Post by milecoupe on Nov 9, 2007 6:07:49 GMT -4
It's a no-win situation, really. Take 14 facilities that each have two Nextel Cup dates, add eight more that have one race but want another, and throw in a handful that don't have a place on NASCAR's premier series but might just be willing to sue to get one. Cram it all into a nine-month schedule, allowing for two exhibition events, a few traditional fixtures, some off weeks, weather conditions, and the fact that tracks with two dates need those races spaced out to help sell tickets.
Send David your thoughts
And try to make everyone -- fans, track presidents, competitors, television partners, sponsors, chambers of commerce and so on -- happy.
It's impossible. Compiling the Nextel Cup schedule is perhaps the most thankless job in Daytona Beach, one where you're guaranteed to catch grief from somebody regardless of how the thing turns out. Everybody wants two dates, and wants them in April and October. Everybody wants a night race. Everybody wants a spot in the Chase. They can get almost all of that, and still come back with a complaint like, "Why did you put my fall date on the opening weekend of deer season?" as if NASCAR should submit its schedule to every states' department of natural resources for approval.
Given how bloated and unwieldy the thing has become -- in 1992, the year Jeff Gordon made his debut and Richard Petty retired, the schedule was just 29 events -- it's somewhat amazing that it works as well as it does. Yet the recent sale of New Hampshire International Speedway, and the speculation surrounding how parent company Speedway Motorsports Inc. might shuffle its now 12 Nextel Cup dates, only underscores the fact that the NASCAR schedule is desperately in need of an overhaul. Too many race dates are where they are simply because they've always been there, and not because their placement holds any particular significance to the sport.
In the era of the Chase, that needs to change. If NASCAR is willing to tinker with its championship format in an attempt to stoke competition and better position itself during football season, then it should be willing to do the same thing with its schedule. When officials designed the playoff format four years ago, they simply drew a line between the 26th and 27th races on their current schedule, and called the former portion the regular season and the latter portion the Chase. Out of sheer good fortune, tracks found themselves with a coveted playoff berth whether they deserved one or not. No attempt was made to shuffle dates to provide the best combination of on-track action and big-market appeal.
Of course, that's tough to do when the vast majority of facilities that host Nextel Cup dates -- all but Dover, Pocono and Indianapolis -- are owned by rival racetrack conglomerates that haven't always gotten along. During the meek attempt at schedule realignment that NASCAR made earlier in this decade, the late Bill France Jr. opened something of a Pandora's box by allowing racetrack companies to move dates within their own framework, essentially decentralizing the scheduling process. The sanctioning body should make the schedule, not International Speedway Corp. and SMI. But sometimes, it seems the other way around.
The result is often clumsy and, at its worst, downright confusing. Why are so many western trips bunched together rather than spaced out? Why start the Chase in remote, rustic, Sox-infested New Hampshire, at a time of year when the series is completely eclipsed by the region's pro sports teams? If you want a short track in the Chase, how is it Martinsville and not Bristol, with its football stadium aura and crowd of 160,000 strong? How does outdated Watkins Glen hold on to a Nextel Cup date, especially now that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal has proven itself more than adequate as a NASCAR venue? When will the brass at SMI and ISC publicly face up to the attendance issues dogging Atlanta and California, rather than make excuses for them?
It's not all bad. The two-week stay in Charlotte for the all-star race and Coca-Cola 600 is a great setup despite the fact that the grandstands at Lowe's Motor Speedway have a few more empty seats than they once did. Darlington's event on the Saturday night before Mother's Day is an unqualified smash, as evidenced by the amount of money ISC is pouring into a facility that was once in danger of becoming obsolete. Kansas and Las Vegas each brim with promise, and loom as the top two contenders for second dates if any ever become available. After a rocky start, Homestead-Miami has turned into a nice little racetrack, even if it doesn't quite have the infrastructure to host a season finale that ranks as one of the biggest events of the year.
But it's well past time for NASCAR to take all 22 Nextel Cup venues, toss them onto the floor, and begin rebuilding the schedule with the Chase in mind. Perhaps it's time to do something radically different, such as establishing a rotation like some major golf tournaments do with host courses, which would give more tracks a piece of the Chase and vary the challenge for competitors each season. Regardless, it's time to dispatch with the fallacy that all 36 points events are created equal. They're not. Outside of premier events like the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard, those final 10 are the whole ballgame. They're the ones that get all the attention, even from the season's earliest weeks. And they're the ones the schedule should be remade to showcase.
