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Should NASCAR change its schedule to avoid the NFL?

By Nick Tylwalk

DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 03: Cars race through the turns during the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Bojangles Southern 500 on September 03, 2017, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC. (Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 03: Cars race through the turns during the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Bojangles Southern 500 on September 03, 2017, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC. (Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Even longtime NASCAR drivers and reporters think maybe NASCAR should do some drastic schedule changes to avoid going head to head with America’s most popular sport.

There’s no doubt that the popularity of NASCAR is down from its peak of about 10 to 20 years ago. Whether you want to look at attendance (except at Watkins Glen), TV ratings or the difficulty of finding sponsors, it’s an undeniable fact.

The NFL meanwhile continues to be a monster on the American sporting landscape. Despite some PR and safety headwinds and some slight slippage in TV numbers of its own, pro football shows no serious signs of decline, and the Super Bowl is an event like no other, with more than 111 million viewers watching the latest big game in February.

Considering that the NFL kicks off in earnest this Sunday and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is about to start what should be its most exciting stretch during the playoffs, that begs the question: should NASCAR really be competing head to head with the NFL?

A very similar query was part of ESPN’s weekly Turn 4 column this week. Ricky Craven, Ryan McGee, Bob Pockrass and Matt Willis were asked if NASCAR should still have 11 races left right when the NFL was starting up. To a man, they all said no — with McGee going even more emphatic by saying, “No, no, no and no. So, what I’m saying here is no. #No.” Yep, he even used a hashtag.

It’s clearly a bad idea to have important races on at the same time as football games. All 10 of the Cup Series playoff races are on Sunday afternoons, right smack dab in the middle of NFL slates. Compounding the problem is that unlike with some combinations of sports, there’s a pretty healthy overlap between the NASCAR and NFL fanbases, something the ESPN experts even touched on a bit.

The problem is there’s no easy solution. Potential remedies the panel threw out included:

  • Moving the start of the NASCAR season up, which might be the most realistic semi-solution of all, though the beginning of the season would be up against the previous NFL season’s playoff games. And it might mean the Daytona 500 wouldn’t be the first race, which would have traditionalists up in arms.
  • Shortening the NASCAR season, which would likely make everyone happy except track owners, and thus seems unlikely until there’s no other choice.
  • Running some mid-week races down the stretch, a remedy that looks fine on paper but would have logistical issues aplenty and also would be unpopular with track owners already hard-pressed to fill the stands.

Both Pockrass and Willis mention that the Cup Series could run midweek races earlier in the season, perhaps during the summer. That might lessen the negative effects on attendance, but it would potentially make fans choose to go to the track instead of making other summer vacation plans, and who knows how that would work out?

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In a perfect world, racing and football could co-exist without competing, but that’s not the way things are. But since that’s not the way things have evolved, the only logical thing is to at least consider making the status quo different.

Would NASCAR consider drastic measures to try carving out more time and attention away from America’s real pastime? It seems unlikely at the moment, but when even people directly engaged with the sport are calling for change, maybe that schedule really does need a closer look.

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