NASCAR drivers lobby for more short tracks, dirt races
LOUDON, N.H. – The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule has been relatively stable over the past decade, but if the input of various parties means anything, there could be a significant shake-up when the calendar moves into the 2020s.
Three-time series champion and current Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart, who also owns the half-mile Eldora Speedway dirt track in Ohio, wants to use the success of the Camping World Truck Series events there to persuade officials to schedule a Cup race at the track. The truck series raced at Eldora on Wednesday. The Cup series hasn’t raced on dirt since 1970.
Kyle Busch, a short-track master, jumped into the conversation this week, urging NASCAR to consider more Cup events at tracks less than a mile.
And the September playoff race at Charlotte Motor Speedway offers one of the biggest detours in recent NASCAR history. Over the past two weeks, drivers have tested on Charlotte’s combined oval-road course (now called the roval) in preparation for that event, and the results have been quite mixed, building expectations for a risky race there in the first playoff elimination race.
A successful roval race at Charlotte could prompt consideration of similar approaches at other locations.
The schedules for NASCAR’s three major series — Cup, Xfinity and Truck — are set for 2019, but the doors appear wide open for examination of new directions in the years to come. In part because of continuing sluggishness in at- tendance and TV ratings, drivers generally seem welcome to trying new roads.
“Every sport is going to make changes,” Joey Logano said. “We have to keep up with the times, so I think that’s what you see in the sport right now. … You’ve got to try things every now and again. You can try different packages on the car, try different racetracks, try different formats, things like that. Why not? You don’t know until you do it. … I’m all on go with trying things, and if it doesn’t work, then we say ‘We tried’ and we move on.”
More short tracks and possible dirt racing? Logano said he’s in.
“Short tracks are a lot of fun,” he said. “I like short tracks a lot. If you want to go dirt racing, strap in, let’s go. I don’t care as long as I’m racing.”
Hall of Famer Richard Petty won the last dirt Cup race, in Raleigh, North Carolina, in September 1970. He isn’t among the group wanting to get dirty again.
“That would be like bringing the Carolina Panthers to play at Randleman (North Carolina) High School,” Petty said. “We’ve elevated above that.”
The concept of adding new race sites seems attractive, but there are issues. With 38 races (36 points races and two special events) already on the schedule, NASCAR isn’t likely to expand the season, so adding a track likely would mean a current track losing an event. That’s generally a negative, though it can have a positive spin. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Cup race, lost one of its two Cup events to sister track Las Vegas Motor Speedway this year, which, in theory, should add to the attraction of its lone Cup race.
“I think more short tracks would be good, but the problem is — where are they,” defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. said. “What tracks do we go to, and is somebody going to build new ones or are we going to change tracks? We already have 36 races, and it’s going to be hard to fit more in, so, yeah, so I think it’s a more complicated problem than just saying we need to go here and we need to go there.”
Logano said the ultimate schedule might include all tracks hosting only one race.
“I think going to a racetrack one time kind of makes sense to me, whether it’s a mile-and-a-half, a superspeedway, whatever it may be,” he said. “I think if you go to a racetrack once it makes it more of an event. This weekend will be a great test to see how that works as Loudon goes from two to one. … So it will be interesting to see what the stands look like on Sunday because now it’s an event. You can’t miss this one and have a chance to go to the next one.”