Chase Elliott on what NASCAR can learn from college football: 'Length of the season'
Former Cup Series champion Chase Elliott believes NASCAR can learn a thing or two from the way college football operates moving forward.
No, he’s not going to delve into conference realignment or anything, but when it comes to the length of the season and the yearning for more, the Hendrick Motorsports star explained that his own sport can take some of the intangibles college football possesses to make the motorsports world a better place.
“I think they do a lot of things well,” Elliott said, regarding the way college football operates, via The Teardown. “I mean, we talked about this, but I think the first thing is the length of the season. They they get a lot in, you know, in a — when I say length of season, I’m not necessarily talking about the number of races, but just the amount of calendar year that you burn in doing it, because, you know, just like we talked about a month or two ago, I just — as a college football fan, or football fan in general, their season is fairly short, right? And when it rolls back around, it’s exciting, you know. Waiting all year for this.
“I think that’s cool, and I think that our sport could use a little more of, ‘Man, I missed that, and I really wish there was a race on this weekend,’ and you know, that sucks that it’s not, but man, when it does come back, I’m going to be really fired up to to watch it. I think that’s healthy. I think less is more.”
Perhaps that isn’t such a bad idea for NASCAR. Their schedule is one of the longer in the sports world, and there may be an over-saturation of the market. If they take a weekend off here and there, it could lead to a boost in attendance and viewership when the Cup Series is on the calendar for a race.
Additionally, some extra time off, especially in the fall, would also give Elliott a chance to take in some college football before the season is almost over, as his beloved Georgia Bulldogs continue to ravage their opponents week-in and week-out.
“I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember. Grew up going to games and stuff. Love watching them,” Elliott added, regarding his fandom. “… I mean they were always really solid. They’ve never been just like a bad program. … It’s fun being a fan because they’re good, like for sure. That’s great and I love that aspect.
“But one thing I’m really proud to be a fan of them for, is that they have never been a University or an athletic department to just rotate head coaches in there every single year because they didn’t win the national championship that year. Like I hate that. I hate that environment, you know. Like these schools bring in these coaches and they expect them to win like that year or the next year. And if they don’t they’re out the door.”
It would be fascinating if NASCAR takes their most popular driver’s suggestions into consideration in the future, but Chase Elliott may be waiting a bit to see it all come to fruition, as the schedule for 2025 has already been set. What the future holds remains to be seen though.