NASCAR Executive Divulges the After-Effects of Pandemic That Triggered a Tug of War Over Cup Series Practice

The continuing policy of short practice sessions in NASCAR has evoked a mixture of reactions from racers. The majority tilt toward a negative view of it, complaining that less practice is equal to less finesse. However, others have advocated this trend, upholding the increased parity it brings to the race track.

But the drivers’ opinions, however diverse they may be, do not bring out the full picture. To get an eagle’s eye view of the problem, let us delve into what one of the NASCAR lawmakers has to say.

Covid was the culprit, as a NASCAR official says

When the year 2020 came, the race tracks went into business as usual. Daytona tickets were sold out, and the same happened in the next three races. Then everything changed as the world shut down due to the raging pandemic. COVID-19 reached NASCAR and race tracks were also shut. This unique situation called for creative solutions.

Elton Sawyer, current Senior VP of competition, came on the Dale Jr Download podcast and delved into this topic. “If you’re backing up to Covid, obviously we had a lot of things different than what we’ve done in the past. And for all the things that came out of Covid that were really, really bad for our country, industry…we had to make some decisions. We were the first national sports entity to get back to racing. But we had to do that in a safe way.”

Having introduced his premise, Sawyer launched into the reduced practice fiasco. The reduced practice sessions were part of a bigger plan, that Sawyer and others shaped. “For 75+ years we’re used to having practice, qualifying, and multiple practices. And that just wasn’t gonna be an option as we moved into post-Covid. So working closely with the industry, the teams, the broadcast partners, the tracks…we came up with the model that we had then, which was basically to show up and race. We stuck in line-ups based on points and metrics. We turned the cars loose, the trucks loose, and we went racing.”

Hence, the NASCAR higher-ups worked out an entire system to fit the post-Covid scenario. “Believe me, for a competitor who has been around the sport for many years, never in my wildest dreams did I think we could have done that, or think that was even possible from a driver’s perspective. But we learned a lot, we learned we could do that.”

Before truncated practice sessions gave a fix to the COVID problem, iRacing had come to the fans’ rescue. However, one racer aptly criticized both fixes.

The online experience can only offer so much

After Covid struck, racing came to a standstill in NASCAR. Yet where there is a will, there is a way. NASCAR and iRacing teamed up to create the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. Fox broadcasted these races just like the real ones and provided entertainment fuel for motorheads. iRacing persisted and provided alternatives to drivers for lesser practice sessions.

However, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs aptly pointed out the drawback. “I spent a lot of time on the simulator. Simulating stuff and then going to the track and actually doing it, the cross from that is really hard. The sim is not fake. You have to make it close to be real. It’s pretty difficult going from that to the track, so I would definitely like longer practice.”

So, however justified NASCAR’s stance may be, racers will keep clamoring for more practice.