NASCAR has announced that this year’s Cup race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway will be run over four stages, rather than the usual three.
The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on the Cup calendar, with 400 laps, and takes place on May 28, with an extra stage being added to the current format.
The previous stage breaks were set to take place on laps 115 and 230, but now the stages will end after 100, 200 and 300 laps respectively.
All of the other elements of the stage procedures remain the same, with regular-season points to the top 10 in each stage and bonus playoff point for stage winners.
“You look at the way Charlotte was laid out and the length of the race, it was just sort of a natural to add another one to break it up a little further and make a few more moments,” said NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Scott Miller.
“When you make stages in the race, there’s a lot of things that go into the decisions about how they lay out. One of the primary concerns is fuel mileage and how far they can go on fuel.
“We don’t want to end up with a stage break right on top of what would be a fuel window where it could get a little messy with that situation.
“The natural places for the 600 was four 100-lap segments.”
