2016 NASCAR Competition Rule Changes

NASCAR Qualifying, Points, and G-W-C Rule Changes to 2016

By Richard Tix

Another season and another set of rule changes, or tweaks, to get the season rolling. After the release of the all new Charter System (NASCAR Implements New Charter System), NASCAR had some rules that had to be changed to correspond and make sense with that move.

One of those moves was to adjust the Duel and Qualifying rules to coincide with the new Charters. The 36 Charter teams will automatically be locked into the Daytona 500 (and every race this season) but will still run for a starting spot in Qualifying and the Duel. The top two qualifiers (Charter or Open) will still lock in a pole spot in each Duel and also a front row spot for the Daytona 500 (as it has been).

The Duel will still be sorted out by qualifying speeds to determine who is in which Duel. However, the top two "Open Teams" to qualify will each get one of the open spots for the Daytona 500 (remember, 36 Charters and 40 total spots, so four are up for grabs).

The other two "Open Team" spots go to the highest finishing non Charter team in the each Duel (one from each). So the four spots have two very different ways to have an Open Team get locked in. In every other race qualifying will help set the starting order and also the last four "open team" spots.

With the move to 40 cars NASCAR has also brought in a new points structure (just a tweak) to make more sense with the amount of cars on the track. Points now start at 40 points for 1st, 39 for 2nd, and so forth down the line. This total does not include bonus points awarded to the winner, or those awarded for leading the most laps or leading a single lap (all the same as last season).

The last issue that was changed was far from one needing a fix because of the Charter System, this one was to try and find a correction for a big complaint on restarts in recent years.

The "Overtime Line" is the new term that will become a punch line in 2016. This will help decide when a G-W-C is valid or when they will try again. The line that is adjusted per track, will be a line that must be reached in order to have what NASCAR calls a "clean restart" after the green is thrown on a restart. Once the leader gets to that line, any caution that may follow will conclude (end) the race.

If they do not get to the line, another restart maybe attempted and repeated until the field cleanly reaches the "overtime line." If they do reach the line they can finish the race under green as normal, or as stated before a yellow would end the race when thrown and "freezes" the field as the order they were in.

We all knew the changes in qualifying were coming because of the Charter system, so the G-W-C was the only major change of the day. I am sure the new "overtime line" will at least side track a few people from complaining about the Charter and they will now focus on the new late race rule. It will be interesting to see play out and see where each tracks line is placed (and also how often it comes into play). All in all, NASCAR Teams and Drivers just have new rules to play by and will have to adjust moving forward, so will we.