NASCAR's new rules for 2023 Cup Series season: What are they?

With the Busch Light Clash marking the start of the 2023 stock car racing season, the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, as well as Truck Series', will be seeing revisions in the rulebook for the upcoming season of racing. In an official announcement made by the governing body on Tuesday, several aspects of the rulebook have been tweaked for the 2023 season to improve racing on the track as well as beef up security measures across all three national series.

One of the first major changes to the rulebook comes in the form of no more stage breaks for any of the Cup Series road-course events. This has come due to the governing body's attempts at opening up more strategic options for the twists and turns of a road course. The junior categories will also follow suit, with stage breaks still in place for the Xfinity and Truck series in their standalone road-course races separate from the highest echelons in the sport. Drivers will still be receiving stage points as usual.

Another change comes in the form of a tweak to the playoffs format, with drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series no longer needing to be in the top 30 to be eligible for a playoff spot with a win. Xfinity and Truck Series drivers will also no longer need to be in the top-20 threshold for the same, with every driver having to attempt all races to be eligible for the playoffs.

NASCAR's introduction of the wet weather package for short oval tracks also comes as a surprise to fans as the sport prepares to race on less than a mile-long ovals during wet conditions. The wet weather package mimics the road-course wet weather package, with hardware changes to the cars as well as special rain tires.

Another rule change comes in the form of the damaged car policy in NASCAR, with the teams now receiving seven minutes instead of six to fix their respective cars on the pit road in case of damage. With the introduction of the Next Gen car last year, the limit was extended to 10 minutes, however, it is now fixed at six for the upcoming season.

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NASCAR alters loose-wheel related suspensions as well as restart procedure in rule changes for the 2023 season

The previous penalty for having a loose wheel will no longer be a four-race suspension for the crew chief and crew members of the affected team, with new alterations to the NASCAR rulebook. The new rules state that if a wheel is found loose in the pit lane, the car will be instructed to start at the back of the pack during a caution or a pass-through penalty during green flag racing.

If the error is recorded anywhere other than on the pit road, the car will be given a two-lap penalty along with two-race suspensions for two crew members.

The final rule change for the 2023 season comes in the form of restarts, with the Choose Rule now applying to Superspeedway as well as Dirt events. This allows drivers to choose their preferred lane on restarts during the race.