Mid-Week Races Could Be Seen in 2021 Season as Well, Says NASCAR President

Motorsports reporter Adam Stern has said that NASCAR President Steve Phelps has not ruled out mid-week races for the 2021 season.

NASCAR has held mid-week races this year, unsurprisingly, the viewership ratings have been lower than what they get on weekends. Four mid-week races have been held this season in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Earlier this week, Stern, who reports for Sports Business Daily, posted a tweet, saying, “@StevePhelps says that NASCAR recognizes that ratings for midweek races have been lower than what the sport usually gets on weekends, but too early to say whether there will be some in ’21.”

He quoted Phelps as saying, “Do I think it’s the last midweek race we’ll ever have at NASCAR? I don’t think so.”

The experiment and need of having mid-week races arose after the season went into a 10-week break due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The four races that have been held mid-week this season were – The Toyota 500 at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday, May 20, the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 28, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday, June 10 and the race last week on July 23 at Kansas Speedway.

Mid-week races here to stay in NASCAR?

The races were held in the middle of the week to enable NASCAR to stay on course to complete a 36-race season despite the long break due to the pandemic.

The four races all saw great action. Based on reports, the viewership ratings for the four races were surely lower than weekend viewership ratings. But at the same time, they were decent and provided stable results.

Phelps’ comments on the same provide further impetus that NASCAR will not rule out the move of having mid-week races next season.

Many experts and fans are of the opinion that the best way to make mid-week races work is to have the races at night-time.

Although fans would still not be part of the action at the venue, they can still enjoy races from their homes on weeknights, simultaneously boosting the viewership and fan engagement ratings.

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SOURCE- Adam Stern-Twitter