If you're attending a race in person, it's quite the spectacle. The cars are flashier under the lights. They look faster, too. And it's a lot harder for rain to ruin your weekend. Because chances are you weren't planning to drive home Saturday night, so you have Sunday to act as a rainout buffer. Plus there are fewer people walking around with no shirt and a blazing red, sunburned beer gut. That sight always makes me shiver.
Even if you have to watch from home, night races have a lot of advantages. It just feels like you get most of your weekend back. You still have time to assemble a new swing set on Saturday. And on Sunday, you're much more willing to go visit those relatives who always watch the Yankees, the Giants, or Tiger Woods. Plus you can take that Sunday afternoon nap and not miss something Robby Gordon might do.
However, according to Nielsen Media Research, Saturday night races usually have lower ratings. Why? And more importantly, is that really such a bad thing?
I think part of the reason for the lower TV turnout is because a lot of the people who watch NASCAR are also involved in some form of auto racing at the local level. It's no secret that this segment of the sport relies heavily on Friday and Saturday night attendance for its survival. So when you move a Nextel Cup race to Saturday night you're interfering with a lot of folks who have a tradition of getting out to their local tracks over the summer weekends.
In fact, there is evidence to show that this conflict actually hurts local short tracks across the country even more than NASCAR would like to admit. Marty Smith has written articles on the subject from time to time at the nascar.com website where the impact of night racing has been debated.
But that certainly doesn't mean you can say NASCAR is all bad for the small tracks. In contrast to the doom and gloom, have a look at the jayski.com website.
You can see there's still a lot of grass roots support coming from NASCAR's biggest personalities. And this can't happen without the continued success of Nextel Cup.
Ever since the early 80's, TV ratings have been very important to NASCAR. So it would make sense during the spring and summer to limit the night races. It takes advantage of the obvious improvement in viewership when they run on Sunday, and it also gives the small track promoters a break and helps put people in their grandstands.
But once September rolls around, everything changes.
Two words: little brown oval-shaped ball.
If NASCAR wants the Chase to be successful, they can't run the ball up the middle against the NFL. Saturday nights make for a tempting way out of that struggle, and may be the answer during the post-season.
NASCAR needs to be more politically correct. It's important to let the losers know that they are winners too. Throw the points out, man! Give 'em all a Cup.
Okay, I apologize for that. Let's think it over seriously. Yes, the points are a bit daunting, especially if you're new to the sport. But is that truly a bad thing?
I dunno.
Racing wouldn't be quite as social if everyone knew everything about it. Let me illustrate. You're sitting in the stands, the race just ended, and your favorite driver goes home with a fifth place finish. You can't remember whether he gets five points less than fourth or three points less. That's the moment where--and you've all done this before--you turn around and look for that one fan sitting nearby who has been your resident know-it-all.
Sitting down on a Sunday morning, getting ready for the race to start, it never takes us long to find this person. Just yell over your spouse's head at one of the other guys you came to the track with, and ask what track the Cup cars race at two weekends from now; or what the weight limit is on the cars. You'll get someone two rows behind you that you've never met to pipe up, "Thirty four hundred pounds." Good, now you know who to fire all remaining questions at for the rest of the day.
This is the person to whom you now ask, "How many points do you get for fifth?" "Uh, yeah, I think he led a lap..." "How many laps?"
Some might call it stupid. I call it socializing with the fans in the stands. You make things simple and you eliminate the know-it-alls, and they are an important part of the crowd. (As long as they don’t get too annoying.)
So just changing point schemes around on the sole basis that they are a little confusing is not enough reason to change them. However, if the current system consistently fails to accurately crown the best car on the tour that season, then yes, you have an obligation to change something.
If I were NASCAR, there is one change I'd put in without even hesitating. Give the chasers a mulligan in the post season. They all get to toss out their worst of the ten chase finishes. Because until Talladega is behind them, that's all you hear, every week.
"So Mark, how are you feeling about your place in the points?"
"Well, we're in good shape, but there's always the Big One that you never know about."
Or what if someone outside the chase decides to settle a grudge with someone who is in? Umm, anyone remember Scott Riggs and Kurt Busch at New Hampshire in 2005? Two laps into the race and Kurt gets walled. But was that truly a bad thing?
Joe Akulis was raised and still lives in New York's Southern Tier region. As a kid, he spent many weekends in the stands at the local quarter mile track scarfing down fried dough covered with dirt and sugar, and squinting through the dust cloud to cheer on his uncle. Later in high school, he discovered that he too shared a certain knack for 1/4 mile distances as he set a high school record running the 400 meter hurdles. At 35 years of age, he now enjoys the family life, can still run a pretty quick 400 meter dash, and catches most of the Cup races on tv each weekend. He can often be spotted walking into the office wearing his five year old Jeff Gordon hat which is proudly littered with a little bit of dirt from more northeast tracks than you can shake a stick at.
