HOW TO IMPROVE NASCAR
Last week I created a fictitious Sprint Cup schedule that generated some very thoughtful comments. Keeping in the spirit of wishful thinking, I offer these five suggestions on how to improve the Sprint Cup Series. Please keep in mind, I think NASCAR has done a great job the past 60 years taking this sport to phenomenal heights. I offer these suggestions as a crewman and fan who loves the sport and wants to see it thrive. Your comments are welcome.
Fastest 43 cars race
For all the money and politics that have entered big-time stock car competition, it is still the RACING that matters. The integrity and purity of the sport seems tainted with 35 positions already locked in when the Friday morning gates open. I say we make every team earn a starting slot. If Jeff Gordon spins on his qualifying lap, too bad. If Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets a flat tire during time trials, that’s racing. If some of the superstars don’t make it to Sunday, then go faster next week.
Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series: Pick ONE
Does Ben Roethlisberger play in a college game on Saturday to warm up for Sunday? Is Derek Jeter batting in a college tournament when the Yankees have the night off? When a driver moves up, he should stay up. We could have 122 different drivers in the starting fields of a tripleheader weekend. This would be a great opportunity to develop the Jack Ingrams and Sam Ards of tomorrow. Nationwide used to be a division to aspire to. It was revered. Now it’s a stepping stone for the Cup tour, or a moonlighting gig.
Shorter weekends
The Sprint Cup Series spends three days at a speedway to practice, qualify and run one race. Grassroots drivers do it all in one night. Cup teams doing the same could save a lot of money over the course of a season and the teams would not be as burned out. This also could make for better racing.
Green flag finishes no matter what
Nothing takes the wind out of a fan’s sails like a finish under caution after a green-white-checker setup. Late cautions tend to decrease the driver’s respect and consideration for one another. The race is on the line. If they wreck during extra laps, I say clean up the mess, line them up and throw the green again. The fans paid good money for their tickets. They need to see a real finish.
Stop referring to the Cup Series as NASCAR
Many people do not really know what NASCAR is. They see the Cup Series and think that is NASCAR, period. That is incorrect and some of the biggest violators are members of the media. “The NASCAR schedule” and “Where is NASCAR this weekend” are incorrectly phrased if some is speaking of Sprint Cup only. Some uneducated members of the press perpetuate the problem, confusing the casual fan. I can tell how much a person truly knows about motorsports when our conversation goes like this. If someone claims to follow NASCAR, then they should know who won the NASCAR Southern Modified Tour championship and can tell me about Rockford Speedway in Illinois. They are both just as much NASCAR as Talladega and the C.O.T.
(Patrick Reynolds is a professional racing mechanic who has worked for several NASCAR teams.)
Related links:
The perfect Sprint Cup schedule
How do you become a NASCAR driver?
How much money do NASCAR drivers make?
How does the Lucky Dog work?
Tim Richmond's most memorable moments
The five most common pit stop mistakes
Top ten one-hit wonders
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10 Comments
Well... here are just a few ways to improve nascar:
Race better looking cars. Get rid of the bloated sedans. The "car of the future" looks like a mid 90's Chevy Lumina. Going back to real stock cars would be an improvement. But make improving the technology part of the mix.
Race at real tracks. Not those stupid oval things. turn left occasionally.
Stop racing in tiny little hick backwaters.
Actually allow the teams to build better cars. introduce some technology... eliminate steal brakes and restrictor plates.
Have real races... dont stop them every time someone gets the lead. Dont stop em for trash on the track.
Get rid of the stupid points system. Get rid of the "chase". give more points for a win and lets see who is the real champion.
150% totally agree. Never liked the idea of a gauranteed anything. There are no gauranteed spots in NHRA. You are either fast enough or you are not. That the it was for many years until Nascar wnet Hollywood with the Brian France erra. It needs to go back old school and remember where it came from. I have already dropped my season tickets to TMS because the competition has gotten so stale that it has become boring to watch. And the restrictor plate tracks are a joke. AS to the fact the fans want to see the big one is total BS. Especially when half the field is in the garage.
So? That's called life. Why should someone like Scott Riggs come out, qualify for a race, make it in the field on time because of their own hard work, and get told to pack it up? Nobody owes it to Jeff Gordon or his fans to ensure that he's in the field. It's not his right to be there. Run a fast lap and things will take care of themselves.
