"Still stupid but good step in direction" - Fans react to NASCAR's major 2025 practice updates

NASCAR on Thursday announced that it has increased the time for group practices from 20 minutes to 25 minutes. The major 'five-minute' change will be applicable from the 2025 season. As the governing body made the announcement, fans shared their mixed reactions on social media.

The changes announced will be applicable for all three national series — the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series. The announcement was made almost immediately after a 50 minute pre-qualifying practice session was added to the Daytona 500 schedule.

Besides these, two more changes were announced — single-round qualifying for every track except for superspeedways, and the starting position will be solely based on qualifying results. Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports also shared a post on this:

"Practice in 2025 increased to 25 minutes for each group. No practice on Superspeedways. For Cup, extended practice at Daytona 500 (Wed morning practice with qualifying that night), Clash, COTA, All-Star, Mexico, Indy, Phoenix-finale."

Soon after the announcement went public, fans on social media shared their mixed reactions. While some fans welcomed the idea, others slammed it, calling it a bare-minimum change. Here are some reactions taken from the micro-blogging site, X (formerly Twitter):

Reacting to the change, a fan wrote, "Still stupid but good step in direction they need to at least shakedown cars at the other superspeedways."

"It’s an improvement but we need practice at superspeedways," another fan wrote.

Another fan wrote, "This is a small step in the right direction. Still would like to see at least two sessions at Daytona."

Some fans wanted more from NASCAR. Here's what they had to say:

A fan wrote, "Go back to an hour practice. Give fans reason to go to the track."

Another fan wrote, "It's professional motorsports, NASCAR is laughed at because of bulls*** like this. Every f***ing race should have an hour practice & qualifying."

"They need to get back to having practice on Fridays. Sonoma was so much better this year having the cars on the track for three full days. There should at least be a 90 minute practice session for all tracks," wrote another fan.

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NASCAR Cup Series director expects "industry" to welcome the new changes

NASCAR Cup Series director Brad Moran shared his thoughts on the new changes. He expects the stock car industry across three national series to welcome the new changes.

NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran - Source: Getty

Here's what he had to say:

“I think it’s going to be welcomed by the industry,” Moran said. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback throughout the year, and we made a couple of adjustments through the year, and we really wanted to take a whole fresh look at it. A lot of this came into play back in COVID, when we tightened things up, so we’re kind of going back a little to what we used to do again. We’re going to have a little more practice, which is obviously better for the fans and the partners.”

NASCAR will start the 2025 season in February with the Busch Light Clash At The Coliseum at Bowman Gray Stadium on February 3, 2025.