It has been slightly over eight years since NASCAR introduced stage racing. The controversial racing method by which the field is reset in regular intervals is still not favored by many. They contend that it prevents the natural flow of races and eventually affects the outcome. However, NASCAR has its reasons for following it.
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Racing isn’t a sport such as basketball or football, which have predetermined intervals. It needs forced breaks for NASCAR to advertise its sponsors and make money. The promotion just throws a blanket on this intent by calling the breaks an opportunity for teams and drivers to draw up strategies based on how their day is going.
January 23, 2017: NASCAR announced the creation of , dividing all races into three stages, with cautions in-between, and points awarded to the top-10 stage finishers pic.twitter.com/whTwVlcBmx
— nascarman (@nascarman_rr) January 23, 2025
In a recent discussion on X, fans expressed their displeasure with this system and called for a return to the old ways. One fan wrote below a video of the announcement being made in 2017, “One of the worst decisions NASCAR has ever made. Fans don’t like it, it is too hard to keep up with. Go back to the old system.” Another added, “And that is how NASCAR died.”
Stages are dumb
— Bob Dow (@Bob_Dow90) January 23, 2025
A comment doubled down on the attack and said, “One of the most detrimental acts in the history of sports.” Several other opinions on these lines made it clear that manufactured cautions are not in favor of the fandom’s expectations. However, it is highly unlikely that NASCAR will opt to go down a different route.
Was NASCAR’s former VP wrong about fans accepting stage breaks?
After just 24 races in the 2017 season, NASCAR’s former Vice President of Competition, Scott Miller, stated to the press, “I know that fan response initially wasn’t all positive, but I think as the season has worn on and they’ve seen the benefits of the increased action around the stage finishes, I think that by and large, most everybody is in support of the stage racing.”
There is a big crowd that has come to accept the stage racing method since then. But NASCAR’s experimentation with adding and removing stage breaks on road courses in 2023 proves that there are still problems with it. Evolution and adaptation to the changing expectations of fans is how any sporting body survives.
NASCAR is not in the green in this regard. There are many areas in which it still needs to appease fans and breaks during races are one of them. It will do well to keep the benefits of the stage racing method and balance it with what the fandom wants.
