FIVE REASONS WHY NASCAR SHOULD GET RID OF ITS STAGE RACING
Fifteen years ago I use to absolutely love NASCAR. I actually got into it because of its Playstation games from EA Sports and as most of you fans know Supercars legend Marcos Ambrose also raced in NASCAR for a brief period of time in the states. That’s actually how I fell in love with it.
Now a lot has changed in NASCAR since then. Back when I began watching it was a lot more simple to follow and the points weren’t some mathematical mind-field that even the average joe struggles to stay attracted to just to keep in tune with what is going on.
I don’t really know where to start with NASCAR as a product because for the average fan from the outside it still looks fun to watch, but there’s so much fake drama being manufactured. NASCAR, if one of your PR reps ever reads this please take some advice from an avid motorsport fan who’s also a competitive driver himself, that many of us just likes things to be simple, we don’t need the added stress of manufactured drama and the complexities it brings.
Now forgive me here, *prays to the racing gods*, but I might just ramble in frustration because I’m so passionate about NASCAR getting it’s mojo back! Hopefully one of their PR reps reads this article if it gets shared enough and into the right hands.
In my opinion I think “stage racing” has killed my beloved NASCAR as a race fan. I regularly sit in front of the TV and watch two-three hour broadcasts of Formula One and even INDYCAR because it’s simple to watch. You know how the championship works along with its points structure all you need to focus on is hoping to watch a great race.
Let me go through five reasons why NASCAR should get rid of its stage racing.
#1 STAGE RACING
Stage racing was meant to create excitement with more restarts, more crashes and high intense action in pocket bursts for the fans, but what it has really done is created less excitement and less things happening out on track. I feel like with stage racing it has taken some of the fun away from the sport resulting in fewer exciting moments. Sometimes those moments result in crashes and closer finishes, which is okay! That is part of NASCAR as a product and part of being a spectator, which helps sell merchandise.
Also, the points battles in the standings are so confusing! You literally need to be a mathematical computer wiz genius to figure out who’s doing what, who’s won what and who is going to make the playoffs.
I hate this part of NASCAR so much! Just picture me crying, screaming and punching a drywall, breathe! Years ago they had a simple version called “The Chase for the Cup”, where we knew how many points you'd get for finishing in whatever position you were in, PERIOD! Now you have to factor in stage points. It's too confusing for the fans to watch and all of the drivers are trying to make TOP 16 in points, which is nearly half the drivers in the field trying to make the playoffs!
For anyone who doesn’t really watch NASCAR that’s like you getting given a trophy for literally just finishing a race, which also means you don’t have to even really try hard to race to begin with. Welcome to the 21st century for getting given a trophy for just about anything people! You can literally just hang in there and still make the championship playoffs if you happen to be in the right position to win a race or even a “stage” race.
I actually liked the idea in the beginning don’t get me wrong, but it has not worked out. It's ruining the product and NASCAR really needs to just scrap it going forward into 2022 with the next-gen car.
#2 SCRAP THE PLAYOFFS - MOTORSPORTS IS NOT AMERICAN FOOTBALL WE DON’T NEED PLAYOFFS!
I touched on the playoffs above with the stage racing. The playoffs are less exciting because there is so many goddamn playoff points getting awarded! It feels like Oprah is giving everybody stage points to anyone who drives a car out there.
“YOU GET A POINT, NO YOU GET A POINT, WE ALL GET POINTS!”
That also makes it confusing with the playoff points. You should just get one playoff point, maybe two for winning the actual race, then there is no more championship points to anyone please!
I mean you literally get half of everything for winning a stage, which isn’t even the actual race to the chequered flag. HOLY SHIT! Anyway, do you see where I’m coming from NASCAR? There are so many things wrong with NASCAR right now, but stage racing is one of the biggest! It is silly and really doesn't make any sense at all.
What I think they need to do is scrap the playoffs, chase for the cup or whatever else they want to call it entirely. Make it simple! Bring back the way it was in 1975-2010, but just to a lesser extent because they get fields of 40 cars these days not 43.
In the 1975 season, a new scoring system was introduced, created by Bob Latford. Equal points are awarded in all races, regardless of their length or the purse. (The following information was taken off Wikipedia when you research the NASCAR points system)
Points would start at 175 then there would be five point gap, between rank 6 and 11 were 4 points gaps and below rank 11 - 3 points gaps respectively and so on.
In the point scoring system back then, there were points up to 54th place. These were not all awarded to the drivers though and there would be minimal points at that (drivers points were only awarded to drivers who actually qualified for a race, so depending on the race and year anywhere from 30-something up to 43 drivers might score points). Points were also awarded to owners, and these were awarded in order of qualifying time to cars which did not qualify for a race (say if 43 cars qualify for that very race, and three DNQ (did not qualify), those three cars would get 40, 37, and 34 points). Owner points were also used to determine provisional starting positions, starting order when qualifying washed out.
Along with the points based on the finishing position, a driver who leads at least one lap in a race would be credited 5 bonus points. Along with the 5 bonus points, only one driver in a race would receive an additional 5 bonus points for leading the most laps, so the driver who led the most would receive 10 bonus points altogether.
