How about a nice, easy game of throwing darts at the map.....

  And why not something out of the box.....like a Sprint Cup race in Montreal? Change things up, make something happen (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BROOKLYN, Mich.
   Let's play a game.
   And this one isn't easy. A lot of pieces just don't really fit well.
   First, go to Office Depot and pick up a 2011 calendar, a big one. We'll be making a lot of erasures.
   But this should be fun....and we've got a few days maybe before NASCAR announces its 2011 Sprint Cup tour schedule (though we think we've figured out all the important pieces).
   So while we're waiting – and complaining about this and that, like Kansas City vs Los Angeles, and Cincinnati vs Atlanta – let's consider what we each think the NASCAR Cup tour ought to look like, if we were the guy with the calendar and Sharpie.
   And when we're finished here, we can probably give NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell a pat on the back for the real heavy lifting in all this (even if we don't agree with all his calls).
   And in this exercise, TV be damned.
   This sport should be about the fans.
   First, let's start with one key proviso: every track (and, darned if we don't now have 23 of them, with Kentucky joining) gets only one Cup weekend to begin with. That might not work out, but let's keep that in mind.
   Some tracks would get two, but let's start with just one apiece. And if you want a second Cup event, you'll have to get creative....
   The NASCAR tour is simply too darned long, with 38 weeks of racing.
   Can we cut it back to 30 or so?
   Maybe race three weeks, then take a week off. Crews have been complaining for several years now about the grueling schedule leaving them no time at home.
   And let's try to curb testing by opening up each Cup weekend on Thursday afternoon with with a two-hour test, with cars equipped with data acquisition.
   Too, let's try to think outside the box: Let's consider adding a 'Summer Shootout' during June and July, a series of one-day in-and-out midweek prime time ventures: Martinsville under the lights, maybe Rockingham (remember that place) under the lights, Bristol under the lights, Richmond under the lights....and take the weekend off? Martinsville under the lights, an in-and-out, would be packed. And maybe the Rock would work too like that.

   Let's open the season in January, the way it used to be – but instead of Riverside, Calif., let's open at Phoenix, the week before the Super Bowl. We have long advocated that, as an easy way to open up a free weekend during the season and give teams a break. Maybe make it a big smörgåsbord, Copper Classic stuff....maybe even an Indy-car sprint. Synergies. We're all in this together, remember.
   This sport doesn't have to be so stuffy and rigid about things.
   Maybe a Sunday double-header or two somewhere along the way – a 200-mile at one track, say Pocono, at 1 p.m., and then a 200-mile race at another, say Iowa, at 4. Half the teams go to one track, half to the other.
 
   February:  Daytona for the 500.
   The Daytona 500 will always be the Daytona 500, no matter when it's played.
   So let's open the season with a West Coast 'hit' before Daytona, rather than after. Should make for better ratings. Plus it would give teams a chance to shake off the cobwebs.
   Too, Daytona's SpeedWeeks itself needs to be tightened up. This year it was divided into two separate weekends, with several days of nothing in between. Nice if you've got a private plane to fly home in....
  
