NASCAR Needs More Road Course Races

An exciting race at Watkins Glen was just another reason why NASCAR needs to add more road courses to the schedule.

NASCAR has a few weekends that stand out from the others. Races like the Daytona 500 (Daytona), Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte), Brickyard 400 (Indianapolis) and Southern 500 (Darlington) serve as the biggest events of the year.

But there’s two other tracks that are often overlooked. Weekends at Sonoma and Watkins Glen give fans their only look at road course racing throughout the ten-month season.

One of the biggest debates in the sport over the past few years has revolved around road courses. Should NASCAR add more road races to the schedule? Should they add a road course to the Chase? Should they add a new road course to the circuit?

That brings us to the current state of NASCAR. A state that is defined by a lack of fans at the track on race day and low ratings that continue to hurt the popularity of the sport.

But road course racing is one of NASCAR’s bright spots. Let’s review this season’s races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

More from Beyond the Flag

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Will Kevin Harvick’s major record ever be broken?
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?

At Sonoma, we saw Tony Stewart make his way to the front of the pack. His Chase waiver required him to get a win and get into the top-30 in the points standings to be eligible for the Chase. As he continued to lead with the race winding down, he found himself behind Denny Hamlin after Turn 7 of the final lap.

However, Stewart would come back and capitalize on Hamlin’s mistake in Turn 11 to win for what could be the final time and to snap an 84-race winless streak.

Watkins Glen provided more late-race drama. With drivers like Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski dominating the day early on, Denny Hamlin was able to seize the lead late. Coming into the final turn, Hamlin was in control. It was what happened behind him that caused tension.

Keselowski ended up turning second-place driver Martin Truex Jr., leading to a seventh-place finish for the No. 78, and A.J. Allmendinger spun Kyle Larson, who had to settle for a 29th-place finish after he was on his way to a top-5 finish.

Late cautions played a role in both races and set up drama that set a perfect scene for the final laps.

But let’s focus in one one thing: attendance. Watkins Glen produced one of the few sellouts that NASCAR has seen all season, and while Sonoma wasn’t as full, there was still a solid outcome at the track that day.

The ratings were down from 2015 as Sonoma scored a 2.2 compared to it’s 2.4 in 2015 and Watkins Glen scored a 2.1 compared to it’s 2.4 in 2015 (via Jayski.com).

However, Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY conducts a Twitter poll each week that has produced some interesting results. Each week, he asks his followers if the race was good. Below is the updated results with Sonoma (92 percent) and Watkins Glen (87 percent) drawing great responses from the fans and serving as some of the top races of the season as voted on by the fans.

It’s interesting to see these results. Could the good results for the road courses be because of the thrilling endings or do NASCAR fans simply like road racing more than ovals?

I think it has to do with how the racing is at road courses. At some ovals, races can fall into a routine, with a handful of drivers competing for the lead while everyone stretches out, resulting in minimal position changes among the top drivers.

But at road courses the amount of turns, for one, can provide a number of different scenarios. With left and right turns as well as a variety of elevation changes, there’s so many things that can happen, and it seems like we see a new situation during every race at Sonoma or The Glen.

More from NASCAR

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Will Kevin Harvick’s major record ever be broken?
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago

We know that road courses please both the fans and drivers, which means NASCAR should add more of these tracks to the schedule. With two throughout the first 26 races of the season, it really makes sense to add one to the Chase, and I would assume that NASCAR would probably opt to move either Sonoma or Watkins Glen to the Chase and add the new course into the regular season.

Some would say that with the amount of cautions and accidents that can happen at road courses, it wouldn’t be wise to add a track like that to the Chase, but Talladega–which is even more unpredictable–is already a part of the intense ten-race playoff. I would suggest plugging a road course in as the first or second race of a round and replacing a track like Chicagoland or Kansas.

That directs us back to the question of which new road course NASCAR would add. The obvious frontrunner would be Circuit of the Americas, which is located in Austin, Texas, but there’s other options like Road America, Road Atlanta or even Laguna Seca.

The bottom line is this: NASCAR is going through a hard time, especially in terms of popularity and overall attendance. They’re in desperate need of something new–another new event that receives hype like Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

must read: NASCAR Worried About Cars Being Damaged After Race

With two of the best finishes we’ve seen so far this season, there’s no question road course races create the drama that fans crave for. They attract people to the track, they’re unpredictable and there needs to be more of them in the circuit.