The Beat Report

This week we’re going to talk a little practice, show some appreciation for Gerald Forsythe and talk a bit about women in motorsport. I’ve also got a Supercars story to watch, a podcast recommendation and a tip of the cap to a NASCAR journalist for a great story.

1) The Case for Happy Hour

Get your Allen Iverson jokes ready, y’all. Because we talkin’ about practice today. 

There was a time not long ago when the general complaint was that there was too much practice in NASCAR. Multiple sessions, usually near an hour in length each, dotted weekend schedules for every series competing on a NASCAR race weekend. 

The status quo rolled on for years. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an immediate need to cut track time to the bare minimum. 

For a while there was no practice or qualifying at all, save for special occasions. These days race weekends see the NASCAR equivalent of hot laps. Teams typically get a short session – usually 20 minutes – then they’re immediately sent off to qualify. Once qualifying’s done, the cars don’t see the track again until the pace laps for their respective races. 

It’s been working out okay for the sport, but it’s a bizarre experience for outsiders. Just check out this reaction from Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc when Joey Logano told him about the format. 

Four years removed from the COVID-19 pandemic, getting rid of the many lengthy practice sessions from yesteryear has been a sound decision. But it’s fair to ponder whether the sport has landed on a solution too far in the opposite direction. 

NASCAR’s gone from one extreme to another, when the best answer may lie somewhere in the middle. 

The topic came up on this week’s edition of the “Dale Jr. Download,” a podcast hosted by former Cup competitor and current Xfinity Series team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. In an episode shared Tuesday, Earnhardt disregarded the notion of saving money with less practice time and argued that extra practice could be more valuable. 

“To say that we’re not practicing to save money is not true,” Earnhardt said. “I know that an executive could sit down with me and say, ‘Here it is, right here in numbers. We are saving money.’

“But I know what he’s not telling me is that, if I turned practice on – if it was a switch, and I turned it back on – he’d find a way to find that damn money to go practice, and he’d save money somewhere else. He would cut something to do it.”

To that extent, Earnhardt is correct. Any money theoretically saved by the lack of practice is going to other means, whether it be making up the lost track time with simulation or allocating the resources elsewhere. To know racers is to know that they’ll spend every dollar they’re able to in the search for speed. 

Current drivers are split on adding practice time. RFK Racing owner-driver Brad Keselowski believes the removal of practice hasn’t saved the money to justify its continued absence from weekend schedules. He claims its led to spending and added time tied to simulation programs and is an advocate for additional practice over the course of the season. 

“Maybe there were some savings other places in the industry that I’m not aware of but there hasn’t been a significant cost savings,” Keselowski said in an early April media availability. “We’ve reallocated in a lot of way to other demands, and it’s hard for me to understand the value proposition today to not have practice.” 

He later added that he feels “it’s never a good idea for our sport, when in cost consideration mode, to move spending away from things that our spectators can enjoy and view or media can cover or discuss and move into areas that they cannot.”

The drivers most in favor of additional track time are the ones with the least experience – part-time drivers and rookies. Ty Gibbs spent a lot of time on the simulator in his rookie year and admitted he “would definitely like longer practice” during NASCAR’s awards week in December. 

Part-time competitors like sports car aces Kamui Kobayashi and Jordan Taylor and Supercars stars Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters have had limited time to learn a new car when they’ve come over for one-off runs – though that didn’t stop Shane Van Gisbergen from shocking the Cup field to win in Chicago last summer. 

Seven-time Cup champion and current part-time owner-driver Jimmie Johnson has struggled during his few races in the Next Gen era. Adjusting to a wildly-different car from the one he competed in during his full-time years has been challenging enough. Doing so with limited starts and barely any track time before a race has added to the challenge. 

The Californian earned his first lead-lap finish Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and was just happy to get enough track time in the race to learn. 

“It’s the most laps I’ve had in this new car,” Johnson said after a 29th-place run. “Just trying to understand how you make speed, how you adjust the car, really going through a whole weekend of practice, into qualifying and adjustments and changing over for the race. I now have an idea of what to do.”

Others in the field are less enthusiastic about practice. Earnhardt asked Texas Motor Speedway winner Chase Elliott about additional practice on the same Tuesday podcast episode and got a vastly different answer to his own. 

“I think we have enough practice,” Elliott said. “I certainly can understand their perspective on guys either running a part-time schedule, or people running full-time in Xfinity like Shane (Van Gisbergen) is and then running a few Cup races here or there. 

“But when I look at the argument as a whole, I look at short tracks across the country. There’s dirt track races that happen every Friday and Saturday night (where) they get literally five laps of hot laps and then run the race. I’m like, ‘Okay, we’re supposed to be professionals. We’re supposed to be at the top of our class. Why should we get an hour and a half, when the people that are trying to come up through the ranks only get five laps before their race?’” 

