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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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G.B.U. Scott 7 DAY ARCHIVE INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Victory tastes oh so sweet in Texas NASCAR's Traditions Being Swallowed Up One by One Kahne likely candidate to become next Jeff Gordon Jarrett optimistic despite slow start Dancers, start your engines' in this here ballet Cup Scene readers speak out about the new point system
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Happy Birthday: Matt Yocum, Butch Mock, Junie Donlavey, Eddie Wood, Robert Pressley, Mark Green, Kathy Ehret It wouldn't even have been given much thought just a few years ago. But now, talk of 40 Nextel Cup races in 2005 is getting louder.
NASCAR executives and Eddie Gossage, who runs Texas Motor Speedway for Bruton Smith, have been careful in the past few days not to get too far ahead of the negotiations in the Francis Ferko lawsuit over a second Cup date for Texas Motor Speedway, which helped precipitate the talk of a schedule reconfiguration. But sources close to the situation expect things to break soon, and that development will have a profound effect on NASCAR's plans. Traditionally, NASCAR waits until August before announcing the next year's schedule. What is known so far is that the 2005 season-opener will be the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20 and the season finale will be Nov. 20, almost certainly at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Everything else seems to be up in the air. Expansion to the regular season, including races on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, remains a way for stock car racing to keep up with demand from major markets to expand their presence on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. As racetracks like the Pocono Raceway, Darlington Raceway, North Carolina Speedway and Watkins Glen International fight to keep one or both of their annual slots on the schedule, the push to add second races at the Texas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway — plus the expected construction of facilities in the Pacific Northwest and New York City — may prompt NASCAR officials to expand the schedule from 36 regular season events to 40.
As the lawsuit to bring Texas a second racing date moves closer to its summer court date, the sanctioning body said it now wants to resolve its scheduling problems without a jury. That probably means Texas will get its second date, but it also could trigger a chain reaction that could be the biggest shake-up since the sport moved into its "modern era" in 1972. A 40-race schedule would make speedway operators happy. And many race teams said if the schedule is done properly, they could handle the extra work. "If they made some adjustments and looked at it carefully, yeah, we could run 40 or more races in a season," said Kyle Petty, a driver and team owner. "I don't really have a problem with, say a Wednesday or the Thursday night race, followed by a weekend race somewhere. They key would be to the midweek show a one-day affair and be close enough so you could get back to your shop and swap everything out for a two-day weekend race somewhere." The only reason the expanded schedule would be considered is network television. Stock car racing realizes how big "Monday Night Football" has grown, and the idea of creating a midweek main event in racing has some appeal. "A lot of that depends on what the TV networks want and will go with," Petty said. "If it helps us bring in bigger numbers by running a prime-time race during the week, then that just works for everybody. If more people are watching, that means the fans like what's going on. If the fans are happy, our sponsors are surely going to be happy. And that builds greater interest all the way around." Some key developments to watch: -Will International Speedway Corp. (ISC) drop Watkins Glen from the tour after this August's race? If so, what would replace it? -Will Darlington wind up with just one tour date, in September and lose its spring date, or will a one-day in-and-out, Thursday night prime-time Darlington race be picked up by FX in May? -The Labor Day weekend appears destined to remain a Fontana, Calif., stop. But where Darlington's Southern 500 might wind up is uncertain. Some think that NASCAR might use it as a Saturday night September beginning for its 10-race "chase for the championship." There has been considerable speculation in recent weeks that NASCAR might move the traditional July Fourth weekend race at Daytona to the end of the season. Many teams have said that that would be a logical move, as would moving the Southern 500 to July Fourth to take advantage of the Myrtle Beach holiday crowd.
And the latest on that second date for Texas Motor Speedway? "There's nothing new to report. The two sides are together, and I think everybody finds a way to win in this deal," Gossage said. "Are they going to get that accomplished? I sure hope so. But I can't tell you for sure. "I want NASCAR to win. NASCAR, for me personally, has provided a tremendous living, and I want them to succeed. And I want us all to succeed." Some team managers are worried about an increase in the divorce rate among crewmen if a longer schedule comes about. Getting precise figures for divorce rates among Nextel Cup teams isn't easy, because that's not a topic car owners and crew chiefs care to discuss. The solution many have found is simply to hire younger crewmen for the demanding road work, which may be one reason that some longtime front-runners aren't running up front any more: Loyalty may have its bottom-line limitations. Another solution, according to Eddie Jones, who runs Beth Ann Morgenthau's team for driver Ken Schrader, is for NASCAR to make more efficient use of each weekend. There is, after all, a lot of wasted time at each track, as well as a considerable number of days burned up testing. NASCAR may have its hands full coming up with a better testing policy, but a more efficient Friday-Saturday-Sunday plan should be easier to devise. "The key to more races is condensing the schedules we have now," Jones said. "There is no reason we can't come into any racetrack and check in Friday, practice Saturday morning, qualify, have a Happy Hour, then cover them up before Sunday's race. "Or even better, practice two hours Saturday morning, qualify and then don't have a Happy Hour - race what you qualified. "It would cut the schedule back. It would cut expenses back. It would give you some additional time to work on your cars, and still give you less time on the road. Maybe cut out testing altogether and add some races. I'd rather race than test, and I think anybody in racing would feel that way. Races are going to pay a purse. Testing doesn't." "That 40-race schedule, if you work it right, could end up being about 90 days on the road in a season, as opposed to 120-some days now. Schrader said: "It doesn't matter to me. If they say they are having a race, I'll be there. Forty races? Shoot, 45 or 50 or 60. It doesn't matter to me. As long as they don't mess with the Wednesday night races at Pevely." That's the Missouri short track he owns. Kyle Petty says that the talk of an expanded NASCAR tour will, if nothing else, focus attention on making tour races more efficient packages. "If they made some adjustments and looked at it carefully, yeah, we could run 40 or more races each season," Petty said. "I don't really have any problems with, say, a Wednesday or Thursday night race, followed by a weekend somewhere. The key would be to make the midweek show a one-day affair and be close enough that you could get back to your shop and swap everything out for a two-day weekend race somewhere." That, in fact, is one option that NASCAR officials are reported to have considered as an option for next spring's Darlington race, during Mother's Day week, though it is not clear if that is still an option. "A lot depends on what the TV networks want and will go with," Petty said. "If it helps us bring in bigger numbers by running a prime-time race during the week, then that just works for everybody. If more people are watching, that means the fans like what's going on. If the fans are happy, our sponsors are sure going to be happy. And that builds greater interest all the way around. "My dad and my grandfather ran 60 races a year and didn't blink an eye. But almost all of those were one-day shows, and you might not end up running every single one of them. "I think paring things down to a workable touring schedule was good (when R. J. Reynolds joined as tour sponsor in 1972 and tidied up the series into a more marketable package) and was very instrumental in the growth of our sport. "Being able to take these races to bigger markets is going to be crucial as we continue to grow. Expanding the schedule is a way of doing that." |
