By Richard Tix
This season NASCAR decided to shake it up a bit an introduced "stages" to the weekly NASCAR race. Once again, us fans will have to adjust to another point's change in racing and have to decide if we like it or hate it -- or maybe we fall in between. So, Behind the Wall has decided to do a three part piece -- get it, because NASCAR has three stages? Yeah, I know I'm not very funny. These will 100% be opinion pieces so you may feel different at the end of the day. First up is initial judgment after Daytona, then we will take a look after the intermediates (AMS and LVMS), and finally after we get a shorter track in (PIR). At that point we should have an understanding how this stuff will work out.
Stage One:
Lets set the stage -- get it? Alright maybe I should leave the comedy act alone for awhile.... Anyways let's get on with the facts. Before the season NASCAR once again announced upcoming changes to the point structure for the new 2017 season. The change all revolved around these things called "stages." The press announcement was a bit awkward when Brian France handed it over to Steve O'Donnell almost immediately after he spoke into the mic and then it turned to confusion when Steve started "explaining" the changes.
Everything seemed to be laid out very quick leaving most fans asking, "what did he mean by -- ." Everything was explained using new terminology that has not previously been a part of NASCAR and that most fans were a bit taken back by and instead of dumbing it down, NASCAR just went on like everyone would get it without needing more explanation.
Basically, the races will be broken down into stages. Each race will have three stages and they will end around the same time at each track -- 25% of the race, 25% of the race, and 50% of the race makes up most segments/stages. At the end of stage one and two the top ten get points -- 10 for first, 9 for second, and so on. Those points go into the regular season points but will not carry into the Playoff. The big part in these changes is each segment winner gets one point for winning stages one and two and five points for winning the race (last stage). Those stage winning bonus points will carry into the Playoffs and follow the driver into each round until Miami where the last four are head to head and points go out the window.
What this all means? Well, winning stages will mean that your regular season success and consistency will mean more in the big picture because it will really help the best drivers all season long advance in the Playoff's.
My initial reaction when the changes were announced was shock, as would most anyone's because it was a big change. Off the bat I was open minded and willing to give it a shot which is how I handle many changes in NASCAR -- I mean, what would my outrage really change? Nothing. So, I headed into Daytona with an open mind about the new structure.
Daytona came with a bang, boom, and crash, literally. The Daytona 500 was littered with wrecks and many fans quickly blamed the new stages on social media. It was the easy thing to do for fans, but what they were looking past were a couple key takeaways.
Second, almost none of these wreck's in the Cup race happened in the first two stages -- especially the closing of those said stages. We were pretty clean most of the day when one would expect stages to cause accidents -- meaning if stages caused them they should have come in the closing laps of the stage when guys were getting antsy.
In fact, most of the wreck's last Sunday can be attributed to common mistakes that happen every single year at plate racing. Guys pushing guys too hard, guys making moves they shouldn't, tires blowing out, and just aggressive racing by a few were the main factors in the carnage, not stages.
So, my initial thought on stages after Daytona is that plate tracks are a terrible place to judge this format and they always will. When you have a gimmicky style of racing (plate racing) that always leads to a crap shoot it will give you weird results. Within those results it leads you to almost no answer on if these stages will work or not. I can't sit here and tell you they won't work out and I also can't tell you they will even though I am in favor of them so far, its inconclusive after such an unpredictable style of racing.
Obviously, one race is never make or break when it comes to a change but many out there in the social media world have already given up on this new idea and to me that's plain crazy. We haven't even seen it played out like it's intended to be played out.
So, this is only stage one. Next up we get Atlanta and Las Vegas, two 1.5 mile tracks which dominate the NASCAR schedule to help us better mold an opinion. These two tracks will give fans a more basic and honest answer to how stages will work in 2017. The final stage will be after Phoenix where we get to judge it on a short track.
For now, the jury is still out on the new points format but I think we should all be giving it a chance since no one, including NASCAR, really know's how well or how poor it may work out in the long haul.
