For the second week in a row, NASCAR was up against daylight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Indianapolis does not have lights at the racetrack as well as Pocono Raceway. Mother Nature has played a significant role this year in many NASCAR races, forcing them to either race in the early morning, late afternoon, or postponed the event to the next day. A couple of weeks ago, the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series was scheduled to race on a Saturday afternoon. However, due to rain in the morning and the Cup Series scheduled to run that afternoon, NASCAR decided to move the event to Sunday morning.
So why is NASCAR starting races later in the day, especially at racetracks that don’t have lights? There are many factors as to why the races are being held later in the day. First, Mother Nature, and second, it’s the summer season, and many tracks are scorching hot in the afternoon. Pushing the race to the late afternoon into the evening is at least cooler for the drivers and fans. There is also the television deal, both FOX and NBC currently air NASCAR, they get to decide what times they are willing to air their races, so NASCAR accommodates them. In years past, when CBS, ESPN, ABC, TBS, TNT, TNN, early days of FOX, and NBC they aired NASCAR races at noon or 3 pm if they were in the west coast. Fans could watch the races and still get home before the day turned to dark.
When NASCAR races started at noon or 3 pm for west coast races, it was nice to be able to watch the race and not push it till 8 or 9 pm. By then, a lot of people have already tuned out because of how long the races are. To NASCAR’s credit, they are trying different things like having a double-header race like Pocono. I like having double-header races because the races were shorter, and drivers seemed to like the double-header races. However, if they plan to have more double-header races in the future, they should end the season early. Let’s face it; the NASCAR season is too long. The drivers don’t get enough time with their families, and it wears on them. Over the last five years, you have seen guys like Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne leave the sport. Some like Stewart and Kahne are still racing today in different dirt series. You factor the cars, the rules, and the start times at these races, and it’s a no brainer why drivers are leaving the sport.
Having three or 3:30 pm start times are not bad if the racetrack has lights. Fans love watching Bristol, Daytona, and Martinsville at night. If the tracks don’t have lights, they should consider having races either held in the morning or early afternoon, especially if the day is going to be hot for the drivers and fans. Having shorter races at certain tracks along with earlier start times is something I think both NASCAR and the networks should look into soon.
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