Not that I'm the most versed on the subject but I want to make a few points and have a bit of a debate here and see what people really think about what's going on in the sport. I think NASCAR as we know it is in serious trouble. Not just a little bit of trouble but actual serious trouble. All tracks are down in attendance and ratings are bottoming out. Bristol in the spring was half full. Dega for God's sake, DEGA had an estimated attendance of barely over 80,000 on Sunday. 80,000 with beautiful cool fall weather in Alabama. No chance of rain and temps in the 60's. Remember when they'd run their second race in July? When they'd put 120,000+ in the stands in 105 degree weather each summer? Heck, back in 06 before the CoT was introduced they had an attendance for the fall race of 160,000. Where did they lose 80,000 fans in Alabama? I know a good joke could come out of that somewhere but I digress. The ratings have kept dipping from year-to-year. The past two races are a eyebrow raising sign of how things are in 2012. New Hampshire went from a 3.1 rating in 2011 with 4.235 million views to a 2.6 with 3.517 views. Dover went from a 3.0 in 2011 with 4.093 million to 2.6 with 3.581 million viewers. Back in 2009 ratings were bottoming out around 3.1. Most races were averaging in the mid 3's to mid 4's. Yes, it's football season and the race ratings dip when the NFL start and there's absolutely nothing NASCAR can do to compete with the NFL. However, that still begs the question where did the several million fans go from just a few years ago until today? I think they got fed up with the lack of racing due to the Brett Bodine designed Car of Tomorrow. THAT should tell you everything you need to know about why the car sucked so bad. Take one of the least successful drivers ever in NASCAR that only won a race because NASCAR screwed Darrell Waltrip out of a win at Wilkesboro and have that genius design the new car. Now NASCAR is scratching their heads wondering what to do to get the fans back. They are throwing up a Hail Mary with the new 2013 car. I call it Back to the Future. They are trying to bring brand identity back to the cars (like in the 80s-mid 90s), dumping the top 35 rule and going back to provisionals, letting cars test once again on NASCAR tracks, and a few other tweaks that are being heralded as new. They aren't new - they are attempts at fixing what they've screwed up so badly. Will it work? They better hope for the sake of their sport the new cars can allow for good racing on the intermediate tracks unlike this current car. And they better allow Goodyear to make a much softer tire that will actually wear. With tire wear comes more passing and more strategy. Remember when Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett, and Bob Jenkins would fawn over drivers like Harry Gant, Darrell Waltrip, and Terry Labonte for tire conservation? The guys that would take care of their tires but then at the end of the run they'd come on like gangbusters and blow by guys that were more abusive on their tires? Remember even just a few years ago when a caution would come out with 12-15 laps to go and you'd see all sorts of strategy in the pits? You'd have some guys opt to stay out and hope for the best, some guys take two, some guys take four tires. And guess what - the tires made enough of a difference to provide excitement and action when the green flag waved. Now you can almost run a set of tires the whole race if you really wanted to because they just don't wear or give up. NASCAR better hope, pray, sacrifice virgins, whatever it takes that the new car will produce better racing. The new cars MUST have more mechanical grip put back into the cars. Right now aero grip and clean air is so important that nothing can overcome it. Take that spring race at Kansas for example. In the entire 400 miles there was one pass for the lead on track the entire race. ONE. And Chicago, Charlotte, Texas, Vegas, etc aren't providing any better racing either. But if you can put more mechanical grip into the cars than that aero can help the cars then you'll really start seeing a difference. Remember the good races at intermediate tracks in the past? I've got a race on VHS from Charlotte in 1988 - the World 600 of that year. Cars were passing all over, running side-by-side for laps on end. Sure, with the attrition and crashes only a few cars finished on the lead lap however the actual race was exciting for all 600 miles. That aero grip word wasn't even in the dictionary yet. The cars had enough mechanical grip to compensate for the aero advantage. You'd see cars get a run on another car down the backstretch and draft by him into the turn. Now that car out front gets so much clean air the guy behind has no chance - the draft isn't a factor at all. The new car needs to have that mechanical grip or it simply won't matter and I can't see why NASCAR cannot see that. It's painfully obvious to me and to other sports writers that I follow that covers the sport. If everyone else can see it why won't NASCAR realize that just a few tweaks would make a world of difference in the racing? Then you have the whole Speed Channel deal and the NASCAR TV package. It's widely speculated that Speed will be off the airwaves in the coming months and rebranded into Fox Sports One - a new Fox channel that they hope can compete with ESPN. Now if this happens NASCAR will really be hurting as it comes to all of the extra coverage they get now. Goodbye Raceday, Trackside, and Victory Lane. It can be argued that there is an oversaturation of coverage at times though. I mean how much of the weekend do you really need to see? But those losses won't hurt nearly as much as the loss of practice and qualifying coverage. Many times Speed covers these sessions when others won't. I guess in today's world where many have high speed internet they could stream the broadcasts online but they'll lose that valuable TV coverage and hype machine for their races. It will be more like the old days - the race will come on TV and that will basically be it. All the fluff will be eliminated which again I can almost argue is a good thing at times. But if they lose Speed it will probably be the death knell of the Truck Series. If they lose their 3rd main outlet as far as racing it won't be good for the organization. And let's not forget that many of the top executives at ESPN hate NASCAR with a passion. Mainly because it wreaks havoc when there is a delay in a race and they have to shuffle around programming to accommodate the races. You know ESPN cusses everytime they have to show a meaningless Nationwide race on a Saturday afternoon and shuffle a decent NCAA football game to ESPN News or ESPN3. Brian France, your grandfather started this all and your father built it into a global brand and you are about to tear the entire thing down. Can it be fixed? I think it can but the new car has to provide much, much better racing. The fans are speaking by turning their TV's to something else and not coming to the tracks anymore. What say you all? Am I blowing it out of proportion or do you think the sport is in as much trouble as I do?
