Dare to Dream: How NASCAR Can Save Its 36-Race Season

Despite postponing seven early-season Cup Series races because of the coronavirus crisis, NASCAR seems determined to run its full 36-race schedule and crown its 2020 champion at Phoenix Raceway the second Sunday in November.

That was the primary message from sanctioning body president Steve Phelps during a recent teleconference call with the national motorsports media. On March 13, NASCAR suspended all scheduled touring events between March 15 near Atlanta and May 3 at Dover. The latest projection has racing resuming in eight weeks, on May 9 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

Citing public health and safety concerns, Phelps and his staff effectively shut down NASCAR after opening the season with consecutive races in Daytona Beach, Las Vegas, Fontana and Phoenix. Late last week, they postponed upcoming events at Atlanta, Homestead, Fort Worth, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega and Dover. Their actions were in keeping with every other worldwide motorsports organization that has temporarily suspended its season: IndyCar, Formula 1, NHRA, IMSA, Trans-Am, World of Outlaws, MotoGP and virtually every short-track series.

The seriousness and fluidity of the health situation are not lost on Phelps. “These clearly are unprecedented times with information changing by the hour,” he said during the half-hour call. “Collectively, our industry has made several difficult decisions, all with one thought in mind: the health and safety of our fans, our competitors, employees and everyone in the industry.

“The situation we are facing transcends the world of sports. What is most important now is that we take precautions to keep everyone as safe as possible during these challenging times. We’ll work with our health officials (and) with a number of infectious disease professionals who are going to help us through this. This is not easy on anyone who works in this industry. It’s hard, and we’re not the only ones this is hard on.”

Only 26 weekends will remain between Martinsville on May 9 and the Phoenix season finale on Nov. 8. Officials need to jam 32 more points races and the All-Star exhibition into that window. It can be done … but only with creative scheduling and a fair amount of give-and-take among teams, venues, sponsors, television partners and stakeholders.

Like this, maybe?

—The 2020 schedule already has open dates on July 26 and Aug. 2. Those dates will almost certainly be filled by two of the recently postponed events. Why not give Atlanta Raceway a night race on July 25 (saving Sunday as a rain date) and Homestead-Miami Speedway a night race on Aug. 1 (with Aug. 2 as a rain date).

—NASCAR can reschedule another of its postponed races—say, for example, Texas Motor Speedway—to the weekend of May 16-17. That’s currently the All-Star date at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but the nonpoints race could be moved a week as part of the speedway’s May 22-23-24 Coca-Cola 600 weekend. (There were years when the events were on the same weekend. Given the circumstances, there’s no reason they can’t do it again.)

—Now is a good time to try Wednesday night racing. Both Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway have a long history of successfully presenting night races. For them, going on Wednesday nights wouldn’t seem so unusual. For years, NASCAR has studied the viability of midweek, prime-time, one-day shows. Why not start with Bristol on May 27 (on the way to Kansas) and Richmond on July 8, between Indy and Kentucky? There may be better dates for hauler-drivers on the road, but NASCAR almost has to try.

—And it seems inevitable that maybe two tracks—other than Pocono Raceway, which already has one—must run a doubleheader to create weekends for postponed races. Dover, for example, could move its postponed May 3 race to its regularly scheduled Aug. 21-22-23 weekend. And maybe Michigan International Speedway could package its regularly scheduled June 7 race with its Aug. 7-8-9 weekend. That would make the June 5-6-7 weekend available for Talladega Superspeedway’s postponed race.

To hear Phelps tell it, virtually nothing is off the table.

“At this particular point we’d like to finish the season at Phoenix and keep the playoff portion intact,” he said. (Thus, apparently, no doubleheaders or midweek shows in the final 10 weekends, between.) “With that said, it will require a lot of different opportunities for us to look at. We’re in the process of doing that.

“(There are) no specifics around midweek races. I’ve heard about doubleheaders (and) different things. A lot of things are on the table for us to look at. We’re working with our race teams and our racetracks to make sure the things that we’re putting on the table are feasible for us to do.”

That includes the unprecedented possibility of resuming racing without fans. Originally, the March 15 and March 22 races at Atlanta and Homestead were to be run before empty grandstands in hoping of salvaging those dates. At almost the last minute, though, NASCAR postponed Atlanta altogether and sent everybody home. At the same time, it announced that the following weekend’s race in Homestead was being postponed indefinitely.

“The way we view this (no-fan scenario) is how we viewed Atlanta,” Phelps said. “We need to make sure we’re keeping the health of our competitors and those at the racetracks—our race teams and our officials—paramount. Would we consider racing without fans to get back racing more quickly? That’s in the consideration set. It’s changing so rapidly. What does it mean for mass gatherings? What’s that number?

“We tried to run Atlanta without fans, then made a determination that … you know what: It’s probably not in the best interest to do that, which is why we postponed those two events. We’re concentrating on getting back to racing at Martinsville. We’ll have to do scenario planning that will look different than that, but right now our priority is to get back at Martinsville.”

Once there, the journey to Phoenix in November is certainly doable.

Source: Read Full Article