NASCAR Cup Series: Why did Pocono Raceway get the doubleheader?

The recently released 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Schedule featured many surprises, including a doubleheader weekend for Pocono Raceway.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway. On Saturday, June 27, the Cup Series heads to the Tricky Triangle for one race, and they’re sticking around on Sunday, June 28 for another race.

The distance for the two races is yet to be revealed. Will both races stay at 400 miles each? Will they drop to 300 miles? There are also questions about how qualifying will be handled. Who knows at this point?

But those are not the biggest questions about Pocono’s doubleheader? No, the biggest questions relate to why. Why is there a doubleheader included on the schedule? And of all the tracks, why Pocono Raceway?

The simple answer is that because of the 2020 Summer Olympics and NBC’s exclusive deals to air both the Olympics and Cup Series races, the Cup Series is taking two weekends off to prevent a programming conflict for NBC.

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These off weekends forced NASCAR to move the July race at Pocono Raceway. Rather than extending the season, NASCAR decided to group the two races together in one weekend to keep the season from lasting any longer. In fact, the season is now scheduled to end one week earlier than usual.

That said, there may be another reason why a doubleheader was chosen over other options such as prolonging the season. For the last few years, there has been a growing push within NASCAR to add doubleheaders and even mid-week races as a means to condense the schedule without cutting down on the number of races. Drivers and teams want a longer offseason to spend with family and broadcasters likely want the season to end before the NFL season begins.

A doubleheader at Pocono Raceway this year could be NASCAR testing the waters. A big crowd, good ratings and a pair of entertaining races could make the sanctioning body open to condensing the schedule more in 2021.

Doubleheaders could also help NASCAR remedy their ongoing issues with session qualifying. They’ve been a mess recently, and NASCAR continues to tweak rules. Doubleheaders may only include qualifying for the first race, with the finishing order of that race determining the starting order for the second race.

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A condensed schedule is the most intriguing of all the NASCAR schedule rumors for 2021 and beyond because it would bring the most radical change to the schedule since cutting the slate down from 48 races in 1971 to 31 races in 1972. While adding doubleheaders themselves would be a major change, these doubleheaders would surely bring new tracks into the Cup Series, as not every track on the current schedule would be open to going along with the plan.

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