Why NASCAR Should Get More Mileage out of Additional Road-Course Races

Now that the off-weekend is over, the Sprint Cup Series gets back to business this coming weekend with the always entertaining and challenging road-course event at Sonoma Raceway.

Located about 40 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma offers both a challenging layout for drivers as well as one of the most picturesque settings for fans to watch a NASCAR race.

Along with its road-course cousin, Watkins Glen International in upstate New York, Sonoma offers a total change of pace from 1.5-mile cookie-cutter ovals and the like that predominate in the Sprint Cup Series.

And almost like clockwork, you’ll be hearing a lot more about NASCAR and road-course racing throughout the coming week. And if Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 provides its usual excitement, pathos and drama, invariably one question will once again be asked over and over:

“Why doesn’t NASCAR have more road-course races?”

Indeed, people like road courses—a lot. The Sprint Cup Series has Sonoma and Watkins Glen, while the Xfinity Series has races on road courses at Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Road America (three races in a four-race stretch).

Even the Camping World Truck Series has a road course in its mix (Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada).

With NASCAR set to have a new entitlement sponsor to replace Sprint after the 2016 season, is it time to perhaps start thinking about adding a third road course to the mix for the 2017 season?

And if so, where?

There are plenty of potential candidates, including Road America, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca and even Bowmanville, among others.

Having been to Road America probably at least a couple of dozen times over the years for (now-defunct) CART races and more recently for Xfinity Series races, I think the four-mile twisting and turning layout in central Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine area would be a perfect third venue for NASCAR’s premier series.

In the roughly 20 years that CART visited Road America, sellouts were the norm. We’re talking 60,000-plus fans on race day, certainly well within NASCAR’s wheelhouse—and likely more than Watkins Glen and Sonoma draw.

What’s more, if NASCAR were to add a third road-course race, why not put one in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup? That would go a long way towards shaking up the predictability of some of the same tracks that make up the Chase, particularly the 1.5-mile facilities.

Granted, weather could be an issue if NASCAR were to put a road course in the Chase. I’ve been in central Wisconsin where it’s snowed in late September and early October.

That problem could be easily overcome, though, by putting Road America (or perhaps Laguna Seca) into Sonoma’s late June slot and then putting the latter in the first half of the Chase.

A race at Sonoma in late September or early October would still have decent weather, not to mention the spectacular fall foliage.

Plus, a road-course race in the Chase would add yet another so-called “wild card” event to the playoffs, joining the always unpredictable event at Talladega Superspeedway.

And maybe, just maybe, that might appease some of the haters and critics who believe NASCAR needs to radically shake up the track makeup in the Chase—and make it a greater challenge rather than having five tracks that are so similar in nature out of the overall 10 tracks.

As Reid Spencer of the NASCAR Wire Service wrote:

"

Theoretically, the idea is seductive. As the argument always goes, the Chase should test every aspect of a driver's mettle, including his ability to turn right as well as left. In order to have a full examination of a driver's title-worthiness, you have to have a road course in the 10-race playoff, which is top-heavy on intermediate speedways.

"

Brad Keselowski agreed to a point in an interview last June, looking ahead to the then-newly revised Chase format.

"In NASCAR, for years, it's been consistency,” Keselowski said. “This year it's kind of shifted toward wins. If that's how you define a champion, then, yeah, I think a road course should be in there.”

But, Keselowski also added a caveat:

“If you're trying to define a champion by consistency, I don't think a road course should be in there, for the pure reason that it's extremely hard to be consistent on a road course,” he said. “It's like a restrictor-plate track. It seems to be either feast or famine."

Adding a third road course to the Sprint Cup Series would also be a boon for drivers who seem to fare quite well on those type of tracks.

Drivers that immediately come to mind as ones who likely would be in favor of another road course include AJ Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and, if he wasn’t retiring at the end of this season, Jeff Gordon.

Having another road course would, in my opinion, further enhance those drivers’ chances of making the Chase—if not add to the win total they may already have in a season.

And isn’t winning—and spectacular finishes, at that—what NASCAR and its drivers, fans and media want more of anyway?

It’s time for NASCAR to hit the road, both literally and figuratively, and give the sport more twists, turns and best of all, a rather rare occurrence … right turns!

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski