NASCAR’s Road Course PROBLEM | How They Can Fix It?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Over the past 5 or so years NASCAR has been upping its presence on road courses. While for many years they ran two races at these types of tracks with Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International they have since made it a much bigger piece of the NASCAR schedule pie. Now though many are saying that the series has oversaturated itself with road courses. With that today we look into this and see what could be done over time to possibly change the sport for the better with/without these tracks. So let's look into NASCAR's road course problem. How they can fix it?
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What is your favorite NASCAR road course?
watkins glen
Sonoma,Portland and Watkins Glen
The roval
Also Canadian Tire raceway
Indi
i love the fact Nascar is doing more road courses, watching ovals can be a bit tedious at times. It gives it a Aussie Supercar feel to it.
Particularly with Van Gisbergen heading over to do P91 for Chicago
There may be 10% less TVs on but road courses have a much higher percentage of awake viewers! Sleeping viewers don't see the commercials!
@@QSqsQSqsQS Because the sport is trying to expand into different markets.
I feel like the Garage 56 entry at Le Man could be a big test for a future road course package for NASCAR.
I really like that idea
I disagree. Have you seen the technical tear down videos that just came out this week? While there are some common parts, they have changed a lot of the car. The front tire is a half an inch wider, the rear tire is an inch and a half wider. The car is 2 inches longer. The engine is farther back towards the driver. They may be able to learn a thing or two, but I don't think the car is economically feasible to use in general NASCAR. I think the main problem road course racing has now is the bodies of the car are too rigid and people feel like they can just beat and bash on each other which completely screws up the restarts. I don't think you can change that, but if the cars were a little vulnerable I think they would have to be a lot less crashing on restarts. Everyone just barrels into turn. One cars who have been running up front all day get crashed and get sent to the back, which is blatantly unfair.
@sethbomgardner9030 The Aero package would be a great. I dont think anyone would want to all the other stuff, but just aero would work. That'll keep guys off of each other bc they don't want to lose downforce by damaging a splitter or losing canards.
I think NASCAR can do some things that would make road courses better: (no stage breaks was a step in right direction)
1) Single file restarts. I enjoyed the COTA race but it was an unfair crap shoot with all the late restarts; if you were on the outside going into turn 1, you were hozed. Watkins Glenn isn't as bad but being on outside still isn't ideal.
2) Tires. Having tires that fall off (or like Indycar have different tire compounds soft/fast/more wear VS hard/durable/slow but consistent and mandate use of each tire at least once during race) could allow for more variety of pit strategy. Teams will have questions like do you stay out for track position or put soft / fast tires on late in the race (if those tires make you a rocket ship for 10-12 laps)?
3) Don't throw cautions unless there is a safety risk, debris on racing field, or a car that can't get fired. Green flag stops are make road course pit strategy more interesting.
They need to penalise drivers doing stupid dive moves into Turn 1 as well. It's blatantly unfair and disadvantages anyone on the outside lane at the moment.
I think something like local yellows or a VSC-type yellow would help. Full yellows for small incidents is too much. It ruins any gaps built by the leading cars
I like your idea about 4-5 road courses a year to be able to switch the schedule. I just wish they'd move some track dates around with the weather delays we've had the past few years..Sonoma looks better in May
Sonoma in spring would be great.
yeah they road racing this week... in TWO different continents.
NASCAR Road Course Domination!
Different countries but ok
@@f9nestsvpdifferent continents too.
My favorite Road Course is probably COTA. So big. So challenging. And it allows for tight corner racing.
COTA would be my favourite IF they moved the start line to between turn 1 and 2
And it's an F1 track outside of a big market like Austin TX
I flew down there this spring to see the race. My cousin had never seen a NASCAR race loved every minute of it. Would definitely go back
COTA would be great if they moved the start / finish line as someone else suggested OR just did single file restarts.
The outside line at COTA gets completely hozed. Especially when drivers can't help themselves and continue to create cautions (intentionally or unintentionally) late in the race.
I like the idea of 5 with Sonoma, Glen, and COTA being mainstays, and the other 2 being a rotation. Would be cool to see like Sebring or Road Atlanta have at least a 1-off
Road Atlanta and Laguna Seneca need to happen
Cota is garbage. F1 tracks are the safety scissors of racetracks
@@penskepc2374 Some of them for sure, but some of them are actually decent racing, and might actually be good for a more enclosed series like a NASCAR. NASCAR could probably put on a better show at a track like Monaco than F1 does. Why? The drivers would get their elbows out, use the front bumper to move people, and actually have something that resembles passing. It's the short track of street circuits, and NASCAR would actually be able to take advantage of it, unlike what happened in the 2023 F1 race there.
