Five Ways for NASCAR to Improve The Clash

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For the first time in a long time, the opening non-points race of the season was run during the day. Should that become a normal plan? /

Move the Race to Sunday

If you spent any time on social media during the 2017 running of The Clash, you likely saw many speaking the praises of having the race run on an early Sunday afternoon. While there are certainly advantages to having the race run during primetime on a Saturday night, many would argue for the benefits of running the race ahead of pole qualifying.

Of course, one of the big reasons why many were happy to see the race run on Sunday was the return of The Clash to its roots. Some time ago when Busch Beer sponsored the race, it was run on Sunday, ahead of single-car qualifying for the Daytona 500. The race would later be shifted to a night format to leverage a potentially larger television viewer market.

Today, however, where there is not only a high saturation of NASCAR coverage on TV but sports overall, perhaps it would benefit the sport to see The Clash paired back with qualifying. It would certainly help both events in terms of attendance, with Daytona International Speedway being able to sell a combined ticket deal for both events in the same day. It could also work to the benefit of Fox Sports, who could cover both events on one network in the same day, cutting down on production costs.

Outside of the benefits for NASCAR, it could be a welcome change for ARCA to see NASCAR focus on Sunday, allowing the Lucas Oil 200 to run to completion into the evening hours, something not seen in 2017.

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