Stage cautions will return to road courses when NASCAR heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on Oct. 8, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vp of competition, announced via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Sept. 12.
Additionally, there will be an adjusted restart zone to go with the stage cautions.
Series officials had elected to remove stage cautions for road courses ahead of the 2023 season while still awarding stage points at the end of stages.
An adjusted restart zone was also used at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with single-file restarts at the Chicago street course.
Sawyer said the change is meant to make officiating during the playoffs uniform across all races.
“I’m sure the question from our fans and even our competitors is why do that now,” Sawyer said. “One reason is that we want to make sure that throughout the playoff … we wanted to make sure that we were officiating across the board the same way. Now we will be, all of our races will have a caution stage break.”
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.