AVONDALE, Ariz. — If the NASCAR season taught us anything, it’s that the traditional three-day race weekend schedule is no longer set in stone.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing NASCAR to change its ways to account for the safety and health of officials and competitors, NASCAR officials made the call in May to return to competition without practice or qualifying at most events.
The result was a significantly shortened weekend schedule for each of the three national divisions. Most races were one-day shows without practice or qualifying, allowing drivers, teams and officials to spend less time at the race track.
“I think what we’ve proven this year is that you can do things differently and they can work,” said NASCAR President Steve Phelps. “What we’re in the process of doing right now is looking at what that race day experience is going to look like, or race weekend experience is going to look like.”
It’s already been announced that the 2021 schedule will feature mostly one-day shows. Of the 36 points races on the schedule, 28 of those will be one-day shows without practice and qualifying.
Events taking place at new venues or tracks with new configurations will include practice and qualifying to allow teams the chance to familiarize themselves with the track. Three marquee events will also feature practice and qualifying — the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, the Coca-Cola 600 on May 30 and the championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7.
“As we look forward to 2021, there is still an unknown and the race teams have asked us and we’ve worked closely with them, it’s worked for us and our television partners, to be as efficient as we can in 2021 on our journey to the Next Gen car,” said NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell in late September when the NASCAR Cup Series calendar was announced.
“At any of our new tracks or new configurations we will have practice and qualifying,” O’Donnell said. “Daytona 500, Bristol dirt, the Coke 600, COTA, Road America, Indianapolis (road course) and Phoenix. Those will all be our typical practice and qualifying.”
With 28 one-day shows on the schedule for next year, race days will likely to continue to look different for the foreseeable future.
“I think it’s going to look different, right? I think there are things both from a competition standpoint, as well as a fan standpoint, sponsor standpoint, where we are going to reinvent ourselves, take the best of what we had during this COVID situation to make ourselves stronger in the future,” said Phelps. “What exactly that looks like, we’re doing planning right now. We’ll obviously do some things looking from the broad race tracks, not just our race tracks, but race tracks in general.
“We need to make sure that the fan experience continues to improve. When they come back, we need to give them a reason. They have great racing, but you have great racing on television, right? We need to have a great fan experience that is going to look different almost certainly than it did before.
“It’s incumbent upon us, our race tracks, to make sure they’re getting that fan experience,” Phelps added. “We’ll have to do that with our race teams, our drivers. It needs to be about access, right? If it’s not going to be physical access, what are the things we can do that create something unique and different for a fan at the facility?”
Looking ahead to 2022, Phelps said that the introduction of the NextGen car will likely return NASCAR to more of the status quo with practice and qualifying as teams work to adjust to a new race car.
“We have 28 one-day shows next year, eight that we do not, we’re going to have practice and qualifying,” Phelps said. “What does that look like in ’22 as we unveil a new car? Probably a lot more practice and qualifying. How much, and what does it look like? Really, it will be determined when we get a little closer to that particular season.”