Catching up on the 2016 NASCAR Changes

A Quick Review of the Offseason Moves and Changes

By Richard Tix

Another NASCAR offseason has come and gone and just like any other year, it is hard to keep track of all the moves and changes. It always takes a few races for fans to adjust to driver's in new cars and with new teams, so this year NASCAR Behind the Wall is here to help. 

Driver Moves

• #7 Regan Smith in the #7 (Alex Bowman no Cup ride in 2016)
• #14 Brian Vickers to run Daytona 500 for Tony Stewart. Ty Dillon to also run select races in the #14
• #15 Clint Bowyer moved to HScott Motorsports. Changed from #51 to #15. (Justin Allgaier no Cup ride in 2016)
• #21 Ryan Blaney to run full time in the #21 Wood Brothers ride.
• #23 David Ragan joins BK Racing in the #23
• #24 Chase Elliott takes over for the retired Jeff Gordon (Chase was in the 25 for select races in 2015)
• #34 Rookie Chris Buescher takes over the 34 at FRM
• #38 Landon Cassill moves from the #40 of Hillman to #38 at FRM
• #40 Reed Sorenson will be in the 40 for the Daytona 500. 
• #44 The #9 was changed to the #44 and Hornish Jr was replaced by Brian Scott for 2016 (more on the #44 in NASCAR here)
• #95 Ty Dillon will run 5 races in the #95 (including the Daytona 500). Michael McDowell will run the remaining schedule. He will be in the #59 for the 500.
• #98 Cole Whitt will run the #98 for Premium Motorsports

Rules and News

• NASCAR implements Charter System (more following this link)
• 36 cars get a Charter. All 36 are guaranteed a spot in each race.
• 9 year deal
• Field cut from 43 cars to 40
• Four open spots go to fastest non Charter teams in qualifying
• Only way to get a Charter is to buy one from an existing team
• NASCAR Overtime Line (more following this link)
• Line at each track. After G-W-C flies, leader must cross this line before a real "clean start" is achieved.
• Once a clean start is reached they finish the race, or a yellow brings the race to a finish and the field freezes as it was at the yellow. 
• NASCAR will attempt as many restarts as it takes to get a "clean start."
• Points Adjustment (more following this link)
• First place now gets 40 points, second 39, and so on down the finishing order.
• Bonus points are still added to finish position points like in the past
• Caution Clock in the Truck Series
• If they series runs green for 20 min a competition caution will fly
• New Chase format brought to the Xfinity and Truck Series
• Plenty of sponsor changes for teams and drivers. (find out more about this changes here)
• New 2016 NASCAR Paint Scheme's have been released and will continue to come out. (2016 NASCAR Paint Scheme Page)
• NASCAR Rookie of the Year Race
• Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Brian Scott, Chris Buescher, among others to compete for ROY (more on the 2016 ROY battle here)
• Tony Stewart's last full time season
• A look back at his career in the Cup Series here.

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.