There are very few people in NASCAR who are as experienced and educated about the world of stock car racing as Mark Martin. So when someone like him identifies something that will do the sport good, one expects the sport to listen. After Sunday’s Cup race at Phoenix, which coincided with IndyCar’s stop on the same track during the same weekend, Mark Martin urged NASCAR to pursue a new path.

Mark Martin approves of the NASCAR-IndyCar match

While NASCAR and IndyCar have shared weekends together in the past, such as IMS in 2020, it never quite led to fruitful results for either or both. However, this time, it all clicked. Drivers, fans, insiders, and everyone were in agreement that the ‘Desert Doubleheader’ worked.

During an appearance on the Mark Martin Archive podcast, the NASCAR veteran remarked on the great racing at Phoenix.

“Blaney put on a show Sunday at a racetrack where they say you can’t pass. I think he passed 49 cars or something like that. So, it was another great NASCAR weekend,” Martin said.

Following that, Martin touched on ‘the really cool thing’ about the weekend, which was having IndyCar there. “They had a very compelling race. and it also, I believe, was a great weekend for IndyCar,” he claimed. Having said that, he admitted how strongly he feels about the importance of having doubleheaders between IndyCar and NASCAR, as he subtly said, “We need to do more.”

Martin claimed he feels strongly that IndyCar enthusiasts can become casual NASCAR fans, and NASCAR enthusiasts can become casual IndyCar fans. He claimed he loves to watch racing all day on the weekend, and he loves doubleheaders.

Current NASCAR drivers see value in hosting racing alongside IndyCar

While Mark Martin’s perspective on the NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader was from a cross-promotion angle, drivers like Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece have their takes as well. For Suarez, the idea is a similar one to Martin’s, to tap into the fanbase of IndyCar and for them to do the same with NASCAR.

“Hopefully, it can be the beginning of bringing new opportunities because I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it more often. We are the biggest motorsports in the country, and I don’t know who doesn’t want to be racing with NASCAR. It’s a no-brainer,” Suarez said, as per Autoweek. He claimed that the fan base in IndyCar is quite different than the one in NASCAR, which makes doing doubleheaders a fun prospect for a fan.

For Ryan Preece, having IndyCar at the racetrack on the same weekend as NASCAR is a matter of how he can learn from the single-seater drivers. Preece claimed he finds IndyCar driving ‘really interesting’ in how they get around the same racetracks and approach passing, restarts, pitting, etc.

The RFK Racing driver suggested that for a NASCAR driver, there’s a lot that can be taken and appreciated from just witnessing it up front on the same racetrack.

Do you think NASCAR will be open to hosting more doubleheaders with IndyCar in the future, or was it simply a one-and-done situation?