NASCAR insiders react to suggestion for midweek races

The NASCAR season takes place over 38 weeks. From the Clash to Championship Weekend, it’s a long and grueling season for all involved. Is there any chance at shortening the season with midweek races in the future? Well, maybe.

Traditionally, NASCAR races are on the weekend. They have been on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons and nights for decades. But are Wednesday nights the future of the sport?

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Atheltic talked about the midweek race question during The Teardown podcast. The two journalists are a little split on the possibility of Wednesday races.

“I would never say never. There was definitely some momentum to try it four or five years ago and they did try it during the pandemic,” Bianchi said. “The ratings were not great and that kind of influenced it. Now, there’s a lot of factors involved in that. But the conversations I’ve had with people say, while the TV ratings weren’t great this is still an idea worth exploring, but you’ve got to commit to it.

“Let’s just use North Wilkesboro as an example. We know, North Wilkesboro and the second Wednesday in July every year, that’s going to be North Wilkesboro. And you’ve got to put a lot of promotion behind that and kind of entrenching that and engraining in people’s mind. Because you do have to make people adjust their viewing habits.”

His cohost was not as optimistic. Mostly due to the new TV deal.

“Yeah, at this point I just don’t see it because it would have somehow been incorporated into the new TV deal which just got signed for quite a long time to come,” Gluck responded. “Now those TV partners, you have four different TV partners and they’ve all signed on and expect their races to be at a certain part of the year and go in certain chunks. So, you’re not going to suddenly now shorten the season and go, okay, well, let’s end it mid-October by having these midweek races and all that stuff.

“So, I just think that’s just how it is and what we have in terms of relative length of the season at this point, is what it’s going to be.”

Bianchi then mentioned there is one thing that could change. Amazon Prime Video is now a TV partner. It is NASCAR’s first-ever streaming exclusive broadcast partner. With the flexibility that streaming provides perhaps Prime Video is the place where the midweek races could happen.

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. Every professional sports league seems to be adding games and weekends, not taking them away. NASCAR knows that the length of their schedule plays to why TV partners value the sport so much.

The Cup Series is able to give you a pretty consistent viewership base. With how long the season is, it runs through the slow periods in the sports calendar. Shortening the calendar with a Martinsville race on Wednesday, Richmond on Sunday kind of deal would shorten the schedule. That might be more of a negative overall for NASCAR than a positive.