NASCAR was the first major sport to return to live action. While I get UFC, PBR and whatever three letter acronym for a sporting league that may think that they’re major and claim that they might have returned prior, the TV numbers show that NASCAR is still in a league by themselves. The race back isn’t what’s important here, it’s coming back and doing so safely.

NASCAR had millions, and I mean millions, more eyeballs on them for their first race since March 8 on Sunday at the Darlington Raceway than any other sporting event, live or replay, this past weekend. Some of those eyeballs were fixated by other sporting leagues around this world on how NASCAR would conduct their screening and testing process and how they’d run their race. I mean, it’s been over 10 weeks now since most sports have played. Some leagues never got started at all. They all need to get going, or even resuming, but without a playbook on how to handle this COVID-19 pandemic, how can they?

NASCAR, well they’re writing the playbook for everyone from scratch. Kudos to them for being the leaders out of the clubhouse. While the pre race and post race stuff is a bit awkward with everyone wearing masks and reporters using boom mics, when the drivers get into their cars and the engines fire, unless the cameras showed an overhead shot of the stands, you wouldn’t even know anything different was going on. As I watched 602 laps of Cup Series racing over the last four days, when the racing action was going on, it felt like it would on any other race before this novel virus hit.

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That’s a testament to NASCAR and their leadership and the planning they did to make this go. But, as this is finally going again, I also couldn’t help but wonder, if some of this the new norm?

A one day show is highly effective. I think both races run now show that we don’t need much practice anymore. These drivers are the best stock cars drivers in the business. Why do they need hours of practice anyways? After all, practice time was already being cut down this season anyways to just two per weekend. I think these races show that without practice, it keeps the teams and drivers on their toes and produces a better show throughout. Plus, it saves on the amount of money for tires, fuel and extra crew members at the race track on those races.

That leads me to the next point, qualifying. While some tracks I do feel we could use qualifying to set the lineup, Sunday and Wednesday night’s races prove that we can get away without having it too.

Last Thursday night for me, well it felt a little bit like Selection Sunday. Watching them draw for starting positions in groups of 12 was genius and kept me highly entertained. They did this in a fair way too, giving the top 12 in points the guarantee of starting in the top 12 of the race. Then 13th-24th having the opportunity to start in those ranges and so on. It was fair and brilliant. Why can’t we have races where we have a Selection Sunday like feel and draw for starting spot during the week on RaceHub if it’s a Fox Sports race of NASCAR America if its an NBC Sports race weekend?

Then, I also like the idea of an inverted field, just how they did on Wednesday night. Take the top 20 finishers from the previous race and invert them. 21-40 will start in the order that they finish. It makes strategy calls at the end of the race if you’re up front as well as in spots 16th through say 25th. It’s brilliant. That in turn sets up a great start of the next race because you have the faster cars from the first race coming from 15th on back.

From there, the shorter races idea for those inverted field is genius too. I mean come on, we don’t need 400 or 500 mile races anymore. Those races back in the day were a true test of man vs. machine vs. race track. Now a days, those cars can easily run 600+ miles in any given night. Those drivers can run race after race after race and barely break a sweat. Sprint races are really the way to go and Wednesday night proved that.

You can still call the races “500” at the end of them but make that kilometers. 500 kilometers equates to roughly 300 miles. A 300 mile show is a sprint race in Cup which provides for a thrilling event from start to finish. Also, with the inverting of the field from the race before, it was arguably one of the top races of the young season thus far.

While I get some may say, it gives the top drivers a disadvantage. I beg to differ. Denny Hamlin won from the 16th starting spot. Kyle Busch finished second and he started 26th. Kevin Harvick finished third and he came from 20th. Nine of the top 13 finishers in Wednesday night’s race started in Row 7 or further back. To get to the front, they had to pass a lot of cars, that in turn leads to a better show.

Now, another good point is weeknight races. We’ve been wanting them for years and the coronavirus finally gave it to us. It was a massive hit. It leads me wanting more of them. Why can’t we make them work for the future. Make them one-day shows, coming off of a one-day race weekend with another one-day race weekend following, gives teams ample amounts of time to make it happen and not have to stretch resources in doing so.

One day shows, no practice or a limit on it, different ways to set the lineups and weeknight races. Is that too much to ask for to keep around?

I mean, just look at what we got on Wednesday night in Darlington. We got a 90 minute rain delay, a race that ended 20 laps early due to rain, a fox on the race track, a driver flipping another driver off and a thrilling race in between all of that. For someone new to the sport, that gives them everything a network TV drama on a weeknight would give them. Throw in cars going at speeds in excess of 180 mph and you get must see TV.

This way of innovating is the right way to go. I mean, do we really need to go to Michigan, Dover, Pocono or Kansas or any track for that nature two times a year? Nothing against those tracks, but come on. The only tracks that I’d like to see multiple trips to on any given season are the ones in the southeast anyways. That’s NASCAR bread and butter and I’ve been saying for years that the main thing that led to NASCAR’s downfall was that they turned their backs on the most passionate fan base.

I mean, just go back to 1992. 29 races were run that season. 20 of those 29 (69%) were run at tracks in the southeast. They’d go to Daytona, Talladega, Darlington, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, Martinsville, Richmond and Bristol twice a year. Then, the popularity was rising and they thought, lets branch out. While I get that way of thinking, I really do, they did so by eliminating races on those tracks. 

In came Kansas, Homestead, Texas, Vegas, New Hampshire, Chicago, Kentucky, Fontana. In came multiple races for some of them too. Gone went North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. Gone too was one race at Atlanta and Darlington each. Gone went the Southern 500 from its annual Labor Day weekend pilgrimage.

From 1992 through 1996, the first nine of 10 races of each season took place in the southeast. By 1997, it was down to five. By 1999, it was down to just two. By 2002, the races in the southeast saw a 13 percent decease in terms of NASCAR visits. By 2011, that number was down from 69-percent in 1992 to 39-percent 19 years later. Want to know why the numbers rose in the 90s and early 2000s but steadily fell after? It’s because the number of races in the southeast did too.

NASCAR was trying to adapt and make changes, but some were the wrong ones. That’s part of the reason why the slow and steady decline was occurring.

Now, NASCAR is taking a step back into their roots in coming out of this virus. Their first tracks back? Well they’re all in the southeast. Darlington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Bristol, Martinsville, Homestead and Talladega. That’s by design. Why change this back up again?

We can branch out to those same tracks outside of the southeast, but why do we have to go to them twice? Why do they need two races? Why do those races need to be 400 or 500 miles in length? Be like the circus’ old motto, we only come once a year, so you better come now or wait 365 more days until you can see us again. 

I mean, it’s no secret that the crowds for the spring race in Fontana started coming back when they eliminated the second race. NASCAR can regionalize their schedules now which helps these one day shows without practice or qualifying.

Cutting the two stop venues away from the southeast and adding weeknight races too will shorten the schedule to where it needs to be. There’s no reason we should be starting in February and ending in November. None. That’s too long of a season that has been proven that people lose interest in as it goes on.

Most peoples attention spans are vastly shorter now. They don’t want to watch a nine month season with 3+ hour races. Give them a shorter campaign with shorter races, more in the southeast at classic tracks and I think NASCAR keeps the rise going.