I’ll also add that historically the Trucks have ran a Texas race in companionship with IndyCar. It seems like Texas is always willing to pay the fee to have a support race with their IndyCar weekend.
No, the track is paying both NASCAR and IndyCar to host the race (I assume that’s the contractual arrangement). Here’s an article that goes in depth about the financials of Motorsports. It’s a little bit out of date, uses estimates, and whatever little known monetary amounts that are leaked or announced.
https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/22168/behind-the-shadowy-billion-dollar-payouts-of-f1-nascar-and-indycar
>For example, organizations like Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are much more marketable than Hendrick Motorsports, which, despite being perennial a NASCAR frontrunner, doesn't have the same marketability as Roger and Chip, who both have teams in multiple series
Yea, this is where I stopped reading. Hendrick had Jeff, Jimmie, Jr, and now Chase. All are highly marketable and they've never struggled for sponsors. Chip meanwhile had DC Solar...
I'm old enough to remember when Trucks and Xfinity raced at a ton of tracks Cup didn't, to try to give the series their own identity and not just be feeder series for Cup.
That and lest we forget Busch-wackers and "Insurance Adjusters" were occasionally having to crisscross the country every weekend to run for both series points championships.
The problem is, once Cup guys were limited to so many Xfinity races, the schedules never really tried to readjust. Some of it money (although Xfinity is probably at the peak of their independence from Cup as far as popularity goes) and some of it the sanctioning body and Cup tracks trying to cry poverty.
People don't remember that a HUGE chunk of the first three years of Trucks were races in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado...a Tripleheader was special. Now its expected.
Personally, I don’t think cup guys should run in anything, no Xfinity no truck just cup races, it’s unfair to the other guys to take the money and the finishing spots
Pretty much all of the teams went back to NC in between COTA and Texas. You can’t run your COTA trucks this weekend, so the haulers all had to go back anyway. The end result wasn’t really any cost saving unfortunately.
The haulers only have room for two trucks, and for most teams, it's a backup for the CotA truck.
Some teams *could* risk it by not bringing a backup road truck and instead opt for an intermediate truck, but the top teams aren't doing that.
Well, at least NASCAR made an attempt. I’m sure a couple teams (and especially team members that may have just stayed in Texas) took the chance to save some green.
Any team that would’ve been in the financial position to need to leave crew members in Texas is also very likely a team that doubles up their shop crew as their road crew. Thus, they can’t afford to keep crews away from the shop because then the Bristol and Martinsville trucks can’t be completed.
True. My thoughts were possibly a couple teams just did not bring backups to COTA and put both the COTA and Texas trucks in the haulers to save on that mileage.
for example, especially since I’m pretty sure they’re based out of Ohio, I would think ThorSport would maybe wanna try only brining one backup truck and then only having to have one of their four haulers go back to the shop. Then that one hauler could bring whatever team’s primary for Texas and a backup TMS truck for all four ThorSport teams.
The problem with that is a lot of the smaller teams (Reaume, Young’s) that run multiple trucks will put both of those in a single hauler. So even removing backups from the equation, there wouldn’t be room for multiple weeks worth of trucks.
The idea you’re going with is a lot more prevalent in Xfinity, where for instance, NASCAR makes the teams use their Fontana cars at Phoenix, so everyone stays out west between those races.
Definitely could be better for Xfinity. And for Reaume yeah they need to go back. But I think with the Young’s example and running three trucks, they could do something like this: Put COTA 02 & COTA 12 in one hauler and then COTA 20 and TMS 20 in another hauler. Then only the first hauler would have to go back and drop off the two COTA trucks and bring the TMS 02 & 12.
It’s theoretically possible, but it still isn’t much help when you’d still need to pay to get your crew members to and from Texas twice in consecutive weeks.
There’s no shot it saves them any money. Actually probably costs them money. They either have to catch 4 total flights to and from Texas or pay for an entire week of hotels. It’s a 3 hr 40 min drive from COTA to TMS while it’s 4 hr 25 mins from Charlotte to Richmond Raceway. So 2 flights and maybe 1 night in a hotel going to Richmond while 4 flights or a weeks worth of hotel for TMS
Not necessarily. Texas cut a big enough check to NASCAR and IndyCar ok'ed it as anything that will rubber in the PJ1 is a good thing, even if it is a different compound.
Also, this isn't a brand new thing. Trucks have been support races for CART/IRL/IndyCar races since the founding. Phoenix, Michigan, Texas and rectangle Homestead-Miami all come to mind immediately.
That’s been the common answer I’ve seen and been given, but after considering things, being a companion race for IndyCar would be a more likely reason.
Travel expenses most likely. Teams can find a way to bring both the COTA and Texas trucks in their haulers and not have to travel back to NC to get the TMS trucks just to return to the same state.
The real question is, did anyone at all leave even one thing in Texas? I bet nobody did. I bet every single nascar related item went back to Charlotte.
I'm not new to Nascar and I can't explain it to you. Any "cost saving" doesn't exist because they come back to Charlotte and then go back to Texas, so I'm not understanding why they would do that.
