Brad Keselowski went the entire race on the Indianapolis road course without touching his water bottle. Austin Cindric had to physically pull his arm back straight after climbing out of the car. Ross Chastain saw some of his fellow competitors in much worse shape than he was on pit road after the checker.
NASCAR eliminated stage breaks during road course races this season in hopes of putting strategy back into the equation. It was a request of many within the industry who said road courses had become too predictable.
There is also the driver variable — without stage breaks, drivers lost two opportunities to catch their breath and reset. It’s the first time in seven years they’ve competed without breaks.
“Oh yeah, it’s a lot more challenging when you don’t have a break,” Keselowski said. “Your heart rate never gets the chance to drop. I went the whole race last weekend without drinking a sip of water because [I] couldn’t. There was no time to do it. It’s really easy to get dehydrated, and there’s fatigue that’s associated with that [which made it a] really grueling race. I expect something very similar [at Watkins Glen Sunday], and we’ll have to react and adapt accordingly.”
Indianapolis was the fourth road course race of six on the Cup Series schedule. There was only one natural caution during the race, which came on lap two. The race went 77 green flag laps until the end.
“Indy was definitely a different physical challenge, especially with how hot it was outside,” Cindric said. “For me, I get stuck inside the car. That’s my biggest physical challenge – I’m a big guy in a little car. My [left] arm never left the same position for how long that race was, so I had to get out of the car and pull my arm straight.
“Other than that, it’s what you train for, it’s what you’re supposed to be prepared for. I think we’ve had four very different road courses as far as stage breaks versus no stage breaks or whatever else. I think you’ll see a different result for that play at each track that we go to.”
A green flag run of 77 straight laps reaffirmed to Chastain the need to keep in a grind and keep pushing to be better physically and mentally. He also used the opportunity to have a race within a race last weekend.
“We didn’t have the speed to go run with the front group, but I also was better than a lot and I had 6s in front with a few laps to go and 6s behind,” he said. “I was just in my own little area, and it was a personal decision to try to catch that next group. I felt there was more speed in the car, and if I messed up, spun out, well, I’d probably only lose one or two spots and what the heck, let’s go for it. I caught up to them but wasn’t able to pass them.
“I felt good in the car, and getting out on pit road [I saw] that was not the case for everybody. There were some guys that were worn out. Proud of our processes that are making me stronger. I’m not the biggest guy, but I’m race fit, and I think there’s a lot to be said for that.”
Watkins Glen (Sunday, 3pm ET, USA) is the fifth of six road course races on the Cup Series schedule. Indianapolis and Watkins Glen are the only back-to-back ones on the schedule.
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Joey Logano still doesn’t have an opinion on having stage breaks versus not. As far as the physical toll on the driver, the two-time series champion hasn’t noticed a difference. What he specifically doesn’t like is when a caution comes out near the end of the stage, which extends the time under yellow.
“I’m kind of a fan of just a re-rack and let them go again, and you know what, if it puts the opportunity to run strategy and stay out and win a race versus guys flipping the stages, so be it,” Logano said. “That’s part of the race. Everyone says how it’s not authentic, it’s a manufactured caution. Well, everyone knows it’s going to be there. It’s still a race. We all know it’s going to be there, we can create a strategy around it.
“I didn’t understand why we did it in the first place; still don’t understand it, but it’s OK either way. I just drive the car.”
Ryan Blaney also doesn’t mind either way. A race with a stage break brings out the caution when the stage concludes with the top 10 drivers crossing the start/finish line, but without, it’s just a designated stage end lap with the field continuing to compete.
“I think a lot of people that watched the races didn’t like the stage breaks and then, when we did away with them, they didn’t like that it went green the whole time,” Blaney said. “It’s one of those things [where] you can’t please everyone. That was a tough race last week, honestly. It was hot running the whole race. That’s a tough racetrack, so [I] kind of bore down through it.
“You can have that, especially at that place where there’s a lot of runoffs and you can kind of spin and get going again. Here (at Watkins Glen), it’s a little bit tougher, I think, of having no cautions because there’s not as much run off. … I don’t really mind either way, but that was a long one last week.”
Sonoma is the race that stands out for Kyle Busch — where he felt the lack of cautions the most. On that day, June 11, there were two natural cautions on laps 51 and 93.
“Sonoma was a little long feeling but not too terrible,” Busch said. “Last weekend I only really ran half the race — my second half of the race was way off pace, so throw me out on that one. I heard Austin (Dillon) got a little bit smoked last week, though, so not sure if his [cool suit] didn’t work or what, but I think it’s fine. It’s OK.
“It lends itself to the strategy game. It lends itself to not being so hokey-pokey with guys running over each other, so I feel like there’s going to be pluses and minuses to it. But that’s the same to be said about oval racing as well…”
Circuit of The Americas on March 26 had eight natural cautions. The final four all came within the final 12 laps.
The inaugural Chicago street course on July 2 featured wet weather and single-file restarts. There were nine natural cautions.
“It’s just more physically demanding, for sure, and wrapping your head around it mentally took an adjustment,” Kyle Larson said. “I remember at COTA, I kind of forgot that we don’t have a caution and I’m racing really hard, and you’re getting your heart rate up and pushing to the end of that stage where typically you can relax. As soon as I crossed the start-finish line, I was like, ‘Oh [expletive] we still have to keep going?’ That was mentally tough trying to manage your race and your body. Indy was the same thing, but I was more ready to keep going. It was hot, but I enjoyed it. It’s more of a pure race.
“I know it’s probably super boring on TV with no cautions, but I think the strategy and the race playing out how it should is what racing is all about, especially road course racing. With the old way of how it was, it wasn’t ever fair. I felt like teams that ran around 20th or 30th could stay out and get stage points and take them from teams who were really fast. Now if your car is fast, you stay up front, you get the points you deserve and get a good finish.”