Earnhardt Jr saying if they had to race like they do at Talladega all the time he would quit doesn't really help out NASCAR's future
NASCAR was built on a bubble that will soon burst. They should have stayed true to their core instead of going after stick and ball types. The young fans they gained from the early 90's till the mid 00's are grown or are growing up, they are not driving Mustangs and Camaro's and wrenching on their cars while watching the race. The few that are still doing the latter have grown tired of competition cautions, the lucky dog, and body templates. Not to mention the goodwill lost when NASCAR replaces all the international racing and non stock car racing on SPEED with shitty shows that are vaguely about NASCAR.
Allow manufacturer's to bring their make of car to the tracks. Make every car pass some sport-wide specifications (length, height, weight, etc.). Damn sure don't slow them down, anywhere, ever. If the cars are going to fast or are too dangerous for your driver, get new driver, preferably, one that wasn't born with ass made of candy. If that's too dangerous for you to watch, then don't. (Hint: For every 1 that wouldn't watch, 10,000 would...every single week) Let cars just race. Bump, pass, rub, draft, spin, pack, single-file, whatever. Faster cars will dominate slower cars. Slower cars will need to improve, or get hammered each week. NASCAR = fixed BTW, I agree wholeheartedly with the COT statements. It has officially replaced "New Coke" as the poster child for "if it ain't broke, keep screwing with it until it is, adamantly refuse to accept that most people hate it and you're wrong, continue to watch your brand suffer, begrudgingly admit mistake, revert....hopefully in time, before too much damage is done". How NASCAR has not already admitted as much and switched is just beyond me. And for all of the many positive and likely entirely valid attributes the COT must have, and which are oft-cited by both those in NASCAR and the afficionados of the sport, here's one negative that should also be considered: fans, particularly casual ones like myself, not only detest it, but have no desire to watch it. So, I usually don't.
NASCAR could do themselves a lot of good by trying to go back to the loyal Southern fanbase that got them started to begin with.
They need to get the Truck Series away from the big tracks for the most part and quit trying to run on all of the cookie cutters. If I were NASCAR I'd still let trucks race on occasion at the bigger Cup tracks like Daytona to begin the year, Charlotte in May, Pocono in the summer, and Talladega in the fall. Most of the rest of the weeks I'd focus on short track racing. I'd keep running Rockingham, Bristol, and Martinsville as well. But I'd go back to the roots of the series and put the trucks on more bullring short tracks. Let them get back to South Boston, Myrtle Beach, Nashville Fairgrounds, and Stafford Speedway. Take them to a couple of road courses again like Road Atlanta and Lime Rock or Barber. They need a complete overhaul to stay relevant.
It's funny how the people who used to clamor that NASCAR needs to expand to new markets are the same ones [itch bay]ing about how it needs to return to its southern roots. I'm not really sure what people want from NASCAR anymore. The fact of the matter is this, ask yourself which generation is the one that usually fvcks up the family business. If you need help, look in Indianapolis.
The Frances might have dropped the ball a bit, but what happened to Indianapolis is something that takes VERY special circumstances. That was Murphy's Law at it's finest.
All it really took was an idiot grandson with an overinflated sense of self worth. There may be more Mickey Mouse street racing, but the series, and the Speedway, are far better off without him.
I have stated my opinion on how to bring back the fans before, particularly the television watchers. 1. Better brand identity with the cars, finally coming. 2. Let them race, fewer and shorter caution periods. Much too quick to display the yellow flag. 3. Shorten races to 500 Km or equivalent proportion, less dead time where drivers ride until time to race. Fit tv programming better.
