As lap 60 of Sunday’s Daytona 500 approaches, teams at the back of the pack may face a dilemma. Do you pit on lap 57 before the pits close? Or do you stay out and hope to work your way to the front in the second segment?
The introduction of stages within races in the Cup Series in 2017 adds a huge wrinkle to in-race strategy. During last year’s Daytona 500, there was no guarantee a caution would fly around lap 60. But with guaranteed cautions on lap 60 and lap 120 of the 200-lap race and points awarded to drivers in the top 10 at the time of each of those cautions, some teams may try some previously unconventional methods to score points.
“I think the biggest difference you’ll see — again I don’t know because I haven’t seen it either — but I would think the biggest difference you’d see is if there’s a caution 20 laps before a segment or something like that,” Matt Kenseth said. “You have some cars running really good up front, trying to plan to win the race. You have other cars that are maybe real far deep in the top 10, 12th, 13th or 14th, might try to gamble on some strategy to sneak one of those segments away. I think that’s when you’ll see the biggest mix‑up when there’s a chance for it to be a strategy play.”
NASCAR will close the pits two laps before the end of each segment. So Sunday, teams have until lap 58 to pit. At a track like Daytona, it’s possible for a team at the back of the pack to pit under green and not immediately lose a lap. So it reasons that, depending on circumstances, some teams could bail to pit road as late as possible with the goal of starting ahead of those who pit at the end of the segment on the next restart. And, ideally, earn points at the end of the second segment.
“It will for sure impact how we race, especially at places we know we are running 25th,” Michael McDowell said. “If we have an opportunity; if a caution falls right; a strategy falls right, you can stay out and maybe get some points and get a little bit of a spotlight for your partners, I think you absolutely do it.”
The introduction of guaranteed commercial breaks via the stages was initially sold to fans as a carrot for drivers to race harder at the beginning of races. But that promotion implies that drivers previously weren’t driving hard, and many drivers are adamant that their effort isn’t affected by the new format. It’s their crew chiefs whose jobs will be impacted the most.
“I don’t have a slower gear,” Joey Logano said. “It’s high speed all the time and I’m gonna try to pass everyone every time I can, so that part doesn’t change for me. For [crew chief Todd Gordon], it changes it quite a bit and the way he calls a race because you’re calling a race not for the end of the race, it’s for lap 60. That changes the strategy a lot. Maybe sometimes you say, ‘the heck with lap 60’ and you go for 120.”
That in-race strategy could provide additional layers of intrigue, even if we’re of the thought that the stages at the beginning of races should have been shorter.
“I think there is going to be a lot of strategy involved,” Kevin Harvick said. “Late cautions in segments or the timing of the segments — if there is an early caution — do you stay out and gain the points and pit later? There’s going to be a lot of strategy that will mix the field up more than we’ve seen in the past. The great part of what we have is it’s a blend of what TV wanted.”
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