If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s when races start at an ungodly late hour—just like last night. I realize that not everybody lives on the East Coast, but guess what—a large portion of the fanbase DOES. Since Nascar (as is their right) wants to run a number of races on Saturday Nights, here’s MY suggestions for rain delay procedures in the Cup Series:
—EXCEPT FOR THE SOUTHERN 500, MAKE ALL NIGHT RACES 400 MILES OR LESS. This is probably a good idea overall for all but the “Classic Three” (Daytona 500, World 600, Southern 500), but especially comes into play with night races. There was NO REASON why last night’s race had to be 500 miles long—we’re far past the point of 400 miles being a “short race”, in fact, 400 might be a bit long as well. Speaking of which…
—IF A RACE IS DELAYED MORE THAN 60 MINUTES, DECREASE THE LENGTH BY 100 MILES. I for one wouldn’t have as big of a problem staying up late if I knew the race would likely end at a reasonable hour. So if we’re stuck doing pre-race interviews when we should be going green, and the delay goes over an hour, lower the distance of the race by 100 miles, making it a 300-miler (see first suggestion why). If the race gets postponed until the next day, the distance stays the same.
—ALL RACES MUST HAVE A SCHEDULED GREEN FLAG OF 7PM EST OR EARLIER. The majority of non-hardcore fans tune in and out to races, so there’s not much to be lost by having things start before traditional prime-time.
Is there any chance of these rules being adopted? Probably not.