Grassroots, small-town racing is frequently the foundation of racing fandom. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, spectators go to their local track to watch their hometown favorites battle under the lights. You may wonder if NASCAR ever attempts to imitate this sensation by racing at night.
NASCAR schedules a number of night races each year, including six night races in 2022. Typically, these are prominent, high-profile events with a great deal of intrigue. In recent years, the number of night races in the Cup Series has decreased slightly, although this may change in the future.
How many night races NASCAR schedules and why some tracks are better suited to night racing than others is determined by a number of factors. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of NASCAR night racing.
Do NASCAR Races Take Place at Night?
Sometimes NASCAR races occur at night. Some of these races begin and end at night, while others begin late in the day and conclude after sunset. NASCAR cars don't have real headlights, so if tracks want to hold races at night, they need to buy powerful lights to keep drivers safe.Long considered nearly impossible on large tracks, the majority of NASCAR tracks now have lights. In 1978, Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.53-mile short track, hosted the inaugural night race. Even though the races were well-attended and had enough lighting, many people wondered if they could be held on 1.5-mile or longer speedways, which would need a lot more lights than Bristol.
Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first one-and-a-half-mile track to experiment with lights. In 1992, during the All-Star event, the speedway hosted the first night race on a major track. Fans and drivers alike enjoyed the "One Hot Night" race, which paved the path for NASCAR's expansion into night racing. By 2005, six other big tracks had added lights for night racing in an effort to capitalize on the expanding industry.
How Many Night Races Does NASCAR Have?
There are six night races for points in the NASCAR Cup Series. The All-Star race at Texas Motor Speedway and the two qualifying races for the season-opening Daytona 500 both take place at night. Some races, such as the Daytona 500, begin in the late afternoon and may end at night. During the 2022 season, the NASCAR Xfinity Series will have only three true night races. Beginning in the spring, Martinsville is followed by Daytona and Bristol in the fall. The majority of Xfinity Series races occur on Saturday afternoons, while all night races occur on Fridays. In the past, the championship race at Phoenix has occasionally concluded under the lights on a Saturday evening.
The Truck Series, NASCAR's third-tier series, holds several of its races at night. 15 of the 23 races in the championship begin or run the majority of their laps under brilliant speedway lights. In 2022, nine Truck Series races will be held on Friday evenings, which is the most usual race night. This is due to the fact that the Truck Series schedule is predominantly comprised of double-header weekends with the higher series.
Weekends, and holidays
Three real night races will be held on Sundays over holiday weekends during the 2022 season. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway has traditionally been the Memorial Day weekend race for NASCAR. The race, considered by many to be a crown jewel event, concludes a day of prominent motorsports competition. Formula One's Monaco Grand Prix and IndyCar's Indianapolis 500 precede NASCAR's longest race. After racing during the day in 2021, NASCAR planned the 2022 spring Bristol Dirt Race for Easter Sunday night. NASCAR adopted this change to reduce the amount of dust disturbance caused by the cars and to maximize viewership with a highly anticipated primetime event. The other Sunday night race on Labor Day weekend is the Southern 500 at Darlington, a longstanding NASCAR event.
Three NASCAR Cup Series races are scheduled for Saturday evenings in 2022. The first race occurs in April at Martinsville, followed by the last race of the regular season at Daytona on August 27 and the renowned Bristol night race on September 17. Before being rescheduled to a later date in 2020, the Daytona night race was traditionally held during the Fourth of July weekend.
Notable Night Races:
Some of NASCAR's most prestigious races, notably the Coca-Cola 600, are contested at night. This race is 100 miles longer than any previous one and challenges car durability and driver endurance in novel ways. The Coca-Cola 600 typically begins during the day but turns to night racing before the halfway point. Drivers and crew have to change in ways they don't usually have to because of how the track changes.The Cup Series regular season races conclude with the summer Daytona race. This increases the stakes on an already tense Saturday night for all drivers still seeking a postseason berth. The Daytona night race has been a fan favorite for decades, dating back to its traditional Fourth of July weekend location. The event has not lost any reputation or enthusiasm since being moved to late August.
Playoff Night Races
NASCAR's Labor Day weekend race is the annual Southern 500 at Darlington Speedway. Similar to the Coca-Cola 600, it begins in the evening and continues well into the night. This is the first race in the playoffs since 2020, providing even more significance to a race that was previously regarded as a crown jewel event due to the track's difficulty and the race's historical prominence in NASCAR. Bristol is one of the most popular tracks, and its night race is one of NASCAR's most sought-after tickets. The Bristol night race is the Round One cutoff race, meaning that four of the sixteen drivers competing for the title are removed after the checkered flag waves. This adds to the importance of a race where there are often heated arguments on the track and strong feelings afterward.
Are there lights on all NASCAR tracks?
Not all NASCAR racetracks are illuminated. The Charlotte Roval, a hybrid road course through the speedway's infield and portions of the regular oval, includes lights but none of the other five real road courses have. Neither do the oval tracks in New Hampshire, Dover, Michigan, Talladega, or Pocono Raceway. Night racing presents a logistical difficulty on road courses. The length of NASCAR road courses ranges between 2.5 and 4 miles, so the expense of installing illumination, even if temporary, would be enormous. It makes sense that night racing is not often done on tracks with tight turns and changing terrain.
NASCAR often has no difficulty completing a race on a track without lights. These competitions are planned early enough in the day to enable ample time for completion before darkness becomes an issue. However, unanticipated delays can alter the trajectory of a race as darkness approaches.
The Effects of No Light
The 2021 New Hampshire race was called eight laps before its scheduled conclusion because it ran far longer than expected. NASCAR began the race despite a few sprinkles and additional rain in the region, but only five laps were completed before the track got too slick to continue and race leader Kyle Busch spun out. The race was delayed for two hours due to inclement weather. NASCAR had to reduce the number of laps at the darkened New Hampshire Motor Speedway as darkness grew and laps dwindled. The decision was made with 18 laps left on the schedule, giving drivers 10 laps to fight for positions instead of just waving the checkered flag.
Aric Almirola was able to fight off Christopher Bell's determined pursuit to win the race. He stated that he hoped to have the eight laps to close the gap on the leader, but that he understood NASCAR's decision.This race was affected by the lack of lights at New Hampshire, as it could be at any of the other lightless tracks on NASCAR's schedule.
The Cost of Track Lights
The expense of lighting a full track to ensure safe racing conditions is in the millions of dollars. Martinsville Speedway, a 0.52-mile short track, added lights to its paperclip-shaped track for $5 million in 2017. Martinsville is the shortest track on the NASCAR circuit, so this is at the bottom of the cost range for speedway lighting. The expense of larger speedways grows dramatically. In the 2010s, Indianapolis Motor Speedway considered installing lights on the 2.5-mile track as part of a large infrastructure upgrade. Before deciding not to put up lights at that time, speedway officials estimated that it would cost about $20 million to light up the track and other facilities around it for night races.
In an effort to replicate Daytona's night race, some fans have urged Talladega Superspeedway to install lights. Not only would the cost be comparable to that of Indianapolis, but the surrounding infrastructure would also need to be improved.For night racing to happen at Talladega, parking lots and roads that lead away from the track would need more lighting, which would add to the already huge cost.
How popular are NASCAR night races?
Night NASCAR races appear to be popular with fans. They appreciate the various elements that night racing can bring, such as flying sparks and bright brake rotors. But TV networks are still hesitant to add more Saturday night races because they tend to get fewer viewers than Sunday afternoon races.This is logical, as people of all demographics are more likely to be away from home or preoccupied on Saturday evenings than on Sunday afternoons. Few broadcast networks air new episodes of original programming on Saturdays due to this mindset. Even though some NASCAR fans are going crazy on the Internet for more night races, the numbers don't support the idea.
Consider Martinsville as an example. The thrilling short track is one of the finest racetracks on the program for the Cup Series. Sunday afternoon's coverage of the 2021 fall race on NBC garnered a 1.61 rating and 2.74 million viewers. NASCAR opted to hold the spring race at Martinsville in 2022 on a Saturday night. The night race, which was shown on FS1, only got a 1.1 rating and 1.88 million viewers.
Ratings
The two races were not held in a vacuum. NBC is carried by more providers in more homes than FS1, and the fall race is an elimination playoff race as opposed to a regular season race in the spring. This makes it impossible to definitively assert that the earlier start time is the sole cause of the lower ratings. But this is frequently stated as the reason why there are comparatively fewer Saturday night races each season. If Saturday night ratings are projected to be lower than Sunday afternoon ratings, it can be difficult for broadcasters to advocate for more night races. The diehards will undoubtedly tune in nonetheless, but it is more difficult to lure casual viewers on Saturday evenings. This may explain why tracks such as Richmond and Kansas have moved Saturday night races to Sunday afternoons in recent years.
Summary
There are a few night races in the NASCAR Cup Series, but the Truck Series holds the majority of its races at night. Five of the oval tracks on the Cup Series schedule haven't put in the lights needed for night races because it would be too expensive.