Camping World Truck Series - Champ Says Series Needs More Races

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Good to see someone from the sport agree with the rest of us. Well, maybe most of us.

Defending Champ Says Series Needs More Races

Understandably, Matt Crafton wants to race as much as possible, but that’s not the only reason the defending Camping World Truck Series champion is not a fan of the long breaks between races early in the season.
“It’s terrible,’’ he said for the series.

While he could have been saying that for drivers, who always want to race, or fans who want to see as much racing as possible, Crafton had another reason as he talked Monday, the first of a two-day test at Charlotte Motor Speedway for ThorSport Racing, Brad Keselowski Racing, Turner Scott Motorsports and Red Horse Racing.

After the Trucks ran Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway, the series did not race again for five weeks until March 29 at Martinsville Speedway - where Crafton won. Then, the series went nearly six weeks until its next race, May 9 at Kansas Speedway.
That’s part of a 22-race schedule stretching from February to November - the same number of races run since 2012.

Last season, the Trucks started on Feb. 22 at Daytona and went six weeks before the Martinsville race. That race, though, was followed by races at Rockingham (not on the schedule this year) and Kansas (moved to Mother’s Day weekend in a trade with Darlington).

Crafton’s disdain, though, is not personal. There’s a reason he’s not thrilled with the long breaks at this time of the year.

“For the teams that have sponsors, it’s hard,’’ he told Motor Racing Network. “At the end of the day, the owners are having to pay these guys that work on these trucks no matter what.

“If you have a sponsor and you get to to go to the racetrack and make prize money, you’re getting something back out of it. When you’re not going to the racetrack, you’re still having to pay these guys. You have to pay these guys year-round no matter what. It’s not like you can just stop paying them for the four or five weeks you have off. So they definitely, definitely need to work on our schedule and fit at least two or three more races in at the beginning of the year, get us back to at least 25 races to where we used to be.’’

You can read the rest HERE.
 
Exactly what a lot of us have been saying... Someone here mentioned "imagine being the team owner paying these guys"

I bet a big-small team like Thorsport really feels the crunch.
 
Hard to believe Mother's Day weekend will be the 11th race of the season for Sprint Cup and only the 3rd race for the Trucks. They definitely need to front load the schedule a little more.
 
In 98 they had 7 more races than they have today. That was the same year they moved from the smaller tracks to the larger ones. Coincidence? It could be the economy and the skyrocketing costs for teams...or (because of all the technology $$$ to race on larger tracks?) . I personally want to see trucks beat and bang like they used to highlight on the promos. Now they show high speed wrecks..just like the other two upper series. Trucks look stupid going 190 MPH. They looked pretty funny on the dirt, like a duck out of water, but it was a much better race than a super speedway. Put them back on the small tracks, rip off the stupid splitter and the bump stops, give them a good bumper and have at it boys.
 
The racing in the truck series is so good, it's a shame they only run 22 races. Add six more races to the schedule (preferably five short tracks and a road course) and life will be sweet
 
Nascar is doing a phenomenal job in trying to kill this series. Sports need exposure to gain sponsorship and fan interest. Not 6 weeks in between events.
 
The problem is lack of demand, though. If Nascar had a TV partner that was willing to pay for more Trucks races, I'm sure they could find tracks to sponsor them. But the series is too expensive to run without TV money.

You either need more TV money or to make the series cheap enough to run that races can be profitable with minimal TV money, like the K&N series.
 
I've always thought the truck series should feature almost all short tracks and stay away from the Speedways as much as possible. It costs a lot to run on a 1.5.
 
TooSweet said:
The racing in the truck series is so good, it's a shame they only run 22 races. Add six more races to the schedule (preferably five short tracks and a road course) and life will be sweet
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This:cheers:
 
DUN24 said:
Yup. It'd be too sweet.
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94941-monkey-sigh-rimshot-gif-drums-K5UJ.gif
 
I dont think they need more races in particular..new venues maybe? And definitely need to shorten the gaps in which these races are run. No one likes waiting a month in between races.

