If it ain't broke, fix it anyway: NASCAR 2017 Thread

The Vegas/NHIS thing was out there for a while. And they're just moving the 500 back to where it was until about five or 10 years ago. The Charlotte move sounds dumb; I've never been a fan of roval racing.

 

Another interesting thing, near as I can tell, is that they didn't reassign the second New Hampshire race. They just took it away and left an open date somewhere. So the season will only be 35 races instead of 36.
Or did they give that one to Vegas and I missed it?

 

Charlotte kind of sucks, though. I like that they added not just a road course to the schedule, but another wild card track where anything can happen, early in the playoffs. That's what I like about the second Talladega race, is that it can throw the whole thing into chaos. This can be the same way.

 

The second New Hampshire date became Vegas' second date. Bruton Smith announced that a month or two ago.

 

Ah, OK. Remember seeing that somewhere but didn't recall it straight off, and the release didn't mention it.

 

The ROVAL (apparently that's what Charlotte calls it in all the releases, just like the PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP and REALTORS) idea sounds like absolute bullshit. I'm more than OK with having a road course race in the Chase, recognize that, after a certain point of the year, they would opt for points south, but there are several fantastic road courses below the Mason-Dixon line: COTA, Barber, Road Atlanta, to name a few, but we're going to BS around at Charlotte.

 

Considering that's Bruton Smith's home track and a rare "home game" for the teams, I think Charlotte will lose a second date around the same time Daytona does.
So, given the choice between running on the roval or the same old 1.5-mile cookie cutter nonsense ... well, at least it's something different.

 

Adding a third road course is a good idea, but I'd vote for Indy's road course, not Charlotte's. From a prestige standpoint, the Brickyard 400 will probably always be on the schedule because it's the second biggest race of the year. But it's often been a crappy race. The track's too fast, too narrow and too flat for stock cars to put on a good race. Always has been, always will be.

 

I realize track ownership, ticket sales and concessions would never allow it to happen, but a street race would be interesting.

 

But then a car could crash into AnalTech.

\crossthread

 

They could easily run Watkins Glen the first or the second week of the Chase. Wasn't the USGP there held on Columbus Day weekend?

 

1. Daytona 500 moved away from its "traditional" weekend a few years ago because the NFL talked about pushing the Super Bowl back to President's Day and they would get killed in the ratings (and rightfully so, although now it's a fait accompli).
2. The Brickyard as the final race before the Chase? Good God, nothing like a single-file parade in front of thousands of empty grandstand seats to showcase what's wrong with your sport.
3. I applaud Marcus Smith for at least trying something radical. The All-Star Race was a dud. The 600 is almost always the most mind-numbing race on the schedule every year.
4. NASCAR is just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The season's still eight races too long.