What NASCAR needs: A shorter season
The NASCAR season is too long. There should be absolutely no debate about that.
It starts sometime after lunch on Feb. 15. It ends well after dinner on Nov. 22.
That's a lot An entire Major League Baseball season will be played in between those dates. An entire human baby can be conceived and born in that time. Jeff Gordon can go 0-for-36 in that span.
That's a long freakin' time, and my attention span is short.
Let's look at some other major sports:
NFL
Season runs from: September to December, followed by playoffs in January and the Super Bowl in early February.
How long it is: 5 months, not including training camp.
How much of it matters: All of it. That counts double for the fourth quarters of close games.
MLB
Season runs from: Early April to late Sept., with the playoffs and World Series in October.
How long it is: 7 months, not counting spring training
How much of it matters: One month of watered-down playoffs, I guess. But that's being charitable because baseball is more boring that Pocono qualifying.
NBA
Season runs from: Late Oct. to mid-April, followed by the playoffs until mid-June.
How long it is: 7.5 months
How much of it matters: The playoffs rock. That's about two months worth of really good hoops.
NHL
Season runs from: Do they still play hockey?
How long it is: Who knows?
How much of it matters: None of it.
College football
Season runs from: Late August to early December, with a month of bowl games.
How long it is: 4.5 months
How much of it matters: Most of it, except for some lousy bowl games and any time Notre Dame beats up on sorry Division II team.
College basketball
Season runs from: Mid-November to early April.
How long it is: 5 months
How much of it matters: March! But definitely nothing before January.
Golf
Season runs from: It has already started, and it ends after NASCAR.
How long it is: An eternity plus infinity.
How much of it counts: None of it unless Tiger plays. And it doesn't really count unless he wins.
So what's the common denominator? Except for pro and college football, which completely and totally rule, most other sports seasons give you only a month or two of action worth watching.
And NASCAR? NASCAR has 36 races (plus the Bud Shootout plus the All-Star race) over 10 months. That's way too much turn-left-drive-fast. I'm tired of it by Labor Day, and the season still has another two and a half months.
The F1 (17 races) and IndyCar (also 17 races) seasons are too short. NHRA (24 events) is about right, but they string out the season from February to November.
The Nationwide Series, because it's glued to the Cup season, is 35 races long. And the Truck Series is a nice round 25 races.
Hmmm. 25 races. Let's start there.
Next up: What a 25-race Cup schedule might look like.
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