NASCAR Swings, Misses With 2011 Schedule Plans

I'm surprised, but I know I shouldn't be.

NASCAR made some changes this week in what we can now call "The Great Three-Days-and-Counting Schedule Reveal of 2010" with Kentucky Speedway adding its face to the Sprint Cup Series while biannual attendance-bust Auto Club Speedway lost what should have never been its: a second Cup date.

And, oh, Chicagoland Speedway will now earn page five in the sports sections of the Chicago newspaper coverage, buried by the NFL, when it opens the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup with a Sunday afternoon race. Meanwhile, Kansas Speedway will now feature two humdrum events at its cookie-cutter, 1.5-mile track.

So much for the "impactful changes" that NASCAR CEO Brian France alluded to at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the Brickyard 400 just a couple of weeks ago.

Where was the boldness? Where was the dramatic move to charge up what just became more of a tired mess of tracks for the 10-race championship chase? And why in the world are recent track lighting projects now going virtually unused for their biggest events?

As for the Chase, sure, we've got still got the ever-entertaining Martinsville Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway slotted in the mix. But with Chicago's addition -- sans the sparkling nighttime racing, mind you -- half of what fans will see in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup will happen on 1.5-mile layouts.

That just doesn't seem to satisfy my appetite after having watched Jimmie Johnson waltz through the Atlantas, Charlottes, Kansases and Texases of the NASCAR schedule for too many years now.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting NASCAR should have attempted to change its schedule just to undermine Johnson's efforts at going for what could be six-peat if he succeeds this fall. I'm just saying that unless the recent solar storm has made Johnson interested in crochet instead of checkered flags, adding another 1.5-miler -- the No. 48's bread-and-butter -- isn't going to make fans swoon with their wallets.

The idea has been tossed around to perhaps try a NASCAR event on a mid-week evening, a la the NFL's grand experiment with "Monday Night Football." Catch me if I'm wrong, but that deal seems to have worked out for the gridiron gang.

There was even talk of repositioning road course dates -- heck, why not add more? -- or maybe adding the historic Darlington Raceway into the Chase, just to throw another curve ball into the 10-race finale and pay a little homage to the sport's roots.

But none of that happened, and what we've got now is the same sense we had after NASCAR's last "radical" schedule overhaul for the 2004 season. This schedule feels a lot like a big strikeout with two outs and the bases loaded.

Moreover, some of the decisions are beyond head scratching. Both Phoenix and Chicago have built lights around their speedways in recent years, but now they'll just serve as just-in-case high beams. Both moves seem to be a big mistake, as neither track seems to have "wow" factor in terms of visual aesthetics until the lights come on and everything seems to shimmer.

Meanwhile, Kansas is planning to add lights -- presumably for some nighttime racing in June. If I'm a stockholder in International Speedway Corporation (owner of the tracks in Chicago, Kansas and Phoenix), I've got to be wondering why my company dropped millions of dollars on those capital improvement projects just to see their use curtailed.

Then again, ISC stockholders might not be so worried considering that their tracks now host the six key races: the season opener, season finale, final race before the Chase, the first race of the Chase and final race of the Chase. At some point, ISC and NASCAR should collect $200 as they pass Go, right?

The only thing that helps me understand some of the daytime-heavy scheduling is the biggest driver in all of NASCAR's decisions: television. Frankly, this sport has moved in a direction where a large crowd tuning in to watch on television is much more valuable than packing people into the grandstands.

In fact, that's exactly what Craig Rust, Chicagoland track president, said when asked why his track would now be returning to Sunday racing -- and likely in direct competition with fans trying to follow their beloved Chicago Bears. To paraphrase, "TV made us do it."

We've seen such an attitude before affect NASCAR not for the greater good, and it appears we're seeing it again.

Oh, what could have been.