A Look At NASCAR and Road Courses

I found an interesting article on NASCAR the other day written by Dustin Long who writes auto racing commentary for PilotOnline.com's Auto Racing Channel. Dustin also writes a regular column for SportsIllustrated.com.

This particular article, “Backseat Drivers Fan Council dishes on road courses & what races need to be shortened”, took a look at a couple of questions currently being bantered back and forth among NASCAR’s media and fans. In the article the members of The Backseat Drivers Fan Council were polled concerning their favorite types of tracks/racing and the results marked a surprising change in sentiment concerning road course racing. 65% of those polled had a middle of the road feeling about road course racing while 24% thought it’s the best form of racing and only 11% detested it. This is in sharp contrast to what fan’s thought of road course racing only a few years back when most didn’t care for it.

Here’s a sample of what these people had to say about road course racing:

1. Road courses are getting better but short tracks still rank up there. Mile-and-a-halves are the worst. (Note: Mile-and-a-halves are the worst and guess what… 5 of the 10 Chase races are on 1.5 mile tracks!)
2. Hate road course racing. The thought of one being valued enough to be in the chase makes me laugh. (Note: This person probably lives in the Charlotte area or is just an old curmudgeon!)
3. There is a need for road courses, if you're going to be a champion, you need to be able to navigate all types of tracks that NASCAR has to offer. (Note: Amen, brother!)
4. 10 years ago I never would have said this, but the road courses, along with Richmond/Bristol/Martinsville/Phoenix/Loudon are the best racing the Cup series has (aka any track that isn't a cookie cutter) (Note: See a trend developing?)
5. We see so little of it, I think we tend to romanticize it somewhat. Granted both road course races have been phenomenal this year, but in 2009, both were somewhat lackluster. They have their cycles. Just happens to be on an upswing. However, if there were 4-6 races per year on road courses, it would likely even out and we'd have a dud or two in the mix. Just like the 1.5 milers, sometimes it turns out to be a great show (Coke 600 this year), sometimes someone stinks up the joint (KY race this year). (Note: Not a Kyle Busch fan, fo sure!)
6. I don't mind 2 road courses but no more than that & keep them out of chase. (Another curmudgeon?)
7. NASCAR should only be on ovals!!! If they are trying to reduce costs, how about eliminating the need for a completely different car and setup for road courses!!! (Note: Yeah, forget about driving skill, just put the car on autopilot, sit back and snooze!)
8. Short tracks are still my favorite. It's more wheel to wheel. The road courses are exciting but they are more about pit strategy, track position and sensational wrecks. Give me a fall afternoon at Martinsville any day. (Note: At least this person didn’t bad mouth the road courses…)
9. Now that we only have the 2 car tango in the restrictor plate races, road course racing is quickly becoming my favorite - action (on and off the track), side by side racing, on the edge of your seat to see who can execute the turns. Still love short tracks the best, but as long as I can watch them on TV, I am starting to rank road courses up towards the top. (Note: This is an honest assessment. You notice the obvious disdain for the “two car tango restrictor plate races”?)
10. I used to hate road courses. I'm still not fond of them but I have to admit that the last couple has been pretty good. I even watched the Nationwide race on Saturday and I never would have done that before. (Note: I’m seeing a trend!)
11. With the destruction of good racing at Daytona, Talladega, and Bristol all sandwiched in between tons of cookie-cutter tracks, Sonoma and Watkins Glen are about the most fun there is now all year. (Note: The trend is established!)
12. It (road course racing) really has become the best. Great strategy, great racing. None of this clean air, aeropush or whatever. Just driving skill. (Note: I like this person!)

So the superspeedways have devolved to nearly the same level as the cookie-cutter 1.5 mile tracks… It appears road course racing is now considered equally as entertaining as short track racing! And we’ve only got two Cup races on road courses… Here’s the breakdown:
1-2 Mile long tracks – 11 for 15 races
1 Mile or less tracks – 6 for 12 races
Over 2 Mile tracks – 4 for 7 races
Road courses – 2 for 2 races

22 out of 36 races are on tracks the breed boredom… That’s 61% of all the races!

Considering the upswing in popularity concerning road course racing and the disdain for the cookie-cutter tracks as well as the growing disenchantment with the “two car tango” races at Daytona and Talladega, I believe NASCAR needs to not only stop introducing new cookie cutter tracks to the Cup schedule (Kentucky, Kansas, etc.), they need to remove at least a couple of Bruton Smith’s wonderful tracks (Only having one date for Kansas and Texas would be good for starters and fill

the newly opened dates with Road America [4 mile course in Elkhart Lake, WI] in the summer and the new F1 track in Austin Texas [3.4 mile Circuit of the Americas] just before the Chase).

So what if Smith throws a fit! Is NASCAR here to please Bruton or the fans? Knock the Fall Kansas Chase race off the schedule and run Sonoma in at that time. Early October in the San Francisco Bay Area is the best time for great weather there, and a road course as the fourth race in the Chase would really add some intrigue to the championship run.
Finally, if the popularity of NASCAR’s brand of road racing continues to grow with four road course races on the schedule, knock off one of the Pocono races and Indy’s 400 race (another couple of snoozers and yeah I know… Indy is such a big deal… Blah, blah, blah). This would get the total road course races up to 6.

NASCAR needs to regain its lost fan base. Taking boring race venues off the schedule and replacing them with good hard road course racing will go a long way toward retrieving those lost fans and I’m willing to wager moves such as these will bring many new fans into the sport.

Power to the fans!

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/backseat-drivers-fan-council-dishes-road-courses-what-races-need-be-shortened