Also, no playoffs where really around in 1975 so it was who had the biggest balls and the most consistency would end up taking home the championship trophy. Or NASCAR could revert to a European Formula One style points structure. In Formula One, points are awarded to drivers and teams based on where they finish in a race. The grand prix winner gets awarded 25 points, then the second-place finisher gets 18 points and then it goes down from there with 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points from positions 3 through 10. One additional point is then awarded to the driver and team for the fastest lap of the race, but only if they finish inside the top 10 positions. If a race has to be abandoned before 75% of the race has been completed all the points are then halved. In a dead heat or they can’t decide who has won prizes and points are then added together and shared equally for all those drivers if it ends as a tie. The winner of the actual championship is the driver or team, for the Constructors Championship with the most points at the end of the season. If the number of points is the same, priority is given to the driver with the most wins. If that is the same it will be decided on the most second places and so on.
#3 MAKE NASCAR RACING SIMPLE AGAIN
NASCAR really needs to go back to basics here, which they’re actually beginning to do with the next-gen car. The car that has been designed so more teams and drivers can race at the highest cup level because in this economy there’s less back marker teams and only big teams like Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) , Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) and Stewart HAAS Racing (Ford) running the show these days.
Having one race go for two-three hours with no silly stage racing will simplify the race and probably make organic drama happen out on track. The more time you rest a race driver and car the less action will happen, which has been pointed out in my above explanations. Hopefully, with this next-gen car coming through through more teams and cars will enter and we might even get some good ol’ start and parks back in action, so the lower tier teams enter just to qualify for the race (I’ll touch on that down below).
Let’s be real, you really want a simple points structure and simple racing at the end of the day. That way it is easy to ramble on to people about why they should get into watching the sport again because right now that is NASCAR’s biggest red flag. No one is really watching it because it has been on a downward spiral ever since this bloody stage racing and confusing points system came in. When I went over to watch NASCAR back in 2010, you’d have to pre-purchase tickets and park miles away just watch the race live. These days from what I’ve heard and seen on YouTube you can literally park anywhere and walk right in because there is less of a crowd around now. I’m talking pre-COVID/2018-2019 here and this is why the sport needs to become more simple.
#4 BRING BACK QUALIFYING TO EVERY SINGLE RACE
I love qualifying! It really separates the men and women from the boys and girls. This only happened recently because of COVID-19, where NASCAR just dropped qualifying because they had to go to as many tracks as possible in a short amount of time during this pandemic, but now the world is beginning to take shape again. I also feel that stage racing has even created a knock on effect that leads into this subject.
They need to bring qualifying back especially with the next-gen car because more cars might be turning up to the show and want to qualify, but theres only 40 spots available now, not 43 like before the rule change. You can’t have new teams buying more cars and not being able to race because they can’t qualify.
Bring back one-shot qualifying, where you do one lap on your own going as fast as possible. If you’re not a team in the TOP 35 points, then you have the chance to qualify. These days there is no anticipation in the lead up to these events because they literally hop right into the race based on how they finished the weekend before or it is based on championship points. For the dirt tracks that NASCAR races on, how about you qualify via heats of 10 cars and only the top 25 make it into the main race? Whilst I’m touching on this subject, NASCAR on dirt around Bristol Motor Speedway doesn’t work so bring it to an authentic speedway instead like Eldora or somewhere along those lines. However, that’s a debate for another post.
I believe you want your drivers to fight for every position in qualifying! Bring back the excitement NASCAR! I want to see 55-60 cars go qualifying again. The sport needs underdogs and underfunded teams because thats what draws in fans!
#5 SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?
With all the new rule changes coming in every year and stage racing, which is still totally fucking stupid if you ask me and many races turning into destruction derbies which is at your local speedway down the road because they race for only mini-parts of the race now and not the whole thing which they do everywhere across the world. Some might say, NASCAR has become unwatchable to the regular viewer. NASCAR is losing fans in droves because of this problem. The random rule changes and stages, as we all know, were just an attempt to make the sport more relevant again as viewership and the fan base slowly has declined from its peak more than a decade ago. One of the most infuriating new rules is the "overtime line" and it leaves fans screaming at their TVs with confusion. The overtime line, for those of you who don't know, it is a made up, imaginary line that dictates the end of a race should that race go beyond its scheduled racing distance. Essentially, this makes it like injury time in football. Again, motorsports is not American Football so, stop trying to turn NASCAR into the NFL!
The overtime itself is stupid because it discredits the potential for a dominating performance by a certain driver and in motorsports that happens. NASCAR has done all it can to manufacture close racing with all these dumbass rules that nobody asked for in the first place. These days, I think they're starting to get the message from its diminishing fan base because they just changed the overtime line in recent years to be the actual start/finish line now instead of something that’s not in fucking Narnia or some show you just watched on the Disney channel, where it was previously languishing around.
If they just let them race, maybe they would start getting some passionate fans back. Better yet, maybe just finish the race under caution instead of this forced competitiveness because of the situation that has been pushed down the viewers throats. Please NASCAR don't throw cautions from seeing “chip packet” blow across onto the track. Everyone can see through your bullshit! So just get rid of your stage racing and fake drama then we can actually finally enjoy what we’ve been missing out on for many years, which other motorsports seem to be completely fine with and that’s just genuine racing with no Disney channel added as a DLC.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little blog. I’ve been out of action for a few weeks due to some health issues that have gotten in the way of my writing and podcasting. But, I will be debuting “On the Couch with Hooly” very soon and “The Right Formula with Dan and Phil” will be returning with a similar, but different format going forward.
Share your thoughts on NASCAR in the comments below. I would love to hear from you!
See you next time DH.
