In a recent appearance on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, Chase Elliott advocated for more Saturday night races opposite the recent NASCAR Cup Series trend.
While Saturday night races used to be more commonplace in a previous televised version of the sport, networks have pivoted to Sunday night summer races in the pursuit of higher ratings.
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Elliott, however, said this places a burden on those attending these races in person and wishes that would be a factor when making the national touring schedules each season. The topic came up when Elliott was asked for one rule change by podcast hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton.
“One rule, boy, you want to get me in trouble,” said Elliott. “That’s really tough. Right now, I would lobby for more Saturday night races.
“It’s really simple and you know, it’s not necessarily a rule, but I think that our sport, especially at this time of the year, like I mentioned a second ago, unprompted, that the Saturday night race at Bristol in the Fall there was nothing any better than that.”
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“I think our fans and the people that watch NASCAR, I think we all miss that Saturday night energy and that vibe around the races. And I would love to have more of them.
“We don’t have a lot of them in general. We have some of these Sunday night races, which I think are just kind of awkward for people, going back to work on Monday morning. Unfortunately, when you have a rain delay, like we did at Atlanta, we finished at 2:00 a.m.”
During a press conference on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Elliott was asked to expand on that sentiment.
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“Yeah, honestly, those comments came directly from people that I know personally that either went to (Atlanta) and weren’t super thrilled about their Monday morning and probably won’t do it again, or people that chose not to go because they had to go to work on Monday morning,” Elliott said. “So it stemmed directly from fans of our sport; people that aren’t just watching on TV, people that are spending their money to come support us at the track in-person and in the stands. That was why I said that, just because I have heard it directly.
“And while I totally get that TV runs the show in a lot of ways, there are still a lot of people that like coming to the races and also probably would like a day at home to recover and kind of get their affairs in order to go back to work on Monday. So I think there’s room for middle ground in that. I think Saturday night races have always been a really big deal. Growing up, for me, I always thought they were the most fun, like as a kid, as a fan, coming to the races. I mean, heck, even if I wasn’t there, I was watching it on TV and I was at home. I was fired up to have a Saturday night race. I thought it was great. The only downside was I didn’t have anything to watch on Sunday, but that was part of it, right? Like you were bummed about that when Sunday afternoon rolled around and the race wasn’t on, but the lead in, the excitement and energy for a Saturday night show, I thought, was pretty darn elite.”
Again, Elliott just thinks the in-person fan experience is an important thing to showcase on television, and Sunday night races negatively effects the overall vibe with a lot of people needing to work on Mondays.
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“I mean, I think people travel from a lot of different areas for our races, and the further they travel, the harder that is to do,” Elliott said. “No one has told me what the exact reason is for that, so I’m reaching a little bit there. I’m assuming it’s for TV. But yeah, I just think it makes a lot of sense. I think there’s room for it in our sport. We don’t have a lot of Saturday night races, in general, so if you had a couple extra, I’m not sure what that’s hurting really at the end of the day.
“And again, you’ve had the World Cup on TV, which it’s winding down right now. There are some other sports here and there, but you know, baseball is probably the biggest thing that’s kind of going on right now and the push to their playoffs. But it can be difficult to watch. Like even as a Braves fan, it may be on TV at certain points in time. Maybe if they’re on the west coast, they have some kind of weird TV stuff, so if you’re not living in that particular region, you’re probably not even eligible to watch.
“So I think we have a unique opportunity with the networks that we’re on to take advantage of the ability to watch this across the country on the good broadcast partners that we have. I think a Saturday night race is super healthy for people at home watching. And also, the people that are here, it’s an opportunity for them to get home on Sunday and reset and go back to work on Monday.”
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