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3-Headed Monster: Does NASCAR Overtime Rule Need an Overhaul?

The 2024 NASCAR season has seen its fair share of chaos, and the opening round of the playoffs was no exception.

While road courses have come to comprise a significant part of the schedule, they were consuming the lion’s share of racecars this weekend, with overtime causing the middle series to wear out its welcome after multiple attempts at a green-white-checkered finish and a red flag to boot. While fans deserve a good finish, teams deserve to be able to fit the car back in the hauler afterwards. After this weekend’s marathons, is it time NASCAR revisits how overtime is officiated?

Like the white flag lap at The Glen last Sunday, we’re going three-wide this week with Tom Blackburn, Vito Pugliese and Stephen Stumpf in 2-Headed Monster.

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Overtime Has Run Its Course

It’s time for NASCAR to get rid of the overtime rule. In an era when the sanctioning body has recently penalized a driver like Austin Dillon for forcibly altering results of a race finish by wrecking others, perhaps it’s time for self-reflection. The necessity to create an artificial green-flag sprint to the finish has finally worn out its usefulness. 

Finishing under yellow isn’t a great result, that’s true, but it’s honestly a better alternative to what has been unfolding over the last few years, as cars are used as snow plows to gain positions. Storylines are beginning to center around who survives the wreckfests at the end, instead of who had the dominant car or who figured out the setup that gets a victory. It’s become almost pointless to watch the first 98 percent of a race, knowing that the last two will be drivers getting eager and mayhem breaking loose. This is especially true at every restrictor plate event. 

Furthermore, fans are told repeatedly that motorsports, and stock car racing in general, is getting more expensive. Drivers have to bring budgets in every year to offset the lack of full-season sponsorship, thus limiting the ability of talent to rise over a peer that has more cash. Rather than restrict track time by shortening practices, which has robbed the paying customer in the stands, how about eliminating the artificial environment that brews wrecks that overwhelm the last hour of the race? That might save more money than cutting 90 minutes of practice. 

I come from the open-wheel world, where there are no overtime rules. IndyCar race control has the option to abandon procedures, as they say, to throw a red flag if the situation warrants it. Sometimes this ensures an attempt at a finish – like last year’s one-lap shootout at the Indianapolis 500, Other times, there is some controversy – in 2020, the lack of a red with several laps to go was questioned. But then again, open-wheel cars aren’t meant for beating and banging, and while there are aggressive drivers, the standards and respect amongst drivers remains at a higher level than stock car racing. 

The optics of how the finishes are transpiring is concerning, and it seems to be becoming more evident in the garage. A past series champion in Martin Truex Jr. just spoke out about the quality of driving in the series, and seems satisfied with his decision to head out the door. Who’s to blame him when the skill set required to overtake is dipping so far down to an acceptable level that on these overtime restarts, it’s cool to just overdrive a corner and run over someone?

That’s not skill. Anybody can do that. If the drivers aren’t going to police this type of racing behavior, then at least the sanctioning body can step in and remove one of the elements that puts them in it – and that’s the overtime.

The drivers are literally dropped into a no-holds-barred cage fight, with only survival as the goal. NASCAR racing with overtime is UFC with engines and wheels. It’s becoming tedious to watch. The art form and skill to be a racecar driver is not on display in overtime. It feels more like high school teens at the local putt-putt go-kart track on a Saturday night before they get thrown out for running into people.

Is that what the sport wants to look like?

It’s time to do away with the NASCAR overtime rules, once and for all. – Tom Blackburn

Are You Not Entertained?

Two portions of NASCAR’s rules enforcement got quite the workout this past weekend in Watkins Glen. The Damaged Vehicle Policy raised the ire of the No. 12 Team Penske team on Sunday, while overtime was working … well, over overtime for Saturday’s Xfinity event. So much so that the 80-lap event ended up going 90 laps – an additional 30 miles in race length plus a 22-minute red flag – equaling the advertised distance for the Cup race.

The kind of mayhem and carnage usually reserved only for your local mini-golf go-kart track.

Usually when something of inconvenience occurs in NASCAR, the instant reaction is to overreact and demand we make sweeping wholesale changes immediately. Having lived through the dark times of the early 2010s where the championship format changed as frequently as Robby Gordon would change crew chiefs, tripping over ourselves to make drastic updates isn’t always the preferred course of action.

