Are Road Courses Still A Good Idea In Cup
By: Gregg A. Shultz, RaceFanVote.com
The Cup Series has been going to Sonoma since 1989 and Watkins Glen dating all the way back to 1957 where
the first 3 races were held on the streets of the town before going full time to the actual, purpose built track in 1986.
Road racing adds an extra element to the series and a handful of the Cup regulars have made a name for
themselves as being stand out road course drivers, but is there still a place for the road races in the schedule today?
Both of the tracks are located in areas that NASCAR wanted to be in, California & New York, but with both new and
existing oval tracks vying for race dates and mixed feelings amongst the fans on the subject of road courses, does it
still make sense to have the road course races on the schedule?
The Fan’s Opinion.
The criticisms of the road course races ranges from two is too many, get rid of them completely or if we are going to
run on the road courses on the schedule then we need more than just two races to justify having purpose-built cars
for the tracks. In addition to that, having a road race so close to the Chase cut-off at Watkins Glen is labeled as too
much of a wild card and may affect unjustly who makes it and who doesn’t. On the other side of the fence there are a
lot of fans who enjoy the road races and wouldn’t want them removed from the schedule.
The Cost To The Teams.
Even though the new style car is supposed to be the ‘universal’ car in that you can run it at Charlotte, make a few
changes and race it at Martinsville, the top teams aren’t doing that. They may even build a minimum of two cars for
each road course and the teams that can’t afford to do that are competing with that disadvantage right out of the
gate.
Sonoma is a lower speed, tight turn, in first gear a lot track, where Watkins Glen is higher speed, rarely in first gear,
sweeping turns, a totally different track in comparison. With that said, the smaller teams usually have a different view
of the circuits than the larger teams, so you get mixed opinions in the garage area as well.
Successful At Removing The Stigma?
Does running the 3400 lb. stock cars on a road course convert fans from other forms of auto racing into Stock Car
fans? The detractors of stock car racing still love to say that “nascars” just turn left and go around in circles in an
uninterested & uninformed demeanor, so apparently not. Is that the real goal though, to gain fans who wouldn’t
otherwise care about NASCAR or is the governing body just trying to offer something different for the fans as well as
something more challenging for the teams & drivers? Another explanation has been that with a combination of all of
the different style tracks that the series competes on, throwing in a couple of road courses is just an extension of that.
Keep Them Or Lose Them?
From past polls on this site, keeping two road course races on the schedule was in the minority on the poll results as
voted by the fans. The more popular choices were to cut it back to one race, lose them completely or if they are
going to run road courses, run more than just two and even possibly have one in the chase. There are good
arguments on all sides of the topic and with that said NASCAR feels that they have a good balance with the current
schedule. If they made any changes at this point there would probably be equal numbers of fans still wanting
something different.
At this point NASCAR has not announced any plans to alter the schedule in regards to adding or eliminating any of
the road course events currently on the schedule.
We are offering two poll questions on the subject of road courses to cover the topics discussed in this story.
By: Gregg A. Shultz, RaceFanVote.com
The Cup Series has been going to Sonoma since 1989 and Watkins Glen dating all the way back to 1957 where
the first 3 races were held on the streets of the town before going full time to the actual, purpose built track in 1986.
Road racing adds an extra element to the series and a handful of the Cup regulars have made a name for
themselves as being stand out road course drivers, but is there still a place for the road races in the schedule today?
Both of the tracks are located in areas that NASCAR wanted to be in, California & New York, but with both new and
existing oval tracks vying for race dates and mixed feelings amongst the fans on the subject of road courses, does it
still make sense to have the road course races on the schedule?
The Fan’s Opinion.
The criticisms of the road course races ranges from two is too many, get rid of them completely or if we are going to
run on the road courses on the schedule then we need more than just two races to justify having purpose-built cars
for the tracks. In addition to that, having a road race so close to the Chase cut-off at Watkins Glen is labeled as too
much of a wild card and may affect unjustly who makes it and who doesn’t. On the other side of the fence there are a
lot of fans who enjoy the road races and wouldn’t want them removed from the schedule.
The Cost To The Teams.
Even though the new style car is supposed to be the ‘universal’ car in that you can run it at Charlotte, make a few
changes and race it at Martinsville, the top teams aren’t doing that. They may even build a minimum of two cars for
each road course and the teams that can’t afford to do that are competing with that disadvantage right out of the
gate.
Sonoma is a lower speed, tight turn, in first gear a lot track, where Watkins Glen is higher speed, rarely in first gear,
sweeping turns, a totally different track in comparison. With that said, the smaller teams usually have a different view
of the circuits than the larger teams, so you get mixed opinions in the garage area as well.
Successful At Removing The Stigma?
Does running the 3400 lb. stock cars on a road course convert fans from other forms of auto racing into Stock Car
fans? The detractors of stock car racing still love to say that “nascars” just turn left and go around in circles in an
uninterested & uninformed demeanor, so apparently not. Is that the real goal though, to gain fans who wouldn’t
otherwise care about NASCAR or is the governing body just trying to offer something different for the fans as well as
something more challenging for the teams & drivers? Another explanation has been that with a combination of all of
the different style tracks that the series competes on, throwing in a couple of road courses is just an extension of that.
Keep Them Or Lose Them?
From past polls on this site, keeping two road course races on the schedule was in the minority on the poll results as
voted by the fans. The more popular choices were to cut it back to one race, lose them completely or if they are
going to run road courses, run more than just two and even possibly have one in the chase. There are good
arguments on all sides of the topic and with that said NASCAR feels that they have a good balance with the current
schedule. If they made any changes at this point there would probably be equal numbers of fans still wanting
something different.
At this point NASCAR has not announced any plans to alter the schedule in regards to adding or eliminating any of
the road course events currently on the schedule.
We are offering two poll questions on the subject of road courses to cover the topics discussed in this story.
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Location, Location, Location.
When the races began at Sonoma in 1989 it was the only race held on the west
coast, but now with two races at Fontana and one race at Las Vegas some say that
the market area has plenty of races without the road course.
NASCAR owned International Speedway Corporation (ISC) has been searching
around for a location to build an oval track in New York in an attempt to ‘tap’ the
market which would make you question the importance of The Glen if another
(conventional) track is built in the area.
When the races began at Sonoma in 1989 it was the only race held on the west
coast, but now with two races at Fontana and one race at Las Vegas some say that
the market area has plenty of races without the road course.
NASCAR owned International Speedway Corporation (ISC) has been searching
around for a location to build an oval track in New York in an attempt to ‘tap’ the
market which would make you question the importance of The Glen if another
(conventional) track is built in the area.