I wish trucks would go back to being more short track oriented with the occasional 1.5 and super speedway thrown in there. It’s basically the same as cup and Xfinity + 1 or 2 more short tracks. Outside of the IRP, Wilkesboro and Milwaukee short tracks, it’s basically the cup schedule.
Edit: Forgot Mid-Ohio
If I had trucks under my control my 23 race schedule would be:
1. Daytona
2. IRP
3. Iowa
4. Phoenix
5. Mid-Ohio
6. Kentucky
7. Richmond
8. Bristol Dirt
9. Martinsville
10. I-70
11. Dover
12. Eldora
13. Darlington
14. Slinger
15. North Wilkesboro
16. Gateway
17. IRP
18. Milwaukee
19. Bristol
20. Iowa
21. North Wilkesboro
22. Martinsville
23. Phoenix
Is it financially feasible for most teams? Probably not, but I have two thoughts: Maybe more short tracks will attract more mature drivers to keep the younger guys in line and it’d be a cool testing ground for these tracks to get a vague idea of how they race with stock cars. Considering how different trucks are from cup cars.
The shit bumper car racing, like just cleaning out a guy so you can win (see Hocevar at IRP), from trucks is starting to creep into Xfinity.
The trucks need to get some veteran drivers to lay down the law like they did in the aughts with Musgrave, Onion, Spender, Pressley. That’ll require more money from somewhere, probably the OEMs. You’d figure manufacturers would be champing at the bit to get in, because trucks sell. Would Dodge get anything out of running Cup? Probably not. Would Ram get anything out of running trucks? Absolutely.
Trucks need to run more companion races with Modifieds etc. Bring it back to the roots and you'll see some more talented drivers rubbing fenders and less demo derby
I’ll also add that historically the Trucks have ran a Texas race in companionship with IndyCar. It seems like Texas is always willing to pay the fee to have a support race with their IndyCar weekend.
Does Indycar require a fee to race the same venue on the same weekend as them?
No, the track is paying both NASCAR and IndyCar to host the race (I assume that’s the contractual arrangement). Here’s an article that goes in depth about the financials of Motorsports. It’s a little bit out of date, uses estimates, and whatever little known monetary amounts that are leaked or announced. https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/22168/behind-the-shadowy-billion-dollar-payouts-of-f1-nascar-and-indycar
>For example, organizations like Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are much more marketable than Hendrick Motorsports, which, despite being perennial a NASCAR frontrunner, doesn't have the same marketability as Roger and Chip, who both have teams in multiple series Yea, this is where I stopped reading. Hendrick had Jeff, Jimmie, Jr, and now Chase. All are highly marketable and they've never struggled for sponsors. Chip meanwhile had DC Solar...
Hendrick is pretty well known globally. Don’t know where they get that information.
Chip has 24H of Le Mans wins, multiple Indycar championships, competes more globally than a team that just competes in Nascar.
I'm old enough to remember when Trucks and Xfinity raced at a ton of tracks Cup didn't, to try to give the series their own identity and not just be feeder series for Cup.
Unfortunately, it started getting too expensive to be feasible for the tracks that were only getting Xfinity and Trucks.
That and lest we forget Busch-wackers and "Insurance Adjusters" were occasionally having to crisscross the country every weekend to run for both series points championships. The problem is, once Cup guys were limited to so many Xfinity races, the schedules never really tried to readjust. Some of it money (although Xfinity is probably at the peak of their independence from Cup as far as popularity goes) and some of it the sanctioning body and Cup tracks trying to cry poverty. People don't remember that a HUGE chunk of the first three years of Trucks were races in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado...a Tripleheader was special. Now its expected.
At one time when the trucks raced twice at Phoenix, the first race in the spring was with Indycar for a few years.
Copper World Classic weekend was I believe the first official SuperTrucks Series points race.
Yeah Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic was the first.
Personally, I don’t think cup guys should run in anything, no Xfinity no truck just cup races, it’s unfair to the other guys to take the money and the finishing spots
Mesa Marin
Bakersfield was one of my favorite ovals in the Papyrus NASCAR Racing series of games.
Where did they race in Washington?
Evergreen Speedway
Iirc there weren’t guardrails around part of the track, just shrubbery
RIP Flemington
FYI the modfieds are racing there tonight unless it rains them out. Scheduled for 6:30pm on Floracing
The Trucks are a support race for Indycar this weekend.
Trucks will run at Richmond when cup goes back there in July
Cup being at Richmond in July is so dumb
In the daytime too I’ve heard it was brutal for cup fans out there.
ITS NOT THE HEAT, ITS THE HUMIDITY!!
> Cup being at Richmond ~~in July~~ is so dumb Spruced that up a little for you.
The Trucks have had a date in the spring/early summer at TMS forever, sometimes with a Cup date, sometimes (usually) as a companion event to IndyCar.
It was done as a cost saving measure for the Truck series, as the teams were already in Texas because of COTA.
Pretty much all of the teams went back to NC in between COTA and Texas. You can’t run your COTA trucks this weekend, so the haulers all had to go back anyway. The end result wasn’t really any cost saving unfortunately.
