By ZECH BANKS
The NASCAR Cup Series is 58 races into its new era of the NextGen car.
What can be gleaned from the first 55 races? Well, the racing is either exceptional (Kansas, Charlotte, Fontana, Atlanta, Chicago) or quite disappointing (Martinsville, Talladega). It seems that few races fall in the middle.
Further, the tracks that have produced the most excitement with the Gen 5 car (short tracks and superspeedways) have disappointed, while the tracks that were meager in the Gen 5 car (intermediate and two-mile ovals) have produced some of the best racing in the last decade.
In 2021 – the last year of the Gen 5 car – the jeffgluck.com “Good Race Poll” found that three out of the five best races were on short tracks. Moreover, the five lowest-ranking tracks were intermediate tracks. Conversely, in 2022 – the first year of the NextGen car – four of the five best races were on intermediate or two-mile tracks while the highest-ranking short track was 14th.
Seemly overnight, the NextGen car has turned the Cup Series on its head. Not only that, it has substantially leveled the playing field and has enabled smaller teams such as Trackhouse, 23XI, Childress, and JTG to compete with the Big Four (Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske, and Stewart-Haas). The 2022 season had a record 19 different winners and the 2023 season (with 16 races remaining) already has 12 different winners. NASCAR is more competitive than ever before.
NASCAR has also made substantial changes to its marketing strategy, much of it thanks to the great-grandson of Bill France, Ben Kennedy. Gone are the days of (nearly) every track getting two race dates per year. Declining attendance and vast swaths of empty seats have caused NASCAR to pull second races from Pocono, Dover, New Hampshire, Charlotte (sort of), Texas, Fontana, and Michigan, and move into newer markets by expanding its road courses and even adding a street course. Although some have been unhappy with the changes to the schedule, it appears to be overwhelmingly positive, and attendance numbers both at the tracks and on television continue rising.
NASCAR’s new marketing strategy was at the forefront of the last two races with the street race in Chicago and the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. The racing product the last two weeks was fantastic.
However, logistics and weather plagued both races and raised additional questions. One of the more interesting questions I heard raised was the implementation of a “race clock.” In the last couple years, many of the races have been shortened from 500 miles to 400 miles. According to some, a 400-mile race is still too long and television viewership wanes by the end of the race. Apparently, the drop-off point around hour three. Thus, the theory goes, have a three-hour race clock and when the clock strikes zero, wave the checkered flag.
Like most ideas, the traditionalist will throw up their hands in disgust and wonder how we’ve strayed so far.
But if you stop and think about it, the idea really does have some merit. Will it significantly change the outcome of any race? No, probably not. Will it attract and retain additional fans? Watching a three-hour race is much easier than a four-and-a-half-hour race, so probably, yes. It’s certainly not the worst idea. Plus, the crown-jewel event such as the Daytona 500 or the Coke 600 could remain untimed.
I really appreciate NASCAR’s flexibility and openness to change and try to make the racing better. How do you think the first 58 races with the NextGen car have gone? What, if anything, do you believe needs to change?
Zech Yoder is a local resident, an attorney at Adler Attorneys in Noblesville, and a lifelong race fan.