NASCAR's challenges with long season

BY THIS POINT in the NASCAR Sprint Cup season we should be writing and talking about the final race of the season this Sunday. Instead, there is 1 month remaining before the Chase is decided.

NASCAR's season is the longest in professional sports, from February to mid-November. Babies are conceived and born during the length of NASCAR's season.

Sometimes I think NASCAR is too insulated from the rest of the sporting world. Each weekend large crowds (although not as large in previous years) show up for the races. However, when NASCAR moves on to the next venue, media attention paid to racing often is a blip on the radar screen.

By extending its season deep into November, NASCAR faces continuing competition for television ratings and other media attention from major league baseball playoffs, the NFL and college football.

Since NASCAR declines to trim its Cup series schedule to a more reasonable 32 races from 36, perhaps the season-opening Daytona 500 could be the first or second Sunday in February instead of its traditional date later in the month.

"We certainly know there's a competitive landscape out there in sports," Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice president of racing operations, said Tuesday when the 2014 Cup schedule was announced. "But that's been out there a long time. Our job is to make NASCAR as big as possible, put more eyeballs on the sport during that time.

"I don't think we're interested in reducing the number of races we have. We're happy with that number right now. There's always things we could look at in terms of when we race. There's been talks of, could you ever race a Monday night or midweek. That's something that we've had dialogue about.

"But in terms of the schedule, that's one of the things that I think is also a benefit of NASCAR. We've got a number of sponsors that are involved in our sport. We've got millions of fans that want to have that chance to see us. By having 36 events, it gives them an opportunity in certain markets they might not have in other sports that we're proud of."

For those hoping there will be some changes in the Cup schedule, perhaps including a couple different racetracks in the Chase, the new TV package in 2015 may offer opportunities. If NBC Sports suits whisper to NASCAR officials they would prefer some schedule changes, they likely will happen.

Looking ahead to 2015, O'Donnell said, "I think we're certainly going to take a look at it. The timing with the new TV partners makes sense. One thing to keep in mind, though, is with each of the tracks, if we constantly are shifting dates, it becomes more and more of a challenge for each track. Our fans like some of the familiarity. We want to balance that.

"With all the planning that goes into it, I think one of the lessons we've learned, we have to look 2, 3, 4 years in advance now in terms of what is out there from a competing landscape, what are the opportunities. I think you'll see us do more of that in the future as it becomes more and more competitive in sports.

"The one thing I think that gets missed sometimes is we have a lot of different parties to manage. We want to do, first and foremost, what's right for the fans, but we've got to take into consideration our TV partners, our track partners, our drivers, our owners.

"There's a lot of different factors that go into the decisions we make. Sometimes a fan may not understand why we did something. There's probably a good reason behind it. We don't expect every fan to agree with us. We want passionate fans who sometimes agree, sometimes don't, but we just want them to be involved."

The only changes for next year's Cup schedule are with the spring races at four tracks. Texas Motor Speedway moves a week earlier, to Sunday April 6 instead of a Saturday night race. Darlington Raceway will host its race on April 12, a month earlier than recent years. Kansas Speedway will hold its first Cup Saturday night race May 10. Martinsville Speedway's spring race will be March 30, a week earlier than this year.

For the fourth consecutive season, the Chase will begin at Chicagoland Speedway (Sept. 14) and conclude Nov. 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.