NASCAR QNA: From Nashville to Watkins Glen and beyond, busy weekend coming up
Not exactly easing back into race mode, are we?
Not even close. If you race under NASCAR’s national umbrella, you’ll be cranking the engine and turning some business laps this coming weekend.
It starts Friday night with the Truck Series kicking off the three-piece weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. ARCA, a NASCAR property, races Saturday (3 p.m. ET on FS2) at cool little Elko Speedway in Minnesota, while the Xfinity Series starts at 3:30 (USA Network) from Nashville — a perfect opportunity to channel surf during commercials!
Sunday you can watch NASCAR's IMSA sports-cars at Watkins Glen for six hours, beginning at 11 a.m., with the broadcast split between Peacock (first three hours) and USA (closing three hours), before settling in at 7 for the Cup Series race from Nashville on NBC. Whew.
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What? A Sunday night race? Is there another Monday holiday coming that nobody told us about?
No, as it turns out, this year’s Nashville time change is one of those that actually serves the paying customers as well as the broadcast network.
With Sunday evenings being the prime television window for those who live on Nielsen ratings, and with NBC beginning its 2023 Cup schedule this week, it works well for those folks.
And according to track officials in "Nashville," no one will complain about letting that June sun lower a bit in the West before pushing ignition. The forecast is tickling 90 degrees for a Sunday high, but will be comfortably lower as they start turning laps.
Changing of start times are rarely a win-win, and for any attending customer who has to get up early Monday, well, it’s a small price to pay for avoiding the summer vapors.
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Why did you put “Nashville” in quotes?
Until NASCAR manages a return to Nashville’s fairgrounds track on the south side of town, there won’t truly be a race in Nashville.
Nashville Superspeedway, the current NASCAR host, sits south of Lebanon, about 35 minutes (or so) east of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Lower Broadway in the heart of Music City. That half-hour doubles or triples during busier hours.
It’s closer than Chicagoland Speedway was to Chicago, but still …
What’s this, another Carl Edwards sighting?
Yep, Cousin Carl suddenly can’t stay away. A few weeks after returning to a NASCAR weekend and even doing a stint in the Fox broadcast booth, he’s at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend to be honored by a track where he won five Xfinity and one Truck Series race during his career.
He’ll be doing several appearances and some meet-and-greets over the weekend, and since he hinted at getting the racing racing itch again, maybe this is just another flirtation.
We’re all for it, by the way.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Nashville, Watkins Glen, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Carl Edwards?
