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NASCAR: 5 Predictions For The Monster Energy Cup Series Kobalt 400

By Michael Guadalupe

Mar 6, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers make their way around the track during the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 6, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers make their way around the track during the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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Stages will be something fans will deal with all season. Hopefully NASCAR can see that stages don’t impact the race and are a waste of time. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports
Stages will be something fans will deal with all season. Hopefully NASCAR can see that stages don’t impact the race and are a waste of time. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports /

Stages Continue to Have No Impact on Racing

Stages have been an interesting addition to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

While they might seem out of place as the bring a race to a halt under a caution flag when a stage ends, stages reward drivers for doing well in the points system. It’s why Kevin Harvick remains in first even though he failed to win the race at Atlanta last week.

And it’s great that stages now reward drivers for running well throughout a race, but they continue having no impact on the racing that happens on 1.5 mile tracks.

We saw it last week with Harvick; he dominated every stage and on each stage restart he was still able to get out in front and hold the lead.

Rewarding drivers for running well throughout a race is great, but if stages were supposed to make a race more exciting, they are failing. And even though stages reward drivers who race harder, it continues to make a confusing points system even more confusing.

How are fans supposed to understand why one driver is ahead of another now? It’s not longer about Top 10 and Top 5 finishes, but instead where every driver finished in each of the three stages for every single race.

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