The '21 NASCAR season "won't be like any other," according to Zach Dean of the Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL. Some of the changes next season include an "Independence Day race at Road America, a dirt race at Bristol, and the Cup Series' debut" at Circuit Of The Americas. NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell: "We developed the 2021 schedule with one primary goal: Continue to take steps to create the most dynamic schedule possible for our fans." Dean writes the "most jarring" change will be the March 28 race at Bristol Motor Speedway, "with the traditional concrete temporarily replaced with dirt." Other changes include a "Mothers Day race at Darlington and three new road course events for the Cup Series" -- May 23 at COTA, July 4 at Road America and the Aug. 15 event at Indianapolis. Two final twists: "Texas Motor Speedway taking over the All-Star race on June 13, and a Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway on June 20." Chicagoland Speedway and Kentucky Speedway "were both removed" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 10/1). O’Donnell: “How can we pursue new markets but really embrace our core fan base and what got us to where we are today? And that was the reason to go back to Darlington twice, this is the reason we’re going back to Atlanta twice. ... Unfortunately, we’ve got to make some moves, and some tracks lose dates because of that. That doesn’t mean we don't care about those fans” (“NASCAR Race Hub,” FS1, 9/30).
ENDURANCE CHAMPIONS? In Charlotte, Alex Andrejev writes NASCAR's major takeaway from this year and its pandemic-era format "seemed to be that change can work," and the sport was "able to push that fairly far for '21 thanks in part to recent restructuring of track ownership groups." Speedway Motorsports, which owns and operates eight tracks that host Cup races, "went private in 2019 as NASCAR finalized a merger with International Speedway Corporation." The resulting restructuring "appears to be more [flexible] in terms of shifting races between tracks" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/1).
GOING DIRT RACING: O’Donnell, on the decision to race on dirt at Bristol: “You look no further than the college football game. ... They said it couldn’t be done.” O’Donnell said the Virginia Tech-Tennessee game in '16 had “tremendous crowds and what a tremendous event that was,” so Speedway Motorsports President & CEO Marcus Smith “approached us with the idea of kind of reinvigorating" the spring race at BMS. O’Donnell: "We talked to our television partners about it, they were incredibly enthusiastic about trying it so we then went to the race teams and they agreed” (“NASCAR Race Hub,” FS1, 9/30). BMS Exec VP & GM Jerry Caldwell: "This has been talked about for a while, and it's a natural progression into a modern NASCAR of trying new things." Caldwell said the impetus for the change was the "feedback of the fans." Details such as length of the Cup race and the status of the Xfinity event "will be provided later." Caldwell is "open to hosting some sort of prelude event on the dirt such as a late model race" (BRISTOL HERALD COURIER, 10/1).
For more on how NASCAR has embraced change in unusual circumstances, see SBJ's cover story profile of President Steve Phelps.
