NASCAR: The major disadvantage of a packed schedule

By Asher Fair | May 20, 2020

Darlington Raceway, NASCAR, Xfinity Series (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

A packed NASCAR schedule makes sense to make up for races missed amid the coronavirus pandemic. But rain exposed the key disadvantage of such a schedule: a lack of flexibility.

NASCAR responded to the coronavirus pandemic and the eight race postponements caused by it by trying to fit in as many races as possible, and if things were to go as smoothly as they did in the first Cup Series race back this past Sunday, May 17 at Darlington Raceway, this strategy makes a lot of sense on paper.

The sport deserves a ton of praise for making the decision to return without fans in attendance and with so many extra health and safety precautions in place instead of relying on leagues such as the MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL to be the guinea pigs as far as bringing back live sporting events was concerned.

But unfortunately, a world with social distancing and the threat of COVID-19 does not mitigate the threat of rain, and rain and thunderstorms will postpone a NASCAR race every time. This new schedule left the sport particularly vulnerable to one thing nobody can control: weather.

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We saw it happen on Tuesday night with what was supposed to be the first Xfinity Series race in 73 days at Darlington Raceway, and the forecast doesn’t look much more promising for tonight’s second Cup Series race at the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) oval in Darlington, South Carolina.

The Xfinity Series race was rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but the forecast for tomorrow isn’t great, either. Because of the upcoming packed schedule, this is truly a nightmare scenario for NASCAR, even after things went off without a hitch on Sunday during the first live action in 10 weeks.

There is hardly any scheduled time off from now until Sunday, June 21, and the main reason why the schedule currently extends only to this date is because one governor won’t approve the return of racing in his state.

After Darlington Raceway, NASCAR is set to move to Charlotte Motor Speedway for a Cup Series race on Sunday, May 24, an Xfinity Series race on Monday, May 25, a Truck Series race on Tuesday, May 26 and another Cup Series race on Wednesday, May 27.

That’s four straight days of racing, and it doesn’t even come close to stopping there.

NASCAR is scheduled to move to Bristol Motor Speedway for an Xfinity Series race on Saturday, May 30 and a Cup Series race on Sunday, May 31.

The following weekend is a full weekend of racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway, featuring a Truck Series race and an Xfinity Series race on Saturday, June 6 and a Cup Series race on Sunday, June 7.

That leads into another midweek race at Martinsville Speedway, where the Cup Series is set to compete on Wednesday, June 10 before NASCAR heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway for an weekend even more packed than the one at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

There is scheduled to be both a Truck Series race and an Xfinity Series race on Saturday, June 13 and both an Xfinity Series race and a Cup Series race on Sunday, June 14.

Talladega Superspeedway is then scheduled to host an Xfinity Series race on Saturday, June 20 and a Cup Series race on Sunday, June 21.

Do the math: from Sunday, May 17 to Sunday, June 21, a span of 36 days, there are nine Cup Series races, seven Xfinity Series races and three Truck Series races on the schedule.

That comes out to 19 races across NASCAR’s top three series over the course of just over five weeks, including multiple days of multiple races and several races during the week.

There are also no guarantees that rain won’t postpone any of these upcoming races. Plus, irrespective of Governor Tom Wolf’s decision about the Pocono Raceway race weekend on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which there is no NASCAR racing scheduled for that weekend, especially considering the fact that four tracks are still seeking replacement Cup Series dates.

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With such a packed schedule, rescheduling races due to rain becomes even more of a headache, and not even two races into NASCAR‘s return, this headache is already being dealt with. Unfortunately, given the weather forecast for the track “Too Tough To Tame” over the next few days, this headache may only be getting started.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking as far as the trip north to Concord, North Carolina is concerned.