IndyCar Race Review: Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
Just like last year, a single driver dominated yesterday’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, the road course finale for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. What made this particular win special for that driver, however, were the circumstances surrounding it.
Will Power’s fifth win of the season (all on road courses) came on a track where his career was put into serious jeopardy, after a freak accident in practice severely injured his back and prematurely ended his 2009 season. The win served as a victory parade for this year’s winner of the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy, an honor he clinched two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio.
Unlike Dario Franchitti last year, Power did not lead all 75 laps of the event; Scott Dixon, who finished second, led two laps in the middle stages of the event. But nobody really had anything for Power, who had won the pole and stretched some huge leads early on in the race.
While a top five completely populated by Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing cars doesn’t suggest the most unpredictable or exciting of races, some of the action a little deeper in the field was more than exciting enough to keep the most jaded of fans interested.
Dan Wheldon’s race ended before it began, with accidental contact from Bertrand Baguette at the start sending the No. 4 Panther Racing Dallara-Honda upside down in a wreck that almost looked like it came out of a video game. It was Wheldon’s first DNF since St. Petersburg earlier this year, as well as his first finish outside the top 20.
Simona de Silvestro had an interesting day as well. First, contact with Alex Tagliani cut the Canadian’s tire down, and then she nearly sent Raphael Matos upside down as well with an aggressive move early in the race. Finally, E.J. Viso ran into her not long after, spinning her out. De Silvestro continued on, eventually winding up 13th.
Hometown hero J.R. Hildebrand and 2006 race winner Marco Andretti got together on lap 37, ending Hildebrand’s day. Not too long after, Andretti got into Mario Moraes in the same corner, eliciting a reaction from fans aware of the drivers’ history with one another.
The final caution of the day came when Baguette, Matos, and Viso got together with under ten laps to go. Viso’s KV Racing Technology car was able to continue on, marking only the fourth race all season where each of that team’s cars finished the event. Baguette and Matos, however, were done for.
Dixon put the pressure on at the final restart, the drivers matching presses of the Push to Pass button, but the Australian managed to extend his lead once again. Francesco Dracone stalled in the final corner on the final lap, leading to a local yellow that brought down Power’s margin of victory considerably, but the rule against passing during a local yellow, combined with the proximity to the start-finish line, ensured that Dixon would not have a chance to go by.
Franchitti was third, with Power’s teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves rounding out the top five.
Read more on the IZOD IndyCar Series from Christopher Leone at OpenWheelAmerica.com.
IZOD IndyCar Series
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. – Results Sunday of the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.303-mile Infineon Raceway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
2. (6) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
3. (3) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
4. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
5. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
6. (7) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
7. (9) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
8. (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
9. (16) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
10. (22) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
11. (20) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
12. (18) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
13. (11) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
14. (4) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
15. (21) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
16. (23) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 75, Running
17. (14) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
18. (17) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
19. (15) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Honda, 74, Running
20. (25) Francesco Dracone, Dallara-Honda, 71, Contact
21. (10) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 67,
22. (24) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 67, Running
23. (13) Bertrand Baguette, Dallara-Honda, 65, Contact
24. (19) J.R. Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 38, Contact
25. (12) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 0, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 92.063
Time of Race: 01:52:34.1915
Margin of victory: .7432 of a second
Cautions: 4 for 10 laps
Lead changes: 2 among 2 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1-55, Dixon 56-57, Power 58-75
Point Standings: Power 514, Franchitti 455, Dixon 419, Briscoe 384, Castroneves 370, Hunter-Reay 360, Kanaan 330, Wilson 290, Andretti 284, Wheldon 269.
IndyCar Race Preview: Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
Will Power may have already clinched the Mario Andretti Trophy as the best road course driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series this year, but he’ll have plenty of unfinished business when he takes to the Infineon Raceway for this weekend’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
Power’s season ended here prematurely last year when a freak accident with Nelson Philippe landed him on the sidelines with two fractured vertebrae in his back. By now, most IndyCar fans know the story: originally a temp replacement at Team Penske while Helio Castroneves’ legal issues were sorted out, owner Roger Penske found the money to run Power in a handful of other events last year, and his performance was stellar until the Sonoma incident.
Regardless, Penske took a chance on the Australian full-time this year, shutting down his sports car operation to make room, and Power rewarded the veteran owner by winning his first two races back this season. He has taken four of the eight road course races run thus far this year, and he hasn’t finished any worse than fourth running on the twisties.
