There’s been a lot of controversy over the years about what NASCAR has at its disposal during the Easter weekend. Families get together to celebrate in a myriad of ways, and the sport recently tried to make that celebration feel homey at the race track at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway.
To put it nicely, reviews were mixed across the board. But should NASCAR put itself back on a major pedestal in owning the Easter holiday? Outside of the NHL and the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, there aren’t a lot of standalone events. The NBA has taken control of Christmas Day, the NFL has always been on Thanksgiving and the MLB makes sure to be dialed in for the 4th of July.
So should NASCAR mark its Easter territory? Thomas Dunn and Stephen Stumpf debate that on this week’s 2-Headed Monster.
NASCAR Should Go For It
In acknowledging some of the drawbacks that have faced the sport on Easter in the past, NASCAR needs to commit.
In the 14 Easter races that the Cup Series has had, there hasn’t been a stretch of them for more than five seasons.
There’s no world where NASCAR can put its stronghold on Easter if it’ll only dip its toes into the water. This is an area where the sport and sanctioning body as a whole should be working with their TV partners to make these events feel special.
Think of the marketing, veering into commercials leading up to the NFL on Thanksgiving and NBA on Christmas and most importantly, the seriousness from the networks in presenting the event. Prime Video at Mexico City is a notable parameter for this type of coverage, where the stage of going international and the storylines at play stood out even amongst some of its other races.
Now, it’s not automatic to just put any random race as one that holds Easter-level significance. You’ve got drivers, teams and industry members all over the garage who would need to be on the move during a holiday weekend. You don’t necessarily want everyone out at Phoenix Raceway for example, when people want to be surrounded by friends and family.
Moreover, you aren’t touching Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Memorial Day Weekend date, so that leaves some limited options to keep things close. Bristol, Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway stick out immediately along this front. Recently, NASCAR tried to make the Bristol Dirt Race work on Easter but pulled the plug after a two-year stint. However, going back to Thunder Valley isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.
Would racing on Saturday the night before Easter be a nice middle of the road solution to all this? Potentially, and I think NASCAR should absolutely explore that.
In acknowledging that TV ratings from the last Easter weekend race at Richmond Raceway in 2024 were rough, the series needs to ask itself what it wants when it comes to getting back on the national stage.
There’s potential for NASCAR to seize the moment on Easter. It’s certainly not a one size fits all decision, but if they commit, the risk could very well be worth the reward. – Thomas Dunn
NASCAR’s Previous Easter Experiments Failed
I’m not really sure why this is a conversation when NASCAR already tried (unsuccessfully) experimenting with Easter earlier this decade.
Don’t get me wrong, it would be great if NASCAR was able to make Easter Sunday a thing. The fact that it was willing to give Cup races a go on a day that had long been untouchable should be commended.
But it didn’t work, from both a viewership perspective and a crew member perspective.
The first Easter Cup race at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track in 2022 started with strong momentum, as an impressive 4.007 million viewers tuned in to watch. But that first race proved to be the zenith of Easter Sunday racing, as the audience shrunk to 3.5 million for 2023.
The following year marked the end, as Bristol dirt was removed from the calendar, and the 2024 Easter race got sent to a Richmond Raceway date with minimal fanfare. That race only garnered an audience of 3.13 million, and with Easter Cup racing no longer drawing a significant uptick in viewership, the idea was scrapped for good in 2025 after three seasons.
Beyond viewership, Easter Sunday racing fell victim to poor season scheduling. Easter had given the teams an annual off week after approximately one-and-a-half months of action, and it served as the intermediate point between the next off week in mid-June. But by racing on Easter, the schedule got truncated to where the teams went a full four months on the road until the first off week.
With the Paris Olympics in 2024, the teams had to go all the way from February to July, a whopping five months, without a break. In a grueling schedule consisting of 38 race weekends, the lack of an early break was a detriment to the drivers and crew members that make this sport go round.
NASCAR is also one of the few sports that offers a pre-race invocation, and with a highly religious fanbase and crew base, it’s no surprise that the people involved would want a holiday like Easter to be time spent with family away from the track.
What NASCAR is currently doing at Rockingham Speedway with the Truck Series and O’Reilly Series on Good Friday and Saturday, respectively, is about as good of a compromise that one can get. Easter weekend may not be off limits to racing, but Easter Sunday is, and NASCAR has more than a mountain of evidence to show why it should stay that way. – Stephen Stumpf
Thomas is in his second year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon. He helps manage the 2-Headed Monster Column.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college athletics in the Bay Area, writing about the California Golden Bears and doing play by play broadcasting.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
It looks as though you folks are missing the point here. On Good Friday we give thanks and praise to Jesus for saving us from our sins. On Easter we give thanks and praise to Jesus for rising from the grave. On Christmas we give thanks and praise for the birth of our savior. These days are days to spend with family giving thanks to God. These days are not about racing, tv ratings, sponsors, fan attendance, or GREED.
Perhaps you do, that doesn’t mean that everybody does. Please speak just for yourself, thank you.
As to the broader question of NASCAR on Easter, since it’s such a floating holiday, it seems unlikely to “claim” it. It would be logical to keep it an off week forCup.
Easter should be an off week for the Cup series, unless there is something going on later, like the Olympics. Then we can do a night race on Saturday. Rockingham for the lower series was perfect, we still got racing to enjoy.
As far as Easter is concerned there is nothing to give thanks to NA$CAR for since 2004.
LOL You’re always so negative.
I helped on the script for Grumpy OId Men!
I’ll stay away from the religious moral component of this question, as frankly, I get tired of people telling each other what they should or should not do based upon personal beliefs. No religion has a core tenet of “hey, tell everyone else what you believe they should do, and hold grudges if they don’t listen”. Turn the other cheek seems to be a forgotten concept.
From a strictly numbers perspective, I’d think this would be an uphill battle for NASCAR. I have to guess NASCAR’s fan base skews highly Christian, which means many of them are celebrating the holiday with friends and family. Even if a race were held Saturday night, many families travel for Easter. Some may choose not to tune in, for religious reasons, which I respect. That’s not at all the same thing as yelling at others for exercising their own rights.
That said, the opportunity may be there. I don’t think the NFL/Thanksgiving is particularly relevant here, as for many, much of Thanksgiving afternoon is relaxing in front of the TV after a huge meal, and there are no religious beliefs to run afoul of. The NBA/Christmas is the interesting parallel to me. I never would have guessed this would become such a big deal, but when I look back, it makes all the sense in the world.
There are many reasons someone may not celebrate holidays, and for sports fans, enjoying the NBA is a great way to spend a day when most things are closed (good), so errands and the like are off the table. I still suspect NASCAR’s high overlap with Christianity would prevent success, but I was already wrong about the NBA, so again, maybe there is an opportunity here.
Both authors forgot one critical point in their debates. Easter is the one holiday on the calendar that moves dates by up to 4 or 5 weeks based on the lunar cycle.
It’s not like Christmas always 25th, not like Thanksgiving 4th Thursday of November, New Years being always Jan. 1 in the US, etc.
It is a lot more difficult to plan around and deal with as a fan. Plus the early Easter’s are in March so weather can reek havoc on the weekend even in the sooutheast
Honestly NASCAR should have Cup off for Easter but showcase Trucks & O’Reilly series at Rockingham. But next year with Easter on the last Sunday of March plus the Daytona 500 on February 21, it might be detrimental to have an off week after just 5 races for Cup. Maybe do a Friday night cup race on main FOX, possibly Martinsville with its LED track lights.