Thursday, NASCAR shared a new rules bulletin announcing modifications to its format for stage cautions, following recent complaints from fans and industry members.
Per NASCAR, for the remainder of the season, f a caution occurs within the final ten laps of a stage, the stage is now over; this is opposed to an attempt at restarting the stage for a one or two-lap shootout, then taking another break for the stage caution:
If a caution falls within 10 or fewer laps prior to the advertised end of Stage 1 or Stage 2, the stage will be deemed official at the time of caution. The leader will return to the start finish line to receive the green and checkered flag, along with the yellow. The caution process that follows will serve as the stage break.
The top 10 stage finishing order will be determined using all available resources, just as it is whenever points are paid.
This move follows complaints about the lengthy caution periods at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with caution periods of that race taking up a significant portion of in-race time.
While this shift in plans is abrupt, it is another aggressive move made by officials under the new leadership of NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell.
O’Donnell, who took over the CEO role in April, garnered praise for taking to NASCAR’s social media to address the change, directly citing the complaints made by the community following the most recent race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It stems from what happened in Indy, where we’ve seen all too often, a caution comes out before the stage break, we run a number of caution laps, we try and get back green, stage break comes, and we’re back to caution. Long periods of caution laps, not enough green flag racing. We heard you. We want to make a change.” — Steve O’Donnell
NASCAR introduced stage racing in 2017, and while it is untraditional, NASCAR has stuck with the system ever since. Of course, this means that the sport is no stranger to making changes to the stage formats, including lengths, and even the caution period itself.
In 2023, NASCAR introduced a short-lived rule that, at the conclusion of a stage on road courses only, the caution would not be thrown, keeping the field green. This change, to combat the lengthy amount of time it took to run these caution laps at road courses, would not return for the 2023 playoffs or the 2024 season despite support from race fans.
While Thursday’s rule has its supporters, some fans are concerned that some teams could use this to their advantage to help teammates earn stage points, with many already encouraging the sport to keep a close eye on cautions, especially as the 2026 Chase commences.
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