But just because he has the road course championship in hand, and a solid 41-point advantage in the overall standings, doesn’t mean that a Power victory lap at Sonoma is a certainty. It’s especially not the case when his top rival in all categories, 2009 series champion Dario Franchitti, led every lap to win from the pole here last year.
Franchitti got the best of Power during Friday practice, as the series’ top two drivers were 1-2 atop the speed charts. 16 drivers posted laps within a second of Franchitti’s best, a 78.297-second circuit. Alex Tagliani, Franchitti teammate Scott Dixon, and Justin Wilson completed the top five in that session.
J.R. Hildebrand, in 13th with a lap of 79.039 seconds, was the top rookie in the session. Wilson’s teammate at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and a California native who calls Infineon his home track, Hildebrand will attempt to top the injured Mike Conway’s third-place finish in this race last year. He had nearly half a second on Bertrand Baguette, the second-best rookie.
In all, 23 of the 25 drivers attempting the race were within two seconds of Franchitti’s best lap. The lone two exceptions were Francesco Dracone, making only his second career IndyCar start with Conquest Racing, and Milka Duno, who has been consistently off the pace all year with Dale Coyne Racing. The buzz around Duno gets stronger every week, with more and more fans calling for the IRL powers that be to park her. Last year, Duno had her second best finish of the season at Infineon, placing 17th.
Infineon Announces NASCAR Date for 2011
SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 11, 2010) – Infineon Raceway will return to its more traditional date for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race weekend in 2011.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 will take place, June 24-26, the final weekend in June. The race had been held on Father’s Day each of the last two years.
“This is a small change on the calendar, but a very positive development overall. We’ve had lots of feedback from fans over the last two seasons that the Father’s Day date presents a conflict with their traditional family plans,” said Steve Page, president and general manager of Infineon Raceway.
The raceway had hosted the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series the final weekend in June for a number of years before moving to Father’s Day in 2009.
Page is confident the move back to the final weekend in June will be welcomed by race fans.
“This is the anchor event on the Infineon Raceway schedule and we’re delighted to be back on our old date,” Page said.
This will mark the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 23rd consecutive visit to the Sonoma Valley. Jimmie Johnson became the sixth different driver in six years to take the checkers at this past June’s Toyota/Save Mart 350. It was the first-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road-course victory for Johnson.
The 2011 race weekend will also boast the Thunder Valley Casino Resort 200 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event on Saturday, June 25. Canadian Andrew Ranger took the checkers in June.
Race fans interested in getting an early start can renew their tickets or sign-up for priority pre-sale by calling 800-870-RACE today.
Gordon eyeing record at home track
This weekend could be a special one for Jeff Gordon, as he approaches a record at his home track, Infineon Raceway. Already holding several records at Sonoma, Gordon is just a few notches away from a couple more.
This weekend, Gordon needs to complete 96 of 110 laps to take over the all-time lap competition record at Sonoma from Michael Waltrip, who completed 1,770 of 1,999 laps. Gordon is currently at 1,675 laps of 1,703 laps attempted.
That’s not all, however. Gordon could break a couple of ties with a win or a top-ten this weekend. Currently, he is tied for first on the all-time wins list at Sonoma chart with Rusty Wallace at five apiece.
The Vallejo, Calif. native is also tied with Mark Martin for the all-time top-ten finishes at Sonoma record with 13 top-ten results each.
With a top-five, or a win, Gordon would also break a tie with Ricky Rudd for most top-five finishes; both currently have ten top-five results at Sonoma.
Finally, if Gordon leads just one lap, he will break a tie with Wallace for most races led at Infineon Raceway. Currently, both have led in nine races. However, Gordon has led 420 laps, more than any other driver who has ever raced at Sonoma.
Gordon could also extend his already dominant lead in a few records:
— He is the winningest driver at Sonoma, record five wins. There only four other multiple winners at Sonoma, all of them have only won twice: Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace.
— His five poles at Sonoma are more than any other driver.
— He has accrued over $2.2-million in race winnings, over $700,000 more than Tony Stewart, who is the second-place all-time earner.
— He led 92 laps on his way to victory in 2004, resetting his former record of most laps led by a race winner.
Other accomplishments include being one of three drivers to win a race from the pole at Infineon. However, he has done it more three times, more than the other two drivers who have also won from the pole — those being Martin and Irvan.
