Outta their way

I tried to watch the Coca-Cola 600 the other night. I really did.

Got comfy on the couch, clicked to Fox, watched the boys haul ass around Charlotte Motor Speedway. And haul ass. And haul ass. And haul ... ass.

It was about 8:30 or so that I gave up. That's when I noticed we were more than two hours into the festivities and were still 40 or so laps shy of the halfway pount. I calculated that at this rate, the thing wouldn't end until Fourth of July weekend, and would result in a gruesome soft drink war because Fourth of July weekend is when they run the Pepsi 400 down in Daytona.

So, I bailed. Found out later Martin Truex won. Brad Keselowski, who was running in front when I signed out, was nowhere to be found at the end.

Stacked up against the tingling duel between Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi in the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day, it was an off, off, off-Broadway show. And so I can understand, sort of, why a guy suggested in a column that the 500 move off of Sunday to Saturday, or maybe to Memorial Day itself.

The reason given was that it would make it easier for drivers who wanted to double up and run both the 500 and the 600. Although then it wouldn't exactly be doubling up, if you catch my drift.

So I suspect the real reason is that NASCAR (or at least its media advocates) are tired of playing the red-headed stepchild to the single biggest event in motorsports. The 500, after all, is the 500. The 600 is just ... well another NASCAR race.

Albeit a really, really long NASCAR race.

Not that there wouldn't be historical precedent for moving the 500 off Sunday. Traditionally, the race always ran on the actual Memorial Day, regardless of when Memorial Day fell during the week. The move to a permanent Sunday date didn't happen until 1974.

Then again ...

It's the 500. The 600 is not. So if anyone should pack up and move, it's the stock car jockeys.

To begin with, NASCAR already runs on Saturday nights a slew of times, so it's not like it would be something new for it. What's another Saturday night Cup race in a pile of 'em?

So. Want to have one race or the other run other than Sunday?

Sorry, NASCAR. But that's your move.