Last year’s Daytona 500 winner, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., also feels little need for added practice – though he does sometimes wish the series had more. With a car that changes little from track to track, the Mississippian argues that adding extra practice would just benefit the big teams. 

“If you start stretching that out, the big teams definitely start collecting more data on a weekend and can send all four cars in a different direction and kind of hone in on something,” Stenhouse told FOX Sports in December. “In 20 minutes, it’s tough for them to run that many different setups, and then change it for qualifying or the race. I enjoy the 20 minutes for our single-car team. But, yeah, there’s definitely times I wish we had more.”

In truth, the continued lack of practice may have more to do with value to the sport, tracks and networks than anything geared toward drivers. In NASCAR’s glory days of the 2000s, the sport was in endless demand. Holding (and airing) Cup practice sessions was worthwhile because the large fanbase was ravenous for content and would tune in. Some sessions for other tours could be held without a broadcast because it wasn’t overly detrimental to teams and there were still respectable crowds on-hand to partake. 

But in the modern era, the margins are smaller. Track days outside of Cup can be sparsely attended – particularly if there’s limited actual racing to enjoy. Viewership has diminished enough over two decades that standalone practice sessions may not pull in an audience worthwhile of a traditional broadcast or open gates at the track. Without the TV money to justify it, NASCAR and the tracks might not have proper incentive to make the needed changes to their weekend format to accommodate added track time. 

The current format has simplified race weekends, streamlined the technical inspection process and fits into a nice little package for TV. It’s easy to see why leadership would be hesitant to make changes. 

But it’s also inherently damaging to drivers and teams that can’t get the track time they need to learn and grow. It stands in stark contrast to the weekend formats of other mainstream racing series like Formula 1, MotoGP and Supercars. 

The arguments surrounding added practice can certainly go both ways. There are pros and cons to each side. But the true solution of getting the proper amount of track time for everyone is probably in the middle ground. 

My proposal? Bring back Happy Hour. 

Give teams an hour of practice. That’s just long enough to make a change or two and give part-time drivers like Johnson, rookie Carson Hocevar or the occasional moonlighter time to learn the car and track. It also provides more context for the race with potential for more laps and longer runs,, giving a chance to build storylines heading into each race. 

It could be incorporated into the current format without adding too much time to a TV package. The hour-long sessions could also be hosted separately with barebones staff and pushed to streaming options. Or they could be ran without a broadcast at all. It wouldn’t be the end of the world.  

NASCAR race weekends used to feel like an event. A weekend-long party with cars frequently on track. 

I don’t think we’re ever going to get back to that point, or that most would even want it to. But a happy medium seems attainable. 

2) IndyCar’s second big event

This weekend marks the second-biggest event on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar – the Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

Thankfully, Long Beach will continue to be an IndyCar event for years to come. 

Those paying attention back at the end of March might remember a RACER story implying that NASCAR could make a play to take over the iconic Southern California event. 

It came as a surprise at the time, but there were reasons to think the idea could be feasible. NASCAR is currently in search of a new opportunity in the area, with Auto Club Speedway’s alterations on a lengthy timeline and the L.A. Memorial Coliseum exhibition race now seemingly off the table. 

The estate of the late Kevin Kalkhoven recently made its 50-percent stake in the Long Beach race available for acquisition. Southern California is an important market to NASCAR and Long Beach provided a unique opportunity to fill it with an iconic event that would be instantly marketable.

But as intriguing as the opportunity was, it felt wrong. 

IndyCar has competed in the race since 1984, making it a marquee event that’s become the tour’s largest and most successful outing outside of the historic Indianapolis 500. Though Long Beach had previously been contested by Formula 1 and Formula 5000, it’s become synonymous with IndyCar racing over the past four decades. 

That another series could potentially take over the event left a sour taste in the mouths of the tour’s fans. Had it occurred, it would have been a damning blow for a series that’s already struggling enough to find mainstream relevancy beyond Memorial Day weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Thankfully for the series and its fans, any crisis was quickly averted. Event co-owner Gerald Forsythe announced March 28 that Kalkhoven’s estate had agreed to sell its 50% ownership stake to him, giving the 2003 CART title-winning team owner complete ownership of the event. 

He intends to keep the race on the IndyCar calendar moving forward.

Right where it should be. 

3) Opportunity for women drivers 

As a wide-reaching motorsports fan (and purveyor of a world-spanning newsletter covering the industry), I spend a lot of my time searching for the latest great content in the racing world. One hidden gem I’ve recently stumbled upon is a Substack written by Olivia Hicks, known as “Formula Flash.” 

Hicks writes about different aspects of Formula 1 each week. Yesterday I woke up to a newsletter she’d created about the luxury watch industry, a sector long associated with motorsports, and its recent moves to pair with female sporting stars. In it, she noted the opportunities that female athletes and the luxury watch makers could bring each other, particularly with talented women like Caitlin Clark and Kamilla Cardoso elevating the profile of women’s sports. 

