NASCAR: Significant change implemented at COTA

NASCAR will no longer be throwing a caution flag for stage breaks during road course races, a change that is set to debut at Circuit of the Americas.

Before the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season began, the sanctioning body announced a relatively significant change for the six road and street course races on the 36-race calendar.

Stage racing was introduced back in 2017, so this is its seventh season. Points are paid to the top 10 drivers (from 10 points down to one) at the end of the first two stages, when a caution flag is thrown at a pre-determined lap, before points are paid to everybody at the end of the race.

As a result, a driver can score a maximum of 60 points in each race (70 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, since there is an additional stage).

This also opens up two other unique possibilities.

First of all, the race winner might not end up scoring the most points. In fact, he can finish as low as 11th overall in total points scored during a race he wins. And secondly, a driver can end up scoring the most points in a race with as low as a 16th place finish.

This all remains the case for road and street course races this year, including Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. However, the strategy has been slightly altered.

NASCAR Cup Series road and street course races will no longer be stopped at stage breaks.

Points will still be awarded to the top 10 finishers of both of the first two stages, but the only way there will be a caution flag is if there is an incident to cause one. For the first time since 2016, a Cup Series race can technically run caution-free.

This could drastically change the strategy of the event, since teams will no longer be planning their pit stop sequences around when they know the caution flag will fly.

In the past, some teams would pit just before the stage breaks, giving up stage points so that they could start the following stage at the front, while some teams would not pit until the break so that they could score stage points, though they would then have to line up behind those who had already made their pit stops.

Select Xfinity Series and Truck Series road and street course races will also no longer use stage breaks this year, including both of Saturday’s races at the 20-turn, 3.426-mile (5.515-kilometer) road course in Austin, Texas.

Tune in to Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 26 for the live broadcast of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from Circuit of the Americas. If you haven’t yet begun a free trial of FuboTV, do so now!