Every season of the Cup Series is a grind. This grind starts from Daytona in late February and continues through Phoenix till early November. The drivers often feel drained out of energy after 38 weeks of traveling constantly and putting so much on the line as they buckle themselves up to the stock cars. This often affects their physical as well as mental health. Meanwhile, the reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney seems to hold a “personal vendetta” against NASCAR.
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“Personally, from a driver’s perspective, I’d like to maybe have one or two more weekends off throughout the year, instead of going four or five months straight, having one break, and then four or five months again,” said the number 12 Ford sensation in an interview.
Even NASCAR stalwarts like Michael Waltrip and Jeff Burton expressed that 36 races were too many for the drivers. For starters, there is no room for errors, especially when it comes to delays in the race due to unfavorable weather. Moreover, it’s difficult to deal with the super condensed schedule if unforeseen events, like perhaps a hauler breaking down, take place. Something just like that happened last year with Alpha Prime Racing. In a post, team co-owner and general manager Tommy Joe Martins wrote:
So both of our haulers had issues on the way to @portlandraceway.
44/45 Hauler – Truck broke down in St. Louis (was quoted 24k to fix it, won’t be doing that)
43 Hauler (w/backup car) – trailer blew all the air bags near Kansas City, couldn’t be repaired til Sunday earliest
— Tommy Joe Martins (@TommyJoeMartins) June 2, 2023
This shows that NASCAR’s inflexible schedule takes a toll on the teams’ equipment. Every line of work demands some break. But it seems like NASCAR’s tight schedule doesn’t allow that. The drivers must be constantly making commutes from one racetrack to another.
What do off-weekends mean for the fandom?
For decades, NASCAR has done everything it could have done to keep its fans happy. Unlike Formula 1 and IndyCar, which typically race every two to three weeks, NASCAR fans have something to watch every week. However, if NASCAR does introduce off-weekends, that would mean that the fans would not have anything to watch on certain weekends.
From 1972 to 1990, NASCAR would run around 28 to 31 races every season. The schedule was finalized in 1981, with the Daytona 500 being held on the President’s Day weekend and the final race somewhere around mid-November. Back then, NASCAR used to have roughly 10 off weeks per season. But the current 36 point-paying race schedule became a standard for NASCAR in 2001 and it’s been the same since then.
Needless to say, there are drawbacks to having races every week. Hence, NASCAR has to balance it out. One; it has to keep its fans happy by being consistent in hosting races and two; it has to ensure that the teams are comfortable running the races. Longtime NASCAR crew chief Jimmy Fennig feels like the teams and the drivers should be able to adapt. But just because they can, doesn’t mean they should.