   The week after Daytona? That's a toughie. NASCAR officials hemmed and hawed over that one for a long time, until plugging Phoenix in, replacing California.
   But if we play Phoenix in January, what to do the week after Daytona, and before Las Vegas?
  Maybe just take it off, and then resume with a three-week surge, Las Vegas and onward.
   (Too bad all that trouble in Mexico, because Mexico City really did fit in rather well right here.)
   Let's leave that blank for the moment.
   March may be iffy too, with all that rain and cold. What to do about that now-open Atlanta date?
   Let's just wedge in Bristol and Martinsville again, first.
   April is easier: Texas, Talladega, Richmond. 
   Richmond in mid-April? Think that would be a nice move by opening up May 1st for California (which would get two dates, and hopefully some technical redesigning by NASCAR techies to improve the racing.)
   Paying attention to the weather is important....though when it comes to Watkins Glen and Montreal every month has about the same average rainfall and fog.
   The California 500 gets the May 1st slot, because the sport has to get that track back in the mainstream of Southern California sports thought.
   Darlington works on Mother's Day Saturday. But how about this for a twist: Alternate Atlanta and Darlington on that weekend, Darlington getting the date one year, Atlanta the next.
   To make that twist work, how about this twist too: Labor Day weekend, alternate those two again. Darlington gets it one year (for a night race of course), and Atlanta the next.
   Dover in mid-May, however, will have to move, because school still in session hurts that crowd. Need to fix that. Maybe by moving it back to June.
   What to fit in mid-May?
   Pocono in June is typically too rainy. Move it. Is mid-May any better?
   Charlotte could continue with its two weeks of All-Star/600 action, but man that deal dragged out far too long this May. Needs to be tightened up.
   The All-Star race could easily move to the 600 week itself, rather than having a weekend all to its own.
    But for the rest of June, Michigan, Loudon and Sonoma (flip-flopping each year to avoid Father's Day, if they want) are fine. Maybe squeeze Pocono in there in late June, after the rains.
    So Kansas to open June (as NASCAR now has planned) doesn't look bad. But if Los Angeles doesn't 'deserve' a second date, why should Kansas, regardless of that casino? Point to consider, in perhaps giving Kansas only one Cup date. How about Kansas City and Chicago 'sharing' that prime early June date, one gets it one year, the other the next; and they can likewise flip-flop a week in the fall chase. (Neither track has really shown enough great racing or major market penetration to deserve to Cup dates yet.)
   July: Daytona is a Fourth of July tradition. But Indianapolis in July is a monster; too much heat, too untimely. Move Indianapolis to mid-September, as part of the chase.
   Kentucky Saturday night after Daytona should work (as planned). However it looks like all those area hotels are getting ready to jack up the rates – Bruton Smith should have done what Grant Lynch did when Kansas first opened, and get hooked up with area hotels in good deals for fans.
   If we move the Indy Brickyard to the championship chase, what to fill in late July? Well, Sonoma might be one option. Or Loudon.
   There might have to be some concession to ESPN here, which would like a knockout opener to its part of the schedule.
   August: Where is it dry?
  Not Watkins Glen, though the tour lucked out this past weekend. Move it a couple of weeks later. And, hey, maybe even a September spot in the chase. (And to improve NASCAR road races, Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Marcos Ambrose ought to be charged with reviewing every aspect of every road course track and making improvements, primarily to add passing zones.) (Can NASCAR stockers run the 'boot.')
   Or maybe don't move the Glen. Even in the fall, when Formula One played there, it was rain and fog too. Still, the option of a road race in the chase needs to be considered somehow.
   Pencil this in for August: the Glen, Michigan, and Montreal. Yes, Montreal; the sport needs to get some more international touches, and Montreal can easily handle this deal.
   For the chase itself, how about a new look: '12 races, 12 faces.'
   Open the chase Labor Day weekend, at either Atlanta or Darlington.
   Make the Bristol August race the clincher for the regular season (and I like the suggestion that whoever wins that race, if he's in the top-20 or so in the standings, gets a wild card spot in the playoffs).
   Against the NFL, NASCAR needs its biggest guns, and it needs to bring them to bear (like Bristol).
   So the chase could look like this:
   1. Atlanta or Darlington (flip-flopping each year), to kick off the playoffs.
   2. Richmond
   3. Indianapolis (maybe at night)
   4. Talladega (early in the chase, to keep attention focused)
   5. Loudon
   6. Charlotte
   7. a wild card track each season, say, Sonoma for one
   8. Chicago or Kansas City (flip-flopping each year)
   9. California (and NASCAR has to get the action better there)
   10. Texas
   11. Las Vegas or Homestead-Miami (flip-flopping each season)
   12. Homestead-Miami or Las Vegas (flip-flopping each season)

   The season finale?  Homestead-Miami works nice...but so would Las Vegas. So let's alternate the two. Why should the last race always be at the same track?
   One season the championship race is at Homestead, with Las Vegas as the next-to-last race, a good lead-in. The next season the two tracks swap.
  
   Okay, maybe some of this stuff wouldn't work.
   But then what's your take? What should 2011 look like, if you were in charge?

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