NASCAR holding practice and qualifying just feels right

Drivers such as Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano being in the NASCAR garage for practice feels normal(Photo: Getty Images)

Former NBA star Allen Iverson once went on a rather long rant during a press conference in which he admonished the assembled media for “talking about practice”. But the fact of the matter is that in sports practice is a very important aspect in a team or individual’s performance at game time. As a former high school basketball and cross country coach, I can also attest that practice can be somewhat tedious and monotonous.

While practice is in fact important in all forms of sports, perhaps no other form of competition pays as much attention to it as auto racing does. As evidence of that, not many sports have their practice sessions televised but NASCAR and many other forms of racing do.

In 2020, NASCAR did the right thing to remove practice and qualifying from their race weekends. Reducing the amount of time spent at the track by its drivers, team members, and officials due to concerns over coronavirus and restrictions put in place by many of the state and local governments that serve as home to the tracks on the top-three series was necessary.

Over the vast majority of last year, the teams on the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series simply showed up on race day and hit the track with the first lap for each being when they took the green flag to start their particular event. And coming into 2021, those race weekend procedures have remained in place for most events.

Only eight races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule were originally slated to hold practice and qualifying sessions in 2021.

However, the uniqueness of last week’s events when NASCAR raced at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX for the first time brought about a return of practice and qualifying. This Memorial Day weekend’s races held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway have also caused NASCAR to return to its old ways with each division getting a practice session and time-trials to set the starting lineup.

Perhaps the time has come to rethink that initial plan.

Of course, NASCAR has to go by whatever state or local regulations are in place. But as we start to see different elements of our culture begin to return to at least some form of pre-pandemic normality, there would seem to be no reason why NASCAR race weekends can’t begin do the same.

During the 2020 season, I was among those who said the drivers and teams needed to learn how to function without so much practice and qualifying for every event. And as someone who covers a great deal of dirt racing, I still believe pavement racing in all of its forms practices too much. That said, though, it appears as if we have now reached a point in which practices could be held safely, at least in some limited form.

Maybe one of the things NASCAR will gain from all that it has had to adjust to over the past 15 months is that there doesn’t need to be two or three practice sessions for each division on a race weekend. But one session of one hour might be plenty.

Of course, that would cause teams to need backup cars for more races in what is now the final season for the car currently being used. And if we get down to the real nuts and bolts of the issue, that may have more to do with practice restrictions than pandemic regulations.

That said, fans benefit from there being at least some form of NASCAR practice and qualifying. It provides something to come home to on a Friday afternoon. Also the television reporters are more easily able to get actual face-to-face interviews rather than glitchy and buffering Zoom calls which provides more information and even more fodder for discussion.

And perhaps most of all considering what we have all been through, everything that begins to return to some degree of normality is just comforting. It gives us somewhere to direct our energy in a positive way rather than simply sitting around looking for things to be worried or upset about.

Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association

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