Due to weather concerns, NASCAR moved Sunday’s Pocono start time up by two hours. It seemed like a routine schedule tweak. Then the race ran clean, finished in under three hours, and fans were home by 4 p.m. instead of staring down a midnight finish. Something about the whole weekend just felt better for fans. And that was enough for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to say what a lot of people in the sport have been thinking for months: maybe NASCAR should rethink its start times for good.

NASCAR accidentally solved one of its biggest problems, says Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“One thing I do know after today is more 1 pm start times, please!!!” Stenhouse Jr. wrote on X shortly after the Great American Getaway 400 on Sunday.

It was a simple post, but it tapped into something that fans and even people inside the garage have been venting about for months: race weekends are ending way too late.

There was a lot of frustration just a few weeks ago in Nashville, with fans growing tired of races stretching late into the night and spilling over into Monday morning, making it difficult for many working-class supporters to watch from start to finish.

“I’ll just say right now I’m too old for this. I am officially too old for night races. I’ll be the cranky old man here. I can’t do this anymore,” Jeff Gluck said about the 2026 Cracker Barrel 400 on The Teardown podcast.

The race was originally scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. ET green flag. However, the weather had other plans, and as a result, engines didn’t fire until 8:25 p.m. ET. Then the race itself lasted 3 hours, 44 minutes, and 57 seconds. And so by the time everything wrapped up, fans, crews, media, and teams were staring at clocks well past midnight. And it wasn’t the first weather-related disturbance of the season either.

The Coca-Cola 600 was also affected by severe thunderstorms in the Charlotte region. The race was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. ET and lasted 4 hours, 39 minutes, and 56 seconds. It featured two weather-related red flags and 12 cautions covering 75 laps, and once again, NASCAR ended up finishing at a time most people normally associate with sleeping rather than motorsports. That was despite the race ending 27 laps short of its scheduled distance. Even without delays, the scheduled start time and the average length of a Cup Series race naturally push these events close to midnight.

That’s where Pocono felt different on Sunday. The 2026 Great American Getaway 400 started earlier than usual due to a schedule change and lasted just 2 hours, 56 minutes, and 36 seconds, with only five cautions for 23 laps. Denny Hamlin won the race, and fans were heading home with smiles on their faces by 4 p.m.

Even with a weather interruption, the race likely would have still wrapped up comfortably before dinner time. Suddenly, fans weren’t talking about avoiding delays. Instead, they were asking whether NASCAR had accidentally stumbled upon a better formula.

Fans echo Stenhouse Jr.’s sentiments

The funny thing is, fans didn’t treat Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s X post like a hot take. Most of them responded as if he had finally said something they’d been thinking for years. One fan wrote: “Surprisingly, the NFL has been able to survive with football games starting at 1 PM. Maybe NASCAR could take note.”

And that’s a fair point. The NFL has built Sunday around afternoon viewing for its audience base. The fans watch the game, go about the rest of their day, and still get ready for work on Monday. And interestingly, even NASCAR used to operate the same way.

“Yup, the 1990s always had a 1 pm start time,” a fan reminisced on X.

During the 1990s, most Winston Cup races started at 1:00 PM ET. That afternoon slot became part of NASCAR culture, shaped by daylight, weather patterns, and pre-night-racing norms, long before primetime television became a bigger focus.

And for people outside the East Coast, the benefits become even bigger. One fan wrote:

“I 10000% agree !!! Especially here on the West Coast, where it’s a 10 am start. Race ended early PM and had the rest of the afternoon to do other things.”

That means a race becomes breakfast and lunch viewing instead of consuming the entire day. So, a win-win situation for NASCAR fans across the different time zones of the country.

NASCAR’s audience has leaned blue-collar, forming the backbone of the sport’s fanbase. Manufacturing workers, mechanics, electricians, construction workers, truck drivers, warehouse employees, and many others. One fan summed it up perfectly:

“Even though it makes it tough for a guy that works 12hr night shift, I still vouch for this. I’m more than happy to go to work on 4hrs sleep if I can watch the entire race before work.”

That’s the real concern. If races regularly stretch past midnight, fans don’t just lose sleep. Eventually, they may decide that watching live simply isn’t worth it anymore. And for NASCAR, that’s a far bigger problem than adjusting a start time.

NASCAR’s Cup Series television audience has fallen from an average of over 8.5 million viewers per race in 2005 to a record-low full-season average of just 2.45 million in 2025. Make start times better, and there’s a chance this number increases again.