Schedule me this: How about a 72-race slate?

NASCAR's just gotten around to releasing its 2011 national series schedules -- but forget about that for a minute. I'm here to propose a design that will save the Sprint Cup Series, which appears to be lodged in a malaise that's affected both attendance and TV viewership.

Let's start with a 72-race schedule.

Now that got your attention, didn't it? But it's really pretty simple, wouldn't involve changing much with the schedule that's in place for 2011; and it could be implemented, either fully or in part, for 2012.

And the best part is, it would be an extremely attractive proposition for everyone: The fans, primarily, because they're floating this boat; the competitors, because without them there is no sport; the track operators, because a healthy sport keeps them at the same fiscal level; the media, because covering it drives their business models; and NASCAR -- because the success of all of the above puts money in its pockets, which ostensibly would keep everyone happy.

The crux of it would be this -- and this came after sitting through the 50-lap Camping World Truck Series event at Pocono Raceway. Not coincidentally, the first appearance of the Truck Series at Pocono, with a wham-bam action-packed format, brought with it the best Saturday crowd a number of veteran Pocono observers had seen in years.

Moving forward, each Cup weekend on the schedule would consist of two complete races that each would award full points -- thus, a 72-race schedule if you used the whole current 36-race schedule as a model.

But wait a minute. There are a few events that would be considered sacred and untouchable -- but not many of them, no matter what anyone thinks of "500 miles" being the stuff of which legends are made. Honestly, so many legends have been thrown aside or trampled you hardly know what constitutes one anymore.

The Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Brickyard 400 -- which despite its relatively young age has earned the right to be held at close to the same level -- wouldn't change. But beyond those three, I can't think of anything I'd place off-limits.

So, I guess that leaves us with a 69-race schedule. No problem.

Under the new format, each pair of races, depending on the venue, would be held over 200 miles or 200 laps, ballpark. Road course, of course, would require some extra thought. But competitors in the Pocono Truck race said they were just getting started when their 50-lap event ended. They said they needed another pit stop.

So that's the key. Under this new format, each Cup race would be designed as a two-stop event, if there were no caution flags. The pit crews need to be a big part of a team's success in this format -- but two stops are enough to keep the excitement level at its peak, and allow a variety of strategies to come into play. Road courses might need to maintain that one-stop sprint format.

The best part for everyone might be this: Each event weekend would cover two days, and this would be the schedule, no matter if the races were designed as day or night events. Competitors would have 90 minutes to prepare for a normal qualifying session, which would then set the field of 43 starters. After that there would be a one-hour Happy Hour final practice.

This format would allow for whatever support divisions that were on the calendar to also complete their main events on Cup's opening day. Support divisions could also have two-day shows or even a single-day format with a single race/qualifying practice, a qualifying session and then the main event.

For the Cup Series, and keeping the value of the show for the fans at the forefront, the critical thing is having a three- to four-hour main event, in total racing time. This would put the venues in a position of not having to alter ticket prices, because virtually the same caliber of show is in place.

Maintaining the television window is critical, but seems to be simple. If networks put somewhere between a six- to eight-hour window in place for pre-race, a race broadcast and post-race, simply eliminate pre-race broadcasts completely.

I'll guarantee if fans were given a choice between watching two high-pressure, high-action features with post-race coverage for each, they'd vote to eliminate pre-race coverage completely -- without even thinking twice about it.

There would be a one-hour break in between the feature events. This is ready-made for the venue to bring in a portable stage on the frontstretch and have some type of concert or entertainment.

If the venues could be structured, or restructured in such a way as to sell pit or garage tours that would enable fans to observe the teams rebuilding or preparing their cars between events, that's a potential revenue stream or at worst, an opportunity to further engage the fan base.

Staging mandatory 30-minute driver autograph sessions in between the two events is another possibility that would further engage fans.

Starting positions for the second Cup features would be based on finishing positions in the first event. A critical element is that backup cars would be allowed in the second events -- with a strict set of criteria in place to determine who could and could not unload a backup car.

An interesting part of the process is that NASCAR would have to institute some type of penalty for going to a backup car -- probably something as simple as starting at the tail of the field. But the last thing NASCAR would want to do is eliminate teams' ability or desire to race their guts out to the very end of both features.

Finally -- and what might be great news to a lot of fans. This format, at least for the first year or two, would allow NASCAR to put the Chase on the shelf -- temporarily, and maybe permanently.

But that doesn't mean some aspects that have been positives in the Chase would be forgotten. There needs to be the racing equivalent of the "home-run ball" in place during the stretch run of the season.

Possibilities might include a point bonus for winning any event in the last 10-15 events in the season; or at the very least a sizeable bonus for winning races in the stretch run. Others have suggested an additional bonus that would be given to a team winning its first event of any season, and for a team striving to get into title contention, this extra incentive wouldn't hurt.

And bonuses for victories would eliminate one of the less desirable aspects of the Chase, namely a team that closes the season in a rush currently being prevented from rising any higher than 12th in the standings.

Of course, the one thing that knocks any of these machinations into a cocked hat is this: Teams already are trying as mightily as they can to excel, to beat everyone they can and to win races. So artificially messing with formats to create more competition seems insulting at least, and non-productive at best.

At any rate, it's a work in progress -- or a work that might never get out of mothballs, so go easy on me.

Or at least, get out and support your local NASCAR venue in the meantime -- either this season or in 2011 when the latest iteration of schedule-changing is in play.

Last word on 'real' schedule changes

At virtually every venue the series has visited this season, crowd counts have continued to falter. And Jeff Burton said that's what should prompt the kind of changes that appeared on the 2011 national series' schedules NASCAR released this week.

"I always hate to see a race track lose a date," Burton said, speaking of Atlanta Motor Speedway, which along with Auto Club Speedway each were cut back to one date next year, "because I know there are a lot of fans that do make both of those [Atlanta] races and love that race track and love the area where the race track is.

"At the same time, it's capitalism. If there's another venue where more people can come in and more people can enjoy it then that's where you can expect the show to be going."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Related:
• NASCAR releases 2011 schedules for three national series