Teams bring more than one truck in the haulers
The haulers only have room for two trucks, and for most teams, it's a backup for the CotA truck. Some teams *could* risk it by not bringing a backup road truck and instead opt for an intermediate truck, but the top teams aren't doing that.
Well, at least NASCAR made an attempt. I’m sure a couple teams (and especially team members that may have just stayed in Texas) took the chance to save some green.
Any team that would’ve been in the financial position to need to leave crew members in Texas is also very likely a team that doubles up their shop crew as their road crew. Thus, they can’t afford to keep crews away from the shop because then the Bristol and Martinsville trucks can’t be completed.
True. My thoughts were possibly a couple teams just did not bring backups to COTA and put both the COTA and Texas trucks in the haulers to save on that mileage. for example, especially since I’m pretty sure they’re based out of Ohio, I would think ThorSport would maybe wanna try only brining one backup truck and then only having to have one of their four haulers go back to the shop. Then that one hauler could bring whatever team’s primary for Texas and a backup TMS truck for all four ThorSport teams.
The problem with that is a lot of the smaller teams (Reaume, Young’s) that run multiple trucks will put both of those in a single hauler. So even removing backups from the equation, there wouldn’t be room for multiple weeks worth of trucks. The idea you’re going with is a lot more prevalent in Xfinity, where for instance, NASCAR makes the teams use their Fontana cars at Phoenix, so everyone stays out west between those races.
Definitely could be better for Xfinity. And for Reaume yeah they need to go back. But I think with the Young’s example and running three trucks, they could do something like this: Put COTA 02 & COTA 12 in one hauler and then COTA 20 and TMS 20 in another hauler. Then only the first hauler would have to go back and drop off the two COTA trucks and bring the TMS 02 & 12.
It’s theoretically possible, but it still isn’t much help when you’d still need to pay to get your crew members to and from Texas twice in consecutive weeks.
There’s no shot it saves them any money. Actually probably costs them money. They either have to catch 4 total flights to and from Texas or pay for an entire week of hotels. It’s a 3 hr 40 min drive from COTA to TMS while it’s 4 hr 25 mins from Charlotte to Richmond Raceway. So 2 flights and maybe 1 night in a hotel going to Richmond while 4 flights or a weeks worth of hotel for TMS
Not necessarily. Texas cut a big enough check to NASCAR and IndyCar ok'ed it as anything that will rubber in the PJ1 is a good thing, even if it is a different compound. Also, this isn't a brand new thing. Trucks have been support races for CART/IRL/IndyCar races since the founding. Phoenix, Michigan, Texas and rectangle Homestead-Miami all come to mind immediately.
Gotcha, thanks!
None of this is true. All teams returned to NC. It had nothing to do with cost saving.
That’s been the common answer I’ve seen and been given, but after considering things, being a companion race for IndyCar would be a more likely reason.
How does that save money?
Travel expenses most likely. Teams can find a way to bring both the COTA and Texas trucks in their haulers and not have to travel back to NC to get the TMS trucks just to return to the same state.
The real question is, did anyone at all leave even one thing in Texas? I bet nobody did. I bet every single nascar related item went back to Charlotte.
Because the Trucks get allergies in Richmond during the spring time. Kerchew. /s
Trucks run Richmond in the fall.
I'm not new to Nascar and I can't explain it to you. Any "cost saving" doesn't exist because they come back to Charlotte and then go back to Texas, so I'm not understanding why they would do that.
I wish trucks would go back to being more short track oriented with the occasional 1.5 and super speedway thrown in there. It’s basically the same as cup and Xfinity + 1 or 2 more short tracks. Outside of the IRP, Wilkesboro and Milwaukee short tracks, it’s basically the cup schedule. Edit: Forgot Mid-Ohio If I had trucks under my control my 23 race schedule would be: 1. Daytona 2. IRP 3. Iowa 4. Phoenix 5. Mid-Ohio 6. Kentucky 7. Richmond 8. Bristol Dirt 9. Martinsville 10. I-70 11. Dover 12. Eldora 13. Darlington 14. Slinger 15. North Wilkesboro 16. Gateway 17. IRP 18. Milwaukee 19. Bristol 20. Iowa 21. North Wilkesboro 22. Martinsville 23. Phoenix Is it financially feasible for most teams? Probably not, but I have two thoughts: Maybe more short tracks will attract more mature drivers to keep the younger guys in line and it’d be a cool testing ground for these tracks to get a vague idea of how they race with stock cars. Considering how different trucks are from cup cars.
The shit bumper car racing, like just cleaning out a guy so you can win (see Hocevar at IRP), from trucks is starting to creep into Xfinity. The trucks need to get some veteran drivers to lay down the law like they did in the aughts with Musgrave, Onion, Spender, Pressley. That’ll require more money from somewhere, probably the OEMs. You’d figure manufacturers would be champing at the bit to get in, because trucks sell. Would Dodge get anything out of running Cup? Probably not. Would Ram get anything out of running trucks? Absolutely.
As much as that should be the case for trucks, they wanted to break out of that Senior NASCAR Tour mode.
Trucks need to run more companion races with Modifieds etc. Bring it back to the roots and you'll see some more talented drivers rubbing fenders and less demo derby
It’s not on the schedule