ZedVlog

Each week The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi answers readers’ questions about the latest happenings across motorsports.

Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Knowing how NASCAR, its teams and drivers present themselves religiously, I am still surprised NASCAR will be racing on Easter Sunday. Was there any pushback to scheduling a race on the holiday within the garage area? Has anyone expressed conflict about running on Easter? ⁠— Raymond H.

Does NASCAR really think it is going to get good ratings for a Sunday night race? On Easter? ⁠— David C.

Publicly and privately there has been pushback to NASCAR scheduling a Cup Series race on Easter Sunday, something it hasn’t done since 1989.

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“Not a big fan of racing on Easter, I’ll just say it,” Joey Logano said Monday. “I feel like that’s a very special day; a day that’s equally as big as Christmas, if not bigger, and so I’m not crazy about it. But I also can see the other side. I’m willing to give it a shot. Maybe it’s going to be fantastic. It’s going to be all right.”

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a guest on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast this week he echoed Logano’s comments, saying he thought NASCAR should’ve given drivers and teams the weekend off to spend with their families.

What Logano and Earnhardt also acknowledged is that NASCAR is beholden to its television partners when it comes to when and where races are held and what time they start. Such privilege comes with writing a billion-dollar check to broadcast races; an important detail that many people tend to overlook, especially with NASCAR beginning contract negotiations for its next television contract likely by sometime next spring.

That segues into the above question posed by David.

In this instance, Fox Sports is hoping to make Easter Sunday a date where fans know that evening the network will be televising a marquee NASCAR race, thereby compelling people to tune in. Hence why Bristol was chosen and why the popular half-mile concrete track has been covered in dirt. Because while hardcore fans may object, the hope is the novelty and (potential) excitement are enough to lure non or casual fans to watch. A similar concept the NBA uses in scheduling games on another religious holiday, Christmas Day, and why certain teams featuring star players are repeatedly selected.

From this perspective, while the objections against racing on Easter are understandable, it’s unwise on the business side and offers too much upside for NASCAR to push back against Fox Sports wanting to pursue this idea.

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Most people will be home Sunday night, giving NASCAR a prime opportunity to capture their attention with a race that could be compelling. For NASCAR to sit the weekend out essentially would be conceding ground to other professional sports leagues that have games scheduled on Easter with the NBA having four playoff games, MLB having a full slate featuring all 30 teams and the NHL with six games.

If these other leagues can have games on Easter Sunday, NASCAR can and should race.

What’s next for Ty Gibbs? Is he destined to be a villain, or can he grow out of that? ⁠— Greg B.

Whatever Gibbs does from here, he’s going to be seen as a villain by fans. That much was clear Friday night during driver introductions when the mention of his name generated loud Kyle Busch-type boos from those in attendance. And this was before he clobbered Sam Mayer during their post-race fight and did so while keeping his helmet, which apparently is a no-no for some fans.

At this juncture, the only possible way Gibbs could change what fans think of him would be to rescue a bunch of puppies from a burning building. Even then, that still may not be enough to earn their admiration.

All of which is a long way of saying that Gibbs should just embrace being a heel, a viewpoint also expressed by The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck in his weekly Top 5 column. Don’t shy away from being an aggressive driver who has no qualms running over competitors if they don’t get out of his way, then afterward refuses to apologize for it. NASCAR, like all sports, is better when fans have someone to collectively root against, and Gibbs is more than capable of filling this role. And along the way, he probably will earn some new fans who like that he proudly wears the black hat.

This season has begged the question more than ever of what the line between rubbing and wrecking is. If you were to write out the unwritten rules of contact when driving in NASCAR, what would that section of the rulebook look like? ⁠— Ryan M.

What a fun question. After extensive research, including checking with every key decision-maker across the industry, the updated rulebook concerning contact between drivers reads as follows:

1. It is perfectly OK for Driver A to initiate contact with any competitor whenever they see fit provided, they act apologetic afterward and state publicly that they know the offended competitor has carte blanche to pay them back down the road.