I have no idea how they have been managing doing it this way for such a long time.
 
reck said:
I dont think they need more races in particular..new venues maybe? And definitely need to shorten the gaps in which these races are run. No one likes waiting a month in between races.

I have no idea how they have been managing doing it this way for such a long time.
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More races would probably shorten the gap between races :D
 
I agree the series gets forgotten about when there are breaks like this. I think it makes the problems the series has even worse. they need to rotate the series around to select short tracks and nascar needs to pick up the sanctioning fee on a race or 2, this would add exposure to places that don't get to have the trucks there.
 
Kyle18fan said:
More races would probably shorten the gap between races :D
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THat's what makes this series good though. Short season, short races.

They just need to be better at spreading the races closer in dates.
 
reck said:
THat's what makes this series good though. Short season, short races.

They just need to be better at spreading the races closer in dates.
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Not a fan of short races or short seasons, if I had my way they would be racing 360 days a year.
 
mike honcho said:
The article is dated April 22???
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Okay but Im telling you Matt Crafton said that a few weeks back. I distinctly remember seeing that interview about he long break in between the first few races and him saying they need more. It was after a truck race so it had to have been at Martinsville. I just think it's weird that it took until now for someone to write about it.
 
SlicedBread22 said:
Okay but Im telling you Matt Crafton said that a few weeks back. I distinctly remember seeing that interview about he long break in between the first few races and him saying they need more. It was after a truck race so it had to have been at Martinsville. I just think it's weird that it took until now for someone to write about it.
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It was an off week. There's not a whole helluva lot going on in the sport. The reporters still have to work. Writers like Dustin Long are probably pulling things off of their shelf to write about. Regardless of when Crafton said what he said it's still relevant today. Not a real big deal IMO.
 
FenderBumper said:
Not every reporter pulls things off the shelf.
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True enough. I went back and looked. Crafton was interviewed by Dustin Long this week while testing in Charlotte. Not off the shelf. Frankly I'm not even sure why this is an issue. The story is relevant regardless of when the statement would have been made. Racing can't get here soon enough!
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
True enough. I went back and looked. Crafton was interviewed by Dustin Long this week while testing in Charlotte. Not off the shelf. Frankly I'm not even sure why this is an issue. The story is relevant regardless of when the statement would have been made. Racing can't get here soon enough!
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Bored this morning?

I was actually hinting at reporters pulling stories from somewhere else. I certainly didn't mean to kick your research gene in to high gear. ;)
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
It was an off week. There's not a whole helluva lot going on in the sport. The reporters still have to work. Writers like Dustin Long are probably pulling things off of their shelf to write about. Regardless of when Crafton said what he said it's still relevant today. Not a real big deal IMO.
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No of course its not a big deal lol I never said it was.. I just found it weird.. figured if it was gona make news it would have before.
 
Have to agree completely with Crafton, the truck schedule seems to have been losing a race the past decade. Why don't they head back to Sonoma & Watkins Glen? How about a second race at Charlotte? They used to race at Darlington as well, what happened to that? How about another Bristol race? My guess is maybe NASCAR feels like attendance has dropped & that's why the season is shrinking but who knows for sure...
 
Have to agree completely with Crafton, the truck schedule seems to have been losing a race the past decade. Why don't they head back to Sonoma & Watkins Glen? How about a second race at Charlotte? They used to race at Darlington as well, what happened to that? How about another Bristol race? My guess is maybe NASCAR feels like attendance has dropped & that's why the season is shrinking but who knows for sure...
 
Have to agree completely with Crafton, the truck schedule seems to have been losing a race the past decade. Why don't they head back to Sonoma & Watkins Glen? How about a second race at Charlotte? They used to race at Darlington as well, what happened to that? How about another Bristol race? My guess is maybe NASCAR feels like attendance has dropped & that's why the season is shrinking but who knows for sure...
 
A little too much coffee this morning RPKing?
 
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