Pocky's Paddock
A NASCAR BLOG BY Bob Pockrass
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Chicagoland's Saturday race was a good move
Jul
14
Some people don’t like Saturday night racing for the Sprint Cup Series, but after one Saturday night race at Chicagoland Speedway, it looks like the move to night was a good one.
The crowds both days were very good. Granted, Chicagoland sells its tickets as a season package, but that doesn’t mean everyone shows up. A Nationwide Series race that was at least an hour’s drive outside of the city on a Friday night still drew a significant crowd.
The Saturday night race had to be good for the fans. It was much cooler and comfortable for fans. If people wanted to make a trip out of it, they had an entire day to spend in Chicago on Sunday if they desired.
NASCAR will always face a delicate balance between running Cup races at night and making sure it doesn’t destroy the grass roots Saturday night shows at short tracks.
So while some might moan that Chicagoland was another night race for a series with too many Saturday-night events, it is hard to argue that this is one race that needs to get moved back to Sunday.
The crowds both days were very good. Granted, Chicagoland sells its tickets as a season package, but that doesn’t mean everyone shows up. A Nationwide Series race that was at least an hour’s drive outside of the city on a Friday night still drew a significant crowd.
The Saturday night race had to be good for the fans. It was much cooler and comfortable for fans. If people wanted to make a trip out of it, they had an entire day to spend in Chicago on Sunday if they desired.
NASCAR will always face a delicate balance between running Cup races at night and making sure it doesn’t destroy the grass roots Saturday night shows at short tracks.
So while some might moan that Chicagoland was another night race for a series with too many Saturday-night events, it is hard to argue that this is one race that needs to get moved back to Sunday.
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Comments
2 responses to "Chicagoland's Saturday race was a good move"
Loretta Jastrzembski said:
Jul 14, 2008 at 12:09 PMThe Chicagoland Speedway night races were only good for ratings and sponsors - it was not to "ease" conditions for fans at the track. Don't fool yourselves. The parking lots opened up at 10AM, do the officials really think fans would show up any later?(NOT) Fans wait all year for this one race in Illinois and came to tailgate all day, which is probably 50% of the race day experience. Fans dealt with the heat and humidity anyway and then had to WAIT 8 to 9 hours for the race to start, rather than 4 or 5 hours for a mid-day race. To add insult to these loyal fans, traffic management was a nightmare. It took this race fan almost 2 hours to drive home 8 miles. We've attended Chicagoland since 2002 and have never experienced a worse race weekend. You've lost this fan (and friends), we'll watch it on TV, and open my back door to see the lights and hear the roar of engines instead. Loretta Manhattan, IL
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Jul 18, 2008 at 11:11 AMAmen to moving the race to Saturday night. I sat through high 90's low 100 degree heat for the 2001 and 2005 race and now that they moved the race to the cool night I will now make the trip from Denver to see the race again. As for the traffic it took 2 hours to make the 45 minute drive to Carol Stream after both day races. Traffic is a problem leaving every cup venue I've been too and the Chicago traffic is no worse than Daytona or Atlanta.
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This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
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