Send David your thoughts
And try to make everyone -- fans, track presidents, competitors, television partners, sponsors, chambers of commerce and so on -- happy.
It's impossible. Compiling the Nextel Cup schedule is perhaps the most thankless job in Daytona Beach, one where you're guaranteed to catch grief from somebody regardless of how the thing turns out. Everybody wants two dates, and wants them in April and October. Everybody wants a night race. Everybody wants a spot in the Chase. They can get almost all of that, and still come back with a complaint like, "Why did you put my fall date on the opening weekend of deer season?" as if NASCAR should submit its schedule to every states' department of natural resources for approval.
Given how bloated and unwieldy the thing has become -- in 1992, the year Jeff Gordon made his debut and Richard Petty retired, the schedule was just 29 events -- it's somewhat amazing that it works as well as it does. Yet the recent sale of New Hampshire International Speedway, and the speculation surrounding how parent company Speedway Motorsports Inc. might shuffle its now 12 Nextel Cup dates, only underscores the fact that the NASCAR schedule is desperately in need of an overhaul. Too many race dates are where they are simply because they've always been there, and not because their placement holds any particular significance to the sport.
In the era of the Chase, that needs to change. If NASCAR is willing to tinker with its championship format in an attempt to stoke competition and better position itself during football season, then it should be willing to do the same thing with its schedule. When officials designed the playoff format four years ago, they simply drew a line between the 26th and 27th races on their current schedule, and called the former portion the regular season and the latter portion the Chase. Out of sheer good fortune, tracks found themselves with a coveted playoff berth whether they deserved one or not. No attempt was made to shuffle dates to provide the best combination of on-track action and big-market appeal.
Of course, that's tough to do when the vast majority of facilities that host Nextel Cup dates -- all but Dover, Pocono and Indianapolis -- are owned by rival racetrack conglomerates that haven't always gotten along. During the meek attempt at schedule realignment that NASCAR made earlier in this decade, the late Bill France Jr. opened something of a Pandora's box by allowing racetrack companies to move dates within their own framework, essentially decentralizing the scheduling process. The sanctioning body should make the schedule, not International Speedway Corp. and SMI. But sometimes, it seems the other way around.
The result is often clumsy and, at its worst, downright confusing. Why are so many western trips bunched together rather than spaced out? Why start the Chase in remote, rustic, Sox-infested New Hampshire, at a time of year when the series is completely eclipsed by the region's pro sports teams? If you want a short track in the Chase, how is it Martinsville and not Bristol, with its football stadium aura and crowd of 160,000 strong? How does outdated Watkins Glen hold on to a Nextel Cup date, especially now that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal has proven itself more than adequate as a NASCAR venue? When will the brass at SMI and ISC publicly face up to the attendance issues dogging Atlanta and California, rather than make excuses for them?
It's not all bad. The two-week stay in Charlotte for the all-star race and Coca-Cola 600 is a great setup despite the fact that the grandstands at Lowe's Motor Speedway have a few more empty seats than they once did. Darlington's event on the Saturday night before Mother's Day is an unqualified smash, as evidenced by the amount of money ISC is pouring into a facility that was once in danger of becoming obsolete. Kansas and Las Vegas each brim with promise, and loom as the top two contenders for second dates if any ever become available. After a rocky start, Homestead-Miami has turned into a nice little racetrack, even if it doesn't quite have the infrastructure to host a season finale that ranks as one of the biggest events of the year.
But it's well past time for NASCAR to take all 22 Nextel Cup venues, toss them onto the floor, and begin rebuilding the schedule with the Chase in mind. Perhaps it's time to do something radically different, such as establishing a rotation like some major golf tournaments do with host courses, which would give more tracks a piece of the Chase and vary the challenge for competitors each season. Regardless, it's time to dispatch with the fallacy that all 36 points events are created equal. They're not. Outside of premier events like the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard, those final 10 are the whole ballgame. They're the ones that get all the attention, even from the season's earliest weeks. And they're the ones the schedule should be remade to showcase.
