During the 2017 season, NASCAR introduced stage racing to ramp up racing and make it more interesting. Divided into multiple segments, the governing body wanted to boost competition and provide mid-race excitement by dividing the race. NASCAR kept the fans in mind and did this to create more action and restarts instead of those long green-flag runs. However, that idea has backfired for them.

After a good riddance from the playoff system, the majority of fans, who are used to watching the old style of racing, want the stage racing also gone from the sport. Despite this, NASCAR and its president, Steve O’Donnell, decided to ignore fans’ demands and keep stage racing in the competition, following which Mike Forde provided a clarification.

Mike Forde on why NASCAR kept stage racing despite fans’ disapproval

A majority of the fans have been unhappy with how stage racing works. Even though NASCAR brought it to bring excitement into the races, for some, it worked the opposite way. They do not like how the field was brought together after a stage, as their favorite driver lost all the competitive advantages. It interrupts the natural race-flow.

Moreover, for them, it kills the racing spirit in a way, and alienates many long-time followers. All of these insisted that fans call upon NASCAR to abolish stage racing. However, NASCAR decided not to. Sharing the justification, here’s what Mike Forde, NASCAR’s Managing Director, said in the recent Hauler Talk podcast:

“There were not much. No. There was discussions around the stages itself, and how to award points.” But there weren’t discussions about cancelling the stage points completely.

“I know, that was a big talking point after the announcement from some fans of, ‘What’s the next step? Let’s get rid of stages.’ I know this is not an opinion podcast, but I do really like stage, and I think it is a game changer for the racing from beginning to the end.”

According to Forde, stage racing made the races harder earlier on for the drivers, and not just at the end of the race. And it also got them extra points.

However, many complain that stage racing is also a gimmick for TV commercials. The hardcore fans feel that it takes away the long-form endurance that is required in big races. And Forde acknowledged these issues.

“But I get it. If you don’t like stages, I totally understand that it disrupts the flow or it pre-stages you wanted to go back to how it used to be. Those all make perfect sense to me. But I think the large feedback we got from the committee and a large size, sizeable portion of the fan base too, was stages weren’t the problem to solve.”

So Forde made it clear that while the chatter for the anti-stage racing is on, it wasn’t a majority in their discussion. It wasn’t the bigger problem to solve. But if this wasn’t, then what was?

“It was the playoff format. So now that we had this at least for 2026 and I’m sure much, much longer than maybe this is something that we’ll look at it as a next step…”

That is true. The playoffs obviously were the major battle to win, and NASCAR did it as they introduced the Chase once again. Compared to stage racing, playoffs directly impacted the championship results and how a racer’s season went.

The drivers who won stage after stage, at times left with nothing, compared to the ones who won the final stage and took home a chunk of points.

Which is why the NASCAR President explained the ‘why’ behind the format change.

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Steve O’Donnell simplified why NASCAR changed playoff format

When Kelly Wallace appeared on the Herm & Schrader podcast, he revealed a private text sent to him by Steve O’Donnell.

“After a year of industry meetings, we tried to find a balance of those that wanted full points and some sort of playoff. The key was to make sure that we continued to reward winning but also rewarded consistency throughout the year.”

Rewarding consistency became the priority this time, as that was the aspect that faced the most backlash from everyone. Veteran Mark Martin played a huge role in this contribution.

Steve O’Donnell further added, “I don’t want anyone to think we’re naive and just going to change this format and everything is great. We think it’s one component of what we need to do.”

Following this, he shed light on how the new format will provide more emphasis on race wins and reward them substantially.

“It’s hard to win these races. It’s hard to be in the top 10. Really important for us to get back to these storylines. We think the fans will come with us. We’ve got work to do on this,” O’Donnell further added.

With that said, it will be interesting to see how the NASCAR season rolls out with the changed playoff format and the continued stage racing system.