NASCAR Announces Earlier Race Start Times

I know there are several fans out there who believe I can never give NASCAR credit for anything. If you are one of those fans, mark this day on the calendar.

NASCAR did something right today.

NASCAR announced today a simple slate of start times for all 36 races in the 2010 Sprint Cup season. There are 4 start times, to be exact. All times are P.M. and are Eastern. They are:

1:00 for East Coast afternoon races

3:00 for West Coast afternoon races

7:30 for all night races(Saturday and Sunday), except…

…the Coca-Cola 600, which will start at 5:45

These are the actual race start times, not pre-race show start times like they are now. Currently, we have pre-race shows often starting at 1:00 and going for an hour, and by the time the pre-race festivities are over, the races don’t get started until 2:30 or later.

Now, all afternoon races will start around 1:15 or 1:20 once the pre-race festivities conclude. So we will now have more consistent start times, not to mention earlier ones.

Note: The Daytona 500 will start at 1:00 as well, as opposed to starting later as it has in recent years, which have resulted in finishes under the lights. Barring delays, the finish will, most likely, take place before nightfall.