What’s Happening?

During the race weekend at Darlington, a reporter asked Kyle Busch during his media availability about the new tires introduced for the All-Star Race. Busch answered by giving his thoughts on pit strategy, or lack thereof during the Next-Gen era, even suggesting a caution clock, or, more accurately, a lap clock.

• One of the issues fans have with stage racing is how it affects strategy. Since cautions are planned, drivers and teams strategize around the planned cautions, which, in turn, eliminates the ability for teams to take risks and bank on potential caution flags like in the past.
• Kyle Busch’s suggestion is not necessarily unprecedented. NASCAR had a caution clock in the past, and other series also have lap clocks.
• Fans are not happy with this suggestion. They think of the old Truck Series Caution Clock, which was panned by fans while it was in use. Others feel it’s not too different from stage racing now.

Everything Kyle Busch Had to Say

Before we dive into the caution clock itself, it’s important to note exactly what Kyle Busch was getting at here. The issue he sees is the lack of variable strategy during races due to the stages and the planned caution flags. Rather than working the race backward from the end without knowing when cautions will fall, the scheduled cautions make the strategy up for the teams.

There’s not that very many different ways that you can skin the same cat to figure out how to win these races. It’s no different than every Sunday, right, like, every Sunday you’re going to split the first stage. You’re going to split the second stage. You’re either going to split the third stage, or you’re going to two- stint the third stage. It’s spelled out. There’s no thinking at all anymore to strategy.

Kyle Busch

In previous years, teams would have to make up their strategy for the entire race on the fly. If a driver were struggling, maybe they would elect to stay out under caution, hoping for another one before the next pit stop to maintain good track position.

Now, with stage racing, and the points the stages pay, teams strategize stage by stage, as Busch discussed. This is where Busch came up with the idea of a version of the caution clock.

I’ve made the suggestion years ago, and they’ve skipped right over it, in one ear out the other…When the green flag falls, we’re going 75 laps green, and, if no caution comes, you throw a caution. Then the clock resets, we go 75 again, but then there’s no caution in the last 50 or 25 or whatever laps. So, that throws some strategy into things, and that would give the crew chiefs, if we had option tires at all these other races like, ‘hey do we want to run the option tire for 75 laps here? Will it make it 75 laps?’ That’s another question, how all of that would look, and that would definitely throw some more options into these races.

Kyle Busch

To break it down, Busch’s idea is that NASCAR implement a version of the caution clock, but, instead of basing it on time, they base it on laps. Every time the green flag flies, the lap clock starts, and it resets every time a caution comes out.

This is not a new idea. The CARS Tour has used a lap clock like this in the past, and NASCAR had a 20-minute caution clock in the Truck Series in 2016. Fans did not like the Caution Clock in 2016.

Would it Work?

It’s important to note that Busch isn’t trying to artificially bring out more cautions just for closer racing or more restarts, rather, he’s trying to improve race strategy. Does this help that?

At the end of the day, crew chiefs would still strategize for the caution coming 75 or so laps after the green flag comes out. However, they do have the option of going with a short-term strategy hoping for an earlier caution. At least they have options, just like Kyle Busch said.

However, it still has the same downfalls as the old caution clock. Many view it as an arbitrary caution flag that messes with the regular flow of a race, and, it’s not that different from current stage racing since crew chiefs know a caution will come out at some point. From the perspective of TV networks, they do have guaranteed caution flags, but, they can’t guarantee exactly when those will come, which, takes away one of the major benefits of stage racing for that group.

Kyle Busch’s idea is definitely an interesting one. Would it work?