3:00 start at Martinsville!

Canadian GP

Canadian GP

Old as dirt!
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Ordered my tickets months ago and never bothered to check the race start time. I assumed it would be the same as last year (IIRC) 2:00 for the trucks on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday for the Cup race. Now that the lights have been tested I guess they changed the start time to 3:00 so that the end of the race will be under the lights. This would be fine if it was a Saturday race but since the race won't be over until 6-7 and add getting out of the parking lot I won't be headed out of Martinsville until around 7:30 PM.

Anyone else consider this to be too late for a Sunday race? No chance I can make it home for work Monday morning.
 
Canadian GP said:
Ordered my tickets months ago and never bothered to check the race start time. I assumed it would be the same as last year (IIRC) 2:00 for the trucks on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday for the Cup race. Now that the lights have been tested I guess they changed the start time to 3:00 so that the end of the race will be under the lights. This would be fine if it was a Saturday race but since the race won't be over until 6-7 and add getting out of the parking lot I won't be headed out of Martinsville until around 7:30 PM.

Anyone else consider this to be too late for a Sunday race? No chance I can make it home for work Monday morning.
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Just curious, what would you do if there's a rain delay for a 1pm race @ Martinsville? I don't know your situation but I always plan ahead for every race that I go to and take the day after the race off in case of a rain delay or rained out race. You may not have the extra day to do that, IDK, but that would be my plan.

As far as a 3pm start time on a Sunday afternoon @ Martinsville goes..... Bring it on. I think it will be awesome to see it finish under the lights. I went to Martinsville for the first night race, the last of Jeff Gordon's wins. It was awesome! The only thing that would have made it better is if they actually had lights.
 
Canadian GP said:
Ordered my tickets months ago and never bothered to check the race start time. I assumed it would be the same as last year (IIRC) 2:00 for the trucks on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday for the Cup race. Now that the lights have been tested I guess they changed the start time to 3:00 so that the end of the race will be under the lights. This would be fine if it was a Saturday race but since the race won't be over until 6-7 and add getting out of the parking lot I won't be headed out of Martinsville until around 7:30 PM.

Anyone else consider this to be too late for a Sunday race? No chance I can make it home for work Monday morning.
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What's bad is the race won't actually start until closer to 3:30 and that can be problematic for those traveling and needing to go to work the next day. My own preference would be to get up early and go to the track so I could head home earlier.
 
Does NASCAR change start times/day during the season often?

I was confused when the schedule I printed out (from NASCAR.com) at the beginning of the year had the BOA500 listed as a Saturday night race when it was actually on Sunday.

My schedule also lists the fall Martinsville race with a start time of 1pm as well....
 
This may be one of those "well back in the day" responses, but it used to be that they all (almost all anyway) started at 1:00. I was just talking with someone about this over the weekend. Frrom 1 to 4 or so on Sundays was reserved for NASCAR racing, and nothing else.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Well akshually this is because California is NASCAR's biggest audience and without late starts they wouldn't be able to watch!
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https://sports.yahoo.com/nascar-president-addresses-start-times-155615209.html


ROTFLMAO!

“Still our largest audience is California, and 1 o’clock starts is too early for them on the West Coast. So we’re trying to find the right balance of that. But yes, I think you’ll see more innovation to make it a win-win for the industry. We will do it together as an industry. It won’t be unilateral on NASCAR’s part.’’

Brent Dewar

I have dealt with Brent Dewar when he was with GM and found him to be an idiot and said so on the forum. A couple of Illuminati chided me for such a transgression and a couple of days later Dewar uttered the above masterpiece.
 
NASCAR seems to hold the opinion of "Let's screw the people who actually PAY to show up and watch the race in favor of those that sit at home and watch it for free". That's how we ended up with the mess at Indy this year. I don't buy the California thing anyway. I want to see the audience broken down by state. I can't see California being in the top 5, despite their huge population. Isn't Greensboro NC like the number one metered market for NASCAR? The west coasters don't seem to have any trouble getting up to watch 1PM eastern NFL starts, so why should NASCAR be anything different? Personally, I would LOVE for the races to start about 10AM eastern, and then I would still have a sizeable chunk of my day left after the race. I remember when I used to be able to go out and mow the yard (3 hour job) after the race and still eat supper at a decent hour. Besides, in the era of the DVR, how many people HAVE to see the race live anyway?
 
