Scott Dixon isn't letting a pandemic stop him from re-writing the record book. Rinus VeeKay had a rough first day. MotoGP continues to rearrange its schedule. There has been plenty of rider movement in MotoGP despite having yet to hold a race in 2020. DTM plans on keeping it local and returning to Spa-Francorchamps. Super GT will keep it domestic and visit three circuits multiple times. NASCAR announced it is going to Nashville but not the Nashville it has been promoting for the last two years. NASCAR went to Atlanta and has released it schedule through August. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Midweek Experiment
NASCAR has returned and, thanks to midweek races, we are in the middle of June with ten races in the bag, only five races behind where we were supposed in the 2020 season. Another midweek race is coming up this Wednesday from Martinsville and that will claw back one more race.
After over a decade of balking at a midweek option, the covid-19 pandemic forced NASCAR to make an attempt. After two races, there has been much praise. Brad Keselowski believed NASCAR hit gold with this format.
The pair of 500-kilometer races from Darlington and Charlotte are shorter than what we normally see at those tracks, but the races ratcheted up the intensity with fewer pit stops and fewer laps to get to the front. In efforts to limit contact, every NASCAR race has been a one-day show. Outside of the Coca-Cola 600, the first laps on track have been race laps. Inversion was used to set the grid of the midweek races at Darlington and Charlotte. The first races at those two tracks saw the top twenty finishers inverted for the starting grid of the second race. Twenty-first on back from the first races started where they finished.
These little things have worked for NASCAR. The 500-kilometer distance provided a compelling race and did not drag on for over three hours. The inversion mixed up the field and set up a first stage where some drivers moved forward and others dropped back. While every race has been done without practice, ideally there would be at least one practice session, allowing teams to work out any kinks. Minor issues sprung up and forced teams to make adjustments or repairs under early cautions in these races that otherwise would have been handled with a practice session to shakedown the cars.
The one-day show has a place in NASCAR, even if it includes a practice session and qualifying. The last few weeks showed NASCAR less can mean more and there is another night of the week to schedule races.
This was the right time for NASCAR to try the midweek experiment, but it is also the wrong time and many questions remain unanswered if this is truly viable in the future.
NASCAR had to get races in and with no other sports taking place adding a few Wednesday night races helped get the schedule back on track and gave Fox something to broadcast. However, this is the control year for midweek races. NASCAR is not going to get vacant May Wednesday nights in the future. There should be Stanley Cup and NBA playoff games taking place. Weeknights should have ten to 15 Major League Baseball games going on and countless more minor league games across the country.
This is a one-off and the space NASCAR got will disappear for future weeknight races when more options are available.
That doesn't mean NASCAR should completely abandon the concept. The television numbers from Darlington and Charlotte were lower than a typical weekend race but not drastically off some Saturday night races. There could be some legs for a few midweek races, but we must take into consideration the concept's realistic viability.
What is the window for midweek races?
It is limited. NASCAR would not run Wednesday night races during the playoffs so that throws out pretty much Labor Day onward. The other issue is you likely aren't going to see them in the first portion of the season when school is still in session across the country and people aren't as up to spending a Wednesday night out in March or April.
The only viable window early in the season for a midweek race would be the Wednesdays before the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament. NASCAR could have a Cup race and not be against a mountain of basketball games. It is a point in the year when baseball hasn't started yet and the NBA and NHL still have a few weeks to go in the regular season and the intensity simmers but doesn't boil. There is a pocket for NASCAR but NASCAR might not fit.
Weather remains fickle in March and it rules out plenty of tracks. Homestead and Atlanta are options. Both have slightly more favorable conditions at that time of the year. Those are easier commutes for the NASCAR teams but convincing either track it will draw a respectable crowd will be the challenge. After the last few months, tracks will be hellbent to sell tickets in 2021 and avoiding the NCAA tournament in hopes of getting two good TV numbers might not outweigh tracks desperate to boost gate revenue.
Gate revenue does not factor into the 2020 equation because all these events are happening behind closed doors. Tracks need to see some financial benefit and that remains an unknown over the future of midweek races. Both Darlington and Charlotte ran additional races. Neither planned on hosting these races and there was no bottomline in place. This was gravy to each track, but Homestead, Atlanta and Martinsville, which host a race this Wednesday, know how many tickets each has to sell at a certain price point to meet its stated goal.
Reducing a three-day race weekend to one weekday with a practice session, qualifying session and race jammed in likely doesn't help these tracks. We haven't even figured out how the other two national touring series fit in with Cup midweek races. I doubt the tracks are going to trade an entire weekend for races on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The window is probably May through August, which is not a lot of time. We ran two midweek races this May, but should things return to normal in 2021 and the NBA, NHL and MLB all be operating, is Fox going to put a Cup race against a NBA conference final between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors or Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks and 13 MLB games? Does NASCAR want to go head-to-head with an NBA Finals game or Stanley Cup Final game? Both those competitions run into June.
If we factor out those two championship series, then the window shuts to the middle of June through August. That is not a lot of time.
