Cup races: Sat nights or Sun?

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PokerRun388

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Which do you prefer?

Honestly I really like the Nationwide race on Friday night & and the Sprint Cup race on Saturday nights!!


So: Cup races better Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons?
 
The local-racing fan in me wishes there were fewer Saturday night Cup races because going to the local track means I miss the Cup race. On the other hand, racing on Saturday means I can watch other racing on Sunday (like IndyCar this weekend). So I guess just ask me each weekend and I'll have a different answer.
 
I like Sat night races for three reasons...... actually there are more but I cant be arsed listing them all.

1. Racing always looks better under lights (sometime racing may suck, but it looks better under lights).
2. If there is rain, then there is a Sunday chance for either the morning, afternoon or evening runing.
3. Here in Australia (Strayla), Sat night means a Sun morning for us. Always have a big BBQ breakfast and retreat to the movie room, watching Nascar whilst in a BBQ breakfast food coma.
 
I think some races like the Daytona 500, Coke 600, Brickyard 400, Southern 500, the west coast races, etc. should always be run Sundays. But the majority of Cup races should be run Saturday evenings/nights. All Nationwide races should be run the day or night before the Cup race.

As far as the Trucks schedule goes, it needs a complete overhaul. I think just about anything would be an improvement over their current format.
 
As this point I have accepted that NW is basically Cup Lite and they will both run at the same tracks almost every weekend. If you run most NW races on Fridays and a handful on Saturdays (with most Cup races Saturday nights and occasionally Sundays), I don't think it will affect Nationwide's ratings or attendance much. If anything, I think more Friday night races would help.

The Trucks schedule is what intrigues me the most. They could run a dozen races at Cup tracks, always on Thursday/Friday nights (the night before the NW race). They should also run at least a dozen races at tracks not on the Cup schedule. This is where their schedule has some flexibility. The can basically run whatever time they want. Cup race at Michigan at 7pm Saturday? Cool, have a Trucks race at Nazareth at 1pm that same day. Or, run them at Mesa Marin on Sunday.

Look at all the cool tracks from the Trucks and Busch schedules back in the 90s. I'm hopeful that a lot of them could still support a Trucks race in 2015. The fans get to see racing at more tracks (variety is good for ratings), and local fans at those tracks get to see some Nascar races again. Maybe then we would see a decent TV deal with the CWTS finally getting the exposure it deserves. That series has so much potential, Nascar just needs to capitalize on it.
 
I dunno, I like Saturday Night races, but I also know that it hurts the local short track when they do those races on Saturday Night. So I'd have to say Sunday because without the short track, where is the next Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch or Dale Earnhardt Jr. going to come from?
 
The problem with racing on Saturday nights is a good number of fans will stay at home to watch the NASCAR race instead of going to their local track. All that does is undercut your future of the sport.
 
A mix is best, but most should remain on Sunday. Like a couple people have already said, Saturday nights would cut into both local racing and NASCAR audiences.
 
There's a good mix now but I do think more of the Chase races need to be run at night and I think there need to be weeknight races in NASCAR.
 
I tend to enjoy night races more, whether they're raced on Saturday or Sunday night. No preference really. Sunday afternoons work better for me because of my work schedule, but that's really the only reason why I'd pick an afternoon race over a night one.
 
I like the Saturday night races. I get to watch my college football on Saturday afternoon & the cup race Saturday night. Then pro football Sunday Afternoon. But id still watch the race if it was on Wednesday mornings at 3am
 
I don't think we have to worry to much, i don't think we will ever get that saturated with Sat night races.
 
Every time there's a Saturday night race the attendance at the local track seems to suffer. Not to say that there's always been a capacity crowd lately but it is a noticeable difference.

Then nascar runs their support your local track commercial,:rolleyes:
 
I always prefer Saturday night races. I love having Sundays free to do other things or having it as an option in the event of inclement weather.
 
I miss about half of the Saturday night races due to being at the local tracks.
 
PokerRun388 said:
Which do you prefer?

Honestly I really like the Nationwide race on Friday night & and the Sprint Cup race on Saturday nights!!


So: Cup races better Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons?
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Definitely prefer Saturday racing. Ideally for me would be noon starts on most Saturdays with some nights so that people can still enjoy their local Saturday night shows. Sundays could be naturally used as the makeup dates for rain since most people have to go to work on Mondays. Hope we see this someday, not a fan of Sunday races.

Also, though this is slightly off topic, but in addition to the switch to Saturday racing, I'd also like to see the length of the race reduced by a quarter or third. Think that may make for better racing throughout the event than guys driving around for 300 laps before they start to race hard.
 
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I like Sunday afternoons. Sat nights is when my friends and family want to go out, bars, movies, parties, hockey games etc. There's usually nothing happening on Sunday afternoon for me so that why I like it, it doesn't conflict with anything else (except football, but I'm not a fan)
 
I like the Sunday afternoon racing as it get me through the long NFL off-season and I can still porchgate with friends and family.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
There's a good mix now but I do think more of the Chase races need to be run at night and I think there need to be weeknight races in NASCAR.
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I agree with this more Saturday night chase races. Move the August Bristol date to the chase opener.
 
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