NASCAR exploring weeknight races

To me this only makes sense for the races after Darlington where NASCAR has major weekend competition from college and pro football, which could also be why NBC is the one bringing this up. During the regular season, NASCAR is top sports dog and should continue to claim title to weekends while baseball and the NBA/NHL playoffs take the weeknights. The problem is Loudon, Dover and Dega still don't have lights so this is not an option for those tracks.
 
PeopleAreStrange said:
Not a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I'm busy with school during the week, and look forward to races on weekends.
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I like it myself. Not a fan of Saturday night races.

I'd like to see the Daytona 500 be held on Sunday night for starters though, since it's moving back to President's Day weekend.
 
I don't think this is very smart. Putting a race on during a week night would put them in direct competition against weekly tv programing which yeah Nascar fans will watch but people who don't normally watch or just watch occasionally would most likely just watch normal programming.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I like it myself. Not a fan of Saturday night races.

I'd like to see the Daytona 500 be held on Sunday night for starters though, since it's moving back to President's Day weekend.
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With you 100% right here....
 
Acs said:
To me this only makes sense for the races after Darlington where NASCAR has major weekend competition from college and pro football, which could also be why NBC is the one bringing this up. During the regular season, NASCAR is top sports dog and should continue to claim title to weekends while baseball and the NBA/NHL playoffs take the weeknights. The problem is Loudon, Dover and Dega still don't have lights so this is not an option for those tracks.
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Yeah, I'm sure this is focused on the fall races. Weeknight TV viewership during the summer is always low across the board. This is about scheduling around football, period.

I don't know whether it will work or not, but it's worth a shot. They have to be open trying new things.
 
To me it's more interesting and appealing that NBC TV "likes the idea of road racing". Existing evidence would not support that road races bring in more TV viewers, but if they think so, it's fine by me to add another or two.
 
Weeknight races would be fine by me. I'd much rather give up a weeknight in front of the television that a Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.

Too bad they couldn't resurrect one of the older tracks like Rockingham to be a television only event. No fans in the stands. Sell the seat space to those advertisers with big a$$ banners. No need to reestablish the entire infrastructure. Just get the track back in shape and let the boys/girl have at it. Maybe even IRP. I don't know if races are even ran there at all now or what kind of shape that venue is in. The track and its safety related equipment would be the main concern. The infield care center would also have to be operational. The garages..... not needed. That's what they make those large canopies for..... just like Bristol.

Ah, who am I kidding? The 'seat watcher' contingent on here would probably suffer a collective stroke rendering racing-forums.com a vast wasteland in a remote corner on the internet. Could members here handle a fanless seating area? Doubtful.
 
I hope this is to lengthen the schedule and add new venues rather than simply moving dates around. Wednesday night race at Iowa? Third race at Martinsville? Great. A Sunday during the season with no NASCAR? Not so much.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Weeknight races would be fine by me. I'd much rather give up a weeknight in front of the television that a Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.
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Same here. I'd much rather sit down at 7:00-8:00 at night to watch a race than watching a race that starts somewhere between 1:00-3:00. As for weekends vs. during the week, I don't really care, I just prefer night races over day races. Personally, I'd watch a lot more races if they were at night.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I like it myself. Not a fan of Saturday night races.

I'd like to see the Daytona 500 be held on Sunday night for starters though, since it's moving back to President's Day weekend.
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I dunno about where other people work, but the only ones I know who get President's Day off are federal and finance employees.

If you're not a fan of Saturday night races (and I'm not either), why would a Sunday night race be better? o_O
 
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wilson89 said:
I don't think this is very smart. Putting a race on during a week night would put them in direct competition against weekly tv programing which yeah Nascar fans will watch but people who don't normally watch or just watch occasionally would most likely just watch normal programming.
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Not to mention eliminating those few kids who parents won't let they stay up on school nights.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Weeknight races would be fine by me. I'd much rather give up a weeknight in front of the television that a Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.

Too bad they couldn't resurrect one of the older tracks like Rockingham to be a television only event. No fans in the stands. Sell the seat space to those advertisers with big a$$ banners. No need to reestablish the entire infrastructure. Just get the track back in shape and let the boys/girl have at it. Maybe even IRP. I don't know if races are even ran there at all now or what kind of shape that venue is in. The track and its safety related equipment would be the main concern. The infield care center would also have to be operational. The garages..... not needed. That's what they make those large canopies for..... just like Bristol.

Ah, who am I kidding? The 'seat watcher' contingent on here would probably suffer a collective stroke rendering racing-forums.com a vast wasteland in a remote corner on the internet. Could members here handle a fanless seating area? Doubtful.
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Heck, some rain delayed races are basically fanless anyway.