If you want to go to 'fastest 43' and give everyone in the top 20 a single provisional, I could live with that. It's still bad, but not as bad.
Would you stand for this in any other sport? Would you be fine if your football team gets bumped from a playoff spot that they earned because the league thought the Chargers were a better draw and they didn't want to upset San Diego fans?
As long as we're on the subject, if the current system stays, make qualifying two separate segments. Go-or-go-homers run first, and if their segment of qualifying is done, the results are locked in. After that the guaranteed entries run. If they get rained out or whatever, then set their positions based on points and the people that earned their way in are in. Every possible effort should be made to run the cars that need to qualify on time. Boris Said missing races because of rain shouldn't happen, even if it means doing the below top 35 people the morning of the race or something.
I agree with the fastest 43. BUT. stop single qualifier laps. Its time for short track style with heat races and consi's for last chance.Let them run in the other series too, however, start CUP regulars in the hole by 1000 points, so they have no bearing for the championship. Or like I read somewhere, qualifying points. The driver must qualify their own car and if you do, you recieve 250 points. This will take CUP regulars out of the championship hunt.
Why not just make drivers "declare" for the Cup series at the start of the year. If you declare yourself a Sprint Cup driver, you get zero points for participating in a race in any other NASCAR sanctioned event, be it Trucks, Nationwide, Camping World West, etc.. All of the regulars in those series would gain points appropriate to their finishing position and those extra points from Cup drivers would just go away.
If you don't declare yourself as a cup driver, you're only eligible to run 50% of the Cup races in that season. There would have to be some kind of provision for in-season move-ups from Nationwide to Cup, but that wouldn't be too big of a deal.
I've been to enough stand alone Nationwide and Camping World races to see the difference having cup guys in the line-up make. When you look around the stands at a NW event you see a sea of #60 and #18 gear. I rarely see someone in a Justin Algiers hat or Kelly Bires jacket. Cup guys sell tickets. Just look at the midway when Carl's doing autographs.
Seeing as how my home race is a stand alone event, if NASCAR took such a stance I would likely not go.
Good suggestions! A couple of thoughts...
1) I've been saying this for years. Fastest 43 race, go or go home. No provisionals, no top 35, etc. I can't stand that they prop up noncompetitive teams with the top 35 rule.
2) I wouldn't mind seeing this as well, but it's a heck of a lot easier to sell the Nationwide with "what will that maniac Kyle Busch do this weekend" versus "come watch a bunch of guys you've never heard of" so I can see where NASCAR is coming from with this one. Plus it's not like the cup drivers are hogging all the rides. There's still a lot of development going on in the Nationwide series. Having those big name guys in the cars means more butts in the seats and more eyes on the TVs, which means more money and bigger purses, which helps the lesser teams, so it's not a completely bad thing.
3) I don't have a preference on shorter weekends, other than it would save teams money, and that's not a bad thing. That's more cash for lesser teams to try and play catch-up.
4) This is tough. You're throwing the fuel mileage game out the window by guaranteeing green flag finishes. The race could go 10+ laps beyond the scheduled amount. What are you going to do if they keep wrecking? I think the green-white-checkers system is a good compromise. Give them one shot at it.
5) There's a lot more to NASCAR than just the cup series, but that's what's on network TV, talked about on sports highlights, mentioned on talk radio, etc. Yeah, everyone could do a better job of using the correct terminology, but I don't think saying Sprint Cup Schedule vs NASCAR schedule will really change the viewership or any of the other series.
My additions:
1) PUBLISH THE DAMNED RULEBOOK. Make it available to all the fans right on nascar.com. Let us see what the rules are. I don't know why this has to be classified information. If nothing else, I love technical kinds of stuff like that and it would be a cool way to learn more about the cars, etc.
2) Make qualifying go faster... I like to watch qualifying, but Jesus, it's way too long! A F1 style system would be cool, but I don't know how well it would work in NASCAR, especially at a place like Martinsville. Even if they went out in groups of 5 or something, that would seriously speed up qualifying and make it more interesting at the same time.
3) Never gonna happen, but shorten the season. NASCAR completely loses me when football season starts. If I have the choice between watching my Falcons on Sunday afternoon and watching the race, the Falcons win every time. Most of my friends and family are the same way.
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RUN IN THE RAIN...F1 does!