Short Tracks to 'Cookie Cutters': Inside NASCAR's 1990s Track Shift

For the past 20 years, so-called "Cookie Cutter Tracks" on the NASCAR schedule have been criticized for a lack of excitement. Today, "More Short Tracks" is a common phrase in racing. But in the 1990s, short tracks were being pushed out of racing. "Rubbin is racing," but some people though it was unprofessional, short tracks couldn't hold enough cars, tracks need to be in big cities, and intermediate tracks were the future. When nearly a dozen major race tracks were built in the late-90s, most of them were 1.5 mile tracks. In this video, we analyze the mentality of 1990s track designers and how 2020 NASCAR wound up filled with intermediate tracks.

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[Ghostmotorfinger]

Darrell Waltrip was 100% spot on. NASCAR has done itself in.

[sulphurous]

It's not because the track is a mile and a half, it's because there's not much imagination put into the layout to at least try and make it unique or differentiate it from others.

Because when everyone's Charlotte, no one will be.

[bdavisfan]

Yes we need more short tracks and I wish we could get Iowa onto the Cup schedule.

[SimRacin]

I know they had other reasons for dropping North Wilkesboro besides crashes, but honestly it seemed like it produced less cautions than Martinsville or Bristol (I believe NW had the only caution free short track race in the 90s?). They really can't use the crash argument these days, they tear up more at the plate tracks than they do at any of the short tracks. Great video as always!

[armin]

As a non-American who only knows Jeff Gordon and the Cars movie in relation to Nascar, I really enjoyed this educational video, props to you man

[karlrovey]

Nascar needs more asymmetrical tracks like Pocono and Darlington.

[generalshepherd]

“One day we’ll wake up and they won’t be there.” Damn Darrell, those words have never rang clearer than before. I think back all the time to the days where NASCAR was a mainstream sport, and everyone loved it, not just our small little nucleus of people. Even the core audience of the South has left NASCAR behind. Our friends may very well truly be gone.

[michaelangelo]

There’s more crashes and torn up cars at Daytona and Talladega than short tracks now. There’s still time for some of these short tracks to be updated or fixed in order to host a cup race and give the fans what they want.

[garlicsoda]

When I was a lot younger, I was into NASCAR. I remember being a toddler and always talking about the races, my favorite drivers, etc. But something I remember a lot, was how much more I loved attending those short tracks. I went to one of the Daytona races, it must’ve been a feeder series race because I didn’t recognize as many names, and the crowd wasn’t to large. It was exciting to go watch a race for the first time, but it felt mostly normal, nothing over the top. But a few years later, we moved up north, and I was able to attend the Richmond and Martinsville races, which were so much more memorable for me. I loved watching the cars bump at Martinsville, it was exciting for young me. But, after that, NASCAR slowly became boring, and not as exciting. I watched fewer and fewer races, until I stopped watching Motorsport all together. It wasn’t till a few months ago when I relearned my love for Motorsport through Formula 1, but I still have trouble watching NASCAR 10+ years on. But, I know for a fact if NASCAR held more races at short tracks, I might just tune in some time.

[tyman]

7:05 Darrell summed up present day NASCAR perfectly.

[cookowa]

F1 fans: "All the tracks are the same tilkedromes..."
Nascar: "FIRST TIME?!"
Welp.

[midnightryder]

I remember in the early 2000’s it was said that you couldn’t get a seat at Bristol.

[jamesburroughs]

That's crazy to see how the mentality has reversed completely since the 90's. Hard to believe they were even saying those things about short tracks back then. Great video.

[jeffcanyafixiy]

7:15 - 7:30 D.W. saw it ALL COMING. I still watch Nascar I've been going to/watching races since the late 60's. NASCAR lost its way not taking care of its core audience and catering to an audience they hoped to attract. Folks that would listen on the radio, used their vacation time going to races, spent $$ on sponsors products, went to local tracks and just love racing. (Generalization) But few people that didn't "grow up" with grass roots racing will seldom become long term fans. The early 2000's proves that. Now the long term fans have been alienated and the lookey-lous are long gone and moved on. Just an ole race fans opinion.

[TomBoi]

the 2020's is going to bring in a short track renaissance, just you wait.

[mono-no-aware.Lem.]

funny coming back to this now. In the 2.5 years since this video was released:

- Atlanta is now a superspeedway
- Texas lost its second points race and lost the All-Star Race to North Wilkesboro
- California is getting converted to a half-mile short track
- Chicagoland and Kentucky are no longer in the sport

[mn_mohawk]

Honestly, I’ve always wanted more road courses on the schedule. It’s been cool to see a couple new ones come into play during the craziness of this year

[acegarcia]

The announcement of Auto Club begin reconfigured into a 1/2mi short track is basically a declaration that the move towards bigger Intermidate ones was a mistake.

[fanforlife]

Both style of tracks have their positives. Would I love to see more short tracks? Absolutely, who wouldn’t? In that same vain NASCAR needs to do something to fix intermediate track racing. In the early 2000’s gen 4 era the intermediate tracks put on some of the most interesting racing with some of the closest finishes. NASCAR needs to lose this mentality that low horsepower and high downforce is what makes good racing

[mitchell-wallisforce]

Dumb is making it so every round of the schedule takes place on nearly identical speedways.

Uninspired is asking for every speedway to be eliminated so we can end up in the same situation, just with short tracks.

The thinking fan's strat is to ask for variety. John Andretti was spot on. If every track is a speedway, then the speedways will be seen as boring. As unpopular as it might be to say, if every track was either like Bristol or like Martinsville, it'd be just as boring.

What NASCAR needs is an even spread - a mix of short tracks, speedways, steep banking, low banking, road courses, and weird freak circuits that don't fit into any one category neatly (ahem....DARLINGTON). The Eldora Truck Series races really opened my eyes to how much fun dirt racing is, and while I'm still a little iffy on its introduction to the Cup Series, it'd be a brilliant way to mix things up in a perfect world.

Variety is the spice of life. Anything less than a motley crew of extremely different racing circuits, both in shape and feel, will be a detriment to NASCAR.