Bob Pockrass: Give me 600 miles now, but give me back 600 miles throughout season
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards (99) leads the field during the 2008 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. // Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
Are you ready for 600 miles?
I don’t know if anyone is ever ready for a 600-mile race, whether it’s just to watch or actually drive or work as a crew chief or broadcaster. The Coca-Cola 600 seems to test every piece in a car, every bit of patience of a driver, everything in a crew chief’s book of tricks and everything in the cooler of the fan.
Some people will say this race is too long. At times, it certainly feels that way. Not every 600-mile race is a great event, and after a lackluster one, it’s easy to think that maybe the race should have been a little bit shorter.
But marathons are good once in a while. There should be a couple of endurance races on the schedule, and this is the endurance race of all endurance races for those on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit.
Even though the race is 600 miles, there is intrigue throughout. Drivers begin the race in the daytime and then have to anticipate how the handling of the car will change once the sun sets. Drivers who fall a lap down must ride around hoping for a caution to get the free pass and then get back into the thick of things. If the tires are good enough, there could be choices early in the race of two tires or four tires on pit stops, which means faster cars might not be in the front.
With so many laps, there is just more time for things to go wrong, for a tire to be cut, for a driver to be caught up in a chain-reaction wreck, for a piece of paper to get stuck in the front of the car and overheat the motor. And then, late in the race, it can become a fuel-mileage game.
So 600 miles can definitely be enjoyable. And that’s why this 600-mile race isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The problem is that it comes during a stretch of four races of 500 miles or more within seven weeks, starting with Talladega and then Darlington, Lowe’s and Pocono. Richmond and Dover are thankfully 400.
So here’s an idea: Give Charlotte its 600 miles every year, but give us those 600 miles back during the season.
Right now there are 13 races that go 500 miles. Let’s cut 100 miles off six of them. In the past decade, no race shortened from 500 miles to 400 miles really suffered from a fan standpoint .
That would create a Cup schedule of one 600-mile race, seven 500-mile races, 16 400-miles races and 12 races under 400 miles on the schedule.
The seven 500-mile races should be the Daytona 500, spring Atlanta, spring Texas, Darlington, Pocono in August, fall Auto Club Speedway in California and fall Texas. The races to get cut would be both Talladegas and one Pocono, Atlanta, California and Charlotte.
Labor Day weekend in Atlanta would be good to just be 400 miles, a nice sprint on a Sunday night. Talladega should be 400 miles – the real racing there doesn’t start until the final 100 miles anyway. Pocono could use at least one shorter race. The fall race in Charlotte is at night, so, like Atlanta, 400 miles would be long enough. And I’m sure the people in California won’t miss the hundred miles we’d lop off of one of their races as well. Why does Texas get to keep both 500 races? Well, everything is bigger in Texas, and that gives the Chase two 500-mile events.
So there’s my compromise. Give me 600 miles on Sunday. But give me back those 600 miles throughout the rest of the year.