I dunno if you'd get a track to do that intentionally. I don't know what percentage of their income is from TV revenue vs. butts in the seats.

Oh, and IRP is still running wide open as Lucas Oil Raceway Park. :) http://www.lucasoilraceway.com/
 
Monday nights or Friday nights maybe. Not sure it will do a lot for race attendance but might help out ratings.
 
Simple Fan said:
Monday nights or Friday nights maybe. Not sure it will do a lot for race attendance but might help out ratings.
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Well, Monday nights during NFL season are definitely out. In many states, high school football is going to draw people away from their sets on Friday.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Well, Monday nights during NFL season are definitely out. In many states, high school football is going to draw people away from their sets on Friday.
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Yeah those are both negitives but they already compete with the NFL on Sundays and College Football on Saturdays. No matter the night they will have competition. Mid week would take a lot more changing to schedules as Monday or Friday are closer to the normal days that they are at the track.
 
As stupid as it sounds, Tuesday night. Monday night is MNF, NBCSN already pushes Wednesday night hockey, Thursday night is the NFL (for now) which NBC also co-broadcasts some weeks, Friday has high-school sports and increasingly college football.
 
I forgot that MNF is on NBC. That kills that, unless the network is willing to sacrifice NASCAR on NBCSN on Mondays. I dunno why they'd flush money doing that, but this is the network that gave us 'Manimal' and 'Supertrain'.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I forgot that MNF is on NBC. That kills that, unless the network is willing to sacrifice NASCAR on NBCSN on Mondays. I dunno why they'd flush money doing that, but this is the network that gave us 'Manimal' and 'Supertrain'.
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No, MNF is on ESPN under the current contract, but NBC putting NASCAR up against that kinda defeats the whole point about moving races to not compete with the NFL.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
The NFL is likely doing away with Thursday Night Football. Was reported last week.
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The NFL seems to have over expanded. This week they were on Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night, tomorrow night and finally on this Saturday night. They've put games on early in the am across the pond and later games south of the boarder. I love the NFL but not every day.
 
As long as I've been watching NASCAR, they've competed with the NFL. There's room for both of them and more IMO. Nobody, I repeat, nobody is under the misconception that NASCAR has ever or will ever compete with the NFL.
 
BobbyFord said:
Broadcasting races midweek will not improve TV ratings.
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I can only speak for myself as I don't know what everyone else in the viewing world does..... I'm much more likely to be home and able to sit in front of a television on a weeknight than I am on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Give me a three hour race to watch on Thursday, I'll be there.
 
I would love Thursday night NASCAR instead of NFL. Night racing is kind of crappy at most tracks but I'm sure they could find a few that would make it worth while. I think this would help the lower series gain viewership too. I never understood why the Eldora truck race was tucked away on FS2? That should be moved to Thursday night on a broadcast channel. Basically moving more racing to the broadcast channels would be a good thing but I'm sure they are just talking about moving races to midweek on FS1 and NBCSN which doesn't really help.
 
LouieLouie said:
I would love Thursday night NASCAR instead of NFL. Night racing is kind of crappy at most tracks but I'm sure they could find a few that would make it worth while. I think this would help the lower series gain viewership too. I never understood why the Eldora truck race was tucked away on FS2? That should be moved to Thursday night on a broadcast channel. Basically moving more racing to the broadcast channels would be a good thing but I'm sure they are just talking about moving races to midweek on FS1 and NBCSN which doesn't really help.
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The heats might be on FS2 but the main is definitely on FS1.
 
Trying to come up with some logical reasoning why mid week races would be good for NASCAR, if they will be eliminating the comparable weekend race is difficult for me. What would be the benefit to the track and local community for switching? While Eldora runs the trucks on Wednesday night and the fans seem to support this one off race, I just don't see it at the cup level.
 
I am not a fan of night racing at all..... I was never a night person..... I find it most difficult to stay up to see the end of the race especially if there are 12 or more cautions.... plus..... I can't see where very many folks would travel during the middle of the week to attend... They use a lot more vacation days from work than if it's a scheduled weekend event..... I know when there has been a Sat. night race and none on Sunday.... I don't really like it much because there seems to be a void.
 
The original thought behind weeknight races was to be able to add a few more tracks to the schedule. I didn't read the linked article, I would think they'd be looking at a different time to race for less competition.

I know the track owners look more at the TV money they get more than what they bring in from ticket sales. Because of that, I can see them thinking about getting more eyeballs to tune in. But if they think their attendance is bad now, try running a Wednesday night race.
 
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