As the intensity of the ongoing NASCAR Cup season continues to rise, viewers have noticed a subtle shift in how drivers approach races nowadays. There is less recklessness on the track, and as a result, fewer wrecks.

The 2026 NASCAR Cup season has seen only 54 cautions in nine races, the lowest since 48 cautions in the same period in 2012. According to Ryan Preece, such a change isn’t accidental, but more a reflection of NASCAR’s current state of competition.

The No.60 RFK Racing driver explained that NASCAR drivers today are far more calculated, and the gamble of going aggressive is just not worth it. Speaking about this on SiriusXM Radio, Preece said:

"I think everybody's racing, not just throwing Hail Marys anymore. Every point matters, and I don't think you guys want to see wrecking yourself on restarts and taking yourself out in stage 1 or 2."

"Between that, I think there's a really big emphasis on teams not leaving wheels loose, as you see, that could be a really catastrophic error for race teams, losing your tire changer or your jackman, or tire carrier. I am not necessarily sure how that goes, but there's just a lot more emphasis on not making mistakes right now," the RFK driver added.

Losing points to unnecessary moves on track can prove costly in 2026, especially with NASCAR introducing the new Chase format. The win-and-in and is out, and so are the winners' freedom to make 'Hail Mary' moves.

Ryan Preece on NASCAR's stages ahead of Talladega

While speaking about the relative lack of cautions, Ryan Preece also spoke about how it affects tire strategy. With fewer cautions, drivers have to go longer on the same sets of tires, which forces their pit wall to alter the strategy accordingly.

To a certain extent, it also proves how NASCAR races without stages could be more exciting. However, the RFK driver didn't go as far as to want to see a race without stages.

"I thought it allows the race to naturally play out how it should, especially on tires like, if you only get a 20-lap green flag run, you're not going to see the fall off that they potentially have. I don't want to say I wanna see races without stages, but it would be interesting to see how they would play out with the tires that we have, and kind of how that all goes, and how long you want to stay out or not stay out."

Preece's comment on stage lengths comes at a relevant junction. For this race weekend at Talladega, NASCAR has altered the stage lengths from 60-60-68 lap stages to 98-45-45. This is being done to curb three-wide, fuel-saving races and shuffle the strategies across teams.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Yask Kotak