Or destory it, depending on your point of view.
Either way, Waltrip has several ideas for NASCAR to consider as it embarks on its championship weekend here in Miami. He says start the season on New Year's Eve in California and advocates running even on the day of the Super Bowl and ending the season by October, if not sooner.
He also says that even as teams struggle, that it's not NASCAR's responsibility to keep them around, so if they can't compete, they'll get left behind -- a future several teams could be facing, including the Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises. DW also wants to alter the Chase. His idea is make it five races.
Here's more of what DW said Thursday:
DW: Listen, we’re wasting too much time in my mind. The season is too long. That doesn’t mean you can take races away from anybody. The races are what they are. They need to look at holes in the schedule and say OK, instead of having an all-star race on a weekend by itself, maybe we need to have it on a Friday night and then have the regular 600 on Sunday. You’ve got to get the season shortened up, so we’re not competing against the NFL. I’ve said this for a long time now and I really firmly believe that would help TV ratings and it would also give us an offseason. We don’t have a real long offseason.
"The thing I think that has happened to us, they thing they’ve got to fill up 365 days a year, they being NASCAR thinks we’ve got to fill it up with something that NASCAR is doing. Whether its’ after the Chase and going to New York for five days before they go to New Hampshire. Or going to New York for the banquet and being up there for a week. Or testing at Daytona for two weeks. I think they need to take a hard look at how we spend our time and how we could a lot better spend it doing things that would get us done earlier in the year instead of dragging it all the way out until Dec. 1 when they do the banquet. I think that would be helpful for everybody.
Q: So it would be OK in your mind to give up December and January?
DW: My vision is … I’d race on New Year’s Eve. I’d go to Fontana. I could pack the joint. I’d have a race that afternoon and I would have fireworks that night. People would love that. I would race on Easter weekend like we do Mother’s Day weekend. I’d race on Super Bowl Sunday. What time does the Super Bowl start? (6 p.m.) We could start the race at 1 o’clock like we used to, everybody is at home and parties are going on for the Super Bowl, plus I get to watch a race.
"There’s all kinds of things. I think you’ve got to think outside the box. We’re so traditional. We have so many traditions that we try to adhere to that the schedule is an Achilles Heel. It has been for a long time. Somebody is going to have to get a hold of that schedule and fix it. Weather. Geography. Things in there that just need to be fixed that would make everybody’s life a whole lot better.
Q: So rethink the whole thing and maybe take September, October and November off?
DW: That’s it. Then we’re not bumping heads against (the NFL) every week. We can’t win that battle. Football. We can’t beat football. We can’t beat football. Somebody needs to wake up and realize that.
Q: What can NASCAR do to help the teams or does it need to do anything?
DW: There are just things in this sport that you can’t control. There are things in this sport that the sport passes by. Wilkesboro comes to mind. Nashville. Tracks that we have had to abandoned because they couldn’t keep up. They didn’t have the seating capacity. They didn’t get the attendance. They couldn’t pay the purse. NASCAR can’t be all things to all people. They can’t be the be all end all. They can’t be the be all, fix all. I think we’re all in this government bailout mentality that NASCAR is supposed to come in and bail out people that just can’t cut it anymore, can’t make it any more. I think that is unfortunate. This is a competitive sport. This is where you go on the sport and you compete and you have to be able to compete at a high level. If you can’t, then you’re going to get left behind.
Q: What kind of reaction has your idea for a five-race Chase gotten?
DW: I think it has merit. A lot of merit. I think 10 races is too long. It gets too strung out and you get people too far behind and you’ve got no chance of catching up. I think you could shorten it. If you’re going to keep the same point structure, shorten the Chase. If you’re going to change the points structure then maybe 10 races is OK. If you want to keep the same points system we’ve got then shorten it.
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Also, Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced that Air Force will sponsor Reed Sorenson next year. Air Force will be Sorenson's primary sponsor in four races. It will be an associate sponsor in other races. Air Force had been with the Wood Brothers.