Want to have some fun on Twitter? Do what NASCAR analyst/writer Pete Pistone did and suggest messing with the sport's opening day.
Would you be on board if the #NASCAR season started on the west coast in mid-January and ended the last week of October? #TMDNASCAR 866-PIT-LANE @SiriusXMNASCAR
— Pete Pistone (@PPistone) January 30, 2018
"Would you be on board if the NASCAR season started on the west coast in mid-January" was the tweet Pistone sent out. Open the floodgates. Suggesting that NASCAR dare mess with the Daytona 500, in favor of a west coast track no less, amounted to sacrilege.
No. I wouldn't be. The season starts in Daytona with the #DAYTONA500. If the sports wants to alienate more fans then your idea would be the way to go.
— Paul Whittington (@paulwhittington) January 30, 2018
No! It starts with the Daytona 500. Leave it alone. And NO midweek races. People aren?t going to watch on TV nor would they travel to a midweek race.
— MsZib (@kjzib) January 30, 2018
"It starts with the Daytona 500" was a fairly common response and to be expected. Surprisingly, though, at least half the responses were open to the idea, noting that NASCAR's opener wasn't always held at Daytona but was indeed out west.
Sure. I remember when it started at Riverside with the LA Times 500.
— Illinois Golfer (@IllinoisGolfer) January 30, 2018
Sounds a bit like the 70s
— Owen Kearns (@1oldtrucker) January 30, 2018
1970 to 1981 to be exact. For twelve seasons, NASCAR opened outside of Los Angeles at the Riverside International Raceway, not Daytona. So to suggest that the opener is moved is not necessarily radical thinking. Drivers have been complaining loudly that NASCAR needs to shake things up, so maybe this is one way. Pistone found a good deal of support to the idea, but some thought it was better to address the length of the season and number of races.
Drop four races and the All-Star Race. You can start around the same time and end a month earlier.
— Paul Gornowski (@PGornowski) January 30, 2018
There is an oversaturated market for @NASCAR currently. NFL has been successful bc every game matters. A loss or win in the first 3 weeks of the season can have huge impacts on what happens for the playoffs. In NASCAR it?s Daytona and then a bunch of blah until the playoffs.
— ??? (@LBW17) January 30, 2018
Shorten schedule to 30 races, start at Daytona in February and finish the second week of October
— Dustin Babb (@BabbDustin) January 30, 2018
NASCAR fans are not if not opinionated. For the most part, what was clear is that the fans sounding off aren't exactly happy with the way things are now and are willing to consider alternatives, even if that means touching the untouchable.