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Bob Pockrass: Crown NASCAR national tour champions on different weekends
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Homestead-Miami Speedway is the site of the season finale for all three national series in NASCAR.
Mark Sluder
NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
The NASCAR Nationwide Series title likely will be decided this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, and the Camping World Truck Series championship has a good chance of being decided as well.
People will talk about how bad this is, that one race prior to the end of the season, the champion is decided. There will be a feeling that NASCAR’s championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be diluted if one or more of the champions has already been decided.
But there’s a bigger issue here: Why does NASCAR feel it must crown all three champions on one weekend?
With all due respect to Homestead-Miami Speedway and the people who have created the championship weekend there, both the Truck and Nationwide series could be better off if they crowned their champs on a different weekend.
It would have been more exciting to have the Truck season finish last week at Texas, the Nationwide season end this weekend at Phoenix and then climax the NASCAR schedule with the Cup champion crowned at Homestead.
By finishing on different weekends, each of the NASCAR series would be the focus. Trucks would have gotten more focus at Texas, where pretty much everyone was talking about Jimmie Johnson’s lead and which team Danica Patrick would drive for next year.
The Nationwide championship will be decided this weekend unless Kyle Busch just has a total collapse. That will make a few headlines on Sunday – more than it will next week at Homestead, when all the Sunday coverage will be about how close the championship is and whether Johnson will win his fourth consecutive title.
It won’t be a knock on the Truck and Nationwide series to have a different season finale. They get so lost in the shuffle and schedule at Homestead that having their finales on different weekends would be a way to celebrate each series.
International Speedway Corp., the parent company of Homestead-Miami Speedway, doesn’t need the Truck and the Nationwide Series at its track to sell tickets for this weekend. They are busy trying to sell out the Cup event and have done little promotion in recent months of the other titles being decided.
If NASCAR wanted to crown two champs, maybe it could crown its Grand-Am road-racing series champion this weekend. At least that would help diversify the weekend schedule and, considering the sell in the Miami area is a tough one, having two different style of cars on the track over the weekend might help with attendance.
Texas had a mediocre crowd at best for the Truck race there, so maybe if that championship was being decided, it could have been more of an event. Another option would be to run Nationwide on Friday and then make the Truck championship the main support event of the weekend on Saturday.
A Nationwide championship finale at Phoenix certainly couldn’t hurt that track in its efforts to sell its Saturday event.
If NASCAR wants to have its other series compete on the final weekend, it could have a Truck and Nationwide all-star event at Homestead. Maybe the top 15 in each series get to race for a big payday. Maybe that could run in a doubleheader format on Saturday, making it a spectacular day of racing instead of what likely will be a not very meaningful Nationwide race.
Granted, in some ways it’s nice to cap all three seasons at Homestead. All three series start together and end together. It’s a big weekend blast of championships. But it might be more of a blast for each of NASCAR’s top series if the sanctioning body spread out its national champion celebrations over a few weeks instead of a few days.
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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Comments
8 responses to "Bob Pockrass: Crown NASCAR national tour champions on different weekends". Post a Comment.
lilrob166 said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 8:43 AMBob I really think you onto something here. I don't know about anybody else, but I think it is a great idea!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmissouriracefan said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 9:54 AMMy husband and I are fans and attend races of all three series. We go to Homestead each year to see the championship awarded in each series. We could not (and would not) fly to three different tracks to see the championship awarded.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportRACER2828 said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 3:47 PM#2 I fully agree, it is to bad we the common people don't have the $$$ that Bob Pockrass thinks we do. It is people like Bob Pockrass who brings up these moron ideas that makes things hard for the person trying to attend a race once a year and make the $$ last the weekend. It just seams like every time you read and article by this person he is making NASCAR look bad. Get a real job and life mr. Bob Pockrass.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSheilaLovesNASCAR said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 4:05 PMAnd this is supposed to benefit whom? The media, so they only have to do one story at a time? Come on, if you don't have anything to say, just don't say anything.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportctmmarine said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 5:45 PMThe minute the schedule changes to eliminate the other two championships at Homestead is the time my mind will be made up NOT to renew my tickets.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportscary2 said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 6:30 PMif it wasn't for the truck series on the same weekend a lot of people wouldn't watch the Winston..oops the Sprint races.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportoldfilmless said:
Nov 11, 2009 at 8:43 PMI think you guys are missing the point. The purpose would be to put MORE emphasis on each series, giving credit to the hard work each champion deserves.
Report as Abuse#2, I am willing to bet you are the exception rather than the rule in that you purposely attend all 3 events. It's great that you do, but I know of no one in my circle of race fans (or theirs) that duplicate your efforts. The majority those who do attend Homestead to see one of the championship races can't afford to see all 3 or even 2 anyway, so what real difference does it make?
As it is, the author is correct by current standards the truck and Nationwide champions will be greatly overshadowed by the Cup celebration and stories around it.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportrwilliamhayes said:
Nov 12, 2009 at 8:16 AMLook fans of Nationwide and Truck these are the 2nd and 3rd rate series and don't belong on the same stage with the Cup Series.So Truck gets crowned in the 15th week and Nationwide in the 20th week.That way the focus for the last 16 weeks is where it should be-on the Cup Series.
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