On Wednesday morning, NASCAR announced the first major shakeup to the 2021 schedule. The long rumored changes to their calendar after it got stagnant, has seen its first move. The Nashville Superspeedway is back and will host a Cup Series race at that.

In order to make this happen, a date was taken away from Dover to accommodate. It’s a win-win short term scenario, but also a risky proposition.

Both sides are taking a risk that Nashville will lead to high enough revenues to lead the Cup Series back to the Nashville Fairgrounds. The profits from the return races will help fix up the Fairgrounds in efforts to lure NASCAR back. It’s a risk that’s for sure.

What happens if it’s a flop though? They took a date away from Dover to make this happen and if Nashville is a flop on a notorious tough track that’s tough to pass on, they could lose the future date to something new.

But, if the Awards Banquet last December in Nashville is any indication, this could very well be a hit.

Also, I’m all in favor of Dover losing a date anyways. Having two races a year on the 1-mile concrete oval wasn’t needed. It’s virtually the same race both times. It was boring and redundant. While I get the fans in the area won’t be happy, it was definitely needed. The one weekend for Dover a year will help the crowds grow again there.

In fact, I’m an advocate that most tracks don’t need two stops in a season anyways. Other than the tracks in the southeast (Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville and Charlotte) no one needs two stops.

I know it won’t happen, but do we really need to go to Kansas, Texas, Vegas, Phoenix and Michigan twice a year? A return to one date in New Hampshire and Fontana worked for them. I sense it was going to work for Pocono this year with their doubleheader weekend.

Making one visit a year forces fans to go to that race because it will be a full year before they can see the cars again. It also cuts down on races which means we can add new tracks in the process to fill the gaps.