Controversial NASCAR rule ruins another race, produces complete circus

For much of the 2025 season, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had been doing so well.

After a trend of demolition derby finishes had come to plague the series in recent years, NASCAR's third national level was quietly stringing together some clean racing.

At one point, between the second half of 2024 and the start of 2025, the Truck Series set an all-time record with 21 consecutive races without an overtime finish.

In other words, we were overdue for a circus. And boy, did Saturday's DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan International Speedway provide one.

The Truck Series finish at Michigan was an embarrassment of historic proportions

After a late caution for debris broke up what had been a thrilling battle for the win between Ross Chastain, Layne Riggs, Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar, and Corey Heim, everything went sideways, and literally.

On the ensuing restart, the entire field seemed to forget how to drive.

Just like that, all of the best trucks all race long were out of the running. Two more additional cautions later, Stewart Friesen, who had been running outside the top 10 prior to the late shuffling, scored the win.

In fact, every single driver who finished in the top 10 on Saturday had an average running position outside of the top 10.

Is that really what we want? Sure, the unpredictability can be entertaining when it happens once in a blue moon at Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Supersepedway.

But when overtime restart chaos can turn a race upside down on any given week, winning means less. Putting yourself in position for a good finish may as well be worthless when actually achieving that result far too often comes down to a bunch of random strokes of luck.

Furthermore, the cost of these junkyard endings cannot be ignored, especially at NASCAR's lower levels. Most of the teams that run in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series don't have unlimited budgets the way several top-tier Cup organizations do. Many are blue-collar operations just trying to make ends meet to carve out a place in the sport, and they can't afford the constant torn-up equipment.

There are a couple potential solutions here. One is, as Xfinity Series team owner Tommy Joe Martins suggests above, not having overtime until the playoffs. Another would be to limit the number of possible overtime attempts, at the very least for the lower levels.

If drivers know that a caution will effectively end the race, it will force them to have more discipline, and incidents such as the one on the first overtime restart on Saturday would be much less likely to occur.

Regardless, it's time for NASCAR take a long look at its unlimited overtime policy. Finishes such as the one the Truck Series had at Michigan on Saturday are simply not good for the sport, and they're happening far too often.