NASCAR: Five Disappointments With 2016 Schedule
By Mike Hutton
Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
The Second Bristol Date Should Have Been Even Earlier
A show of hands please from anyone who feels the Bristol night race has lost some of it’s allure and drama the last 11 years or so? I’m guessing there are a lot of hands up right now.
What happened 11 years ago? The Chase began. It has existed in different formats since then, but it still was the Chase. It’s that simple.
The Bristol night race was often two, and sometimes only three weeks away from the start of the Chase. At that point of the season, drivers have a pretty good idea of what their chances of getting in or not look like. Sure, not everything was set, but a lot of the field was. Drivers who were “in” didn’t want to take any chances and risk losing those positions. Drivers who were “on the bubble” also couldn’t afford a bad night, or they would be out. All of this has produced tamer racing.
In 2016, Bristol will switch positions on the schedule with Michigan so as to give the track one more week to prepare for the “Battle at Bristol” on September 10 between Virginia Tech and Tennessee in a college football game. There is also a bye week on the schedule the week before following Watkin’s Glen.
Why not move Bristol to Saturday night, August 13, 2016? This would further distance it from the start of the Chase and perhaps give drivers some incentive to bring back some of the aggression that we saw “back in the day.” It would also give the facility yet another week to prepare for the football game. Michigan could then keep it’s traditional date during the third week in August (21st.,) and the bye week could be moved to August 28.
Having the bye week on the 28th would give everyone one last weekend for a family vacation or short trip before the kids go back to school and the last 12 races of the season. As it is now, the last off date is August 14. That’s 14 straight weeks to finish the season. With the additional pressures the Chase brings anyway, that’s a long time.
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