Chase arrives, but one change baffles

After two wildly successful years of NASCAR's knockout format for the Chase in Sprint Cup, there was a sense that the formula would trickle down to the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series as well.
As of Tuesday, the vision of change turned into reality during NASCAR's annual preseason media tour at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

It won't be on as big a scale as it is in Cup, but the two lower-tier national series now have a Chase format to call their own in the race for the championship in 2016 and beyond.
Both the XFINITY and Truck series will do their Chase over the final seven races of the season. XFINITY will have 12 eligible drivers and the trucks will have eight. Across all of the series, round names have been eliminated. While XFINITY will eliminate four drivers after each three-race round, the trucks will only send two to the sidelines before the Championship 4 are set for the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
And all Sprint Cup regulars are not eligible to race in either the XFINITY or trucks finale, which is an outstanding development. No clutter, just the focus on who will win the title.
The XFINITY series will have an interesting new twist during the season with the introduction of four Dash 4 Cash races -- Bristol (April 16), Richmond (April 23), Dover (May 14) and Indianapolis (July 23). There will be two heats (with odd- and even-numbered starting positions) and a main, similar to a typical Saturday night at a local short track.
The top two XFINITY regulars (no Cup drivers) from each heat become eligible for a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. If a driver wins two of the bonuses, it's as good as a regular race win and all but assures a spot in the Chase.
The XFINITY Chase begins with the opening round at Kentucky (Sept. 24), Dover (Oct. 1) and Charlotte (Oct. 7). When 12 get cut to eight, those drivers will face their last chances to make the finale at Kansas (Oct. 15), Texas (Nov. 5) and Phoenix (Nov. 12).
The Camping World Truck Series Chase races its first round at New Hampshire (Sept. 24), Las Vegas (Oct. 1) and Talladega (Oct. 22). After two drivers are eliminated, the final chances to get to Homestead happen at Martinsville (Oct. 29), Texas (Nov. 4) and Phoenix (Nov. 11).
But while the Chase is a welcome change, the truck series has a new rule being used throughout the 2016 season that can only be described as baffling.
A "caution clock" will run and a yellow flag will be displayed every 20 minutes from the drop of the green flag. If a caution comes out before that time expires, the clock resets once the race restarts. With the exception of Pocono and the road course at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the clock is turned off for the final 20 laps.
At Pocono and CTMP, the clock is turned off over the final 10 laps due to the larger size of the tracks.
Quite frankly, I simply don't get why this rule is being implemented. It will make fuel-mileage racing a distant memory.
One of my favorite truck races from 2015 was when John Wes Townley won the Rhino Linings 350 at Las Vegas. There were exactly three cautions over the 146-lap race and the last 94 laps were run under the green flag.
It led to fuel-mileage gambles that backfired. Matt Crafton's fuel ran out with six laps left, and Cameron Hayley followed soon after that. Townley stayed out of trouble and earned his first series win in a pretty cool moment.
In terms of time, the race was run in a nice 1 hour, 38 minutes. With this new rule, there would be four additional yellow flags thrown simply for the short-attention-span crowd, and that's terrible.
Only two of last year's 23 CWTS races were run in over two hours. There were an average of 5.9 cautions per race, and two had more than 10 (Martinsville 2 with 12, Eldora with 13). The average time it took to finish a trucks race was 1:44.
If we do the math with the 20-minute caution formula, we are potentially adding six more cautions to the legitimate ones that are simply a part of the racing.
That makes no sense at all. It's a dumbing down of the racing and creating unnecessary time and expense for the race fan. That is truly a shame, but the only way we'll know how well it works is to put it to the test on track.
Let's just say there won't be a ringing endorsement from the Gear Box staff anytime soon.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports.