Advertisement

Quick takeaways from Auto Club: Let's start the midweek race experiment here

(via Fox)
(via Fox)

Welcome to the 2018 season and welcome back to our post-race takeaways column. Per usual, we’ll have some random thoughts to espouse after Cup Series races and this column will be the landing spot for them. Can you believe the season has already started?!

• Sunday’s crowd at Auto Club Speedway was abysmal.

That’s not being “negative,” as many people like to shout towards me on Twitter. That’s the truth. Look at these screenshots.

(via Fox)
(via Fox)
(via Fox)
(via Fox)

Brutal.

Auto Club Speedway, located in Fontana, California, about an hour east of Los Angeles (on a Sunday afternoon) has struggled with attendance issues for years. After the track sold out when it debuted on the Cup Series schedule in the 1990s, it got two races. Now its back down to one, despite being in the metropolitan area of one of the largest cities in the country.

We’re not sure what’s up. There are a lot of things to do in Southern California on a spring weekend, so NASCAR has got some competition. But race tickets started at $50 and you can bring your own beer. There are worse ways to spend Sunday afternoons.

[Martin Truex Jr. gets first win of 2018 at Auto Club Speedway]

Anyway, let’s get to the point. Resistance to the idea of midweek NASCAR races has centered — at least at the track level — around attendance. NASCAR fans like to spend the entire day at the race, tracks say. If a race was held on a weekday, fans would have to take off to go to the race.

While that may be true on some level, it’s important to remember that the number of people at a track is dwarfed by the number of people watching a race on television. The benefits to increasing viewers far outweigh the benefits of increasing attendance.

So why not start the experiment of midweek races at a track that’s struggling with attendance. Namely, Auto Club Speedway.

It’s hard to see why TV networks would be opposed to midweek races. Positioned properly on the schedule, there would be little to no primetime sporting competition for a Cup Series race on a Wednesday or Thursday night. Ratings would be better than the will undoubtedly be for Sunday’s race, which was against the NCAA Tournament and Tiger Woods in contention in the final round of the PGA Tour event at Bay Hill.

[Kevin Harvick crashes while going for fourth-straight win]

NASCAR needs to keep a presence in Southern California. And this would be a great way to heighten it. The track already has lights thanks to hosting night races earlier in the millennium and could serve as the centerpiece for the Cup Series’ grand experiment. Starting the race at 5 p.m. Pacific Time — like many other nationally-televised sporting events and award shows — is perfect for everyone involved. And Auto Club’s worn-out pavement would provide a challenge as teams navigate the changing conditions as the sun sets.

No one should be against this idea. NASCAR needs to be more flexible than ever as TV ratings continue to decline. Try something, NASCAR. The race won’t have worse ratings than what you’re getting already.

• NASCAR president Brent Dewar wasn’t at Sunday’s race. At least according to Twitter, which said he was in Colorado.

Dewar spent part of the race advocating for split-screen commercials to show both ads and racing, much like a fan would.

(via Twitter)
(via Twitter)

A fan advocating for split-screen commercials on Twitter makes sense. After all, a fan doesn’t have a direct line to NASCAR’s television partners and advertisers.

Dewar does, which makes his tweeting a bit bizarre.

NASCAR’s president is trying to make himself a man of the people, but his tweets come off as a desperate plea. Have the private asks of Ford and Goodyear not worked? Is public pressure necessary to get the companies to go split-screen because advertisers understandably don’t want to pay full-price for part of a screen?

And here’s the thing — with NASCAR television ratings declining, Fox and NBC can’t charge as much for commercials, whether they’re full or half-screen. While Dewar’s goal is ultimately noble and understandable, his methods to achieve that goal are, at the very least, headscratching.

• Third-place finisher Kyle Busch wasn’t interviewed on Fox after the race. He was on MRN, apparently, and he said it was because Fox didn’t find him as he walked down pit road.

These situations with Busch are not an uncommon occurrence. While he may feel he has an unfair reputation as someone who avoids interviews after a frustrating finish, the best way to avoid that reputation is to go out of his way to be accessible. We’re not saying Busch didn’t do that in this case, but if he truly feels he’s maligned and wants to change it, there’s an easy fix available.

• Hendrick Motorsports once again didn’t get more than one car in the top 10. Jimmie Johnson finished ninth and that was it.

All four Hendrick cars did finish in the top 16, so that’s progress based on the slow start the team has had so far in 2018.

“Yeah, each week we have been getting a little bit better,” Jimmie Johnson said. “We are definitely not happy with where we are right now but we are seeing the improvements, we have been seeing it internally. We are making the cars drive better and better and we are getting more competitive … We are not where we want to be but we are getting closer every week.”

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

More NCAA tournament coverage from Yahoo Sports:
Star player on his coach: ‘We’re not the same color, but he’s definitely my father’
Did you bet UMBC? If so, congrats, you’re rich
Report: Heckling pushes Duke star’s mom to tears
Auburn uses cheap trick to fool refs, seal NCAA win