Stage break cautions to return on the Roval
NASCAR will revert to throwing cautions on the finish of the stage breaks when the Xfinity Sequence and Cup Sequence return to the Charlotte Roval subsequent month for its playoff races.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice chairman of competitors, introduced the change on Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Sawyer pointed to constant officiating as the rationale.
“I’m positive the query from our followers and even our rivals is, why do this now?” Sawyer mentioned. “Properly, one motive is that we need to be sure that all through the playoffs, within the 10-race Cup Sequence playoffs, we had been officiating throughout the board the identical method. So, now we will probably be. All of our races can have warning stage breaks that features the Roval.
“In all probability crucial a part of this decision-making was, in the event you look again at our 5 earlier street course races, though they had been aggressive, there have been some that felt like there have been some issues we may do otherwise – clearly going again to the warning stage breaks – that may make our races higher.
“So, we had the choice to drag that lever working intently with our broadcast companions, our of us at Speedway Motorsports in Charlotte, and our business stakeholders.
“It felt just like the timing was proper to do this as we head into the playoffs and end out the primary spherical, and head into the second spherical.”
Trade suggestions about having extra technique choices with the race enjoying out naturally resulted in NASCAR going away from stage breaks coming into the season. The 5 street course races within the common season performed out naturally, with NASCAR awarding factors to the highest 10 drivers on the designated stage, however the race didn’t cease.
Indianapolis and Watkins Glen had been the shortest of the street course races. Indianapolis had one pure warning and ran in two hours, 9 minutes. Watkins Glen additionally had one warning and completed in a single hour, 58 minutes.
Along with asserting the return of stage breaks, Sawyer additionally confirmed the restart zone location will probably be moved in hopes of spreading the sector out earlier than the primary flip (the place there have been multicar crashes on restarts previously).
For the Charlotte race, which would be the elimination race of the second spherical, it will likely be on the exit of the frontstretch chicane.
“One factor we checked out so far as the street programs, we had a scenario at Indy a few years in the past the place late restarts we put our drivers in a nasty spot the place they’re 5 and 6 vast,” Sawyer mentioned. “Which is nice, it’s nice racing, however it additionally turns into a nasty spot for them, and it tears up lots of autos, and we are able to find yourself with a number of additional time restarts. So, we modified that at Indy this 12 months. The rivals actually favored that, felt prefer it gave us nice racing. In addition to (at) Chicago, as we fall again there.
“It’ll give us a bit of little bit of separation within the first two or three rows as they head off into Flip 1. So, enthusiastic about these two changes for the Roval and looking out ahead to a fantastic race there as we head off into the second spherical.”
