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For several years, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has conducted a Wednesday night event at Bristol Motor Speedway that has been well-attended and quite entertaining. Maybe that's just a given, short track racing is normally very good and with two big events following the Wednesday race at Bristol, people are coming to town early.
However, it does make you think if a mid-week event for the Sprint Cup Series would be a successful show?
In the term " show ", I define that as a large crowd and positive TV ratings in comparison to a weekend event. Competition-wise, I can not imagine any real differences other than a possibility of a part-time team that attempts more than one race during a typical race schedule might decide to decline for a Cup-only race.
Realizing that variables such as the time of the year, location, and schedule placement would be deciding factors, as Mr and Mrs Race Fans, that may only go once a year to a Cup Event, would you like to turn on tube at about 6:30 and see a prerace show and green flag action at about 7 o'clock? Although I can already here the grumbles for the comparisons, look at what the NFL has done with Monday Night Football and the attempts to have Thursday night games in the regular season. I'm sure the first time that someone at ABC brought up the experiment of having weekly games on Monday's, they probably were laughed out of the room.
It's not something that likely will appear in the very near future and I would guess that NASCAR would experiment with a Nationwide race first before it allowed the " big-time " series to appear on the air. Needless to say, it could alleviate some problems like more time off for teams or just the opposite, slip in a race or two during the week so a facility could add or not lose a Cup date. Attendance at the track would be a concern for a promoter but if enough thoughtful planning could be done by NASCAR and the particular track involved, maybe it could work.
Let's think about it for a minute: A summer Thursday night race at Bristol--400 laps--prerace Eastern time at 7:30, race at 8 o'clock. Or a 300 miler on a Wednesday night at Kentucky Speedway, with the upcoming weekend off before the Chase for the Championship?
For the traditionalists, how about a 250 lap event at Rockingham on the Thursday before the Mother's Day race weekend at Darlington. The possiblities are endless, maybe it is just selling it to NASCAR and the networks.
Given this year in NASCAR, any upcoming races on a Wednesday or Thursday night for the Sprint Cup Series would probably look very similar to the race I saw two days ago: Kyle Busch dominating and taking a bow in victory lane. For some, that picture just brought out a red flag for my experiment.
Jeff@insidethepitbox.com
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