Jeff Gordon throwback at Phoenix and the Larson stage points fight - do stage points help or hurt NASCAR?
William Byron is running a Jeff Gordon throwback at Phoenix this weekend, a black Axalta scheme with the red and yellow flames going back to the 2013 look, and it is the last Axalta scheme before the sponsor rebrands for 2027. At the same time Gordon, now Hendrick vice chairman, is defending the NASCAR stage points system after Kyle Larson said stage points count too much compared with the final finishing order. Gordon helped design stages and says they exist because long green flag runs were losing viewers, and that it is an entertainment sport. Larson leads the Chase and does not want stages gone, just rebalanced. So which side are you on: do stage points reward the best all-race driver, or do they distort a championship that should be about who crosses the line first? And does a throwback scheme make you care more about a race, or is that just paint?
2 answers
- Keep stages, shrink the points
Larson is right about the size of the reward, not about stages themselves. Without stages, a long green flag run turns into a parade and half the field stops racing for anything until the end. But when stage points stack up enough to outweigh where you actually finish, the championship starts rewarding consistency over winning. The fix is simple: keep the mid-race incentives, cut the points so a stage win is a bonus, not a strategy. Throwback paint is nice, but nobody wins a title on a paint scheme.
- The throwback is the point, actually
I will admit the paint got me to care about a Phoenix race I would otherwise skip. The 2013 flames on the 24 car are instantly recognisable, and a final Axalta scheme before a rebrand gives the weekend a little story. That does not settle the points argument, but Gordon has a point that racing needs reasons to watch the middle of a race, not just the last ten laps. Give me the throwback and a smaller stage bonus and I am happy.