Gordon’s car owner, Rick Hendrick, is the winningest car owner at Sonoma, a record he could extend with either a win by Gordon or Martin, or a first time win from Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick currently has five wins as a car owner, all five with Gordon.
With family nearby and all of the records Gordon has at Sonoma along, not to mention the fact that he is the winningest driver all-time on road courses with nine total wins, Gordon has to be excited heading into to the weekend.
“With the success we’ve had here, this is an event we always look forward to,” Gordon said. “And it’s always a fun weekend because I have so many family and friends in the area. “The track is one where you have to be aggressive, yet be smooth. And you really have to ‘get after’ some of the corners while not overdriving them.”
However, Gordon will have to celebrate daughter Ella’s third birthday a day late, as her birthday falls on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, (wife) Ingrid and Ella won’t be at the race track this weekend.” Gordon said. “But we’ll celebrate Ella’s birthday and Father’s Day next week.”
Pre-Race Quotes:
— Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge: “I’ve really enjoyed the road courses – those races are so different from what we normally face week in and week out. I jokingly say quite often that it’s like having a weekend off because we are so used to turning left and here we are out there making left and right turns and shifting gears. It’s really a great change to break up all the oval tracks that we race on. It’s like a unique race that we always run in reverse. You always focus on when you can make it with your fuel window and go with that strategy and that’s what usually plays out at the end.”
— Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet: “The team has done a lot of testing so hopefully we’ll see the results on the track. We had a good run last year but got wrecked there at the end. I’d like to get a top-10 at Sonoma, and we’ve been close. Road racing is out of my element but I enjoy it.”
— Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford: “Infineon is one of our best race tracks performance-wise; we’ve run really well there. Last year I got a road course win in the Nationwide Series at Montreal, and a road course win on the Cup side is one of my career goals. To me that would be very gratifying considering how terrible I was when I started road racing. We finished third at Watkins Glen in our last road course race and hopefully we can have a good run in Sonoma. I love racing there, and I love the area. It’s a driver’s race track and I like it a lot.”
— David Reutimann, driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota: “Infineon is very, very technical and it’s easy to overdrive. Forward bite is a problem there and struggling with wheel spin. It gets pretty hot out there and the track gets slick. I think the main thing is conserving your tires to keep good grip. We try to work on our shifts so we can save some tires. That’s a lot of the different things that we learned while we were out there. It was a good experience to spend some time out there. We learned a lot.”
Pre-Race Notes:
— Several drivers are searching for their first road course win this weekend. The most notable drivers on that list are (best finish in parenthesis) Greg Biffle (fourth in 2006), Jeff Burton (third in 2007), Kurt Busch (third in 2005), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th in 2003 and 2004), Carl Edwards (sixth in 2006), Denny Hamlin (fifth in 2009) and Matt Kenseth (eighth in 2008).
— The Race to the Chase kicks off next weekend in New Hampshire. Drivers will have only ten more races to qualify for NASCAR’s version of the playoffs by positioning themselves in the top-12 in drivers’ points.
— Juan Pablo Montoya, who’s first and only Cup win came at Infineon Raceway, is being awarded the National Fatherhood Initiative Award this Sunday during pre-race festivities for the Toyota Save Mart 350. The award is presented to those that make a contribution to fathering throughout their working and home environments.
Pre-Race Info:
Name: Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Race 16 of 36)
Length: 110 laps/219 miles/350 kilometers
Track: Road course; 1.99 miles
Time: June 20, 2010 at 3 p.m. ET
TV: TNT
Online: TNT RaceBuddy at NASCAR.com/Trackpass at NASCAR.com
Radio: PRN/Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio 128
2009 pole winner: Brian Vickers (93.678 mph, 76.475 seconds)
2009 race winner: Kasey Kahne, 71.012 mph, 6-21-09)
Track qualifying record: Jeff Gordon (94.325 mph, 75.950 secs., 6-24-05)
Track race record: Ricky Rudd (81.007 mph, 6-23-02)
Estimated Pit Window: Every 30-32 laps, based on fuel mileage
Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Toyota/Save Mart 350
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series only visits two road courses a year, and this weekend marks the first of those two events. The Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway also marks the final event before the ten-race “Race to the Chase” begins.
Road course events frequently bring out road course ringers, usually ex-open wheel and sports car drivers who will replace teams’ normal drivers for the single weekend. They give the smaller and/or struggling teams a good chance at stealing a win or two over the course of the season. One, Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom, will make his NASCAR debut for Team Red Bull after establishing a career as one of the best touring car drivers ever seen in Germany.
