{"id":41308,"date":"2023-02-01T22:12:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T04:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=41308"},"modified":"2023-02-01T22:13:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T04:13:22","slug":"75-years-and-nascar-continues-to-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/75-years-and-nascar-continues-to-evolve\/","title":{"rendered":"75 years and NASCAR continues to evolve"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 NASCAR\u2019s 75th Anniversary season marks its first on-track competition this weekend with Sunday\u2019s primetime Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in high-wattage Los Angeles. The annual season-opening Daytona 500 is two weeks later \u2013 on Feb. 19 \u2013 at the most iconic track on the schedule, Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The two venues are a perfect representation of modern-day NASCAR \u2013 the bold move into a famed facility like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that introduces tens of thousands of new fans to the sport in a thrilling, high-energy two-days of racing. The other in Daytona Beach is the most famous speedway in the sport hosting an absolute bucket-list weeklong event that has long featured the sport\u2019s legends and provided legendary moments.<\/p>\n

The 2023 edition of an ever-evolving NASCAR Cup Series schedule will also mark the debut of a summer street race in downtown Chicago and a return to one of the most iconic and popular venues from its past, North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway for the annual All-Star Race. There is a road course event at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, where Formula One will race later in the year. And there is the traditional Labor Day event in the heart of stock car country at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway \u2013 both fan favorites.<\/p>\n

For sure NASCAR in 2023 doesn\u2019t look exactly like NASCAR in 1983, but that\u2019s the point of well-considered progress. And the resounding success thereof.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take a lot of pleasure in celebrating that time frame whether its 50 years or 75 years, as quick as time goes by now,” longtime NASCAR executive Mike Helton said. \u201cIt seems like it wasn\u2019t but a couple days ago we were celebrating the 50th anniversary but when you study the history our sport you see all the evolutions that went into the first 50 years and then the last 25 years, the things we\u2019ve done and gotten done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of indicative of that going into 2023 – our 75th anniversary – with the uniqueness of the L.A. Coliseum for the Clash and then the Chicago Grant Park race because it all signals, yeah, we\u2019ve been doing this for 75 years, but one of the ways we figured out how to do it for 75 years was to stay fresh and current.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the flexibility of the schedule in recent years and the openness to bringing NASCAR to the fan, whereverthe fan may be is indicative of the sport\u2019s ever-evolving mindset.<\/p>\n

The question isn\u2019t \u2018why?\u2019 but \u2018why not?\u2019 as the sanctioning body embraces trying bold new initiatives from race locales and Playoff formats; from social media and track entertainment that didn\u2019t even exist during the sport\u2019s grand 50th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it starts with the fan,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. \u201cOur fans have told us again and again – and again – they want schedule variation. So, whether we\u2019re going to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star race, or to the Chicago street course – in our 75 years we\u2019ve never raced on the street ever – so you\u2019re talking about milestones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Coliseum is 100 years old and for us to go somewhere we\u2019ve never been before and build a racetrack, race on it and then dig it up and put grass back down, that\u2019s big.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it really comes back to \u2018what is going to entertain our fans?\u2019 And we want to put on great racing that will be unique and different and creates visibility for our sport. Last year, 70 percent of the fans that went to the race at the Coliseum had never been to a NASCAR race. \u2026 The Chicago street race will probably have a similar number of people having never been to a NASCAR race. And it\u2019s exciting and it\u2019s going to be fun.”<\/p>\n

The willingness to think outside the box and to be open-minded are exactly the kind of approaches that have sustained NASCAR through so many challenges from the fuel shortage in the 1970s to the COVID-19 epidemic more recently. And the positive results have given the sport and its leadership reason to feel confident going forward with new ideas and approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early days, NASCAR\u2019s gameplan was to try and be as consistent as we could for fans to be able to plan and companies involved in the sport to be able to plan because it took that long to do those plans,” Helton said. \u201cNow in the modern world, people make quick decisions and make changes quicker. So, we can move stuff around and have fun and add pizzazz and the industry and the fans aren\u2019t left out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are actually driving us to do things quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mix of tradition and innovation is a delicate balance that NASCAR executives take seriously. The cars, the rules, the venues, the speedways are all vital components of that progress.<\/p>\n

Yet, above all, is the commitment to stay true to the most fundamental element of the sport: close, safe, thrilling big-time racing in front of packed grandstands \u2013 the fans eager and entertained.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s worked for 75 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone who is involved in this sport at all, whether you work at NASCAR, or you work at a race team or for a racetrack, or our fans, it\u2019s just a moment in time for us to take a step back and really celebrate and honor the past which is what we\u2019re going to do,” Phelps said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think the unique thing is we also need to celebrate what\u2019s happening today in this sport and then a look forward. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. We\u2019re talking about this our \u201c75th\u201d and we have a tagline, \u201calways forward.\u201d That\u2019s going to represent what we\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor anyone, it\u2019s about being a fan. For me personally, I\u2019m just excited about what the opportunity is for us to celebrate 75 years of NASCAR.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 NASCAR\u2019s 75th Anniversary season marks its first on-track competition this weekend with Sunday\u2019s primetime Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in high-wattage Los Angeles. The annual season-opening Daytona 500 is two weeks later \u2013 on Feb. 19 \u2013 at the most iconic track on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":41314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-41308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/75thAnniversary_Primary_rgb-1.png?fit=2530%2C1729&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aKg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41316,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41308\/revisions\/41316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}