Sun., May 17 Cup Series Darlington 400 miles FOX 3:30 p.m. ET
Wed., May 20 Cup Series Darlington 500 km FS1 7:30 p.m. ET
Sun., May 24 Cup Series Charlotte 600 miles FOX 6 p.m. ET
Wed., May 27 Cup Series Charlotte 500 km FS1 8 p.m. ET

No fans, no practices, no qualifying except for the 600, and all at night but 1. That's a fairly grueling schedule. This should be interesting.

I wonder if a couple of souvenir tents will be set-up outside Charlotte Motor Speedway.

There are also a couple of Xfinity races and a truck race that I didn't list.

NASCAR

That seems impossibly demanding on the drivers, if right. NASCAR now has races in KM?

Should prove to be interesting indeed. Matt and Ryan returning should be worth watching.

At least fans on the west coast will get to see some of them. East coast fans will miss out because of that pesky day job they have to rest up for.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
That seems impossibly demanding on the drivers, if right. NASCAR now has races in KM?

The KM races make it sound like they're driving just as far as a 500 mile race. (seriously, that's why they began calling out the shorter races in kilometers about 15ish years ago.)

Some live competition is a good thing. America needs it. Good for Nascar. They have not made a lot of good choices in recent years. Maybe they will get back to their roots. Their fans would come back and this may be their only chance. Hope they don't blow it.
Getting some of those idiots out of the pits in the pre-race tv cast would be a good start too.

Nascar, we are not their to watch a stupid circus.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
That seems impossibly demanding on the drivers, if right.

The abbreviated schedule is much tougher on the teams than the drivers. They have to build the cars, transport the cars, tune the cars, and service the cars for each race, a much bigger job than just driving a few hours, not that that last is inconsiderable at this level of competition.

Typically, a team needs every one of six days leading up to a race to make and keep a car competitive, now they will have to do the same amount of work in two days.

My uninformed opinion is that this might actually be good for the sport in that it might return some unpredictability to the reliability of the cars. 30 years ago, at least some of the field couldn't make the distance due to a mechanical failure, nowadays, this is very rare (partly due to better technology, and broader understanding of how far you can push the equipment, but also due to shortened race distances). Driver still have to balance speed and agresivness against longevity (mostly tires), but the days of "the leader done blowed up" with two laps to go are pretty much over, with less time to prepare the cars, we may be seeing this again.

I agree. 15 years ago I had season tickets to Richmond, Martinsville, and Bristol


Now I probably haven’t watched a race in 3 years


I might give this a shot.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Some live competition is a good thing. America needs it. Good for Nascar. They have not made a lot of good choices in recent years. Maybe they will get back to their roots. Their fans would come back and this may be their only chance. Hope they don't blow it.
Getting some of those idiots out of the pits in the pre-race tv cast would be a good start too.

Nascar, we are not their to watch a stupid circus.

Same here.

I haven't been watching since it became the Junior and Danica show. That and those Waltrips that just wouldn't shut up.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
My uninformed opinion is that this might actually be good for the sport in that it might return some unpredictability to the reliability of the cars. 30 years ago, at least some of the field couldn't make the distance due to a mechanical failure, nowadays, this is very rare (partly due to better technology, and broader understanding of how far you can push the equipment, but also due to shortened race distances). Driver still have to balance speed and agresivness against longevity (mostly tires), but the days of "the leader done blowed up" with two laps to go are pretty much over, with less time to prepare the cars, we may be seeing this again.

I agree and hope NASCAR pays attention to how this works out and the fan reaction, and learns from it and applies what they learn to the rest of the season or next year. The story says they are still planning to run a full 36-race season which includes making up 7 postponed races, and then the 10-race playoffs.

Other than the 600, it's not clear what the 3 other races are for. 2 races at Darlington now in May but the only scheduled Darlington race is the Southern 500 in September, and the 2nd scheduled race at Charlotte is the Roval in October.

Regarding the mechanical failures - they still occur but not motor blow-ups as before. Logano, Elliott, and Blaney all had mechanical failures at Dover during the 2019 playoffs. As you said, I think the engineers have a better understanding of how far they can push things based on race distance. If a race is shorter, they push a little harder.

On a side note., if anyone remembers crew chief Fatback McSwain who left the sport in 2007, he has an auto/tire shop just up the road from me in Dallas NC. I intend to stop in there and meet him once this virus crap is all over.

The first sport or competition to put up a live product is going to be rewarded.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
That seems impossibly demanding on the drivers, if right. NASCAR now has races in KM?

Oh please. These guys started running trucks and the lower car series years ago with races back to back during week or weekend. It’s NASCAR, not F1.