So who’s a solid pick for this weekend’s race? Don’t just pick the biggest names in the sport. Some of the top options aren’t who you think.
Unless, of course, your pick is Juan Pablo Montoya, in which case you’re right on the money. The ex-Formula 1 star has an average finish of 4.3 in three Infineon starts, including a win in his 2007 debut and top-10s in every race. It doesn’t even matter that his qualifying average is a 23.3 – he’ll get through the field.
As for a dark horse, my pick is Boris Said, who returns to the Latitude 43 Motorsports car this weekend. Said always has a decent shot at winning road course races, which is why he seems to find a ride at just about every NASCAR road course event year in and year out. But besides the lack of prestige and results produced thus far by the No. 26 team, what makes Said a dark horse is his underwhelming 20.3 average finish at Infineon, with only four top-10s and a best finish of sixth in 10 starts.
As for the other three picks I normally give you?
Clint Bowyer, whose Infineon stats are quietly second best in the series, will give you a good shot at a decent finish. Though he’s never won, his 8.0 average finish is second to only Montoya’s. He has two fourth-place finishes in four starts and a worst finish of 16th, with all 445 possible laps completed.
Jeff Gordon, meanwhile, may be one of the best Infineon drivers of all time, his average finish only down to a 9.3 because of the occasional poor finish in 17 starts. That does not, however, take away from his five wins, including three in a row from 1998 to 2000. He hasn’t led any laps since his last win in 2006, but he has led substantial portions of the race in each of the nine times he’s held the point. Gordon only has four finishes outside of the top three at Infineon in the past ten years, and two of those were still top-10s.
Finally, Denny Hamlin has been on a tear recently, winning five of the last ten events. This puts him third in points with a huge advantage once the Chase starts. His Infineon record is not stellar but acceptable, with two top-10s in four starts and only one finish in the bottom half of the field. He even led 33 laps at the track last year. His momentum, however, and not his track expertise, will be the key for him to secure another strong finish.
Lesa France Kennedy says new ticket prices attracting many new buyers
While the economy’s outlook is still bleak on the surface and NASCAR’s attendance is still on a slight drop after the 2009 NASCAR season, the race tracks have spent much of this year, and the offseason, lowering ticket prices, among other things, to help boost attendance and fan interaction.
- Lesa France Kennedy. (Photo by NASCAR)
Lesa France Kennedy, CEO and Vice Chairwoman of the International Speedway Corporation, was a speaker at the inaugural Motor Sport Business Forum North America on Wednesday and addressed the issues that has faced ISC over the past two years and how the company has handled them.
From a company-wide standpoint, France Kennedy said that ISC has re-priced over a million of their race tracks’ tickets for this season. This coupled with a new array of bundles in which to purchase tickets was a somewhat obvious way to deal with an economic downturn. However, it has not only kept attendance in the Sprint Cup Series to a level just under that of years before, it has brought some new fans to the stands. In fact, two out of every three fans that purchased a ticket this year were a new customer to ISC tracks.
“First of all, there’s no doubt that all businesses have been challenged by the economy and we are not immune to it,” France Kennedy said. “Whenever there is a situation like this, it has also provided an opportunity for us. We’ve taken over a half a million of our tickets and re-priced or restructured them. We’ve taken some of the tickets that were previously bundled and created new packages where the bundling wasn’t as prominent. We find that about 2/3 of the people that are buying our newly structured tickets are brand-new buyers.”
From there, the tracks rely on the hope, and research, that if you go to one NASCAR event you have to go to another one. However, the challenge is getting a fan to that first event.
“Our history tells us that if we can get them to that one event, that the product sells itself,” France Kennedy said. “Our challenge is getting them to that first event, and then it goes from there. We’re accomplishing that through different opportunities and value pricing.”
Prices aren’t the only way these tracks are trying to attract a new breed of fan. Things such as social networking and creating a “green” initiative around the track and the sport are cause for keeping attendance just below average even in these rough economic times.
Many of the ISC tracks have accounts across the most popular social networks in the United States, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. With tracks placing more interest on the younger demographic, social content has become a key marketing strategy and a cause for their overall success.
“People are consuming our sport in different ways now, like NASCAR.com for instance,” France Kennedy said. “Social media, I know especially for the younger folks, that is how they communicate. All of our tracks now have social media outlets where they communicate with potential fans and new fans, as well as the younger audience. We always have to be refilling the pipeline.”
