Disappointing Meta in Oval Racing

I am an oval racer in the 3K’s who only has enough time to do a few races per week. In weeks where I don’t race until later in the week, I’ll usually check out series results of the top split or two on Tuesday or Wednesday to get an idea of lap times, how clean the racing is, etc. It’s frustrating how often I’m seeing (and experiencing) 5+ cautions in fixed length races.

I hope this doesn’t come off too much like “man yells at clouds,” but I just don’t understand why people can’t rein it in a little bit to race cleaner. I get that racing is inherently selfish, everyone makes mistakes, and things like net code don’t help, but the meta in 2K+ oval racing continues to be obnoxiously wrecktastic and it baffles me.

It’s a classic tragedy of the commons. No one wants to be in races where half the laps are under yellow, but when presented with a scenario to either make a risky move to keep/gain position or to play it more conservatively, the first choice is too often the one that is picked, and too often results in a wreck. It makes sense to race this way for the win or late in the race, but people do this stuff all the time on lap 5 while running 15th.

I don’t claim to have a solution to this, I guess I just wanted to vent my frustrations. The oval racing experience could be a lot better if people chilled out and focused on finishing the race without dumping anyone in front of them.