NASCAR Considering Significant Changes To Race Formats, Point Distribution

The Sports Business Daily is reporting that NASCAR and industry stakeholders are considering significant competition changes to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series that could be implemented as soon as this season. Sources said that stakeholders across the industry including teams, drivers, tracks, media partners, Monster and NASCAR have been meeting to discuss the prospective changes which involve the format of the races themselves and how points are awarded for them. If implemented, the changes could address the length and format of Cup races and may result in race breaks, similar to other series where "heat" formats are used to break up the competition to feature multiple, shorter races rather than one longer one. NASCAR declined comment. It could not be determined how far along the discussions are, but timing is of the essence as NASCAR's season starts in mid to late February. Its season-opening media tour, when major announcements are often made, is in two weeks in Charlotte.

Do we even have 40 cars in the field for 2017?

I never understood the reasoning behind Nascar cutting down the size of the field. It seems counter-productive. Wouldn't you want to keep the fields larger, at the very least to entice more teams to join Nascar without the fear of failing to qualify? Not by Nascar's logic. They're embarrassed because they can't fill a field, so they cut off their nose to spite their face. An organization run by petulant children.