AUSTIN, Texas — NASCAR’s weekend at Circuit of the Americas isn’t an ordinary one, as it’s the first time since 2016 where a race didn’t have stage cautions.
As part of a new implementation on road courses in the 2023 season, stage points and stages will still be implemented — there just won’t be a caution immediately after.
The change was implemented as the leaders would typically have to pit before the end of a stage and sacrifice stage points in order to retain their track position out front for the following restart. Cautions on road courses also have the potential to be excruciatingly long, and the absence of a stage caution would limit the amount of time that the field would be running pace laps.
With how engrained stages have become in NASCAR since 2017, this weekend is a big undertaking; there are several Cup drivers that have known nothing but stage racing in their NASCAR tenures.
And with such a change, there will be skepticism. Denny Hamlin was perhaps the biggest critic in that regard.
“We improved the sport when we got stages,” Hamlin said. “It was well thought out, the points system and all that goes with it is good, and we did this to help TV. Obviously, you need to have somewhat of a break …
“Again, if you don’t like some races, if you don’t like the old Atlanta, you won’t like no stage racing at all tracks, because [the cars] can really get strung out like that if you let it.”
Joey Logano gave a relatively neutral answer, but he also didn’t have a problem with road-course pit strategy or an occasional race reset.
“I guess, I can see both sides, right?” Logano said. “Like, when we added stage cautions to road course racing, it didn’t ruin the strategy, it just changed it. …
“I’m a fan of yellows every now and again because it resets the field and gives you some recovery opportunities. It makes big moments.”
On the other hand, Logano understood the point of view for fans that wanted to see races naturally play out without predetermined cautions.
“Obviously [at COTA], restarts are stupid,” Logano said. “You have some big moments for the fans that way, but I also see the authentic racing and letting it play out and let natural cautions happen. I guess I see both sides.”
He also recognized that extended stage cautions were a major problem.
“The part that sucks on road…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …