Road Courses Should Never Go Away

It's time for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers to turn right again – for the second and final time this year – and right into a dispute.

The validity of road course races on the Cup schedule is a perennial source of debate each time we roll into Watkins Glen International and Infineon Raceway. One train of thought says we need more road courses on the schedule, while others suggest eliminating them entirely. However, I remain smack dab in the middle on this issue, content with the current arrangement and our bi-annual road course stops.

Road courses, such as this weekend's trip to Watkins Glen, add versatility to the Cup Series line-up. To maintain NASCAR's position at the top level of motor sports worldwide, the sport needs the diversity provided by the assortment of road courses, restrictor-plate tracks, intermediate tracks, banked and flat one-mile venues and short tracks. In the same vein that we'd lose variety by eliminating one of these types of tracks, the schedule would sacrifice multiplicity with the exclusion of these styles of speedways.

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Furthermore, as attention turns toward the upcoming NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, the sport's version of the playoffs, there often is a points shake-up coming out of Watkins Glen because guys who might not be in contention to make the Chase, such as Robby Gordon, Marcos Ambrose and Boris Said, often finish up front and snatch some of the championship points away from the title contenders.

For this reason, I think this event is perfectly placed outside the 10-race Chase framework and shouldn't be a part of the championship battle. Tracks like Watkins Glen and Infineon Raceway are anomalies and shouldn't be allowed to create opportunities for those more skilled at road racing to score a bunch of points on the competition. However, many of today's top NASCAR wheelmen, such as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, have refined their road racing skills over the years and don't miss a beat when they crank the wheel to the right.

While I don't think we should visit Watkins Glen and Sonoma more than once a year, I think it's prudent to evaluate additional road course opportunities in the future. For instance, Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., is an incredible facility that rightfully has garnered significant attention with the announcement of the IndyCar Series stop there in 2010. If the facility could be made compatible for stock cars, I'd like to see the same consideration given. Just as Indianapolis Motor Speedway has discussed having Grand-Am cars run its road course, NASCAR could also contemplate doing the same one day. It doesn't hurt to explore new options.

Some people decry road courses as a waste of an organization's money because while we run only two a year, teams spend a great deal of resources on specializing their cars for these dates. It was for this reason that the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series moved away from road courses but I can also see this argument's relevancy for the Nationwide Series in the future. However, things are different at the Cup level and while the economy and sponsorship search are challenging at this time, teams budget for road courses and would probably spend that money elsewhere if these venues were eliminated. Plus, this line of thinking is more of an excuse for those who don't want to run road courses for whatever reason.

NASCAR fans enjoy road courses and the unique glimpses they give into a team's pit strategy and drivers' skills. Whether we run two, four or 10 per season, these twists and turns have an important place on the Cup Series schedule and have for quite some time. Why mess with a good thing?

Adam Alexander is a SPEED reporter in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and for TNT in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, in addition to his duties hosting NASCAR in a Hurry and The SPEED Report.