NASCAR moves quickly. If the last decade isn’t a lesson of that, I’m not sure what is. And I think for the most part we’ve seen some good changes come out of the sport (you may disagree). Not everything they’ve suggested though has been great. And I think the latest idea to come out of the folks at NASCAR is a little out of left field.
Our friend John Daly over at The Daly Planet reported last week about a question that was leaked from the weekly NASCAR Fan Council Survey. Here is an excerpt of that question:
NASCAR is exploring the idea of running some NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races throughout the season using a new “heat race” format in which approximately half of the trucks run a preliminary “heat race” followed by the other half of the trucks running in a separate preliminary “heat race.”
These “heat races” would then be followed by “The Main Event” which would feature a slightly longer race than the two “heat races” and would consist of only a certain number of the best finishing trucks from the first and second “heat races” competing in “The Main Event.”
After the queasy feeling left my stomach, I had to wonder why? What’s the point of doing this? I think in theory it could probably eliminate some of the start-and-park teams and perhaps lower some costs, but is that worth the chance that NASCAR could drive away some fans? And just when things are looking good for the trucks?
Have you seen the ratings for the series? SpeedTV put out a press release this week touting year-to-year ratings increases since July – including increases in the last four races. What this tells me is that people are watching and interested. That also leads me to believe that there probably isn’t anything too wrong – certainly not bad enough to consider changing the entire format of the series.
While the Truck Series has long been NASCAR’s proving ground, I think the sanctioning body is inching ever closer to damaging it. I realize they’re attempting to be proactive to keep the racing interesting, but when does the series get a consistent format?
Obviously this is just an idea, these surveys are one way for NASCAR to gauge interest in a potential change, but that they’re asking about this makes me think they’re serious about it. Now I’m not saying this idea can’t work, or that it wouldn’t be interesting. What I am saying though is NASCAR needs to seriously consider the ramifications of the rolling changes – people get sick of it (I’m getting sick of it). Why fix something that really isn’t broken?
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