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2. Although Driver A may say he’s OK with any form of retaliation against him, he’s not really OK. In fact, should this occur, Driver A will forget rule No. 1 and act as if the schoolyard bully stole their lunch money. Everyone must know Driver A did nothing to deserve such unfair and unethical treatment. They are the aggrieved party.

3. Even though Driver A has demonstrated a penchant for aggressive driving, they refuse to accept that other drivers will race them similarly. Basically, Driver A has a free pass to run other drivers over, yet no one has a right to do the same and any breach of this rule should lead to significant penalties against the offending party because the world knows that Driver A would never act in such an unsportsmanlike manner. After all, Driver A is the epitome of class and sportsmanship and would never, ever want to win in a manner that is unbecoming of the high moral code they operate by.

In all seriousness, the question of where the line is between bumping competitors and wrecking them is always and forever going to be blurred. The question of what is acceptable and what isn’t is made all the complicated at NASCAR’s national series level by a championship format where one of the benefits of winning during the regular season is gaining playoff eligibility.

To quote the great philosopher Omar Little, “A man got to have a code.” And it’s up to each individual driver to determine what exactly that code is.

Has NASCAR dropped the idea of rain tires on short tracks? The start of Saturday’s race (at Martinsville) might have been interesting if the teams had to time the switch from rain tires to slicks. ⁠— Max V.

The development of rain tires has been put on hold. NASCAR had been exploring the idea but tabled the project to focus its resources and attention on developing the Next Gen car. The expectation is that once NASCAR is comfortable with where its new car is at from a competitive perspective, it will revisit using rain tires at short, flat ovals like Martinsville and Richmond.

I hope they sort out the short track package. We want more of them, but it has been terrible so far. I don’t want more Bristol Dirt gimmicks to paper over the issues. ⁠— David M.

In the aftermath of Richmond and Martinsville not delivering to most fans’ expectations there has been chatter about whether this could dissuade NASCAR from adding additional short tracks to the Cup Series. Concerns, obviously, shared by David.

But before the “We want more short tracks” movement comes to a screeching halt, let’s give NASCAR a chance to see if it can find a way to better adapt the Next Gen car to short tracks. There only have been two races, including one on a track that didn’t exactly produce the most exciting racing using the previous car.

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NASCAR understands fans generally prefer short tracks over any other kind of track. It also knows these types of tracks consistently showcase NASCAR at its best. What has happened the past two weeks doesn’t change this even if the evidence suggests this car may be best suited for intermediate speedways, particularly those with worn surfaces.

I am a big fan of data in general, but I can’t help but feel like all of the shared data about drivers is bad for the sport. Listening to crew chiefs tell their driver that a competitor is doing X, Y and Z according to track data is confusing to me. Why is it OK for Hendrick to have data about throttle and braking of Gibbs’ drivers or vice versa? Doesn’t this take away from drivers who are able to figure things out on their own? ⁠— Dustin L.

The sentiment expressed above was one expressed by drivers, most notably Busch, when prior to the 2018 season driver-specific data like acceleration and braking points, steering was made accessible to every driver.

“I’ve spent 13 years in this sport to figure out how to drive a race car to make it go fast and then do the things that I do to make it go fast and win championships, and now you are going to hand all of that to a young driver on a piece of paper, and they are going to figure it out as long as they know how to read it,” Busch said at the time. “Sure, they still have to do it, but at least they know what I’m doing so if they study that enough they will know how to beat me, or I will know how to beat you.

“We look at it as proprietary, but NASCAR doesn’t. It’s like an NFL team giving the opponent their playbook.”

But here’s the catch: Teams could always access that info, they just couldn’t do it in as straightforward a manner, instead having to use third-party apps. And since Busch made his remarks, sports have become even more data-driven where fans alike want to consume as much data as they can due to the advent of legalized sports betting. It only makes sense then that this information would be conveyed to fans by NASCAR’s television partners.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to put the genie back into the bottle. Nor is there a way to prevent teams from sharing with their driver what competitors are doing during a race.

(Photo of Ty Gibbs: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

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