Need for Speed
A NASCAR BLOG BY Jared Turner
Nightime is right time for NASCAR racing
If you're a fan of Saturday night racing - or night racing, period, for that matter - this has to be your favorite time of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
From mid-April through late May, there is only one race on the tour - Talladega - that begins and ends in daytime hours.
From the Phoenix Saturday night race that was held this year on April 18 through the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 24, five races will be held at night, with four of them on Saturday night.
Interestingly enough, night races seem to come in clusters. Later this season, for example, the circuit will hold consecutive Saturday night races at Daytona and Chicagoland and again at Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond.
A long-time favorite of both drivers and fans, night racing has carved out a special place in the hearts and minds of many who follow the sport. It has appropriately been suggested for years that NASCAR even add more night races to its Cup schedule.
Despite proof that moving a race to Saturday night can actually increase ticket sales and overall interest – Darlington, that’s you - don't expect to see many more night races added to the schedule over the next few years.
Doing so might complicate matters with TV networks accustomed to putting most Cup races on the air on Sunday afternoons.
And with a sluggish economy continuing to impact the sport for the foreseeable future, I would imagine that pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars – millions? - into sophisticated lighting systems isn't the most appealing proposition for many track owners whose facilities don't host night races.
Nevertheless, the idea remains appealing and will for quite some time.
Jared Turner
Jared Turner has written about NASCAR for the past five seasons. He joined SceneDaily as a staff writer in February 2008.
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