Did NASCAR make a good decision to change the date of the Daytona 500?

Photo taken by Lyndsay Fuller

The Daytona 500, also known as the Super Bowl of NASCAR, has always been on the Sunday of President’s Day weekend until this year. Fox Sports, who televises this race, had asked a favor of NASCAR to move the race so that it no longer followed Super Bowl weekend. This favor lead to the first time in 54 years that the race had to be postponed to the following day. Unfortunately for most fans who had traveled to Daytona to see the Great American Race were disappointed to see nothing but people in rain gear and raindrops the day of the race.

For 17 years, I have attended all of the Winston Cup, now the Sprint Cup series races at Daytona International Speedway including the Daytona 500, the Firecracker 400, now known as the Pepsi 400, and the Gatorade Duels. I have sat through the rain in my seat waiting for a race to start, but never have I been so frustrated with the series of events that unfolded last Sunday. Knowing that it was going to rain all day Sunday, NASCAR was extremely hesitant to call the race. Instead of allowing fans to be able to reschedule their Monday plans, NASCAR waited to make the final call to move the race to 12pm Monday. The race finally ran on Monday night at 7pm with 2 hour delay because of a jet-dryer accident in turn 3.

In a time were you can get all the information you need on your smartphone device, NASCAR should have utilized new technology to be able to communicate with their fans. People waiting for the rain to stop on both Sunday and Monday afternoon kept checking their weather channel app for the weather radar for the rain forecast in the immediate area. If the rain was the problem, how did NASCAR know more about the rain than the fans waiting in the stands? They probably didn't. Instead of fans interacting with NASCAR media, many listened to the radio. The most Internet media any of the fans received all weekend was from a Sprint Cup driver that was tweeting while under the red flag on Monday night. NASCAR needs to get up to date and evolve with advancing technology. Then maybe more people would tune in to watch the race on Sunday.

Photo taken from http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/daytona-circus-not-even-counting-500-153608580.html

All of this was caused by rain clouds that just wouldn't go away, but also NASCAR's need to compete with other sporting events like the Super Bowl. NASCAR fans are going to watch the Daytona 500 regardless if the Super Bowl was the weekend before or the day before. The idea to market NASCAR's biggest race of the season for an additional week backfired. Because of the postponement of the race, this was the first race not to sell out in the history of the race.

Links:

http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/Articles/2011/02/2012-Daytona-500.aspx 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/daytona-circus-not-even-counting-500-153608580.html