to still earn some points if they were to have a rough second half of the race.
It feels like stage racing is here to stay and that is a good thing. There could be some changes along the way but NASCAR is better off having stage racing for several reasons that were listed above.