2-Headed Monster: Should NASCAR Change the Overtime Rule?

The ending of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 30 featured five overtimes. Drivers such as Kyle Larson ran their racecars out of gas, others such as Kyle Busch ended with their racecars wrecked and others such as Zane Smith earned good finishes. Joey Logano also stretched the fuel in his racecar to outlast the competition en route to a trip to victory lane.

Yet five overtimes also weren’t glamorous. For four straight attempts, drivers were unable to complete one green-flag lap back to taking the white flag.

As such, should NASCAR change the rule on the number of overtime attempts in a race? Wyatt Watson and Mark Kristl answer that in this week’s 2-Headed Monster.

It’s Not Broken, Don’t Fix It

A rare occurrence does not mean we need a change in the rule about the number of overtime attempts in a NASCAR race.

Admittedly, the chaos of the five overtimes at Nashville Superspeedway was not pretty. The number of wrecked racecars and the ultimate rundown on the leaderboard was unexpected. Covering it at the racetrack became increasingly more challenging because there were comers and goers. Just when someone entered the picture as a storyline for having a stout finish, such as Busch, they seemingly ran out of fuel, wrecked out or lost positions on a restart to another person who began to make headlines, such as Smith.

But that should not necessitate a change in the rule book.

To begin with, NASCAR ought to treat its drivers like professionals. All drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series are at least 18 years old. Everyone in the field dreams of winning and no rule is going to negate that desire. If anything, restricting the number of overtime attempts could cause injuries and become more expensive – more on that later.

The current rule for overtime is the leader must cross the line to receive the white flag and then the next flag ends the race. It is incredibly simple, something that other aspects of NASCAR are not. What’s easier to explain, the overtime rule or the playoff system with all the playoff points, including those from the regular season?

Essentially, overtime must have one green flag lap. That’s it. Then all hell can break loose. And other than road courses, on all other racetracks, laps are completed in less than a minute. All drivers need to do is race cleanly for less than 60 seconds. At Bristol Motor Speedway, laps are often completed in just over 15 seconds. So one lap of overtime at Bristol takes less time to complete than it will to read this article.

It’s not that hard, folks.

So, what should NASCAR do if the drivers wad up the field, sending more teams home with wrecked racecars, and or the racecars run out of gas? Nothing.

As Logano and Smith showed at Nashville, they’ll figure it out. Logano stretched the fuel in his racecar to win the race and Smith weaved his way through all the chaos to earn his career-best Cup finish of second.

Alternatively, let’s analyze the downsides of limiting NASCAR overtime attempts to three, for example.

The first overtime attempt at a racetrack would likely still be the same. Drivers wheeling their racecars on the restart trying to grab as many positions as possible. Under this example, if there’s a caution before the leader takes the white flag, it’s the same outcome. We re-rack them for the second overtime attempt.

In the second overtime, the urgency level is increased because no matter what, this will be at most the second-to-last shot at finishing the race. Or it could be the last. Telling drivers to get all you can get because at most you have two more shots at it increases urgency. Would drivers be more aggressive and make more high-risk moves? Quite possibly, yes.

Yet oh no; there’s a caution when the field entered turn 1. The field now has one more chance at it, and that is it.

That is it.

No matter what happens here, we’re guaranteed that this will be the last overtime attempt. Essentially, checkers or wreckers; just ask Andy Jankowiak how that mentality worked in the ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

At most, there will be two more laps in the race. Restarts are already the prime opportunities to pass. This is it as well.

Drivers ought to be known as daredevils on this attempt.

Because no matter what happens, the race will end on this attempt.

The level of aggression, in case it wasn’t high enough, hits the maximum level for all.

Drivers will stay in the gas longer than they likely would otherwise, all bets are off, and the heart rates of the teams are sky high.

What happens if a driver in restart lane three decides to become overly aggressive, without no remorse whatsoever, because he needs a win to make the playoffs? It’s no longer get all you can get. It’s a take-no-prisoners, the-consequences-be-damned approach.

Let’s stick with the rule the way it is. Despite the drivers who suffered less-than-deserving results at Nashville, we indeed ended the race with a clean finish. No drivers were injured, no multi-car crash happened on the last lap and everyone left accepting the results. – Mark Kristl

The Drivers Need a Limit

Most sports multi-overtime games are enshrined and remembered fondly for the will for both sides to keep fighting, running up the score much like the seven-overtime Texas A&M vs. LSU game in 2019 under the older-style (and more fun) NCAA Football overtime or in the NHL where Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 in five overtimes.

It is a completely different story when we start talking about multi-overtime NASCAR finishes.

Long NASCAR finishes most of the time aren’t beloved like long stick-and-ball overtimes are. In most cases, they live in infamy.

Last week’s race at Nashville was the ultimate example of how uncontrolled overtimes in NASCAR can possibly get.

The race had already seen Hamlin and Ross Chastain battle valiantly for the lead, one of the best and cleanest battles for the win all season. Hamlin was well on his way to win after Chastain made his mistake.

That was until Austin Cindric‘s spin with two laps to go.

No doubt, the spinning Cindric was well deserving of a caution to trigger overtime, but with how low on fuel most at the front of the pack were, desperate times called for desperate measures from many throughout the field.

Larson’s failed dive-bomb in attempt sparked the first of five attempts, one involving him again running out of fuel.

At first it seemed entertaining and thrilling. By the fourth and fifth attempt, it got painful and silly, headlined with Smith having legitimate chances to win the race in the end.

To be fair, five overtimes was the most in Cup Series history, but a race that is also remember for a comically bad finish was the three-overtime 2020 Busch Clash. Only six of 18 drivers finished on the high-banks of Daytona as five cautions littered the finish, effectively ending the tradition of racing the Clash at the superspeedway.

With a full field and drivers running out of fuel, Sunday seemed even more ridiculous than that fateful day in February 2020.

Those five overtimes on Sunday was an example of what that level of chaos can look like with a full-sized field, and as much as we all like NASCAR, it started to look ridiculous seeing the field re-rack just to wreck again and again five times in a row.

At some point, the drivers need to be held in check so that races don’t get dragged down the downward spiral of overtime. For NASCAR’s sake, there needs to be a limit so that this doesn’t get ridiculous.

There’s three solutions NASCAR can go with: limiting overtime to three attempts, one attempt or straight-up no attempts.

Simply allowing just three overtimes would keep the entertainment factor up as there’s at least a guaranteed end to the race if it has to come down to it.

One overtime would heighten the stakes further while sacrificing too much of the entertainment factor overtime can offer.

Lastly, the most radical change, taking overtime completely out, would allow for a pure and advertised race distance. At the same time, this move would throw overtime completely away.

The best option from these three would be to revert back to three overtimes to settle it out. Having an ultimate end can lead to more thrilling decisions by drivers down the stretch and will slightly alleviate teams from falling into this fuel situation we saw at Nashville again.

If nothing is changed, the possibility will still exist of having a similar situation as Sunday happen again. Hopefully, NASCAR will evaluate things moving forward. – Wyatt Watson