Talking to reporters in a recent media availability at the NASCAR Production Studios in North Carolina, RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski voiced his take on a long-running issue. Propelled by the COVID pandemic, practice sessions before Cup Series races have been really lean over the last few years. While the purpose of this was to help the financially weak teams sustain, Keselowski doesn’t think it has helped.
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He told the press that he hasn’t seen reduced practice have a direct impact on the finances of his team but maintained that the advantages might be seen in a different corner of the industry. His words went, “I haven’t seen how we’ve saved any money getting rid of practice, not from a team perspective. Maybe there were some savings in other places in the industry that I’m not aware of but there hasn’t been a significant cost savings.”
Talking about the value proposition, he clarified that he was in for having more practice since the purpose that NASCAR put forward is not being served. The lack of practice has forced teams to spend money on simulation programs, the invoices of which pretty much match or sometimes exceed the costs of running an actual practice.
Keselowski continued to contend that RFK Racing, and other teams, would not have to spend heavily on such programs if there were longer practice sessions. He added, “Really, everybody is making those investments. Although, I hesitate to say we wouldn’t still want to keep those in a practice environment, there’s undoubtedly the conclusion that we wouldn’t have had to invest so heavily had we not lost practice.”
How Denny Hamlin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing, differs from Keselowski’s view
While one driver/owner is not able to see the effects of cost saving via reduced practice in his team’s books, another clearly can. Denny Hamlin said on his podcast earlier this year that 23XI Racing would not be able to stay afloat if NASCAR brought back full-length practice sessions similar to what was the norm before 2019.
“It has to be financially viable for the teams to do it,” he noted. “That’s the bottom line or you’re going to have one or two teams fall out of business every single year.” Notably, 7X Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, provided a take largely similar to Keselowski’s in a press conference in Texas. He pitched for the practice sessions times to be doubled from what they are now and affixed at 40-45 minutes.
