In a recent appearance on the Bussin\u2019 with the Boys podcast, Chase Elliott advocated for more Saturday night races opposite the recent NASCAR Cup Series trend.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne rule, boy, you want to get me in trouble,\u201d said Elliott. \u201cThat\u2019s really tough. Right now, I would lobby for more Saturday night races.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really simple and you know, it\u2019s 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u00a0Unfortunately, when you have a rain delay, like we did at Atlanta, we finished at 2:00 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
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During a press conference on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Elliott was asked to expand on that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, honestly, those comments came directly from people that I know personally that either went to (Atlanta) and weren\u2019t super thrilled about their Monday morning and probably won\u2019t do it again, or people that chose not to go because they had to go to work on Monday morning,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cSo it stemmed directly from fans of our sport; people that aren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd 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\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019t on, but the lead in, the excitement and energy for a Saturday night show, I thought, was pretty darn elite.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cNo one has told me what the exact reason is for that, so I\u2019m reaching a little bit there. I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s for TV. But yeah, I just think it makes a lot of sense. I think there\u2019s room for it in our sport. We don\u2019t have a lot of Saturday night races, in general, so if you had a couple extra, I\u2019m not sure what that\u2019s hurting really at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd again, you\u2019ve had the World Cup on TV, which it\u2019s winding down right now. There are some other sports here and there, but you know, baseball is probably the biggest thing that\u2019s 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\u2019re on the west coast, they have some kind of weird TV stuff, so if you\u2019re not living in that particular region, you\u2019re probably not even eligible to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think we have a unique opportunity with the networks that we\u2019re 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\u2019s an opportunity for them to get home on Sunday and reset and go back to work on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n
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