With the Cup Collection playoffs set to start and no phrase but on a 2023 Cup schedule, information of the subsequent calendar for the game’s premier division must be proper across the nook.
Whereas NASCAR has already introduced one blockbuster change for subsequent season — a road race in downtown Chicago — the rest of the schedule stays largely shrouded in thriller.
Whereas it’s protected to go forward and put the game’s crown-jewel occasions just like the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and Southern 500 in ink, in addition to the Championship 4 race at Phoenix, a good portion of the schedule appears to be in flux. And the very fact it’s taken NASCAR till this late within the yr to disclose the schedule is a powerful indicator {that a} main shakeup could also be on the horizon.
Let’s check out a handful of modifications NASCAR merely can’t afford to not make to the forthcoming itinerary for its prime collection.
1. NASCAR should implement extra evening races within the 2023 Cup schedule
All through the ‘90s and up till only a few years in the past, evening racing was a significant fad in NASCAR. Among the many tracks that added lights — or that already had lights and joined the Cup schedule – have been Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Auto Membership Speedway, Richmond Raceway, Darlington Raceway, Daytona Worldwide Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Bristol Motor Speedway hosted its first Cup Collection evening race in 1978, and the latest observe so as to add an evening race — which occurred in 2020 — was Martinsville Speedway.
But for this yr, the one tracks scheduled to host a largely nighttime race have been Darlington, Bristol, Daytona (though the race needed to be postponed and run within the day), Texas (if you happen to depend the All-Star Race), Martinsville, and Charlotte.
So why the transfer away from nighttime races, which casual polling has lengthy indicated that followers truly want?
“I believe typically TV has one thing to do with that, to be trustworthy with you,” Darlington Raceway president Kerry Tharp instructed Sportscasting. “However I believe you’ve gotta look and see what’s in one of the best curiosity of your followers. Are you higher off having a day race the place they will return later within the day to their properties, or are you higher off having an evening race? I believe there’s give and tackle each side of it. I believe you’ll see NASCAR doing every part they will to maintain the followers, and then you definitely’ve acquired to additionally maintain the published viewers.”
Tharp indicated that Darlington has given some consideration to internet hosting each its annual Cup Collection races at evening. For now, although, the South Carolina observe’s spring race is held on a Sunday afternoon. This weekend’s Cook dinner Out Southern 500 on the observe “Too Robust to Tame” begins late within the day and ends properly after darkish.
“Again within the day once we ran on Mom’s Day weekend, it was a Saturday evening race, however there’s quite a lot of elements that go into that,” Tharp mentioned. “Broadcast definitely has a big say-so in that, and definitely we’d do no matter we will to maintain a race date. We get collectively, we get with NASCAR, we get with the TV companions and actually attempt to provide you with a date that matches all people’s wants, so I believe that there’s professionals and cons on each side of the coin. But when it’s higher for us to run within the day, then most definitely, we’ll run within the day.”
So, in different phrases: Even when Darlington needed to run each Cup races at evening, the observe’s arms are primarily tied as a result of its schedule is on the mercy of NASCAR — which owns the observe — and NASCAR’s TV companions in FOX Sports activities and NBC Sports activities.
For the followers who crave evening racing, it is a unhappy actuality they need to face. However, we will hope NASCAR will work it out in order that a minimum of a couple of extra tracks can flip their lights again on or host a number of occasions below the celebrities all through the 2023 Cup schedule.
2. It’s time for further off-weeks
This yr’s NASCAR Cup Collection schedule — not like any that I can recall — options only one off-week from mid-February by early November. That’s 37 weeks of racing (if you happen to embrace the All-Star Race) with just one break alongside the way in which.
Absent from this yr’s schedule was a longstanding NASCAR custom of being idle on each Easter and Mom’s Day. No, as an alternative of giving drivers and group members the time off in observance of those holidays, they raced on the Bristol filth observe and at Darlington, respectively.
If NASCAR is really a family-friendly sport, because it likes to say, it must return to its roots a bit in 2023 by taking a break on Easter and Mom’s Day — even when which means beginning the season per week earlier and ending it per week later.
Burnout is actual, and it’s arduous to not really feel for many who journey the circuit and need to be at each race. Plus, even most followers of the game may in all probability stand a weekend with no NASCAR now and again. It will be in one of the best pursuits of everybody — drivers, group members, followers, TV folks, PR people, media members, and many others. — if the subsequent Cup Collection schedule included a minimum of three breaks.
Fingers crossed it can occur, but it surely sounds unlikely.
