Rea White: More two-day race weekends in order in tough economy
Chicagoland Speedway hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup LifeLock.com 400 Saturday night. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
This weekend marks the second Saturday night race at Chicagoland Speedway, which is a good thing.
It is also, however, still a three-day race weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams, which generally isn't a good thing at all.
First, for the good parts. While some question NASCAR's decision to hold races on Saturday nights from time to time, it offers fans a chance to remember the sport's roots and gives drivers a reminder of the constant treks to local tracks that led to their emergence as national stars. There's just something festive about racing under the lights anywhere. It seems to add to the drama, to make an event feel more competitive, more hotly contested, like more of an event than the Sunday afternoon outings.
Perhaps it's just more traditional - and that's always a good thing. Perhaps it's just that it's going to be much nicer for fans and drivers to have a Saturday night race in the Chicago area than one on Sunday afternoon.
Still, one wonders why all Saturday night races aren't two-day shows. It's admirable, in terms of the Chicago schedule, that there is at least an attempt to match the race schedule. Drivers will be on the track later in the day - though clearly not under exact race conditions as the temperatures at 4 p.m. in Joliet, Ill., will undoubtably fail to match those later in the evening - and the qualifying time does match that of the race. One wonders, however, whether that time wouldn't be better spent on a practice session with qualifying at a different time. But at least the effort is there.
The better effort, though, would be on a two-day show.
In this era of an economic downturn, NASCAR needs to go the extra step to allow teams to spend an extra day away from the track. After all, look at the Cup schedule for the weekend. The cars hit the track at 4 p.m. local time Thursday for a 90-minute practice and then qualify at 7:40 that evening. Nationwide teams don't qualify until 2:05 p.m. the following day, with the Cup teams getting an hour and 45 minutes of practice time late in that day.
Why not do something radical, such as having the Cup teams on the track on the day they race? Nationwide and Truck teams do it. The Nationwide teams have qualifying at 2 and race at 7 that evening. Why can't the Cup drivers do the same? Why couldn't they have a pair of practices Friday, as they do now - only sessions that last a little longer and end closer to the start of the Nationwide race, giving them more time on the track in conditions more closely matching those in which they will race.
Then qualify shortly before the Cup race. That could achieve two objectives: First, the teams outside the top 35 in owner points would qualify with their actual race setup - putting those more apt to be competitive in race trim and those most capable of completing the race in the field. That would save them time and money from having a specific qualifying setup that needed to be changed to race trim. Additionally, it would save the teams money for an extra day and night on the road.
It's a long season, and while a savings like that might be minor, it's the kind of thing that can help teams a little along the way. It also helps to have an additional day off the road.
