Kevin Harvick: NASCAR’s weak link is stagnant schedule – USA TODAY
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USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Gluck previews the upcoming race.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick has been beating the change-the-schedule drum for a few years now.
On Friday, the drum got louder.
Harvick’s regularly scheduled media availability at Talladega Superspeedway took a side road onto his thoughts about NASCAR’s 38-week Cup schedule, which he emphasized needs to be shaken up in every way “if you want to talk about growing the sport.”
“You can beat a dead horse as much as you want, but it doesn’t come back to life,” Harvick said of the schedule. “Sometimes you just have to change things up to keep the excitement and the enthusiasm in our sport, and I think our schedule is definitely the weak link along with some of the venues we go to.”
People like things that change, Harvick said, and dislike stagnant things. And the “most stagnant thing,” he said, is the schedule.
In Harvick’s view, some tracks only need one race. And there are other new venues NASCAR should pursue in addition to the types of tracks the series runs on. Harvick suggested more short tracks and road courses.
“I know the first place I’d go is Iowa (Speedway, a short track),” he said. “Everybody wants to see more short tracks. Adding a road race here or there would definitely be something I’d vote for, just for the fact that internationally, road racing is very recognizable to race fans. There’s not many ovals (around the world).
“You could take your pick on road courses. Montreal does a great job, you could go to Laguna Seca (in California). You could go anywhere in the world and race on a road course.”
Harvick noted there’s been massive changes in every other area in the past few years. The cars are completely different, teams have invested money in adjusting to new rules and NASCAR’s safety effort has been rejuvenated.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the schedule.
What’s the holdup?
“Two publicly traded companies,” Harvick said, referring to International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc., which together own all but three NASCAR tracks.
Harvick said NASCAR should experiment with a “wild card” race that would be drawn randomly at the end of the season. That would allow the sport to try a market like Milwaukee and see if it’s worth adding to the schedule on a permanent basis.
“You could go test these venues and see how the market reacts,” he said. “Even if you only have 30,000 or 40,000 people in the stands, if you put on a good event for TV and do the things it takes to have a unique event, that’s really what people want.”
On a similar note, Harvick said NASCAR should look to move away from Saturday night races. There’s a bigger audience on Sunday afternoons, he said, so that’s when NASCAR should air its races.
“We need to be on the TV when the most people watch because the sponsors are a big part of what makes this go round,” he said. “The fans in the grandstands are important, but the TV numbers are the most important thing we have.”
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck
PHOTOS: In the driver’s seat with Kevin Harvick
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