Clearly, the only reason NASHCASH made this move was to screw Martinsville's paying customers. It's so obvious.

As regards unintended consequences ... it may improve hot dog sales so that would be good.
 
Martinsville made the decision so they can finish at night. And the 3pm start was announced long before the night race last month.
 
If the races in the past started at 1 PM and California became their largest market, why would they make changes in the start time? Seems to me they liked the start times or they were all taping the race. Either way it was working for them.
Now I understand Nascar that if something is working lets change it and screw things up.
 
Normally I would prefer the 1pm start, but I am having to provide technical coverage at work, every third weekend now. And it is going fall on the Martinsville weekend, I will start at 6am, and hopefully be finished work by 3pm.
 
I think this is one of the races that they qualify and race the same day. That could also play into the later start time for the race for the transition from qualifying to race day prep. Whatever the reason, I think it's great that this race will finish under the lights. I wish I could be there to watch it. While I still retain my seats, high up at the end of the front stretch for both the spring/fall races, I'm sorry I gotta miss this one. I'll sure as heck be watching from home though.
 
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I'm thinkin they put up a set of really nice state of the art fancy lites and they want to show them off a bit. Fine with me, I saw a bit of the lights working on a twitter, they are the newer LEDs and can blink, flash and no telling what else. Probably be able to see sparks and fire too. Works for me.
 
StandOnIt said:
I'm thinkin they put up a set of really nice state of the art fancy lites and they want to show them off a bit. Fine with me, I saw a bit of the lights working on a twitter, they are the newer LEDs and can blink, flash and no telling what else. Probably be able to see sparks and fire too. Works for me.
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Holy illumination Batman! Them thangs sound better an the 4th of Joo-lie over at Dee-Wayne and Bubba's.
 
Formerjackman said:
Keeping in mind that with the rare exception of Sunday day races that run late, night races have lower TV ratings than day races.
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That's more tail wagging the dog. More paying customers would like a chance to get home before 0dark thirty
 
Everyone thinks this is a one groove race track already..... Just wait till they run this @ night! That bottom will be the only way around this place. Lot's of end of pit road shenanigans ahead.
 
yeah baby, Martinsville Cup race ending under the lights, I cant wait!!!!
 
There was a game in the early 2000s that had a Martinsville under the lights track time selection.

Glad its finally come to fruition.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Everyone thinks this is a one groove race track already..... Just wait till they run this @ night! That bottom will be the only way around this place. Lot's of end of pit road shenanigans ahead.
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Good point. Night racing has ruined Darlington. What made Darlington legendary was scorching heat and a slick race track. Richmond is better in the daytime too.
 
I like the idea of a spring/summer Martinsville race at night. But this race should be starting at 1:00 PM like they should be doing standard start times.
 
Canadian GP said:
Ordered my tickets months ago and never bothered to check the race start time. I assumed it would be the same as last year (IIRC) 2:00 for the trucks on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday for the Cup race. Now that the lights have been tested I guess they changed the start time to 3:00 so that the end of the race will be under the lights. This would be fine if it was a Saturday race but since the race won't be over until 6-7 and add getting out of the parking lot I won't be headed out of Martinsville until around 7:30 PM.

Anyone else consider this to be too late for a Sunday race? No chance I can make it home for work Monday morning.
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I completely agree with you.
Yes, now that I am retired I usually plan to stay through Monday. But that still does not make me like a late Sunday start.
If they want to race at night, then schedule it for Saturday.
I used to go to Homestead, every year for the Cup race. But I didn't like getting home at midnight and I live 100 miles from the track.
Finally, it is going to rain on Sunday anyhow and they won't race till noon on Monday.
 
As someone that lives on the west side, 3pm local start time works out perfectly for me.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Everyone thinks this is a one groove race track already..... Just wait till they run this @ night! That bottom will be the only way around this place. Lot's of end of pit road shenanigans ahead.
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Late Model drivers made the outside work, even said there was more grip up top than when the 300 was run during the day.
 
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