NASCAR had a night race at Martinsville and Martin Truex, Jr. took the victory. Lightning won the day at Homestead. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. came back, A.J. Allmendinger won $100,000 for a fourth-place finish and same as usual in the Truck series. Elsewhere in the world, MotoGP released its updated schedule and I hope you love Spain. IMSA completed its iRacing series. There was a virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans and it had multiple server issues. Williams actually won something. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
What's Working and What Isn't
There has been racing for a month now and everything has been run differently than your typical race weekends. We have seen one-day shows with practice and qualifying, one-day shows where it is just the race, starting grids set via draws and inversions, weeknight races and more.
With everything that has been out of the norm, many have been praise the changes but there have been a few things that have not entire played out as desired.
What's Working: One-Day Shows
One-day shows have been thought to be a way to condense the schedule, save the teams some money, give fans all the action in one go-round and be a good way to simplify the weekend.
Before the pandemic, one-day shows were avoided, mostly because if a three-day weekend or two-day weekend is working, why move away from it?
In an attempt to avoiding drawing out events because there are no fans in attendance and to decrease the risk of spreading the covid-19 virus, one-day shows have been the go-to and it has mostly been a success.
Outside of the Coca-Cola 600, every NASCAR race has been taking the car off the hauler, going through inspection and then race. There is no practice or qualifying. The first time the cars hit the track in anger is lap one and that has not caused many problems.
IndyCar ran a one-day show that included practice and qualifying at Texas.
I think we are at a point where NASCAR could run a quick practice session to allow the teams to get some understanding of the racetrack. The teams don't need six hours of practice, an hour or even 45 minutes will do.
NASCAR has strayed away from practice and qualifying to avoid the need for backup cars and to limit the number of crew members at the track. After the IndyCar weekend, there is a concern about putting cars on track hours before the race and risking possible repairs if there is an accident. There is a fine balance.
The Martinsville race saw Goodyear bring a softer tire and the teams that got the setup wrong got it very wrong and were screwed over the first 60 laps or 130 laps of the race. Some teams came back but others were trapped a lap down or more for the rest of the night. A 45-minute or 60-minute practice session would allow teams to get a dial the cars in, especially when a new variable in a different tire compound is brought to the track.
What's Working: 500-kilometer races
Short, sweet and to the point, the 500-kilometer distance might be the big winner from this entire period.
NASCAR has been chided for having races that drag on for years but this could be the answer. Outside of the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and Brickyard 400, the 500-kilometer distance is the way to go.
Since the introduction of stages I have been saying the best way to make these races better is to just cut off the first stage. First stage is nothing but dressing. It sets up a pit stop and does little else. Atlanta last week was three and a half hours and ended at 7:00 p.m. ET. A 500-kilometer race would have been done before 6:00 p.m.
I will allow some wiggle room, especially for the Pocono doubleheader where one race will be 325 miles and 350 miles. Bristol and Martinsville can keep a race at 500 laps but the other ones should be cut to 400 laps. Same with Richmond, one race at 400 laps but cut one to 300 laps.
Let's get these races to around two and a half hours. This will mean a little negotiating with other race distances. I am sure NASCAR will want the Cup races to be more than 12 miles greater than the Grand National Series races but those could be cut to 250 miles. Homestead hosted a pair of 250-mile Grand National Series race this past weekend and it was fine.
As for a typical day at the track, this could allow for more Cup/Grand National Series doubleheaders or Cup/Truck doubleheaders. You could have the lower series race at noon and have the Cup race at 3:00 p.m. Give the fans two races for the price of one and it would allow more weekends to be condensed to two days.
What's Working: Inversions
I enjoyed the inversions at the second Darlington and Charlotte races. It made the first part of the race interesting. There were always cars moving, whether it was teams that were successful in the first race going forward or cars that started outside the top twenty who made big leaps.
The only problem is if inversions are only going to be used for doubleheaders then there is not much life for them. I will admit the draw deciding the starting grid is getting a little stale for NASCAR. I get why the top 12 start in the top 12 every week but I feel that was fairer for the first few races back and now we are getting to a point where we can have a little more variety.
It made sense for Darlington and Charlotte because you were flipping what you saw a few days prior. Inverting the top 20 after Homestead to set the grid for Talladega is less sensical but it is not any crazier than using a draw. Maybe this is something that should have more legs even if the tracks differ in size and aero regulations.
