Schedule breaks hinder NASCAR

By JENNA FRYER

Associated Press

Remember that time Jimmie Johnson drove from sixth to first at Bristol in the blink of an eye?

How ’bout that time Denny Hamlin bulldozed his way through the field to save a win at Martinsville Speedway?

Both finishes feel like they happened ages ago.

They were actually the two most recent Sprint Cup races.

It doesn’t seem that way, though, because of both NASCAR’s oversaturated schedule and a steadfast hold on outdated breaks.

The result is unfortunate this season for NASCAR, which has been unable to build any momentum despite some very good racing.

Every time NASCAR gives the fans something to talk about around the office cooler, the conversation has had to hold for an unnaturally long time.

Carl Edwards’ intentional wrecking of Brad Keselowski made headlines on and off the sports pages, but was followed by a full week of silence because of NASCAR’s traditional first “off week” of the season.

After the Atlanta break came two weeks of short track racing, Bristol and Martinsville, and in theory those two rough-and-tumble consecutive weeks make sense.

No one could have predicted, though, Johnson’s masterful drive through the field to steal his first career win at Bristol in a race Kurt Busch had pretty much locked up.

Then came the race at Martinsville, which opened as a make-or-break event for popular preseason favorite Hamlin.

A good finish at one of his very best tracks was an imperative validation to his early hype, and a bad race could signify some serious problems for the championship contender.

He raced hard all day at Martinsville and charged through traffic over two final sprints to claim a jaw-dropping victory.

Finally! Some momentum for NASCAR!

Alas, just another break.

This time the traditional Easter weekend off, giving the elite Sprint Cup Series two breaks in three weeks.

The scheduling makes little sense for a series that races 38 weekends over 10-plus months.

When it picks up this weekend in Phoenix, the racing runs for the next 14 weeks without a break.

Then comes one off week in July, a five-week stretch of racing that pretty much decides the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field, an off week before Labor Day and then 14-straight weeks to end the season.

That’s right: Two breaks over the first six weeks of the season, followed by two breaks over the final 31 weeks. There’s no room for makeup days when rain washes out an event. But there’s a long stretch of racing over the dog days of summer that leaves everyone desperate for a break.