NASCAR’s practice restrictions have been a controversial topic. The organization limits practice time before races, and most teams are reluctant to push for more sessions. Motorsport journalist Jordan Bianchi recently called NASCAR’s lack of practice nonsensical, comparing it to Formula 1’s approach.
F1 vs. NASCAR: Insider Questions Lack of Practice in Stock Car Racing
Bianchi joined Jeff Gluck on “The Teardown” podcast after Josh Berry’s big Cup Series win in Las Vegas. The duo covered several topics, including Katherine Legge’s debut crash in Phoenix.
Bianchi argued that limited practice sessions are hurting new drivers trying to break into NASCAR.
“If you look at it, I feel like she had the credentials to be in the car. But I just didn’t feel like she had the opportunity to acclimate herself to a level that was acceptable,” The Athletic’s reporter said.
Bianchi cooked pic.twitter.com/8ugwqNRKY1
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“I’m so tired of it. Can we have this conversation quick? I’m sorry. Like, and I understand that and I’m sorry,” he added.
“Brad Keselowski said this a few weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and I agree with him. This is one of the premiere racing series in the world—arguably the number two behind Formula One. This is big boy, high-level stock car racing. I understand wanting to save teams money, and you shouldn’t be spending extravagant expenses. We’re not talking F1 levels here.
“To say we’re going to cut cost, we’re going to cut practice to do that, that’s not acceptable to me. There are different ways to cut costs if you’re really concerned about that, but cutting the actual on-track product I don’t agree with.
“I don’t like that there’s minimal practice. I don’t like the fact that you look at other racing series, pick one, have all this practice and you’re like looking at this for NASCAR and you’re like, y’all got 20 minutes? That’s it?
“It’s less on-track product for people at the race track. There are a lot of reasons to cut costs in NASCAR. Actually cutting practice isn’t one of them and from a lot of people I’ve talked to, they’re not really saving that much money, if at all.”
His co-host, Gluck, fully agreed to this argument. He also shed light on the approval process drama that has unfolded this season.
“It even goes back to the approval process that we were talking about earlier,” Gluck said. “Because let’s just say in Katherine Legge’s situation. Let’s say they would have said, ‘We’d like to see you do this, this and this in other series first. We want you to run Truck start, Xfinity start, let’s do that.'”
“So then the money she’s trying to take to Live Fast [Motorsports] you know, it’s like, ‘Well we can’t do that. We don’t have the budget to go run a Truck start and Xfinity start. This is what we have the budget for.’ … Whether it’s practice, whether it’s approval process, it’s all sort of tied together. It all goes back to resources, right? Putting people in the cars or spending more on tires.”
Legge had the spotlight centered on her as she took to the track, and a debut crash only made her more polarizing. Perhaps a revamped process could have prevented it, creating a more welcoming environment for drivers and how they are received early in their careers.
“I hope that everybody can get together and decide something because right now it just doesn’t feel like – it just feels like it’s broken a little bit,” Gluck continued. “Especially when you have a lot of these drivers saying, we are the most elite series and you shouldn’t just be able to show up and say, here I am.
“Look, that’s not necessarily the case because NASCAR, you know, Suárez was talking about how NASCAR told him, you should see the people we rejected to run Cup. Like, we rejected five people this year alone I think he was saying that.”
There’s clearly some level of discontent within the industry. How quickly NASCAR reacts could shape the next batch of speedway stars.