I wouldn't mind it if NASCAR split off for a full on road racing series at some point. You have the somewhat spec aspect of modern NASCAR going to road courses every week or so, while also having a more traditional Cup schedule, with the traditional 2 dates for road coursses.
Road Atlanta would be amazing I would love.
To me, this isn't a problem but I understand why some believe there should be 0 or limited road courses on the schedule. I love road courses. 10 wouldn't be too many for me. Perhaps its because I love racing and not just NASCAR.
10 is too many. There are only 6 short track races. 9 is you want to include Gateway and Phoenix.
Think 10 is too much. I think we get rid of Indy and replace it with the brickyard. Get with of Chicago and bring back Chicagoland. I say we get rid of a Phoenix race and bring back Road America
@@acuto4245 I like your idea. I think 6 is the right number of road courses for cup. I was just saying I wouldn't be opposed to 10. They can change the Fall Charlotte race back to the oval also.
@@naparacingfan9275 get rid of some of the tracks that get rained out every year
In that case, you’re already catered for with Trans-am, Weathertech Sports Cars and the SRO GT Series. I think there’s room for some road courses in NASCAR but too many moves the sport into a very crowed market.
NASCAR fans until 2020: "we need more road courses and less 1.5 milers"
NASCAR: *adds road courses, 1 by accident*
Fans: "no, why did they add road courses? I hate Road courses, my TV will be off that week"
I love that Nascar is building a repertoire of tracks, because I think the future could be a base set of tracks that run yearly, and another set of tracks on some amount of rotation. Perhaps the Roval becomes an alternating configuration of Charlotte every year. Chicago and Nashville can alternate between ovals and street courses. Places like Daytona or Indianapolis can add extra dates every few years with their road configurations. It may be unrealistically expensive, but that novelty that made Nascar put dirt on Bristol and run the road course at Indy is certainly a draw, and a race you see every other year has a shine the regular tracks lack.
I really like the idea of having a rotating track list. Maybe that’s the only way we get Nashville Fairgrounds back on the schedule, by having it every other year.
I think rotating tracks would definitely help some of the attendance issues. We're seeing. If a race is there every other year you're definitely going to get a higher percentage of stands filled.
We need Mexico City and Montréal back.
The place I want to see is the Cleveland Airport as an INDYCAR/NASCAR double header. The long WIDE straightaways with open field would lead to incredible racing. Watching an old IROC race, it’s a shame no one has revived this race.
Here are my 5 road courses I want:
COTA
Sonoma
Road America
Watkins Glen
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
I really love some road courses for sure, no problem with 6 or 7 on the calendar
There's a similar conundrum in terms of the F1 schedule. When I started watching it in 1996, Street Tracks were a novelty, Australia and Monaco were the two races entirely on public streets (at the time, 2/3 of the Spa track in Belgium was ordinary roads, but it'd be a stretch to say it was a street track at the time, besides, all of it is a private race track now). Nowadays, there are more and more street tracks being added to the schedule: Valencia (added in 2008, withdrawn after 2012), Singapore (joined the calendar in 2008), Korea (would have become a street track if things had gone to plan, ie the local economy hadn't gone belly up, added in 2010, withdrew after 2013), Sochi (the car park for the 2014 Winter Olympic venues, added in 2014, withdrawn after the Russian war against Ukraine began in 2022), Baku (added in 2016, initially and inaccurately named the European Grand Prix, known as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 2017), Jeddah (labelled as the fastest street track in the world, added in 2021), Miami (definitely a controversial one to European F1 fans, added in 2022) and lastly Las Vegas (no relation to the car park track at Caesar's Palace that staged races in 1981 and 1982, this one, utilising The Strip, is being added in 2023). There are now 7 tracks on the F1 calendar whose layout utilises city streets out of the originally scheduled* 23 races for the 2023 season.
*the race at Imola, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, was called off because of the devastating flooding that affected that part of Italy
Well, COTA was pretty exciting to watch, despite the messy ending. But if we can get back to 2016 levels of good racing, I think it's worth it
CotA was fantastic up until the end!
5 to 6 road courses is a good number. Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Roval, COTA, Road America, Circuit Gilles villeneuve
I think they will go to Montreal and should.
Many of the markets Nascar wants to enter only have Road Courses suitable for cup racing, so while a sizeable section of the fanbase doesn't like the increased presence on the schedule I fully understand why it has happened.