Let’s remember what prompted the overtime in the first place: fans throwing shit on the track because Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t get a chance to make a move coming to the finish at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, at the peak of NASCAR popularity. Now one would argue that no, it was because fans deserve to see the race finish under green, but ultimately, yes, that is what happened.

There’s plenty of video of cans bouncing off the No. 24 on the front stretch to support this assertion.

I’m not saying we need to tailor race producers on the potential for a mob outburst, but when you consider the other recent issues of catering to network demands around start times – particularly at tracks with no lights – yes, fans do deserve to see a race run to completion and not puttering around under the yellow flag for nine laps while there is a red flag right next to it that could also be used to preserve the race distance, but seemingly rarely ever is.

While I have been consistent over the last decade of not being a fan of the single-race playoff format, it has been determined that it is the one we will use, for the purpose of providing entertainment. If that is the objective, then an overtime finish with the rules and procedure as they currently stand is in line with that goal. It’s not the format I prefer, but that’s not the issue.

Nor is watching what is supposed to be some of the finest driving talent in North America devolve into a Saturday night bomber class at your local speedrome with weeds growing up between the seams; a bit “cringey” as the kids say today, it’s the product that was deemed best for consumption. The ultimate arbiters are sponsorship, ratings and ticket sales, and a playoff race at Watkins Glen after the end of summer was well-received and the fans got to witness one of the all-time greatest road course finishes ever on the Cup side.

Is wadding up four cars battling for 20th in the esses and dictating the ultimate winner of the race (or championship) my cup of tea? Well, I don’t drink tea, so I’m not the one NASCAR is trying to cater to. And that’s okay. – Vito Pugliese

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Overtime Can Work – But It Needs Work

It’s borderline insanity that we keep having this debate over and over again, but here we are.

Watkins Glen marked the 12th Cup race this season to end in overtime, breaking the record of 11 set back in 2017. After starting the season with six races ending in regulation, 12 of the last 22 races have ended in overtime, and a whopping six of the last seven races have required extra distance.

Time and time again, a late-race caution (often on the heels of a long green-flag run) has bunched up the field and sent races into subsequent chaos that render the first 99% of the race useless, often with multiple two-lap shootouts that make a mockery out of the greatest stock car drivers in the world.

Whether it’s because of the win-and-you’re-in mantra, the indestructible Next Gen car or the increased importance of restarts in a car that struggles to pass, the results are the same: these finishes have become drab, they’ve becoming tiring and they cost the teams thousands, if not millions of dollars.

The band-aid solution would be to scrap overtime and end races at the scheduled distance. I wouldn’t have a problem with that personally, but it would be a problem for the majority of the fanbase that would be screaming in NASCAR’s ear and complaining about nearly half of the Cup races this season ending under caution.

The solution to meet somewhere in the middle is best for all parties, as it would allow some semblance of finishes under green while curtailing the self-destructive nature that unlimited overtime restarts has unleashed upon the field.

First, cap overtime to either one or two attempts. If the field fails to complete one clean lap on two occasions, the race deserves to finish under caution.

As for the restarts themselves, any restart that occurs within the final 10 laps of the race or in overtime should be conducted in a single-file manner. Double-file restarts are a privilege — a privilege that the field should’ve lost at the end of races a long time ago. Single-file restarts would put space between the cars, which would give more room for drivers to make aggressive moves without running the risk of wadding up the entire field and forcing another caution. Single file restarts would also prevent drivers from making moves that throw common sense out the window, such as barreling three-wide into the esses at Watkins Glen — a move that unsurprisingly spawned multiple wrecks and subsequent cautions last weekend.

With single-file restarts, fans still have the opportunity to see a green-flag finish, and the drivers will be given an ample amount of room to be as aggressive as they want. Single-file restarts at the end of races will also prevent more races from ending under caution by deterring wrecks, as four of the 12 overtime finishes this season have gone on to finish under caution anyway due to a crash on the final lap.

There is a serious etiquette problem in all three levels of NASCAR at the end of races, and the problem will only fester unless it’s tackled head-on by mandating single file restarts at the end of races. And if the single file restarts are successful in deterring end-of-race bumper car sessions, only then should there be consideration to bring double file restarts back. – Stephen Stumpf

About the author

Vito is one of the longest-tenured writers at Frontstretch, joining the staff in 2007. With his column Voice of Vito (monthly, Fridays) he’s a contributor to several other outlets, including Athlon Sports and Popular Speed in addition to making radio appearances. He forever has a soft-spot in his heart for old Mopars and presumably oil-soaked cardboard in his garage.

Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and the occasional Inside Indycar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. His full-time job is with the Department of Veterans Affairs History Office and is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard. After graduating from Purdue University with a Creative Writing degree, he was commissioned in the Army and served a 15-month deployment as a tank platoon leader with the 3d ACR in Mosul, Iraq. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.

Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.

Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.

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John

“Overtime” stinks, always has, just like GWC did. If there is a caution at the end of a race, so best. End under caution.

Joe in Pittsburgh

Great, great article here. While I appreciate all three perspectives, I agree most with Tom Blackburn, likely because I also am an IndyCar fan.

The way the last several races have ended have been disgusting for a true fan of auto racing, and certainly are not representative of much of the talent in the sport today.

I can’t even begin to quantify how much I hate investing several hours into watching a race (not to mention practice ((when it happens)) and qualifying), only to have what has generally been a decent race for 95% of the laps ruined because of the inevitable chaos and carnage brought on by late caution leading to a Green-White-Checker finish. The intent of the rule may have been honorable, but for all the reason enumerated in the article, the implementation has turned out to be an abomination. There is nothing satisfying about watching “your” driver being destroyed and losing a decent finish for no other reason than drivers losing all ability and/or willingness to race hard, but clean.

It’s not just the older veteran drivers decrying this nonsense, as Reddick and Christopher Bell have also noted the insanity.

I can’t imagine that I’ll be willing to keep watching entire races much longer, when the ending generally wipes out everything than transpires beforehand.

I have tickets with friends to all 3 races in Martinsville coming up, and with it being the last race before the Championship, I’m almost certain that these overtime shenanigans will likely taint the endings of each one of them, even further souring me on this sport. The excitement I expected many months ago when we purchased the tickets, has instead turned wishing that I had saved my money. I sure hope that NASCAR recognizes the issue and works on a solution before the 2025 season begins.

janice

then the racing this weekend being at bristol, there’s a very good chance that the race will end with multiple g/w/c.

ho hum…….same song different day.

ArkyBass

Singe file restart would be an excellant attempt to resoloved what I agree is a mess. Its a customary practice, nothing radical or even new.

Maybe, with 10% of the laps remain its single file. The stratagey for making a pit stop during the late caution will change as the car would go to the back of a real long line. See its fun already!!

Joe in Pittsburg(JIP) does a good job of explaining the fan side of things on this thread. I would also accept JIPs areement with Blackburn, no overtime. Its part of racing that races end under caution.

John Cooke

Knowing NASCAR, it will probably only stop when someone gets killed or seriously hurt. One of the issues with it taking so long to restart is they feel they must send the sweepers out on every caution to clean the track. I don’t think it is necessary. If I’m remembering correctly, didn’t Dale Sr. win the Daytona 500 and Richard Petty win his 200th race both under caution? If it’s got to be, all restarts on GWC be single file please!

jim

Only when Nascar says it needs to be changed …Nascar knows best.

Bill B

I’m with Mr Blackburn…
The overtime restarts have become opportunities for drivers to do whatever the have to, to win. This has created a condition where anything goes and there is no respect between drivers on track.
It’s also time to stop setting up the rules to feed the fans that just want to see wrecks a chaos at the end.
I also hate the fact that the 98% of the race that’s been run is rendered pointless by what happens in the last 2% of the race. That should happen a couple times a year naturally, not every race.
NASCAR turned their series into demolition derbies. I’m definitely tired of all the crapshoot endings.

Matthew

I would say keep Green,White Checkered or Overjerking or whatever else
it is called if I wanted a demolition derby but that being said if I wanted a
Demolition Derby I would go to the county fairs close to my home since
the unforked family trees involved know there limits.Yes I’m ragging on
Southern Ohio where I call home since kissing cousins is a thing to an
extent.

Steve

Did I read that correctly? 12 of 29 races this season, have ended in overtime? That’s 41% if my math is correct. And these guys are supposed to be the best drivers in the world? Hardly.

My biggest issue with overtime is with the win and your in garbage, there is more incentive for these guys to punt someone late in races. Since there is unlimited restarts, it only helps their chances at a better finish the more restarts there are.

I personally like the 3rd option listed in the article. Either red flag the race to provide one attempt at a finish or only allow for 1 or 2 restarts at most. If these guys can’t get it right 2 times, end it under caution. If the fans are pissed about it, they can blame the drivers

Kevin in SoCal

I’d like to see three laps, one attempt. Two laps is not enough time to make moves, especially at shorter tracks.