A Chinook helicopter flies in the pace car driven by Lt. Col. Doug Hurley during prerace ceremonies prior to the start of the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 8, 2009. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
It’s not just ISC tracks that are making these changes, however. Speedway Motorsports Inc. tracks have to keep up as well. While SMI and ISC have both done similar things, Texas Motor Speedway’s Eddie Gossage, who was also at the motorsports forum on Wednesday, said that while track promoters can’t guarantee the race will always be a nail-bitter, they have to ensure their events are surrounded with activity, such as pre-race festivities at the track.
“The race is the race, and it could be an extremely close nail-biter,” Gossage said. “Or it could be a runaway and it falls on us as promoters to make the day exciting before the green flag drops and perhaps for awhile after the checkered flag drops. We try to do those kinds of things, our pre-race show for our Cup race was an hour-long concert by ZZ Top, we had a Chinook helicopter land on the front straightaway and in the pace car was a season ticket holder who was also the pilot of the Space Shuttle back in July. The fans loved that. So it’s giving them the ‘wow’ factor long before the green flag drops.”
ZZ Top performs prior to the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 8, 2009. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey)
With the recent approval of a casino being built near to Kansas Speedway, the ISC is looking forward to new chances to raise ticket sales within their company. Nonetheless, France Kennedy and the ISC knows it’s going to be a slow process to get back where they were pre-recession period.
“We’re going to be braced for a slow recovery but we’re also looking at some new opportunities,” France Kennedy said. “At Kansas, next to the Kansas Speedway, we’re looking at building a casino and a hotel with our gaming partner. It’s a little bit of a departure from our core business, but it’s also an enhancement if you look at the fans coming to the Kansas Speedway and extending their stay. It becomes more of a destination, bringing more tourists in than it already does. We’re doing the same in Daytona, where we’re looking at some other guest amenities across the street that would be complementary to the track. Over time we would like to develop some retail and dining.”
Regardless of the roughly nine-percent attendance drop this season, NASCAR is still considered America’s No. 1 spectator sport, with many events drawing upwards of a 120,000 people or more. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events claim 17 of the nation’s top-20 most attended events every year.
The ISC operates Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Daytona International Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Phoenix International Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway and Watkins Glen International. SMI owns eight tracks: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.
Sprint Cup Series Events Moving To Earlier, Uniform Start Times For 2010 Season
NASCAR PR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Continuing the sport’s “back to basics” approach, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and its television broadcast partners today announced earlier, uniform start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in 2010.
NASCAR worked closely with FOX, Turner, ESPN/ABC and the tracks on this project for the fans. The race start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 2010 in the Eastern and Central regions of the country will begin at 1 p.m. ET, West Coast events will begin at 3 p.m. ET, and night races will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. (The one exception is NASCAR’s longest night race, the Coca-Cola 600, which will have the same 5:45 p.m. ET start time.) Following the invocation and national anthem, the green flag will drop at approximately 15-20 minutes past the hour after each listed race start time.
“NASCAR fans have been asking for earlier and more consistent start times, and we are making this change for our fans, beginning with the Daytona 500 next February,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “We are revisiting our sport’s tradition of earlier green flags, and the added consistency will make it easier for fans to know exactly when the races are being televised. Additionally, the new start times will help track operators get fans in and out of the track earlier in the evening. Many fans heading home from the race earlier will be able to eliminate the costs of an extra travel day.”
A total of 28 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 2010 will be held at an earlier time compared to 2009, with 20 races moved to 1 p.m. ET, including the Daytona 500. Moving up the start of “The Great American Race” two-and-a-half hours will produce the earliest start time for the Daytona 500 since 2003, when the race was also scheduled for 1 p.m. Five races move earlier to a 3 p.m. ET start and three races start earlier at 7:30 p.m. ET.
In making the decision for earlier, more uniform start times, NASCAR consulted its Fan Council, comprised of 12,000 avid fans who serve as a sounding board on important topics. Half of NASCAR avid fans said they are often unclear about what time NASCAR races actually start. When given the chance to choose a start time, more than two-thirds of avid NASCAR fans preferred early Sunday afternoon.
“It’s become clear to us that traditional, early Sunday afternoon, start times are favored by NASCAR fans who both attend races and watch on television,” said FOX Sports Chairman David Hill. “NASCAR, perhaps more than any other sport, belongs to the generations of fans who have passed on their passion, father to son, mother to daughter, so whatever we can do to make them feel better connected to the sport they love should be done.”