The problem for that though is all of these "true fans" refuse to accept any kind of expansion outside of the south. The only real exceptions are Watkins Glen and Dover. New Hampshire has always had a bad taste to them because it took away a date from North Wilkesboro, Pocono is constantly plagued with weather issues, and if it's not a weather issue, the racing isn't that great, Texas much like New Hampshire has always had a bad taste for the same reason, and then every other track out further west than Texas is almost the exact same arguement: It costs too much to travel, and nobody on the West Coast wants NASCAR. Look at Auto Club for instance. For the last 6 or 7 years now, that track has put on some really great racing because the surface actually aged. Yet everyone complained that it was a boring race. Then plans get announced to rebuild it as a short track and all the sudden it's one of the best tracks ever made?
NASCAR certainly has some issues it needs to work on, but it's biggest problem that nobody ever seems to acknowledge is the fan base and it's public perception. If it's restricted to the throat to have 85% of the schedule remain in the south, the sport WILL die because there's not going to be any possibility of growth. The higherups at NASCAR aren't wrong at all that there are markets with some good potential in them. But the "true fans" scream that there isn't. Look at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA. It's just outside of Seattle, and with a little bit of work and a slight shift in schedule, the timing would lend itself out really well in the summer when NASCAR comes out this way. But of course the "true fans" scream it will fail automatically because "Those Seattle liberal people don't want NASCAR!" That's not true at all, I used to live in Seattle, and the intrest is certainly there. But intrest can not and will not grow if the headlines are talking about Bubba's radio channels being hacked instead of Kyle giving an old school ass whooping. And look at LA with the Coliseum. A high majority of comments against it all revolve about LA being full of gangs and crime and say that Bowman Gray is the better choice when Bowman Gray is widely more known for it's absurd fights! How in the absolute hell are you suppose to actually grow intrest in an area if that area is just being repeatedly being insulted over and over and over again? And what about Chicago? Holy shit, look at the comments anytime that track is brought up, an extremely high majority of them involve some comment about how either teams are going to have all of their equipment stolen or that there's going to be a mass shooting occur. If you're living in Chicago, why in the absolute fuck would you want to have to deal with the inconvience of traffic reroutes if that's the kind of audience viewing your city? The Chicago Street Course could end up being the greatest race of the season, but the "true fans" will never say that because they'll be too busy commenting about how so shocked they are that there wasn't a mass shooting event.
So yeah, a lot of these markets are gonna be easier to tap into because of a road course. But that won't mean a damn thing if these markets are seeing the "true fans" before they see any of the racing product, no matter how damn good it might be.
And there are some markets with perfectly fine ovals that have absolutely no races in the area (Pikes Peak)
@@craigstephenson7676 Exactly. Like I said, Evergreen Speedway just outside of Seattle would need some track work to meet NASCAR requirements, and if they can get the short track package figured out, that could be a really great race.
A good example of your main argument here is the Portland race last week in the Xfinity series. That race was GREAT, but "no one out west wants NASCAR" (lies). Evergreen would be perfect as well, and either track would expand the reach of NASCAR to the Pacific Northwest!
The key will definitely be to diversify the locations of the tracks, whether or not the tracks are road courses or ovals. Make sure the vast majority of the country has a cup race at least once a year close enough that they could attend should they be able to. Even have one or two international races a year, maybe one in Canada and one in Mexico or overseas. They could designate certain race slots for certain regions instead of specific tracks (like giving a spot to New England or the Pacific Northwest instead of New Hampshire or Evergreen/Portland). That way, fans can have a rotating schedule with more track variety and better odds of a race close to them, NASCAR can keep experimenting with their schedule and reach new fans in areas they don't normally explore, and more tracks can enjoy the bigger fan attendance and income that can help them continue to maintain and improve themselves. Drivers also get to benefit from the different styles of racing that the variety of tracks provide as they learn and potentially develop new strategies.
@@Phineapoo It's a game of numbers, if you go to google trends for instance while the rural south tends to have a highest density of Nascar fans, if you divide it by percentage of population you'll find that some big markets still have a of people that are interested in the sport
I want to see them try Slap's idea of an airport race in Greenville.
I think the next gen hurt road racing way more than oversaturation, I don't like putting too much stock in ratings, but next gen short track and road course racing just doesn't pass the eye test for me at least.
Wouldn't be against taking Indy RC and Charlotte ROVAL back to the oval but i think 6 is a good number for cup.
A huge issue with road courses and NASCAR is the car itself. The chassis design (before the 3rd gen) was built for oval track racing. The drivers and teams have done all they can to adapt this heavy car to this style but the car limits just what they can do. I would suggest adopting the garage 56 changes to only the road course and improve the product from the tires up. Garage 56 is showing it can be done with how they are performing so far. Make it more like the old days with track purpose built cars rather than adapting a single build to every track.
