Chicagoland Speedway goes to two-day format
The track went to a Saturday night race in 2008 but has had Cup practice and qualifying on Thursday of its race weekend the last two years. This year, all Nationwide and Cup track activity will be condensed into two days July 9-10.
NASCAR asked Rust, who became the track president last year, to consider the change to help teams with costs. Rust did the research, and he believes it will help the track with costs but also will be better for fans.
“[The fans] had to take two days off with qualifying moved to Thursday, so it put some pressure on them," Rust said in a phone interview. “When I looked at the reports, things fell off [on Thursday]. … There’s obviously the economics of it.
“The teams don’t have to come in as early, [nor] the media, our sponsors, the same things for the fans. All the way around, it was the right move."
Chicago becomes the seventh Cup weekend condensed to two-day show along with both Richmond races, Phoenix’s spring race, Darlington, Bristol’s summer race and Atlanta’s Labor Day race.
Of those tracks, Atlanta and Chicagoland are the biggest at 1.5 miles in length. That means a tight schedule on Friday with Cup practice, Cup qualifying, Nationwide practice, Nationwide qualifying and a Nationwide race all in one day.
“Operationally, we just have to be on our game a little bit more," Rust said. “That’s not that big of a deal to be honest. … There’s a cost-savings to the track by doing this. Operationally, we’re going to save some money. But it’s also, NASCAR, the teams, the sponsors, the media, industry-wide it saves money.
“And even for our fans, it does. A lot of our fans traveled Wednesday because that’s when we opened our campgrounds. Now we won’t open it up until Thursday. We’re not talking millions of dollars, but it’s saving us a few bucks."
Rust also said it was perfect timing for the change considering the track is no longer requiring fans to buy a season ticket. While there is a season-ticket option, fans can buy just the NASCAR weekend ticket or just the Indy Racing League-Truck Series ticket.
Now the NASCAR ticket is for two days with one day full of activity and another day for the Cup race.
“Putting qualifying back on Friday makes it a great night for the fans," Rust said. “They get to see both sets of qualifying and the Nationwide race at night. … If we were still a Sunday afternoon race, I don’t know if we would have gone to a two-day show.
“It would have been a much tougher decision to drop a Friday afternoon qualifying." Scenedaily.net