INDIANAPOLIS — It’s no secret, Sunday’s Verizon 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio Network) could be the third and final NASCAR Cup Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the time being. Rumors are coming of a return to the 2.5-mile oval as soon as next season. If that’s the case, Sunday’s race could be an end of an era or at least sparking an every other year type scenario between the oval and road course.

With that said, this race has featured plenty of drama. NASCAR and IMS officials have tried to make this work and have adjusted and adapted every step of the way.

From the turtles and drama of 2021, to the embarrassment of restarts a year ago, to potential finishes being altered by drivers going off course and coming back, the rules have been adjusted.

Sunday’s 82 lap race is a cumulation of all. Do all these changes help?

Turn 1 has been a hectic place for NASCAR on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway layout.

With so much chaos in that first right hand corner, especially late in races, NASCAR has moved the restart zone back to between Turns 13 and 14 now. Their hopes are for it to start spreading out the pack out some as while the leaders are taking off. Those a few rows back are still going through that sequence of corners which would allow for less dive bombs and maneuvers that they shouldn’t be making.

Saturday’s Xfinity Series race worked. We didn’t see any sort of chaos in the first corner because the leaders truly did have that advantage in being spread out well enough to not allow for that to happen.

Austin Cindric told us on Saturday that he was intently watching that race to see what row starts the gap and how each driver and in each spot on that restart does.

Still, if it still doesn’t work for Sunday’s Cup race, then NASCAR said that they’d consider going to single lane restarts forgoing double file restarts too.

The thing is, we may not get many restarts in general. Without stopping for stage breaks, there’s potential for this race to be clean and green.

While the stages remain the same, the racing action continues on and won’t come to a stop for a caution.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said he has some concerns about doing away with the stage breaks and is eager to see how it will play out this weekend. He said he expected the race to be more physically challenging without the scheduled opportunity to pit and noted he planned to make a real effort to stay hydrated – anticipating it to be tougher physically overall for drivers.

“I think this thing has the potential of really getting strung out, a lot” Hamlin said. “If we do, I don’t want to hear any complaining because that’s the potential. … this will make for more strategy though.”

NASCAR started this stage format in 2017 as it rewards points for the top 10 finishers of the two stages. It’s done to make the drivers actually race from the onset of the green flag but also give fans a break to go to the bathroom or concession stand or if you’re at home, to walk away from the TV at the two stoppages.

However, most fans didn’t take to it like NASCAR thought they would. Many fans liked the idea of stages, but why not just continue on with the green flag action? Award points and if the flag was a green checkered like it was, doesn’t green mean, go?

Hence the change.

While it’s made a difference, how much of an impact will it have on Sunday?

It was becoming the norm for teams to elect to pit right before the stage would end to give up points for track position. They don’t have that luxury anymore. They automatically knew when two cautions would fly so would plan accordingly. It took the strategy aspect out of these races.

I now like that strategy plays are back in the hands of the teams again and that these races won’t carry on forever. You now don’t know when cautions are coming and can open up when to pit and when not to do so.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re going you go back to I mean, really pitting the race backwards,” Ryan Blaney told me on Saturday morning. “I think you can do this race in two stops. There was kind of a mixture of two stops last year and three stops.

“So yeah, I mean it just changed it you know, it’s back to the old form before the stage breaks. So if you can pin it backwards and the fastest cars are really going to show up, you know, because before when he had stage races in the you know, those the fastest cars, they would obviously probably flip the stage trying to set themselves up for the end and if you were a little bit off the pace, you could stay out try to get some stage points and then reacted from there.

“So that’s, you know, that’s just changed. So it benefits faster cars, which is good. So more traditional what it used to be not too long ago but you know, six, seven years ago.”

Blaney said he’s a fan of this move.

“You know, it just flips the whole field and I think it can get pretty difficult so I think the way to do it here on all road courses is the right way to do it,” he continued. “You know, have your have your stage points, but don’t throw the yellow because I think it makes more sense that way.”

AJ Allmedinger said that it also will help the faster cars as well too.

“I mean, I think at the end of the day, you still got to be fast enough to run up front,” he told me. “It does you no good to get up front and not be fast enough and get past by everybody anyway, so you know, it’s people are still going to pit when they think it’s right. But you know, right now, when I’m this far off, it’s it talks about playoffs and stuff like that doesn’t mean anything. It’s about just trying to be better. And I got to figure out how to do that.”

Last year, none of the road course races saw a driver that had won the race finish in the points in Stage 1. It’s because they all had pit already. In Stage 2, they finished: 8th (COTA), 4th (Sonoma), 10th (Road America), no points (Indy) and 8th (Watkins Glen), no points (ROVAL).

Reddick played the similar role in Stage 1 in COTA this year but stayed out to take the stage win in the second one. Martin Truex Jr. was second in Stage 1 in Sonoma but pit and was seventh in Sonoma.

That luxury isn’t typically there anymore as someone could in theory run away with this thing which makes Hamlin’s point. They also could run away too far and you’re one caution away from flipping the field too.

Which makes me wonder what strategy these crew chiefs are going to elect to go for. How long do we expect the tires to hold up? Will they hold up for a full fuel run and if so, what is the fuel number?

Do teams short pit or long pit? Do you do the overcut or undercut? Can you pit with clean air in front of you entering and in front of you exiting. In and out laps are key too.

Strategy is open again and I love it. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become redundant.

Also, NASCAR has mandated that if someone goes through the Turn 1 runoff like Ross Chastain did last year, they have to adhere to a stop and go before rejoining the track. While Chastain noted then that he had to take that evasive action to avoid a crash below him, NASCAR doesn’t want to see anyone get an advantage by doing so.

You can still use that access route to avoid carnage, if needed, but you can’t gain an advantage either.

The other change is that before we get to Turn 7 will be the choose rule. They didn’t have this rule in place for road courses last season.