“Many fans have been interested in standard start times for NASCAR’s television partners. In the long term, we believe this change will make the viewing experience better for everyone,” said David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting’s distribution, sales and sports. “NASCAR races continue to deliver solid, consistent ratings for TNT. When you combine TV ratings with the number of people who visit NASCAR.COM, the sport clearly remains very healthy and popular.”
“We enthusiastically support consistent start times and are happy to have worked with NASCAR on this move,” said John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president, content. “We are thrilled about our position with NASCAR and bullish about the long-term prospects.”
“An earlier starting time for the Daytona 500 is great news for our race fans,” Daytona International Speedway President Robin Braig said. “In recent years, race fans made their desire very clear for an earlier starting time. With the help of our partners in the sport at NASCAR and FOX Sports, we’re proud to deliver an earlier starting time for the 2010 Daytona 500.”
“This is a very positive move for our fans,” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager for New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “For example, it allows us another hour of daylight to run our races and to get traffic out before nightfall. Based on the letters I receive from fans, I know they will appreciate NASCAR making this change. For years, the NFL has been very successful with its standardized start times of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. You never have to guess when their games start on Sunday. I think that same template will help our sport as well.”
“We believe this will be well-received by NASCAR fans who attend races in Dover, especially those traveling long distances,” said Denis McGlynn, president and CEO of Dover Motorsports, Inc. “A large percentage of our fans come from the Northeast, and some drive great distances to get here. Consistent, earlier start times is great news for both fans headed to the track and those watching at home.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races will be seen on either FOX, TNT, ESPN or ABC. The 2010 television schedule for points races is below.
2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Schedule With Start Times (All Times Eastern)
Date Day RaceSite Network Start Time
Feb 14 Sun. Daytona 500 FOX 1:00 PM
Feb 21 Sun. Auto Club Speedway FOX 3:00 PM
Feb 28 Sun. Las Vegas Motor Speedway FOX 3:00 PM
Mar 7 Sun. Atlanta Motor Speedway FOX 1:00 PM
Mar 21 Sun. Bristol Motor Speedway FOX 1:00 PM
Mar 28 Sun. Martinsville Speedway FOX 1:00 PM
Apr 10 Sat. Phoenix International Raceway FOX 7:30 PM
Apr 18 Sun. Texas Motor Speedway FOX 1:00 PM
Apr 25 Sun. Talladega Superspeedway FOX 1:00 PM
May 1 Sat. Richmond International Raceway FOX 7:30 PM
May 8 Sat. Darlington Raceway FOX 7:30 PM
May 16 Sun. Dover International Speedway FOX 1:00 PM
May 30 Sun. Lowe’s Motor Speedway FOX 5:45 PM
Jun 6 Sun. Pocono Raceway TNT 1:00 PM
Jun 13 Sun. Michigan International Speedway TNT 1:00 PM
Jun 20 Sun. Infineon Raceway TNT 3:00 PM
Jun 27 Sun. New Hampshire Motor Speedway TNT 1:00 PM
Jul 3 Sat. Daytona International Speedway TNT 7:30 PM
Jul 10 Sat. Chicagoland Speedway TNT 7:30 PM
Jul 25 Sun. Indianapolis Motor Speedway ESPN 1:00 PM
Aug 1 Sun. Pocono Raceway ESPN 1:00 PM
Aug 8 Sun. Watkins Glen International ESPN 1:00 PM
Aug 15 Sun. Michigan International Speedway ESPN 1:00 PM
Aug 21 Sat. Bristol Motor Speedway ESPN 7:30 PM
Sep 5 Sun. Atlanta Motor Speedway ESPN 7:30 PM
Sep 11 Sat. Richmond International Raceway ABC 7:30 PM
Sep 19 Sun. New Hampshire Motor Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
Sep 26 Sun. Dover International Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
Oct 3 Sun. Kansas Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
Oct 10 Sun. Auto Club Speedway ABC 3:00 PM
Oct 16 Sat. Lowe’s Motor Speedway ABC 7:30 PM
Oct 24 Sun. Martinsville Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
Oct 31 Sun. Talladega Superspeedway ABC 1:00 PM
Nov 7 Sun. Texas Motor Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
Nov 14 Sun. Phoenix International Raceway ABC 3:00 PM
Nov 21 Sun. Homestead-Miami Speedway ABC 1:00 PM