I love the road courses and don't take them away. The only problem is the first turn they could figure out how to do that
100%! Some are OK. But the Indy RC & COTA have long, wide starting straights going into turn 1. They get 4 wide, & immediately have to funnel down to 2 wide. The xfinity race at Portland is the same. Either move the start line, or change turn 1.
The tracks need to be placed at different times on the schedule. The big one is that Sonoma should be when NASCAR heads to the west coast after Speedweeks.
I like that and then move COTA back a few weeks, say after the short track streak right before Dega
Exactly. No need to go all the way to California for just one race and then pretty far back east to nashville
Yes exactly. If it was balanced a little better this wouldn’t be an issue at all.
@@bussinblaney3951There is a break in between Sonoma and Nashville.
Agree. And they they always seem to have Indy Road Course & Watkins Glen back to back weeks. I love road races, but 2 weeks in a row is no good.
there is a lot of historical precedence for road racing in Nascar.
L take. We need more road courses and less repeat ovals. Gimme Road America, Portland, Daytona Road Course, Laguna Seca, and Barber
Idk why road course racing is hated so much, (except for the Roval, I hate it), it's fun to watch and it tests the drivers skill, mental and physical strength, it's always exciting to see what'll happen in every turn and every lap
Yeah like in the 2018 season when all the drivers overshot turn 1 and crashed out... They always produce good crashes
First off the road coarse racing has been amazing lately in nascar.. some of the most exciting races.. now this may be unpopular, but the season should be split in fourths because nascar has always been known for its differant tracks and driver skill at those tracks, so hear me out.. they should make 1/4 races at ovals, 1/4 road courses, 1/4 short tracks, and the catch 1/4th of the season should be dirt.
For the sole reason that I feel there’s not enough short tracks and too many ovals in places NASCAR wants to be at, I don’t think this will work, sadly
No dirt. The cars suck on dirt.
I like the idea, but NASCAR has way too much invested into certain tracks and markets, that they're not going to give up races there. Why do you think Texas still has a race, despite being one of the worst tracks on the schedule over the past few years.
Road courses absolutely belong in NASCAR. Not a big fan of the "roval" tracks though, with the exception of Daytona. I don't have high hopes for the Chicago street race. Sonoma and Watkins Glen are staples of the schedule and should stay that way. Austin has had good racing, but like you said, the late race restarts are obviously a problem there. Elkhart Lake was great in the short time it was on the Cup schedule, so I'd like to see it back. And as much as it's nice to have standalone Xfinity road course races, it would be cool to see the Cup guys race at Portland or Mid-Ohio.
Spike strips and land mines can solve all the problems of out-of-bounds driving.
Death Race irl lol
Here's an idea. I've listed every track all 3 series goes to, and if they go to all of them once, you'll have about 30 points races to have room to add some more tracks. Bring back Rockingham, bring back North Wilkesboro, make Daytona the only one with a 2nd race on the 4th of July, return Indianapolis to the oval layout, and make the Atlanta night race be the Superspeedway that cuts off the regular season, and people would be very happy. You could even replace Chicago with a track like Canadian Tire or a different street course race (God NASCAR please stop with the street course idea these cars arent meant to go around road courses and street courses are even tighter than a road course) and I think the schedule could be great. You could even remove the Charlotte Roval if you want just to remove another road course. All three series could have the same schedule which also saves on travel costs for teams with ownership in different series, and it's not hard on the travel of the crews and drivers.
I believe 4-5 road courses is okay. Fix the gen 7 for the short tracks and imo you have a great season. Thanks for the video 😎👍
Lolol! More road courses, fewer short tracks, please!
I'm surprised that the NASCAR Cup Series hasn't raced at Sebring and Road Atlanta yet. 2 tracks that NASCAR themselves own.
One funny thing... The first of these added road courses to be eliminated was Road America. Funny because they were packing that place with over 100,000 fans, from what I heard. But... CHICAGO!!!
I think circuits need a chance to show their product before making a call on whether they should stay or go, since the racing product is the whole point of the show. Making a call on whether Chicago should stay or go based on some back ground stuff, before a car even turns a lap, appears to be jumping the gun. Maybe there's a bunch of details (politics, etc) I've missed.
NASCAR needs more road courses! Great video as well!
The audience wants more short tracks, Tracks like Bristol.
Even though I live near Sonoma, my favorite road course is Watkin's Glenn. I prefer oval racing where NASCAR is concerned but I agree 4 or 5 road courses is about right for a season. I also agree that right now we have too many, and I don't care for street racing at all, leave that to Formula 1 and Indy.
My perfect number is 6.
Sonoma, Watkins Glen, COTA
A street course race
Then two others that rotate from year to year, Road America/Portland etc.
