Faced with a sport that is losing fans and lowering television ratings, NASCAR kicked off the 2017 Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour with a bombshell. NASCAR racing in its three major divisions will be different this year. The enhanced competition format promises to bring more excitement and competition to its races with some important changes. These changes will be controversial to some, but the large group that devised this system, which included drivers Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Brad Keselowski along with team owners and track officials, were all in agreement at the end that this format was the way to change NASCAR and gain more fans.
The new format has many differences that what we are used to seeing. Races will now consist to three segments or stages with championship implications in each stage.
Top 10 finishers of the first two stages will be awarded additional championship points.
The winner of the first two stages will be awarded additional championship points. The winner of the first two stages of each race will receive five playoff points, and race winner will receive five bonus points. Each playoff point will be added to his or her reset total following race number 26, if that competitor makes the playoff of 10 races.
All playoff points will carry through to the third round of the playoffs (Round of 8) with the championship 4 racing in the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Championship points following the first two stages will be awarded on a descending scale, with the stage winner receiving 10 points, second receiving 9 points and so on.
The race winner following the final stage will now receive 40 points, second place will receive 35 points, third-place 34 points, and so on.
The new changes will be implemented In May at Talladega Superspeedway for the Sparks Energy 300 XFINITY race and the GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race to be held May 6-7, 2017.
NASCAR also announced a playoff bonus structure that will see the regular season points leader honored as the regular season champion, earning an additional 15 playoff points that will be added to the reset of 2,000 points. Drivers finishing in the top 10 in the regular season with playoff points numbering from 10 points and descending from 8 for third place and one less per position.
“These are advancements that NASCAR fans have long sought, and the entire industry has worked hard to devise a better racing format for our fans.” Said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president.
The drivers present were enthusiastic about the format change including Earnhardt and Keselowski, who participated in the panel.
“The stages are going to bring a lot of excitement for the drivers and fans. I’m really pumped about that,” said Earnhardt.
“The single file ride-it-out days are gone,” Keselowski said. “I’m really pumped about that.”
Though it’s expected some are sure to be some who find this format much like local short track racing gimmicks, the group assembled today who created this new format for NASCAR is enthusiastic and confident that this new format is the way to go. Time will tell.
