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Short track racing is not just a staple of NASCAR Cup Series racing or even just NASCAR racing as a whole but is instead a staple of American motorsports as a whole. The beating and banging of the racing alongside the connections to the roots of stock car racing are usually a spectacle that U.S. racing fans can enjoy. But in NASCAR things have gone a bit astray with the grassroots style of racing. Many have looked at it but today I wanted to look at a few more factors that have caused NASCAR trouble on the short track side of things. So with that, what are the NASCAR short track issues?
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34 comments
What are your thoughts on the current state of short track racing in NASCAR?
I think it is fun to much but new fans might not
It lacks the required McDowell Supremacy!
Our short track package needs a lot of improvement.
POWERRRRRRR! – Jeremy Clarkson
MOAR POWAAAAAAAAA
Needs to improve
In my opinion, adding more horsepower will fix it
MORE HORSEPOWER PLEASE
A Wise man once said “Mo Powa Babeh”
Is not the solution, all though might help a lil, but at least for me the bigger issue in short track is the mechanical grip and size of the Next Gen, and the gears sync, they don’t really look like it was setup for accelaration, and if there’s a bit more power it will help as well but the overall build of the car is flawed for the short Ovals, so they might as well make a whole new package or car for those races
Here’s how I would fix up the short track and road course package.
Remove the diffuser
Raise the horsepower to 850 or 900
Spoiler height at 3.5 inches (Black, not clear)
No shifting, only 4 gears instead of 5
I disagree with 4 gears on a road course imo the better route is more power and the same amout of aero with gt-like gear setups like the lemans NASCAr
It’s the gear ratios that are the issue on that front, not the number of gears. Hopefully that will be an easy fix.
The best method to solve the Next-gen car’s short track issues is by trying a simple aero method by simply removing the diffuser and maybe testing grooved tires specifically for short tracks like F1 used in the 2000s. Lastly, we call on NASCAR to ADD MORE HORSEPOWER PLEASE! Which is obviously something NASCAR will never do as their claim for less HP is “to attract new OEMs”, yeah right.
Lolll nascar hasnt had a new OEM in like 20 years….and lost dodge
Cars need a boost to horsepower, the current package makes Bristol and Martinsville a snooze fest
you must not like short track racing cause the night race last year was exactly the same as 2021 but with a few tire failures. 2021 race was loved by everybody cause of the drama. that’s all y’all want is drama y’all don’t actually like racing.
We also have to say Richmond has and always has been terrible, but more hp is what we need!
The lack of tire falloff first and foremost. The tire for Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, and Gateway (not a short track, but arguably races like one) became mostly strategy races because the tire did not wear out at all. If Goodyear brought a competent tire, I believe that would solve a majority of the next gen’s short track problems.
@Daniel Chaionly because the tire is getting hot, not wearing out. Once they cool it off they are running qualifying times again.
NASCAR needs to start another tire war by allowing other makers to come in like Firestone, Hankook, Yokohama & Michelin. Having competition will force Goodyear to improve their tires & the racing will get better as a result.
@Ryan Beyersdorff i agree that they can make it better and make it actually wear, but that’s not totally true and not a big deal. in theory it would be true but in reality it’s not.
they don’t cool down until a caution lets them cool down, and by then they do have enough actual wear that they aren’t running fast times anyways. it’s why we see guys stay out and fall back from 5th to 20th even if their tires aren’t that old. so yeah theoretically they could slow down and then be really fast but you can’t really do that without a caution forcing you to do it anyways.
if anything it helps passing because a guy can manage for 10 laps and cool his stuff and then go and pass a bunch of cars. that’s how you do it in all short track racing even with tires that do wear a lot. you see guys manage, make a run, then pay for it by falling back again.
so in the real life application of what makes them fall off, it’s almost exactly the same and fills the same purpose.
I think your point about the marketing is the biggest factor. Every short track instead of Richmond is in the middle of nowhere. It is a lot easier to market Miami, Kansas City, or Atlanta, than Bristol and Martinsville. Hell even Pocono is only an hour away from NYC and Philly. The fact that North Wilkesboro, the resurgence of one of the most historic tracks in the sport had lower viewership than the worst track on the schedule really set in stone this issue. This is why I think the Nashville Fairgrounds coming to cup and the New Auto Club would be huge for Nascar, since its a short track thats literally in downtown Nashville, or not that far away from LA.
But also it comes to dates. None of the short tracks needs 2 dates IMO. More people will attend the track if it only comes ones a year. Assuming 100,000 people want to watch a bristol race, its visually much better to have all 100,000 of them go to one race, instead of splitting it between the 2 dates.
But third, it looks like casual viewers are simply more entertained by the cars going faster. In the most very surface level, 200mph around Michigan or Pocono is more entertaining than 130mph around Martinsville. Faster = Cooler, and it looks like its always been that way.
Needs more horsepower, lower the gearbox, have a new set of tires to balance out the snooze periods, and maybe not build more short tracks until the issues above are fixed
I’ve come to like Richmond being a strategy race at times, but others like Martinsville have been major letdowns thanks to the Next Gen having gutless engines
Along with better marketing, NASCAR needs to build an upgraded chassis for short tracks
Something that the iceberg didn’t realize is that nascar decides to run the bristol night race on a saturday night when there’s also college football on. Viewership on these races isn’t completely due to short track racing being boring. You just can’t compete with college football. It would make a lot more sense to run the night races on Sunday night instead when there’s only one or two nfl games on.
Speedway Motorsports decided to
It wasn’t a problem when the Bristol Night Race was in August. But with the race in its current slot on the schedule…yeah, that’s the real problem there.
The Gen 4, COT and High Powered Gen 6 races at intermediates where better than you remember. Cars could actually pass, tires actually mattered and drivers weren’t stuck running the high line in the way they are now. Xfinity uses the same aero package everywhere and it works at all of the tracks. If they want to fix things, look no further than those cars as a starting point.
How to fix the next-gen car on short tracks and road course
1 More horsepower like 800 or 900 hp
2 take off the rear diffuser
3 only fourth gear on shorts track (but on road courses 5 speed h pattern)
4 get the spoiler about 3.5 inches (but with black)
5 narrow the car so that the cars can beat and bang and bump and run
I went to South bend motor speedway last month and I enjoyed the experience. My condolences to the Rockford speedway
Funnily enough, I live under 3 hours away from all 4 of the short tracks you mentioned. Martinsville is the closest and is basically my backyard where I’m driving past the track every other week for work. And we can almost get away with calling Bristol our third short track in the state since half of Bristol’s inhabitants live in Bristol, VA and the track is only a couple miles from the line. Several years ago we would easily be able to afford seasonal tickets to all three of the tracks (Wilkesboro is close but wasn’t a thing obviously). Now-days it’s just not really worth it. Interestingly with Martinsville, there are several families in the area that amassed their fortunes by machining, fabricating, and welding stock cars for NASCAR races for locals to run in the various different events. Not really much of a thing any more for local families to do that sort of thing, but it’s a neat piece of history for our region.
Im 42 andd live in Tennessee. When I was a kid, everyone knew who Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were at least. Nascar hooked me as a child because I saw a Mark Martin 6 Folgers car at the local Grocery store, and the crew guy gave me a pair of folgers earplugs. I had toy cup cars, a few driver action figures. Walmart sold nascar tshirts, etc.. My kids don’t have that!
That doesn’t exist anymore, hasn’t in a while. They tried to go mainstream like the NFL and got greedy. Bring back the marketing fron the 90s, early 2000s and it will pay off.
I”ll be at Bristol for Xfinity and Cup. Love short track racing and looking forward to today & tomorrow