Facts That Discredit & Demolish Chase Elliott’s Take on NASCAR Competing Against NFL

NFL vs NASCAR? Chase Elliott would never want that! The 2020 Cup Series Champion recently shared his thoughts on NASCAR’s new schedule. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is not known to usually express his strong opinions in public. But this time he couldn’t stop himself from calling out NASCAR about the changes he thought might improve the race experience for fans.

But are his suggestions practical? During a pre-race interview at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Elliott suggested that NASCAR should avoid Sunday afternoon races. Further, he cited losing fan base to the NFL and the issue of heat during afternoons as major concerns. To avoid going up against NFL and saving the NASCAR fans from the August heat, Elliott suggested NASCAR opt for night races.

He said, “I don’t see any reason in competing against NFL football when that starts. In my opinion, that’s not a battle we’re ever going to win. I think we should be smart about that.”

However, no matter how noble Elliott’s intentions were, the suggestions he made are not practical for the governing body. This is because the viewership history of NASCAR suggests otherwise. As per Brian Herbst, NASCAR SVP of Media and Productions, viewership during Sunday afternoon races is around 25% higher than Saturday night.

Although the NFL and getting toasted in the heat is a concern for fans, night races are not an economically viable option for NASCAR. Most money in the sport comes in from channel deals with Fox and NBC. And thus, at present, NASCAR cannot afford to choose a better raceway experience over maximizing TV viewership.

And since 65% of the TV money goes to the tracks, the ticket revenue does not matter much to the governing body. Moreover, shifting races to Saturday night does not solve NASCAR’s problem with football. Because if not NFL, NASCAR would still have to compete with College football on Saturday nights.

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Hence Sunday afternoons are in fact the best slots for NASCAR at present. It’s true that the decision does not seem ideal. However, it is the only way for the governing body to drive the maximum revenue into the sport. Although Chase Elliott made a great argument, his suggestions right now seem a bit impractical as NASCAR is looking to enter into negotiations for another TV deal.

Why did Chase Elliott earlier say ‘Less is More?’

On September 14, 2022. NASCAR released the schedule for the 2023 Cup Series. But no one expected Chase Elliott to react this way to the schedule. Elliott retweeted NASCAR’s post about the schedule with the caption, “Less=More. I like night races too.”

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And the entire NASCAR community huddled in the comment section to decipher the tweet. But during his interview at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott elaborated on what he meant to convey. He said that his tweet was a suggestion for a more compact schedule for the 2023 Cup Series races.