I rewatched the 2015 Sonoma race and it’s underrated imo. I can’t think of too much footage of Jeff Gordon behind the wheel, but they did an excellent job showing his brake/throttle inputs on the pedal cam along with his steering inputs. Ever since I started watching F1, I’ve really been on a journey trying to understand most of the drivers’ driving styles and observing how they place the car in each corner. One problem, Clint Bowyer should be doing that and telling us. Honestly, if Fox can get Gunther from HAAS F1, I hope they get someone like Rob Wilson or Peter Windsor to do commentary but doubt that’ll ever happen. And while yes, the tracks that use the most brakes like the road courses and short tracks haven’t produced the best racing lately, there’s still so much to look at on top of strategy and other factors.
I remember that now. Man he was smooth going around that track. Sucks they missed the race setup that weekend.
maybe we should have more road course races so they learn to stop crashing
The best way to fix the road course racing in Cup is to take what they have learned and will learn from the Garage 56 car over at Le Mans and integrate that knowledge into the cars
Edit: in terms of street races, you're more likely to produce a Baltimore or San Jose than a Long Beach or Monaco, also I truly believe that the Chicago street race is a one-and-done race given the city signed that contract under the Lightfoot administration and the incoming administration and all the aldermen *HATE* this race, also Chicagoland Speedway always put on absolute bangers with both NASCAR and Indycar, and we've seen two Coca-Cola 600's with the Next-Gen car and this car has breathed new life into NASCAR'S endurance classic, which I guess makes sense that Charlotte is the Next-Gen's best track given all the testing it had done there
I pretty much agree. Indy Road and The Roval need to go. I also like the idea of maybe not having as many road courses one year and then having more the next. I feel like in the years that they dont have as many road courses, they could play with the double header weekend idea some more since i thought that was fun.
I think there need to be a few rotating dates on the schedule. There are plenty of tracks that are perfectly ready, but aren’t feasible to get every year, or maybe are too much of a wild card to put on the schedule permanently. We got tracks like Sebring, Road Atlanta, Pikes Peak, Road America, Chicagoland, even Kentucky, possibly Nashville Fairgrounds, Eldora, Milwaukee and then some street courses Tracks that I’d like to see every once in a while, even if it’s not every year. (A few of them I would like to see every year tho.) We could for example have either Bristol or Richmond lose a date (maybe have them alternate having 2 dates) and give the other date to a street course. Alternate between Nashville Superspeedway and Fairgrounds (if Fairgrounds works out,) have Texas and Kentucky alternate for the Trash Poopy 400. I like racing, and I want Nascar to help preserve our racetracks by racing at them.
Also Pikes Peak is a fun track in a part of the country entirely devoid of Nascar, more people should talk about putting PPIS on the schedule in some capacity, it just seems like an all around smart move.
The problem is that professional racing series are not allowed to race on PPIR.
Nashville fairgrounds needs to come back!
The Garage 56 Le Mans entry is proof that Nascar is capable of taking on road courses. I seriously hope they consider making a new racing series for it.
Garage 56 is proving how much better the car can be if they get rid of the engine power reduction
COTA, The Glen, Road America, CGV, Sonoma, and Portland should be the only six road courses on the schedule.
There are oval tracks in underserved and untapped markets. People forget that Pikes Peak Raceway is still just sitting in Colorado hosting concerts every year. The track is race ready.
If you're gonna remove the roval than you need to move a road course into the playoffs. Perhaps move the Glen to late September/early October. Would be absolutely beautiful with the fall colors.
If they bring back Road of America that would look great in fall colors as well
Man, I got COTA in my backyard but I would literally love nothing more than to get to go to Road America or Watkins Glen for a race
It would be freezing though
@@Double5Racing freezing probably not, chilly or brisk yes
@@Skeejusuperbikes are July 4th, 40 min drive for me, you can camp in my yard
4-5 is a great number to fall behind, but five woukd be great. Sonoma, the Glen, and COTA are great fixtures to the schedule, but I do have an idea for the last two. The rotating road courses is a good idea. There are many road courses in the country that need to be seen, such as Portland, Pacific Raceways, Mid-Ohio, Road Atlanta, Sebring, etc. Let a selection of these tracks rotate out. For the fifth, there was news that NASCAR could be racing Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as early as 2024 in Canada, maybe a rotating international road course could work with Montreal, Mosport, and Mexico City to name a few with future exploration to European countries; this can help build an international audience, much like how F1 is doing.
Canadian Tire Motorsports Park outside Toronto Canada...
@@americanwalmarts3565 Canadian Tires is also known as Mosport.
I would like to see a NASCAR Cup car try to go flat out up the hill of Eau Rouge and into Raidillon. That could be fun to see at least once.
