NASCAR Makes Bad Call on Skipping Saturday Night For Chase Races
NASCAR finally listened to fans Wednesday when it announced it would have uniform start times for all races next season.
Thursday, it went back to being deaf again.
Even though many fans and reporters are clamoring to have some, if not all 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races held on Saturday nights instead of getting lost in the shuffle of NFL games on Sunday, NASCAR once again has apparently turned its hearing aid off.
“Saturday night from a level standpoint, I think it’s the lowest night on television,” NASCAR chairman Brian France said in a teleconference. “It comes with other issues and you would still have college football, which is pretty strong programming.”
Wrong move, Brian. Don’t look at things as being half-empty, look at them half-full. Don’t you see the potential and promise NOT racing on Sundays during NFL season can bring to stock car racing?
You could OWN the Saturday night time slot. I understand your concerns about college football Saturdays, but let’s face it, most of the big college games are over with by late afternoon, giving a golden opportunity for NASCAR to start its Chase races at 7:30 pm ET, which is the time NASCAR approved for night races next season.
Sure, Saturday night television is one of the lowest-rated nights of the week. But that’s because people have become accustomed to doing other things. There’s movie night, date night, bowling night, drinking night, eat-out night and a whole other assortment of activities.
But if you’re a diehard NASCAR fan, you mean to tell me you wouldn’t choose to forego one of the other above-listed activities if it meant you’d be able to see your favorites under the lights and stars, either in-person or watching on TV?
And, getting back to France’s argument about college football being a negative impact upon NASCAR races, think about this: you could use college football to your advantage by bringing in large video screens and place them around the racetrack so that fans could come into the stands early (like around Noon or 1 pm, just in time for kickoff), watch some of their favorite college teams play ball, and then be more than primed to watch some great racing a few hours later.
Let’s not forget all the extra money that NASCAR could raise from concession stand sales during the college football games, and then again during the race itself.
Talk about a heck of a day-night doubleheader, NASCAR would have it right there.
Instead, France and NASCAR decide – unwisely in my mind – to stick to Sundays, even though everyone knows you’re league is going to get killed going head-to-head with the bigger, badder and more popular league that doesn’t have four wheels and tires.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand it. Instead of a potential win-win situation for NASCAR and college football together, not to mention a definite winner for the most important folks of all – race fans – we will be stuck with TV ratings that drop from year to year, like we saw after Dover and this past week at Kansas. And where are those fans that aren’t watching NASCAR on Sunday? More than likely, watching the NFL.
Okay, now for my pick to win Sunday at California. So far, I’ve been on-target by picking the winner at Loudon (Mark Martin), the runner-up at Dover (Martin) and was slightly off on my pick for Kansas (Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth).
I’m going to go off on a little bit of a limb and pick neither Johnson nor Martin, but their other Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon. If Gordon is to have any chance of winning a fifth Cup title, he has to make a big splash pretty quickly, and California is as good a place as any.
In 18 career starts at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Gordon has three wins and six other top-five finishes.
So, my pick is Gordon. Let’s hope he makes me proud.
Have a great weekend, everyone. We’ll catch you back here on Monday.
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