Chase Elliot receives jail threat after NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass

NASCAR driver Chase Elliott has called for big changes to the sport’s demanding schedule in a bid to improve the mental health of drivers and crews.

NASCAR’s schedule is one of the most intensive in the sports world, with activities spanning 10 out of the 12 months annually. By comparison, Major League Baseball, which has the next longest season, operates for about eight months each year. The two-week break this year, necessitated by Olympic coverage commitments, was a departure from the norm and has led to fresh calls for adopting a permanent mid-season break.

Brad Keselowski is a major proponent of this idea, advocating for an industry-wide shutdown during the summer months, as quoted by MSN:

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“We need to do an industry shutdown because we have the two-week Olympic break. We need the whole garage area to be in a good mindset and to not be burned out.”

Chase Elliott, another influential voice, has drawn parallels with college football, which he believes has mastered the art of creating anticipation among its fan base. He explained during an appearance on The Teardown podcast:

“I think they do a lot of things well. I mean, we’ve talked about this, but I think the first thing is the length of the season. They get a lot in, and when I say length of the season, I’m not necessarily talking about number of races. But just the amount of calendar year that you burn in doing it.”