Milwaukee Mile over Chicagoland
4-5 rotational- traditional North American sports car courses lime rock/road America/Montreal/road Atlanta/Seca/ maybe an Indy series street circuit(maybe)
1-2 must stays
3 - cota has earned it's spot
Bring back the BRICKYARD-
Resurrect ROCKINGHAM
NASCAR has a short track problem. Not a road course problem.
I think they should get rid of double-file restarts and overtime in road courses. The yellow that comes after accidents are just too long.
Been to the different road courses for NASCAR and absolutely loved all of them for different reason but they’ve all been great fan experiences and fun close races to attend
The Glen
Rival
Daytona roval
I like road courses. But the Indy RC & COTA have long, wide starting straights going into turn 1. They get 4 wide, & immediately have to funnel down to 2 wide. The xfinity race at Portland is the same. Either move the start line, or change turn 1.
If NASCAR wants a race on a temporary course, they should take a page out of Indy/Champcar and setup tracks on a huge parking lot instead of closing down an entire block for a race. Not every street is like Monaco and Long Beach.
When I meant a huge parking lot, I meant the ones outside major sports stadiums like what Indycar did around the Astrodome and NRG Stadium.
I don’t think it’s a problem. Adds to the balance and diversity of the schedule and the racing is great. Maybe take off one, maybe two. Chicago street course should be a one time thing. I like the roval and I like having a road course in the playoffs but I wouldn’t mind bringing a different road course to the playoffs and running the charlotte oval in the playoffs as well.
I think the bigger problem is the late restarts, which could have as simple a fix as moving the restart zone. Another big problem is that everything fans claim they want is the exact opposite of what they want once they get it.
As far as attendance goes, road courses are pretty good at that. Luckily everywhere has been having far better attendance over the last few years so idk, that might take away a bit of how much of a difference it makes for road courses.
Except Road courses are becoming too much a "good" thing. Pfft
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld yeah just like short tracks. Fans keep complaining about getting what they ask for.
@@danielchai6145 short tracks aren't too much of a good thing though. Fans are disappointed with short tracks because of the package. Fans have been asking to return to it's roots which was short tracks not road courses.
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld That's just your opinion. There's a ton of fans, especially younger and newer fans who have been asking for more road courses. Older fans shouldn't get more priority over us. We've seen road courses race way better than short tracks.
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld
Yeah but short tracks ARE good otherwise short tracks have never been good. Go watch old races. Short tracks are as good as they’ve ever been as far as passing, speed, fall off is the best in a while, durability is the best possibly ever, they are the least aero dependent they’ve been in a very long time.
Richmond this year was one of if not the best short track races ever. North wilkesboro looked like every short track from the 80s and 90s which everyone claims to want more of. Martinsville this year was the best martinsville race since 2015. Phoenix is the same it’s always been. Bristol last year was the same it’s been since the repave which is still really good.
It’s another classic case of nascar fans complaining about getting what they ask for. It’s always been like that. However, it seems to be more of an internet thing now instead of it being everybody, cause in real life everyone I’ve talked to LOVES the new car. Loves the schedule. Loves the racing everywhere. And that’s why attendance is up 20% from 4 years ago. That’s why we see everybody loving the garage 56 car. It’s got a lot of power, not very much downforce, it’s hard to drive, it sounds amazing, it’s fast, etc. they actually know how to enjoy nascar. Many nascar fans never have. Just look at the Gluck polls on twitter. Internet fans complain about having overtime too much but the results of the poll can pretty much be dumbed down to get a good grade if it had a chaotic ending and a bad grade otherwise. Internet fans don’t actually like racing. They want chaos.
I think we should have Sonoma Watkins Glen circuit of the Americas, and the roval and then have a fifth one as alternating.
So like how we could go to Canada, Portland, Road Atlanta, and road America.
I think nascar should go more european with the road course rules to make it potentially have less clown moments like the turn 1 situations. Be stricter ln track limits (in particular overtaking outside of them) and car contact
V8 supercars penalizes people if it's obvious they used the guy next to them to turn.
The biggest road course problem was that nascar tried to make stage racing a thing. I'm willing to see how the rest of this seasons road courses go without the extra cautions before I decide.
I’m excited to see what it’s like with no stage cautions
Favorite road course is Montreal. Loved it from the first race I watched. Watkins Glen a close second.
I love some road coarse variety to break up the intermediates and short tracks, even though the new cars perform best there. I feel the street race is more a one off and the Brickyard is likely going back to a oval soon, so I think attrition will bring down the number on the schedule regardless. The Roval and COTA is 50/50, don't hate it but don't love it either, but if one draws the audience I am all for it. Put the Glen on the playoff roster is you want a road course there.
