What NASCAR needs: A shorter season, part 2
The current NASCAR season is 36 races.
It hasn't always been that long. Or as short.
Twenty years ago, when Crusty Wallace won his one and only championship, the 1989 Cup season was 29 races long.
Thirty years ago, the '79 season was 31 races long, and it didn't start in Daytona. (It started on a road coarse in California.)
Forty years ago, the 1969 season actually started in 1968. When it ended in College Station, Pa., on Dec. 7, the season had seen 54 races. Season champ David Pearson missed three races and still won, partly because Richard Petty skipped four and mostly because Pearson whupped everyone that year.
My point: There's absolutely nothing sacred about the 36-race season.
So I propose 25.
Why 25?
* It's a nice round number. A quarter of a hundred.
* It's less than 36 (the current season, which is too long) and more than 17 (which is how many F1 and IndyCar races there will be this year).
* It's the exact number of the Truck Series, which manages to have close points races just about every season without the Chase.
Here's the 2009 Cup season in all its gory. Er, glory. Look at it. Memorize it. Now come back.
Here's what my 25-race season would look like:
1. Feb. 22 (a week later than this year)
2. March 1
3. March 8
4. March 15
5. March 22
6. March 29
7. April 5
-- April 12: Off (Easter)
8. April 19
9. April 26
10. May 3
11. May 10
-- May 17: All-Star race
12. May 24 (Memorial Day)
13. May 31
-- June 7: Off
14. June 14
15. June 21
16. June 28
17. July 5 (4th of July weekend)
18. July 12
-- July 19: Off
19. July 26
20. Aug. 2
21. Aug. 9
22. Aug. 16
23. Aug. 23
24. Aug. 30
25. Sept. 6 (Labor Day)
We'll come to the exact tracks later.
So let's break this down.
* The season still starts in February, which is a great time for NASCAR. Why? Nothing else is going on except racin'. NBA? It's still the regular season. Ditto for the NHL. The Super Bowl is over, pitchers and catchers haven't reported, and the ACC and NCAA basketball tourneys don't get fired up until March. NASCAR has the floor to itself.
* This schedule has some of the same fixed points -- it's off for Easter, and there's the All-Star race in mid-May.
* Best of all, it ends about the time football begins. The 2009 NFL schedule isn't out yet, but the best I can tell it will start Sept. 13. Football of both the pro and college flavors sucks all of the the air out of the room. (Did you notice that the NBA, NHL and college basketball seasons all start during football season? Yeah, me neither.) Remember how NASCAR uses its February start to its advanage? Might as well finish the season on the same note -- that is, when folks aren't distracted by 12 others sports.
Next up: I'm going to take a break from the schedule and look at qualifying.
Comments (2)
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John, where have you been? I hope everything is OK. After you cut expenses by almost a third by doing this here's a proposed schedule:
1. Daytona
2. Homestead
3. Fontana
4. Phoenix
5. Texas
6. Atlanta
7. Bristol
8. Rockingham
9. N Wilkesboro
10. Charlotte
11. Martinsville
All-Star - Bristol
12. Richmond
13, Dover (300 miles)
14 Pocono (300 miles)
15. Sonoma
16. New Hampshire (250 miles)
17. Talledega
18. New road course in NJ
19. A current west coast short track
20. Indy
21. Kansas
22. Chicagoland
23. An east coast short track
24. DeQuiones, IL (the dirt track)
25. Darlington
I know I butchered the spelling of #24. I think I gave every current track 1 race with the exception of the All-star Race that I would move around. Therefore it would be like the PGA that doesn't repeat course appearances.
I would also throw things at the drivers they have never seen before. On some of these short tracks I would use elimination races like World of Outlaws use to get down to the final race of 20 - 24 cars so it could work on something as small as South Boston, VA. The west coast track I am thinking of is where they host the east vs west races every year in CA.
Posted on February 5, 2009 11:09 AM
Doesn't matter where I've been, Mark. But I'm back with a vengeance! (And with extra crankiness!)
I like a lot of your stuff, especially the dirt track idea. That would rule.
Here's another. Why should NASCAR go to the same tracks every year? The Super Bowl isn't in the same place every season. Neither is the Final Four. Or the Tour de France. Or even F1, which cut out the US race last year because it wasn't very good.
Posted on February 5, 2009 11:22 AM