During the 2020 NASCAR season, which was hosted during the Covid-19 pandemic, the sanctioning body decided to drastically cut down the length of practice sessions. This decision was extended to future season with aim of reducing the additional cost the teams had to endure. But the decision didn’t get a great reception, among the fans as well as the teams.
One of the major issues teams found with the decision is the fact that they no longer weren’t able collect enough data to develop the car better before the main race day. Now seven times Cup champion and owner-driver of Legacy Motor Club, Jimmie Johnson has cone forth urging NASCAR to increase the practise time and allow teams to make meaningful changes.
The practices are not long enough to make a meaningful change to the car. It’s tough to develop – and I certainly understand and appreciate the effort for cost savings. … And it’s just really tough with how little track time there is for all teams to benefit [from] that. Because when you unload, that’s what you have. Jimmie Johnson said via Frontstretch.
The Hall of Famer pointed out that the lack of practice times affects the smaller teams the most. He asserted that the bigger teams can afford to have limited practice times as they have extensive resources at their disposal to compensate for any loses. But the small and new teams, as well as the new drivers can’t afford the luxury of learning more about the cars by racing it more.
Jimmie Johnson asked NASCAR to double the current practice time
The current Cup practice on a normal race day is 20 minuids. Johnson wants NASCAR to double this time and make it around 45 minutes. He believes this would make racing more efficient for the teams. JJ added that right now teams are taking some gambles to fix racing.
It doesn’t need to be like it once was where you have four hours of track time, but double the track time now if it was 40 minutes, 45 minutes, I think you could really help the field in its entirety be more efficient with their spending. Because right now, you’re just throwing darts hoping you’re spending the right way on different things. Jimmie Johnson said.
Last week 2012 NASCAR Cup champion Brad Keselowski had also come up with the same demand. He urged the sanctioning body to give team more practice times and claimed that it would make racing better. Increasing the practice time can be the right choice for NASCAR as it has more benefit that losses.
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