This Sunday marked the official start of the most anticipated event of the year.
I’m sorry, what’s that? Playoffs? Playoffs??
I was referring to the start of the NFL regular season. After a seven-month hiatus, America’s new national pastime started anew to great fanfare with wall-to-wall coverage that actually started Thursday (Sept. 5) night.
While the crowd in Atlanta wasn’t sparse, it wasn’t exactly a sell-out similar to what we saw at Darlington, Daytona or even Michigan the weeks prior. With a season that runs from Valentine’s Day to almost Thanksgiving, it raises an honest question: Does NASCAR really need to try to compete with the NFL this time of year? This week, Trenton Worsham and Wyatt Watson defend the respective goals in 2-Headed Monster.
Read the Room: Less is More
While every sport wants to be on top, simply saying it with conviction won’t make it so. While we can sit around with rose-colored glasses remembering when NASCAR was on par with, if not surpassing, the NFL, this is not now.
NASCAR must focus on itself and the sport and be its best without worrying about what a stick-and-ball sport is doing or when they’re playing. This line of thinking has led us to the controversial playoff system, which can lead to fake game 7 moments or something not of a driver’s doing taking away their chances. While shocking and storyline-driving, it does not crown the best driver of the entirety of the season. What will be next, Monday Night NASCAR? Thursday Night Lights? The DaleCast?
If NASCAR truly wanted to compete with the NFL and college football, they would listen to drivers like Denny Hamlin and his concerns about the charter deal. That deal was signed by all but two teams, with murmurs of arm-twisting with owners speaking on anonymity.
Formula 1 and IndyCar thrive in their own worlds, one of them all over the planet, while also racing on Sundays. F1 got a popularity boost through the Netflix docu-series Drive To Survive. The NFL has Hard Knocks and Netflix series. If anything, copy this and give the fans more NASCAR access behind the scenes. A pit-crew-focused show would be a great example of something new they could try. What they DON’T copy or try are the things they should. F1 has the luxury of being worldwide with their races so the times don’t always overlap with football games.
NASCAR, however, has a 3:30 p.m. ET start time at tracks without lights.
The schedule is the core issue as to what needs to change. I do not foresee this ever changing as sports betting gets bigger and bigger, and the NFL is expanding worldwide, and college football has its passionate hold in America on Saturdays. College football specifically seems to overlap with the base NASCAR reaches in the Southern United States, making those fans choose between racing or football. And nothing but the Tide, as some say, will have NASCAR losing every time.
Less is more. We do not need a February-to-November schedule of racing. Crews, drivers and team members no doubt get burnout and, in 2025, the only off weekend for the Cup series is Easter. Some tracks don’t need two dates and some would do better in a rotating schedule creating the demand for fans when it comes back the next season. The market naturally craves more and certain tracks that aren’t raced every other year.
NASCAR needs to stop chasing the NFL and college football and stay in their two or three lanes, depending on the track. Focus on making the product better for everyone without focusing on competing against leagues you’ll never beat.
Start the playoffs in early August and have the season end in mid-October, or start the playoffs for a summer shootout in mid-July and end in August, a week or so before football season kicks off….also adding in a few ‘bye’ weeks. If NASCAR copies anything these leagues do, it’s giving the teams more breaks and helps prevent over-saturation of the product. – Trenton Worsham
NASCAR Doesn’t Need the NFL’s Permission
The NASCAR season runs from early February to late November. Why on earth would the sport now begin to worry about if races interfere with NFL games?
A full Sunday NFL slate runs from the 1 p.m. ET afternoon games to the Sunday night matchup that kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET. Unless the sport wants to move back one day and run races on Thursday through Saturday night each week, it is inevitable that NASCAR will go head-to-head with all types of NFL matchups from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Carolina Panthers.
Besides, all but one Cup Series race from now until the end of the season is scheduled between 2 or 3:30 p.m. ET. Do you really think NASCAR is worried about the NFL and their games with those start times?
Even if NASCAR wanted to flex a race away from a marquee NFL matchup, it could only move it up one hour, and only if weather is playing a factor in getting at least half the race distance in. NASCAR in no way should be threatened or worried about what football games are being played. They need to be focused on the race going on and the playoff format.
It is coincidental that the NASCAR playoffs start at the beginning of pro football season, but with how long the season is and no real conversation about shortening the schedule, NASCAR will have to bite the bullet and compete with the NFL every Sunday come playoff time.
In terms of the start of NFL season, adding or taking away an off week during the season won’t help much anyway. We had only two off weeks for the Olympics this season, and the sport will return to taking a break during Easter Sunday next season, the only break of the year.
Really, the only concern that I have with the NFL is if they plan to expand to having two bye weeks or an extra game, pushing the Super Bowl into the Daytona 500 weekend. That’s the only case in which NASCAR should be worried. Going head-to-head with the most popular sports program year-by-year would be a terrible decision to make, and the NFL would force NASCAR’s hand to start the season either a week earlier or, more likely, a week later.
But in regard to the regular season of the NFL, NASCAR shouldn’t be worried with what the NFL is doing elsewhere. However, they should be more worried about a much bigger and important issue to the future of the sport: the charter holdouts from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. — Wyatt Watson
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing