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NASCAR fans in Texas.

When Tyler Reddick crossed the finish line first in Michigan, taking his second win of the year, the race could have already been over But The questions were Only Start. Why does Mother Nature hate NASCAR in 2024? Why wasn’t the start time moved up to avoid the race ending on a Monday? And why is the standard start time in the afternoon anyway?

There is currently a running joke in NASCAR circles that any city or region experiencing drought or dry conditions should think about scheduling a NASCAR event because rain is sure to follow, improving the situation.

The August 18 race on the 2.0-mile course through the Irish Hills was the latest victim. Rain initially delayed the start of the race. And after lap 51 was reached and not even halfway through the official race, officials decided to abandon it. at one day and postpone completion until Monday.

NASCAR fans question start times and official answers

When NASCAR decided to postpone the race due to weather, many fans took to social media to voice their displeasure with the afternoon green flag and questioned why officials didn’t consider moving the start time to an earlier time when the chance of rain was so high. And when this happens after a weather-affected race, it inevitably raises the question of why does NASCAR have such late start times in the first place?

This week, Earnhardt addressed the topic on “Dale Jr. Download.”

“The start times are predicted and chosen by the broadcasters, and they influence that to a large extent,” Earnhardt said. “And they know what they are doing. They want to run this race where they feel How it’s going to get the best number, right? It’s that simple. It’s not a NASCAR decision.”

Brian Herbst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of broadcasting and innovation, appeared on an episode of “Dale Jr. Download Reloaded” and said there are several stakeholders and revealed why start times will not be moved up.

“Discussions like this happen – there are usually no perfect answers,” Herbst noted. “We do our best with imperfect scenarios and weigh all various interest groups that in sport. It’s the fans at the track. It’s the fans watching at home. It’s the teams, it’s the drivers, it’s the sponsors, it’s the TV partners.

“In every scheduling discussion we have, market by market or about the start times themselves, we talk about six, seven, eight different stakeholders – OEMs, sponsor partners – that we take into account whenever we make such a call. If we have 50,000 people at Michigan watching the race locally, we have 3 million people watching a typical NASCAR race at home.

“The rule of thumb we use is that every hour we start later brings 5% more viewers. So if we start at 3pm instead of 1pm, that’s about 10%.. So 5% per hour, 10% for those two hours. So for a race that we run at 3pm and that draws an average of three million viewers, we would expect the race to drop to 2.7 million viewers if we ran it at 1pm – mixed across different relationshipd of the averages. So you will lose about 300,000 viewers.”

History repeats itself

For NASCAR fans who have been following the sport since 2000, this may all feel like Groundhog Day, because fans went through the same thing 15 years ago and complained about it.

A December Article 2009 Sports Media Watch states:

“Fans had previously complained about the trend of NASCAR races Be later in the day. In a conference call to discuss the scheduling changes, Fox Sports Chairman David Hill acknowledged that “the traditional early Sunday afternoon start times are preferred by NASCAR fans who both “Attend races and watch them on TV.’ In addition, ‘research has shown that NASCAR fans stick to their tradition of starting between 12 and 1 p.m.'”

An ESPN article on the subject included a statement from then-NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France: “NASCAR fans have requested earlier and more consistent start times, and we are making this change for our fans, beginning with the Daytona 500 next February. We are building on our sport’s tradition of showing green flags earlier, and the added consistency will make it easier for fans to know exactly when the races will be televised.”

This has happened before. Will it happen again?

Kyle Dalton covers NASCAR for Heavy.com. He has more than 30 years of experience covering high school, college and professional sports, including articles for the Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio-Express News, Detroit News and Sportscasting.com. More about Kyle Dalton