NASCAR announces uniform start times for 2010

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NASCAR announces uniform start times for 2010: NASCAR will conduct a special teleconference at 3:00pm/et this afternoon with NASCAR CEO Brian France, FOX Sports Chair David Hill, David Levy of Turner, and John Skipper of ESPN. Speculation is that they will announce more uniform race start times for next season.(10-7-2009)
UPDATE: NASCAR and its television broadcast partners announced earlier, uniform start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in 2010. NASCAR worked closely with FOX, Turner, ESPN/ABC and the tracks on this project for the fans. The race start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 2010 in the Eastern and Central regions of the country will begin at 1 p.m. ET, West Coast events will begin at 3 p.m. ET, and night races will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. (The one exception is NASCAR's longest night race, the Coca-Cola 600, which will have the same 5:45 p.m. ET start time.) Following the invocation and national anthem, the green flag will drop at approximately 15-20 minutes past the hour after each listed race start time. A total of 28 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in 2010 will be held at an earlier time compared to 2009, with 20 races moved to 1 p.m. ET, including the Daytona 500. Moving up the start of "The Great American Race" two-and-a-half hours will produce the earliest start time for the Daytona 500 since 2003, when the race was also scheduled for 1 p.m. Five races move earlier to a 3 p.m. ET start and three races start earlier at 7:30 p.m. ET. In making the decision for earlier, more uniform start times, NASCAR consulted its Fan Council, comprised of 12,000 avid fans who serve as a sounding board on important topics. Half of NASCAR avid fans said they are often unclear about what time NASCAR races actually start. When given the chance to choose a start time, more than two-thirds of avid NASCAR fans preferred early Sunday afternoon.(NASCAR PR), see the complete list of start times on my 2010 Cup Schedule page.(10-7-2009)

Good!

It's about time!

That's great ... will make things a lot easier to figure out next year!

I like it!

On NASCAR's website, it had a poll and it seemed like everyone was against it :=[

When I saw the poll, it was like 72% liked it and only 28% didn't ...

I'm very glad to hear this. I hate the mixed up times- you never know one week from another when it's going to start. And I'm really glad they moved some of the late eastern races up. By the time they start, I'm already doing something else.