3. The regular-season finale of the 2023 Cup schedule ought to discover a new host
With all due respect to Daytona and its unparalleled historical past and place within the sport, having the fabled 2.5-mile superspeedway function host of the Cup Collection’ regular-season finale for the final three years has been nothing wanting a failed experiment.
Not solely is the late-August climate in Central Florida too unpredictable for anybody to be ok with attending to run the race as scheduled, however the occasion itself has grow to be nothing lower than a demolition derby due to the close-quarters, big-pack, superspeedway-style racing that inevitably breeds quite a few multi-car wrecks.
“You hear to each driver after they get out of the infield care heart and so they’re all like, ‘I hate this place. I hate this place,’” Joey Logano mentioned throughout an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “You dread it will definitely, since you simply know [the big wreck] is coming. You strap in and also you’re like, ‘I’m pulling these unhealthy boys further tight at the moment as a result of there’s a very good probability that I’m sideways within the fence sooner or later.’ And it occurs each time. It’s not even stunning. … It’s Daytona. That’s what it’s.”
The regular-season finale at Daytona was nothing wanting an unmitigated catastrophe. For a number of causes.
Not solely did rain drive the postponement of the race from Saturday evening to Sunday, however some three-quarters of the sector ended up concerned in accidents. With out query, the Daytona 500 ought to stay the primary race of the season from now till the tip of time as a result of it’s the “Tremendous Bowl of stock-car racing,” but it surely’s time to maneuver the ultimate race of the common season to a observe the place drivers have significantly extra management over their very own future.
In any case, this is the race that units the sector for the playoffs, proper? Drivers ought to have a possibility to placed on an honest present and battle it out somewhat than virtually being doomed for destruction earlier than the inexperienced flag even waves.
4. The All-Star Race should additionally admit to a failed experiment and alter venues
Talking of failed experiments, working the All-Star Race at Texas the final two years hasn’t labored out as many had hoped. Each this yr’s and final yr’s All-Star Races have been humdrum, follow-the-leader affairs missing the type of drama and pleasure that had beforehand outlined this occasion for thus lengthy.
The 2022 version of the All-Star Race was notably arduous on the eyes, producing a grand whole of three lead modifications over 140 laps. So uninspiring was the on-track product that NASCAR needed to manufacture an pointless warning on the finish of the race simply to create a somewhat-close end.
“Texas is type of its personal distinctive animal,” Chase Briscoe mentioned on a Ford Racing teleconference again in Could. “The opposite mile-and-a-halves we’ve ran, all of them have a number of grooves the place you may run in all places. You possibly can run up by the wall. You possibly can run the center. You possibly can run on the underside, the place Texas is certainly much more one-lane dominant.”
Translation: Passing is all however unattainable at Texas. That being so, it’s time for NASCAR to move the All-Star Race baton to a observe the place passing isn’t like pulling tooth.
“I’m glad that NASCAR has began rotating this occasion some,” Chase Elliott, who received the All-Star Race at Bristol in 2020, mentioned previous to this yr’s occasion, per a Group Chevy information launch. “I believe that’s what this occasion was initially designed to do — give followers within the completely different areas a particular occasion — and I believe that’s actually cool. It’s extra like what different types of sports activities do. I’m hoping that subsequent yr they change it up and head someplace else after being again in Texas for the second yr.”
That’s NASCAR’s four-time Most Fashionable Driver speaking there. Let’s hope NASCAR is listening because it crafts the 2023 Cup schedule.
5. Get doubleheaders again on the 2023 Cup schedule
Final however definitely not least, NASCAR could be clever to reinstitute a minimum of a few doubleheader race weekends for the Cup Collection in 2023.
If you happen to’ll recall, doubleheaders have been a factor in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic compelled NASCAR to considerably alter the schedule in an effort to squeeze in all 36 factors races. The end result was Cup races on back-to-back weekend days at Pocono, Dover, and Michigan.
In 2021, Pocono as soon as once more hosted a doubleheader race weekend, however by the point this season rolled round, doubleheaders have been no extra. Now, the three tracks all have only a single race on the 2022 calendar.
That’s unlucky, particularly contemplating these three venues have been staples of the game for someplace within the neighborhood of 5 many years. To take a race away from locations with such wealthy historical past is a nasty concept, particularly for extra conventional followers.
Whereas going to those tracks twice a yr is perhaps impractical with NASCAR persevering with to increase into new markets, what’s way more sensible — and a good compromise — is to have these fabled amenities function the websites of doubleheaders.
In any case, the one factor higher than watching one race at these tracks on a weekend is watching two.
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