And don't forget Road America. It is stupid to neglect a track that was so well attended.
add the fifth one go to portland or montreal. cota, sonoma, glen, daytona. bring back chigagoland, charlotte oval, brickyard
I used to dread them, but now I LOVE the road courses. They test different driving skills than just ovals.Sonoma, Cota and the ROval are the best.
they need Sonoma, Glen, COTA, Road America, and the Roval. Then have a street course race every year at a different city that doesn't have NASCAR nearby (like Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, Omaha, etc.)
Imagine a sprint down Alaska Way in Seattle on the Waterfront or Side by Side racing right next to Temple Square in SLC! That would be interesting.
I think highlighting a local track in some way would probably be the better option in my opinion (so there's less politics involved with road closures), but if done correctly street races can be viable pretty much anywhere!
To be fair you can’t really judge the Chicago street course cuz it hasn’t happened yet. I understand not liking the idea of it, but you can’t just ask to get rid of it before we know what it brings to the table. I’m not expecting it to be a good race, but let’s at least give it this one chance first
They definitely need to go to 4 or 5. I think part of the problem right now is the placement. COTA is the only one in the first 15 races and you don't want more than 1 in the playoffs, so that leaves a stretch with 4 of the 6 road courses all coming in a 10 race span. That's way too many in such a short span of races. Do exactly as you said. Keep Sonoma, the Glen, and COTA and rotate one or two in and go to different places.
Lol. G56 is at Le Mans. Today. This weekend. The penultimate road racing celebrates it's centennial.
NASCAR has an opportunity to become relevant to the eyes of those who admire sports car racing.
I only watch the full races from Sonoma and Watkins Glen and the 2 road America races cause they didn't end with 5 gwc
The problem is modern NASCAR fans don’t enjoy auto racing.
I agree that no more than 4 road courses a year is probably the sweet spot for NASCAR. And I also agree that Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and COTA should all be permanent fixtures on the schedule, with a rotational fourth or even fifth thrown in there.
Now as far as getting rid of the Roval...while I do agree that the oval layout at Charlotte produces a better show at the moment, and we should change the fall race back to it, I also would like to see at least one road course race in the Playoffs still. Perhaps we could swap the dates for the Glen and Bristol and see how that shakes out? I'm sure the weather in upstate NY is still fairly pleasant in late September.
Now my shortlist of road courses to try out/return to would be: New Jersey Motorsports Park, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Laguna Seca, and any city that ACTUALLY WANTS a street course. (Because Chicagoans, from what I've heard, never wanted the street course)
i think cota, sonoma, the glen, and charlotte roval can stay, but i wouldnt mind seeing a shorter road course like portland (for the cup series) or lime rock be on the schedule. i think a street race is an interesting idea but ill wait to watch chicago to have an opinion on it
I couldn't understand why he said to get rid of the Chicago street race as it's been a disaster so far. I had to google to figure out which race I'd missed there. It's not been run. My hometown (Joliet) is actually where the Chicagoland speedway is located (and I believe it's his too), so maybe he's a little biased? I honestly think the street race is going to be lousy, but I'm in full favor of trying this new location for variety sake. Maybe it'll be great.
I seriously doubt Lime Rock will be an option, considering the local laws in place there.
Road courses are definitely a must in NASCAR. Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.
There's an NFL TH-camr going to 30 NFL stadiums in 30 days in the month of June... It would be cool if Eric Estepp and the NWP could go to every NASCAR track in a full month... Meeting fans
Watching these older clips makes me realize how much better the cars looked with the number in the middle of the door!
The only problem NASCAR has with road course is that there isn't enough of them of the schedule!!
I've come to enjoy road courses better than most 1.5 tracks
Chicago Streets, Indy Road Course & Charlotte Roval should be returned back to Chicagoland, Indianapolis Oval & maybe even the original Charlotte fall race due to how this car performs at Charlotte now. Road America should’ve stayed, Mid Ohio & Portland would be great tracks as well as new markets for Cup.
Even though racing at Indy suck I def would give that back to the Oval instead of the road course but I love the idea of a experimental race date on the schedule, Ex: international race, race on beach of Daytona, new street course race like Vegas or any other experimental type race. I thinks it’s always good to test or push the boundary to insure the sport stays fresh and exciting.
The Roval has honestly run it's course... So has Bristol Dirt... I want two Charlotte oval and Bristol oval races back each year!!!
Bristol for sure. Think the Roval is more watched than the Charlotte oval fall race.
