Let's get NASCAR fans' attention again

[6 Shooter]

Let’s try to get some people’s attention.

I’m a history buff and certainly appreciate tradition, particularly in NASCAR. The importance of tradition ranks as high among racing fans as those in baseball in my opinion.

But there is also a time for a change. And for NASCAR a big one needs to be made now.

It’s time to shorten the NASCAR Sprint Cup season and shorten the races.

Yes, that’s right. Cut the season and cut the race lengths.

I compliment NASCAR on the changes it has made in recent seasons to cater to fans’ desires, in making the racing safer and better, in trying to enhance excitement through rule changes. I’ve never been a proponent of the Chase format, but I give NASCAR credit for at least trying something.

Let’s face it. Even with the Chase enjoying its closest points race since its inception, TV ratings are still dropping week after week.

The racing product is good – last week’s Talladega race was one of the better ones I’ve seen from start to finish in my 13 seasons and the race still lost almost a fourth of its audience from last season.

Is it football? Maybe so, but if it is, then something has changed because NASCAR and the NFL have shared Sundays for decades.

What I think has changed are fans’ attention spans. In an Internet, Twitter, Facebook, photo-phone world, four-plus hour events are taxing people’s patience.

Everyone who has watched races have heard drivers saying things like, “We were riding around biding our time,” or talking about “staying out of trouble until we could race for it at the end.”

Fans – and media – rate Truck and Nationwide series races typically better than Cup and that’s in large part to their shorter length. Cup races have become in large part endurance events rather than a race to see who is truly fastest or has the best car.

My solution? Cut the Cup schedule by six races so the season ends as the NFL season starts. Every race in Cup should be 400 miles/laps or less except for the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600.

There are two choices here: Give up and wait the situation out and hope it gets better on its own or try again with a big swing at big change.

You want to produce better racing? Create more of it by removing all the riding around

Let's get NASCAR fans' attention again

 

[Baldie88]

I'll be the first to admit that I don't follow NASCAR like I use to. We have a friend who worked at DEI and then Hendricks who worked his way up to crew chief on their Nationwide cars so I always watched those races to see if I could spot Brian. He now works for Penske as an engineer so we don't see him on TV anymore.

For me it is all gotten so boring. The only race I enjoy is Talledega but that's because I use to live in Alabama and went to the race a couple of times.

I'll also admit that I don't watch football like I use to either. Just seems like I have too many other things to do than to just sit and watch the tv for long.

Plus the fact I can't seem to stay awake more than 5 minutes after sitting down has some play in the matter. It's hell to get old!!

Ron
"Baldie88"

 

[Tuna]

I agree that the season needs to be shorter. NASCAR has saturated the market from Feb to Nov and it sucks. Shorter races might be nice to fit better into a TV window but it's going to take more than that to get NASCAR turned around.

NASCAR isn't relevant to the manufacturers anymore and that means it isn't relevant to a lot of old fans anymore either. Manufacturere need to know that the money they spend actually does something for their bottom line and the only thing NASCAR has going for it is advertising and that's not cutting it anymore.

Spec bodies and don't look anything like the cars they are stickered to be don't help vehicle development. NASCAR only engines that still use carburetors aren't helping engine development. When was the last time you saw a Toyota with a pushrod V8 and 4-barrel?

NASCAR needs to switch back to stock bodies on a stock based chassis and use engines based on what the manufacturer actually puts in the car. Think ALMS GT rules or DTM rules or Australian V8 Supercar rules. Use smaller engines or control the maximum HP output to something less than 900.

If NASCAR uses a track twice in a season, it should use 2 different versions of the track, otherwise drop one race a year at the track. Ex: Daytona 500 keeps using the oval while the Firecracker 400 (okay I'm dating myself using that name) in the summer uses the road course.

I'm done for now.

 

[jrose7004]

Yep, I am going down to my local Chevy dealer today to look at their selection of slab sided two door rear wheel driven V8 Impala's then I am going over to Toyota to look at theirs!

 

[Tuna]

Good luck finding a Camry with a V8 under the hood!

 

[catbert]

I'll go back to NASCAR when the race cars have SOMETHING in comon with the the stock version, even if it's only the sheetmetal.

 

[Mark Watkins]

I'm a race fan going back to the sixties. All types of racing. They have about 6 races that should stay the traditional length. The rest should be no more than 250-300 laps. Or total tv time without any rain or pot hole delays, 3 hours. I agree the schedule is too long, but shorter races should help this a lot.

Some of the share holders at Dover Downs think they would be better off selling the dates to Chicago and Las Vegas. Pocono has even said they might consider one race after the current tv contract expires.

Mark

 

[6 Shooter]

YEP - The season/races are to long/boring, they'd be better off to shorten both the season and most races.

Why they're changing things, replace the Cup series with a new IROC series and make all the freaking cars the same, heck they're almost there already...

L8TR - D

 

[KANE]

Create more of it by removing all the riding around

Funny that you post this today of all days.

My son and I went for a few laps in the Trans Am this morning at the Kentucky Speedway.