From the piece: 

As Europe’s luxury watch industry plummets — falling 40 percent in secondary market value over the past two years due to inflation and lagging economic growth — the wave of female sports stars in the public eye could be the niche companies have waited for to lift a sinking sector. 

Female athletes have always been stars, just the unspoken kind and labeled as unmarketable. The sticker price of women’s sports franchises continues to be undervalued, even as popularity peaks. In January, the NCAA announced a $920 million ESPN media rights agreement with 40 championships bundled together through 2032. The men’s media rights package was separate while the women’s was not. Female athletes are also met with discount job offers. Salary estimates began circulating shortly after the Indiana Fever chose Clark as the first WNBA draft pick. As The Cut’s Tuesday afternoon headline read, whatever amount of zeros she deposits will be “a lot less than the NBA first pick, that’s for sure.” As female athletes are paid less than men across the sports industry, brand endorsements offer an opportunity to bridge the gap.

For athletes, backing from a luxury watch brand goes further than other sponsorships, according to The New York Times. Roger Federer, a top-paid tennis player, made $95 million of his $95.1 million in revenues from endorsements in 2023. Rolex has signed Federer’s checks since 2006.

In the world of luxury watches, the benefit could be two-fold: brands are zeroing in on female athletes when those players, drivers and competitors may be just the thing to save their bottom line.

Hicks’ piece rightly showcases the opportunity that the rising star-power of female athletes can provide for brands, in this case luxury watch makers. In it she also notes recent moves within Formula 1’s F1 Academy series, an all-female tour established in its ladder system last year. 

With a 40% share of its audience being women, F1 has a strong market of female viewers to leverage with brands. Through its non-male-centric series in F1 Academy, the group has been able to court beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury and fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger into partnerships. 

These new branding opportunities should help the sport’s bottom line. F1’s efforts are in turn helping to spawn future female talent, creating opportunities for women to get seat time in a competitive racing series showcased on broadcasts that can then reach other young girls, inspiring them to race down the road. 

In its latest impact report, the series confirmed there’s been a 265 percent increase in female racers between ages 11 and 16 qualifying for local finals of the British Indoor Karting Championships, a result impacted by the sport’s ‘F1 Academy Discover Your Drive’ initiative. If F1 can help a few talented female drivers like Doriane Pin reach motorsports’ highest levels and mainstream audiences, the impact will be amplified even further. 

There’s still a long way to go, of course. Women in racing are rarely given the funding and opportunity to rise into major racing tours. There are a few to be found – W Series champion Jamie Chadwick now competes in top IndyCar ladder series Indy NXT and Hailie Deegan is a regular in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – but most struggle to get past the grassroots level. 

It’s going to take years of continuous effort to making women reaching the upper echelon of motorsports a common occurrence. But there are at least signs that true efforts are being made and are beginning to bear fruit. 

Notes

  • Formula 1 is finally returning to the Chinese Grand Prix for the first time since 2019 this weekend. It’ll be the first trial of the new-look sprint race format and should be a cathartic moment for local race fans that have had to watch the bulk of F1’s recent resurgence from afar. This should be a special weekend to watch. 
  • No one tell him I said this, but I believe Jordan Bianchi might be becoming the best overall journalist in the NASCAR media center. You owe it to yourself to take a few minutes to read his Tuesday piece about the experience of getting called to the NASCAR hauler.
  • IndyCar is facing a new issue heading into 2025. With the upcoming addition of Prema Racing to its ranks, the series is going to run into potential spacing issues with its pit lanes and garage areas. As far as problems for a series go, that’s a good one to have. It’s been a joy to see more entrants flock to the tour given how much it struggled for car counts at times in the 2010s. 
  • Defending Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki is returning to Erebus Motorsport this weekend at the ITM Taupo Super400. It’s a peculiar return, coming after he seemingly quit the team over a management dispute before the season and missed two rounds, effectively ruling him out of title contention. It’s a confusing story and one I’m not sure anyone knows the full scope of. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of Kostecki’s return and what is (or isn’t) said. 
  • If you’ve never listened to it before, I have a fun podcast recommendation for you. Journalist Elizabeth Blackstock recently launched a unique racing history podcast titled “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys.” I finally got around to trying it out this week and was fascinated by the first episode, centering around the kidnapping of the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio. 
  • I want to wrap up today’s column with a final moment of appreciation for Saturday’s fantastic Xfinity Series finish at Texas. Bonus points to Ryan Sieg for admitting he was trying to fence Mayer for the win. Honesty remains the best policy. 

Until next week. 

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(Top photo credit: Meg Oliphant/NASCAR via Getty Images)

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