In the first part of a possibly-ongoing series, I take a look at a particular aspect of Nascar (in this case, the schedule), and give it a makeover from square one.
So, everybody seems to complain about the Sprint Cup schedule. And everybody seems to know how to fix it (more road courses, less cookie-cutters, absolutely no returns to Japan, etc.). Of course, things like "contracts", and "tv rights", and "reality" get in the way. But lets say that we could hit the big "RESET" button and start over from scratch. Here's my plan:
--First off, only ONE CUP RACE PER TRACK, with a (very) few exceptions, to be covered later. More demand per race should mean less empty seats in the stands.
--Get rid of the Budweiser (or whatever the heck they're calling it now) Shootout. To this day, I have NO IDEA WHY THE SHOOTOUT EXISTS.
--Daytona keeps its two dates, but ONE IS RUN ON THE ROAD COURSE. People want road courses, and people like racing at the World Center of Speed. And hey, Brian France doesn't even have to spring for a Motel 6.
--Charlotte, as the "Home Track" for dang near everybody not owned by a Furniture Magnate, gets to keep its two points races, but the All-Star race (finally) starts to rotate around. One caveat--the TRACK HOSTING THE ALL-STAR RACE MUST HAVE LIGHTS.
--Montreal gets a Cup race…provisionally. I'd like to see ONE CUP RACE A YEAR IN CANADA, and if some Torontonians can make a wicked-fast road course, they might get the date.
--This, mind you, means that there are FOUR NON-OVALS on the schedule.
--The following markets are "RESERVED A DATE", pursuant to them building a track: Seattle, Denver, Greater New York City, and Northern Ohio (Cleveland area). Also, the ever-boring Sonoma is put on notice that, if a better track is built nearby, they'll lose their date.
--Oh, and IOWA GETS A CUP DATE TOO.
--If Sonoma IS replaced by an oval, ROAD AMERICA joins the schedule.
--Rotating the Chase races (which occasionally gets floated as an idea to drum up interest) doesn't really work from a fan's standpoint--some people take the same week for the same vacation so they can go to the same track year-after-year. But perhaps we need to do some SLIGHT tweaking. If a track hosts a Chase race and attendance is less than 75% full, another track may petition to replace them.
So, here's what the Spade Racing 2013 Nascar Sprint Cup Schedule MIGHT look like: (sn=Saturday Night)
2/9-10 Daytona Qualifying (Weekend after Super Bowl)
2/17 Daytona 500 (Prez. Day Weekend)
2/24 California
3/3 Las Vegas
3/10 Phoenix
3/17 Sonoma
3/24 Seattle
3/31 (off week for Easter)
4/6(sn) Bristol
4/14 Talladega
4/21 Denver
4/27(sn) Kentucky
5/5 (off week)
5/11(sn) Darlington (Mother's Day Weekend)
5/19 Sprint All-Star Race (rotating)
5/26 Charlotte 600 (Memorial Day)
6/2 Montreal
6/9 Pocono
6/16 Michigan (Father's Day Weekend)
6/22(sn) Iowa
6/30 (off week)
7/6(sn) Daytona Road Course
7/14 Northern Ohio
7/21 Indianapolis
7/28 New Hampshire
8/3(sn) Richmond (Last Race of the Regular Season)
CHASE RACES
8/11 New York
8/18 Chicago
8/25 Kansas
9/1 Atlanta (Labor Day)
9/8 Watkins Glen
9/14(sn) Charlotte
9/21(sn) Texas
9/29 Martinsville
10/6 Dover
10/13 Homestead (Columbus Day)
Well, there you have it!
(and yeah, I'm sure I missed something, so let me know on Facebook)