How many midweek races are too many midweek races?
It falls into the same boat as restrictor plate races and road course races. I don't think anyone wants more than four restrictor plate races. The Cup series runs three road course races but if that number were to go up to five or six, I think that tilts the scale too much in the opposite direction.
NASCAR wants to end the season earlier. This year is ending two weeks earlier than usual. It likely wants to take another week or two off the end of the year. Midweek races help NASCAR reach that goal but with the playoff format it complicates how and when races fall. NASCAR moved the second Daytona race to be the final regular season race at the end of August. If the season ends two weeks earlier that means the regular season will end two weeks earlier. Daytona will have to move up another two weeks.
Factor in a fixed event, like the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend, and Darlington cannot start the playoffs if the playoffs start two weeks earlier. It would have to become the final race of the first round or the first race of the second round.
Let's say NASCAR decided the first midweek race would be the Wednesday after the Coca-Cola 600. If nothing else changed in the first part of the schedule, and NASCAR raced every weekend and Wednesday from the Wednesday after the 600 onward, the season could end by the middle of August. Of course, that is the most extreme example and NASCAR would not run a dozen weeknight races but it will have to balance weeknight races with its desired end date.
I sense some think weeknight races could become NASCAR's new big thing but too much stands in its way of being great. NASCAR is not going to run every Wednesday in the summer. The season would end sooner than it would want and that would also likely put more strain on the teams.
These midweek races at Darlington, Charlotte and Martinsville have worked because all these venues are within a day's drive for all the teams. That isn't going to happen in the future. Darlington is not getting an additional race just so it can run on a Wednesday. I don't think Martinsville is going to shift to a Wednesday. Teams are not going to rush out to Phoenix for a Wednesday race and then return to the shop and hope to race on Sunday at Bristol.
There are too many tracks that are not viable for midweek races. None of the tracks out west work. Those races would be run in the middle of the afternoon local time and all those races are early in the year. The newly announced Nashville SuperSpeedway race is going to be on the weekend. Michigan, Pocono, Loudon, Indianapolis, Talladega, Watkins Glen and Sonoma do not have lights. That is 17 races right there off the table and you can add the Daytona 500 as well. The Coca-Cola 600 is not going to take place after Memorial Day or five days before Memorial Day, so that brings the list up to 19 races. Also, I am not sure if the road course portion of Charlotte is lit and even if it can be, it is a playoff race. Playoff races will not take place on Wednesday nights. The Charlotte roval race is off the table. That is 20.
The Sunday/Wednesday doubleheader does not work for any playoff tracks. Playoff races are not going to fall on Wednesday nights let alone a track getting two playoff races. The only way for what we saw at Darlington and Charlotte to play out in the future is if a track chooses to sacrifice a playoff race and I do not see Martinsville, Richmond, Bristol, Texas, Kansas or Las Vegas wanting both its Cup races within a four-day span nor do I see any track getting another Cup race. That is another 12 races off the table, bringing the total to 32 races.
That leaves us with Homestead, Atlanta, Chicagoland and Kentucky as the most suitable midweek race options and that is probably the right number of races. They are all 1.5-mile ovals and that will make too many fans angry but that is what we got. Potential midweek venues could change if NASCAR decides to shift the schedule. If existing tracks do not want to trade weekend races this could be NASCAR's leverage over getting Gateway and Iowa on the schedule. It could set the bar that those tracks can have a Cup date if it accepts it will be a midweek race, at least for a few years as an experiment.
I am not sure midweek races could go beyond three or four events, but I doubt that is enough to be significant for NASCAR. If there will be one midweek race a month from June through August that isn't going shift attention more to NASCAR. You would get a few busy weeks for NASCAR and on paper that doesn't do much. If NASCAR decided to run a race the Wednesday after the MLB All-Star Game, then great! That is one night it might see increased attention because it will only be against the ESPYs, but every other Wednesday night is just another Wednesday night on cable.
NASCAR went two-for-two on midweek races when it needed a pair of hits. Midweek races have a future, but it is not as great as some may think it will be. While these races have come off during a global pandemic, the pandemic makes midweek races appear easier to implement than they actually are. NASCAR benefited from re-working its schedule and putting more races around its home base. It did not have to worry about tracks struggling to sell tickets or networks unable to find available broadcast time. Weather did not entirely cooperate. The races got in; however, it might be more difficult to juggle weather delays and midweek races during more stable times.
There is a place for midweek races, its reduced track schedule, inversion and 500-kilometer races but more experimenting has to be completed before we know if it has a sustainable future.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott Dixon but did you know...
Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup race from Atlanta, his third victory of the season. A.J. Allmendinger won the Grand National Series race. Grant Enfinger won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
Cooper Webb won the Supercross race on Wednesday from Salt Lake City, Webb's second victory of the season. Eli Tomac won Sunday's race, his seventh victory of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR heads to Martinsville on Wednesday and Homestead for the weekend.
Supercross has another pair of races in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and Sunday.
IMSA concludes its iRacing series at Watkins Glen.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