What Isn't Working: Deciding the Truck field
With qualifying not taking place, NASCAR has expanded the field size for the lower two national touring divisions to 40 entries. The problem is the Truck series has gone from a maximum grid of 32 entries to 40 entries but in some cases attracting 47 entrants.
For the first few races back from hiatus, 2019 owners' championship points decided most of the field. With more additional entries, this has led to an unconventional method of deciding those final eight spots and the final spots have gone to teams that attempted one of two Truck races before the shutdown.
The problem is there are a few one-off teams that did not attempt Daytona or Las Vegas and cannot get into the field. Erik Jones and Parker Kligerman entered the Charlotte race but both were excluded because neither team attempted one of the first two races. Kligerman was again excluded from the field at Atlanta but this time David Ragan, who was on the original Atlanta entry list before the postponement of that round at the 11th hour, was also kept out of that race.
While a few competitive entries have been left out, a few less competitive teams have gotten in and it has left many wishing there was a better way to fill these field.
The current process is flawed, as it will always keep out one-off entries or part-time entries who were not at the first two rounds. They cannot go back and fix that. The only hope for some of these teams is if there are fewer entries and they can slide in.
For Homestead, there were only 40 entries but if this is a chance where NASCAR is trying 500-kilometer races and inversions at the Cup level, why can't this be a chance to try something different in Trucks?
You cannot have 47 Trucks start a race but instead of having a traditional race, why not break it up, have two heats and a last chance qualifier? Taking Atlanta as an example, why not just have two 20-lap heats, take the top ten from each, take the remaining 27 trucks and put those in a ten-lap LCQ, the top four advance to the final race and then have a 100-lap main event? All entries from fifth on the LCQ to last get 25th to last place points and the main event get points for the top 24 finishers.
Every Truck would get substantial track time. It would limit the number of tires each team would and you would only need live pit stops for the main event. Maybe the full heat race, LCQ format is too much but could we at least have a 15-lap or 20-lap race to decide the final eight spots before the main race? Let's do something different because turning entrants away is not a great look.
What Isn't Working: Rain delays
This is a different time and not everything happening now will apply down the road but rain delays have been wonky.
Mostly because of how each race weekend is limiting how many people are in the facilities but a rained out Grand National Series race at Darlington got bumped from Tuesday to Thursday because of the Cup race on Wednesday. The rained out Wednesday Charlotte race pushed the Grand National Series race at Bristol from Saturday to Monday because there was not going to be enough time to get all the television equipment set up for a Saturday race.
If this past Wednesday's Martinsville race was rained out it would not have taken place on Thursday because the television equipment had to go to Homestead. Martinsville, already delayed a month, would have to be made up at a later date. NASCAR was fortunate the lengthy lightning delays at Homestead occurred for the Cup race, the final race of the weekend, and not during any of the previous three races that weekend. We are going to see a few more crammed doubleheaders this season with Pocono being the next one schedule. It could prove for many logistical headaches.
Rain delays could be a massive hang up, especially for future weeknight races. NASCAR cannot afford a three-day rainstorm linger over a Wednesday race when they are scheduled to be at another track hundreds of miles away come Saturday. You cannot avoid weather, but it is a headache that NASCAR can avoid simply by not scheduling midweek races. The experiment may end to maintain sanity.
What Isn't Working: Weekend Simulator Races After Series Return
It works when there is nothing else going on but put a sim race on a Saturday or Sunday when you have two or three series in action and it doesn't hold the same pizzazz. Add to it that all of these drivers either have returned to their day jobs or will be returning in the next month and then it just feels like the final four or five kids left at the end of a day of summer camp shooting the basketball around but not having a serious game.
Champion From the Weekend
Bruno Spengler won the IMSA iRacing Pro Invitational Series championship at Watkins Glen.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Martin Truex, Jr. but did you know...
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Homestead, his third victory of the season. Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe split the Grand National Series races, their second and third victories respectively this season. Kyle Busch won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
Cooper Webb won the Supercross race on Wednesday from Salt Lake City. Ken Roczen won the Sunday race.
Rodrigo Pflucker won IMSA's iRacing event from Watkins Glen.
The #1 Rebellion-Williams Esport entry of Raffaele Marciello, Louis Delétraz, Kuba Brzezinski and Nikodem Wisniewski won the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans. In GTE, the #93 Porsche of Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Güven, Josh Rogers and Tommy Ostgaard took the victory.
Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR will be at Talladega.
Supercross has two more races in Salt Lake City, one on Wednesday and one on Sunday.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
