Some thoughts on length of races, excitement, and the future of our beloved sport

Deb Williams, whose thoughts are as worthy of your attention as anybody writing about auto racing, said in a recent Autoweek article that she was against the current push from some quarters to shorten NASCAR Cup races.

(Editor’s Note: More about Deb Williams on PTR: Click Here.)

I was 100% in her corner – not that my opinions carries nearly as much weight as hers – until I attended a short track race Saturday night and got to thinking.

The track was Port Royal Speedway in central Pennsylvania, which – due to the quality of its facilities and racing – is known as “The Speed Palace.” The race was a regular weekly program for 410 sprint cars, limited late models, and 305 “RaceSaver” sprints, an economy class for which I volunteer as a writer and photographer.

The crowd was decent, nowhere near a sell-out but comparable to those seen at many NASCAR tracks these days in terms of fullness of stands (and unlike the NASCAR tracks, Port Royal continues to ADD seats). Of course, for a short track, that still means a few thousand folks, hardly what my “home track,” Richmond Raceway, will draw this weekend for Cup racing.

The racing, to my way of thinking, was outstanding. I left before the limited late model feature was over, because I had a nearly two-hour drive home, and I was tired, but both the 410 and 305 sprint features were great.

The former was 25 laps (on a half-mile clay track), and the latter 20. That means the former lasted less than eight minutes, and the latter just over six-and-a-half.

After the races, I asked myself, “How does cutting a NASCAR race down a little from several hundred miles/laps and three hours or more in length create such controversy when short track fans yell, scream, and leave the track happy after races lasting less than 10 minutes?

Let’s deal with the raw numbers first. The NASCAR race will have had qualifying run on an earlier day, while the short track race has practice, qualifying (done entirely by “heat” races on this night), and the race all as part of what you pay for at the gate that night.

At Port Royal, you are paying for three divisions racing. Between them on Saturday, they ran 12 preliminary races, plus their three features. That’s a lot of checkered flags and a lot of opportunities for on-track action. Not including practice, Saturday’s show lasted a little less than three hours, so fans didn’t just sit down, watch a brief race or two, and leave.

And let’s not forget the difference in what you pay: the Port Royal show was $20 for adults, $10 for students, and free for kids 12 and under. Last year, a sudden change of plans put me in Richmond on NASCAR race weekend, and the cheapest ticket available to me was $77, hardly the least you can pay for a Cup show. I didn’t buy it.

Maybe a $20, $30, or even $40 ticket would make you more willing to accept less than three hours of racing for your money.

Here are my additional thoughts: Although the Port Royal race was broadcast live on FloRacing (streaming), I was there in person, and that was key to much of what I’m thinking. I’ve noted many times before that NASCAR is increasingly geared toward what the camera can show you at one time, because most of its audience is watching on TV. That means the focus is on having constant action at the head of the pack, and while something even more exciting might be happening in 8^th, 12^th, or 17^th place, you’re not going to see it unless it catches the director’s attention.

At Port Royal, I would see the whole track and shift my focus as quickly as my aging brain allows, so the fact that neither the 410 nor the 305 feature had a pass for the lead was almost immaterial. Both had nearly constant, fierce battles in the top 5 or top 10. The 305 race had a pass for third place on the final lap and, I think, two passes lower in the top 10. The 410 race had the runner-up catching the leader but not quite able to close the deal. Both were races worthy of a “WOW!” reaction at the checkered flag.

NASCAR at Iowa came pretty close to that kind of excitement at the close, but it was the exception to the norm, at least in my opinion.

No question about it, long races can have long periods of less-than-exciting on-track activity, whereas on a short track where the race lasts just a few minutes, everybody has to “git done” whatever they’re going to “git done” in a hurry, so the action is more likely to be continuous.

If – as was the case at Port Royal – you have 15 different brief events, each with that kind of nonstop action, you’re going to spend a higher percentage of your time excited and lower percentage bored.

I’ve suggested in the past, half in jest, ways we could “kick it up a notch” in terms of excitement. I’ll repeat one here: At Indy, run 100 miles on the big oval, 100 miles on the road course, and 100 laps on the dirt track. There would be several options for choosing the winner, but here I’m just addressing entertaining the fans with the racing. At Indy, what have you got to lose?

Deb Williams is entirely correct when she mentions the value proposition (for ticket pricing) and time spent at the track as critically important, and I think resistance to change plays a big part, too; as a 60+ year fan, I’m as guilty of that as anyone.

But that could be overcome if it weren’t for the institutional barriers, almost all of which are tied to the amount of money involved in the sport today. The real reason we can’t make fundamental changes to NASCAR is that too many people have too much money vested in the status quo. Whether it’s the number of seats at a track, the price of a charter, or the number of vice presidents’ salaries in Daytona beach, people will be hesitant to accept a change that comes with risk.

Even closer to my home, there’s a little go-kart track called Hunterstown Speedway. The other weekend, they gave the karts the night off and ran flat-track motorcycles. Can you imagine Charlotte saying, “Hey, instead of NASCAR, this October we’ll have a horse race.” That would be front-page news, in large part because of the money involved. But at Hunterstown, what charges there are mainly go to pay for insurance and emergency services and wouldn’t be enough to pay the smallest of Charlotte’s bills.

In other words, it’s easier to make a major change at a little kart track than a big NASCAR speedway, and that’s too bad, because it keeps us from trying ideas that might actually save our sport.

(Here’s my caveat on any suggestion I make: People with money on the line tend not to take suggestions seriously when they come from folks with no horse in the race. In this case, that would be me. I’d absolutely love to say: “Hey, try this, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll cover your losses.” That might get you noticed. My guarantee is a bit more modest: “Try this, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll buy you lunch, at a restaurant of my choosing.”)

(Cover Photo Credit: Free download from Jooinn with copyright William Hauser)

Frank Buhrman