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Should NASCAR Make A Major Change To The Daytona 500?

By Brian Thornsburg

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Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

The Daytona 500.

Everyone knows it’s the most prestigious race in the history of NASCAR, but why has it been the first race of the season since 1982? While this may have been strategic planning by NASCAR to showcase the sport of Auto Racing to new fans at the beginning of the year, it now seems more like a tired practice than anything else.

Joey Logano capturing the flag in The Daytona 500. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

That’s not to say that the 500 should be scrapped completely in favor of another race, but with the Daytona 500 being The Super Bowl of Motorsports, it certainly shouldn’t be the first race of the season. In fact, what if it was the complete opposite? What if the Daytona 500 actually decided who won the championship at the end of the year instead?

This would not only attract more fans and focus to the championship battle at the end of the season, but it would also be the perfect wild-card race to decide which driver will hoist the championship.. This is especially true now that The Chase has been improved to focus more on winning and less on consistency.

Having the 500 at the end of the season would also be great from an anticipation standpoint.. NASCAR could still hold Speedweeks before the Daytona 500 and then top it off with the championship race to decide it all. This way, championship weekend could last two weeks and attract even more people to the sport than ever before, hypothetically speaking of course.

While trying to attract fans at the end of the season may seem like a bad idea, fans need to remember that NASCAR has one of the shortest off-seasons in all of sports. This means that once new fans get a taste of all the excitement during championship weekend, they will be clamoring for the new season to begin in February.

With that being said, there are of course logistic issues with the idea of having The 500 as the last race of the year. Doing so would not only leave NASCAR without an appealing season-opener to attract new fans, but would also put the future of Homestead Miami Speedway in jeopardy as well.

As for which race should start the season, NASCAR should continue to use Daytona International Speedway, but change the name of the race and the mileage. This way, NASCAR can still keep with its tradition of beginning the season at Daytona but preserve The 500 as their end of the year spectacular.

NASCAR should also change the February race into a night race. That way, fans still get to see a Daytona night race on the schedule and it also allows more people to watch it since it’s at night. For those that think a night race is a bad idea, consider this; the 2012 Daytona 500 was run in primetime on Monday night. Not only did that event pull in over 34 million viewers, it also had won the night with audiences between the ages of 18-49.

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This of course leaves us with the question of what to do with the spot that The Coke Zero 400 would normally fill. While Homestead Miami speedway has been the season ending race for over 15 years, it really hasn’t generated all that much excitement to warrant that particular spot on the schedule. In fact, it almost feels like a complete let down compared to the other tracks they could hold the end of the season at.

With that being said, Homestead Miami should replace The July 4th weekend race at Daytona as a night race. This move will keep Homestead as a key spot before The Chase for The Sprint Cup, and will allow for NASCAR to have a more fitting finale for the end of the season. Making it a night race will only add to the excitement level for fans as well.

While doing this will certainly end a time honored tradition that dates back to The 1982 Daytona 500, fans need to realize that this is would be a very important and successful move for the sport. Not only would it add so much more attention and energy to the final race of the season, it would also compliment the new Chase format in the most perfect way possible.

Sure, it could be many years before NASCAR would even consider making this kind of change to their schedule, but with rain delays tearing at their cureent audience base at the beggining of the year and a season finale that is lacking in excitement;NASCAR needs to do something. NASCAR needs to do something to remedy this and change the sport in a way that all fans can appreciate.

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