I disagree with Bristol Dirt but the Roval absolutely has
The novelty of them both has just gone downhill in my opinion... The dirt race isn't all it was hyped up to be... The Gen 7 cars aren't dirt cars lol it's nice for an exhibition event but it shouldn't be a points race
I agree with the roval being gone but I feel that we need a road course in the playoffs because then we'd have every type of race other than the outlier dirt race in the playoffs
I hate to say this, but they need to either 1. Start penalizing some of the driving on road courses, SPECIFICALLY the endless dive bombing on restarts near the end of the race where drivers take out multiple cars just throwing their car into a turn that they won't make. or 2. Allow the "boys, have at it" mindset return only at road courses. If Chastain dive bombs and shoves a car out of the way, then let that driver retaliate (within reason) without having to worry about losing points or being fined.
5 or 6 Road Courses are my preferences. Daytona RC as a Stock Car Class In 24 Hrs of Daytona. Cota , Mexico City, The Glen, Road America, Sonoma.
The drivers need to learn how to stay on the track. Nascar get rid of the stages and have local yellows
They need local yellows for road courses. Its insane to only have a full course yellow on a long track like those road courses with the longer lap times. Also take some cues from the Garage 56 entry at le mans and have a road course spec for the cars that works better for that kind of racing. Probably skip the dive planes though, those would be gone by the end of lap one anyway.
I would like more road courses not less. Although I would like to see a gt3 style downforce package at road courses, maybe the garage 56 car would work better?
And get rid of Bristol dirt and go to Eldora.
WG and Sonoma are the best They need to get Road America at they pulled in 100k fans both years they ran there. Indy needs to go completely and I would rotate COTA Canada Portland and maybe a street course
How they fix the problem is get rid of a few because there are too many. All we need is The Glen, Sonoma, Road America, and either Mid-Ohio or Montreal. Ovals are usually better than RCs.
That's better than keeping COTA.
TH-cam channels do a better job covering other things through the week than nascar does
Since the next gen it’s been every week “penalties, fines, suspensions, who’s next?” Intro to the next week on Thursdays they just flip forward. Love channels like yours you cover what should be covered
This year will definitely be interesting.
5 or 4 is good to me. I think the roval could stay, but I like the idea of one date being a rotation of tracks
I just love road course racing, but i do agree they have maybe 1 or 2 to many races, 4 to 5 is good, and road America should definitely be one with the glen, sonoma, and Cota.
Agree with every point 👍
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I agree with everything other than nixing the Charlotte Roval. My only problem with COTA is turn 1. If they can get that to not be such a tight turn, it'll be great. And we want Laguna Seca!
Though I love Laguna Seca that track would be way too tight for NASCAR
@@BoxOfKrabs yea probably. I just want to see the cars through the corkscrew lol
I don't even know if Laguna Seca have the capacity to hold 40 cars at once for the pits
I agree with you on the Charlotte Roval and the IMS road course needing to go.
I won’t make any judgement on the Chicago street circuit until they actually run it, but I do have serious doubts about it being a good race.
One thing with your rotation idea- include the lower series. (They need to do more non-Cup races, anyway). Per your plan, keep Sonoma & Watkins Glen for the tradition, and COTA- at least for the time being. Have either Xfinity or Trucks (not both) as a companion race, but alternate who goes where. Then rotate in places currently on the rotation, like Road America, Mid-Ohio, & Portland. Let those tracks have at least 1 of the 3 national series, rotating between Cup, Xfinity, & Trucks. And then you add in 1-offs to try new places like Road Atlanta, Sebring, Laguna Seca, as well as a possible street circuit or “roval”. About 4-5 in Cup & Xfinity & 2-3 in Trucks, but still possibly as many as 8 different tracks between the 3 series. Variety, but not over saturation.
I like that NASCAR is adding more road courses. It really can show who's well on both ovals and road courses. One road course NASCAR should add is Sebring.
Road racing isn’t the problem. It’s the green-white-checkered/overtime rule combined with the points system that rewards going for broke to win races. Every road course race that has gone off the rails did so because of these two factors. The GWC/OT rule magnifies the issue on road courses because the laps are longer and give drivers more time to create havoc before taking the white flag. Ultimately, I really wish the old points system prior to 2004 were back in effect. Manufactured drama isn’t real drama. There is so much depth of talent and equipment in today’s NASCAR that a playoff system isn’t necessary. On road courses, dragging the race along with so many restarts is counterproductive. There has to be a cap on the number of GWC attempts.
I do think another thing to consider with bringing back Chicagoland is since Road America has been removed from the cup schedule you may see a large group of fans from the WI area as long as the cup race and RA xfinity race don't fall on the same weekend.
I like the idea of having a road course/street course alternate every year. It would be fun to see nascar run a race at Sebring and road atlanta, maybe have it the weekend before IMSA race's at those tracks