NASCAR's O'Donnell says stage racing 'definitely here to stay'

At the midway point in the season, NASCAR continues to be pleased with how the new concept of stage racing is affecting its events.

"Definitely here to stay," NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell said of the format Monday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's The Morning Drive.

With yesterday's Toyota Save / Mart 350 (above) being the first race with the stages on a road course, O'Donnell admitted the sanctioning body would certainly look more at the format for that type of racing.

NASCAR would also be open to making any other tweaks necessary going into next season. It's something they haven't shied away from this year with an additional stage being added to the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and the length of the stages for the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis adjusted.

"We'll sit down with the same group that kind of came up with that concept," O'Donnell (pictured with Kyle Busch) said. "We really liked what we've seen, and the industry does as well, the strategy that is playing out.

"The things that will be on the table, do you add one (stage), do you look at the different stages in terms of lengths, the number of caution laps, maybe starting the second stage from Lap 1 instead of kind of eight laps in versus caution laps counting or maybe take those off the back end.

"A lot of those things will be on the table for us but (we) continue to be real enthusiastic how those are playing out each weekend."