Interesting article... Why are they so concerned about spectator attendance? Simple, the local promoters need to "sell" the event to sponsors which drives the whole thing. If people are staying away, and that may be no more evident than at a track like Bristol, it becomes a harder sell, sponsorship and advertising rates go down the the pot of gold becomes so much smaller. NASCAR couldn't care less what the attendance is, they've got their TV contract money. As usual, the tracks are getting screwed in the process. NASCAR mailbag: Where were the fans at Bristol? - SBNation.com BHW
With NASCAR looking for a new title sponsor and looking for new fans, here is my idea. Bring more women into the fold by signing Maidenform. With the headlines ads for the Maidenform cup races would attract more women. Of course the different series would be renamed, the smaller ones would be the A cup series working up the line to the old Busch series could be C cup and the Grand National would be the DD cup series. One can only imagine what the awards would look like.
Do you want a discussion? ALL racing is boring today. ALL of it is strictly IROC racing - including F1. TOO MANY STRICT RULES, only those with serious money can innovate, and even that is limited to F1 - and only two or three teams there, too. You get fined a ton of money and points if you so much as use an 'unapproved' nut or bolt, it's crazy. Anything that goes in circles is boring because of the rules, and hell, let's look beyond 'technical' rules, F1 has so many goofy rules on how you can even DRIVE that it's unwatchable for me.
Whisky, what makes it boring, is promoters have lost sight of what makes it great. Sure inverting the race grid on qualifying as F1 is trying to do, makes for more passing and crashes, but its artificial. If you want to get people to tune in - it needs to be real, raw, unedited and without outside intervention. NASCAR did a decent job of this for a few years, up until Jeff Gordan didn't make the chase, then they stepped in and artificially ruined things. Its been downhill, and instead of fixing it, by putting it back in the driver's hands, they keep making it more and more artificial. The most exciting racing I've seen this year has been the SCCA.
Agreed, most of racing today has become so watered down by rules and regulations that it's nearly unwatchable. There's no way to make things perfect but watching series like F-1, Indy Car and NASCAR in particular run themselves into the ground with all these stupid rules takes all the fun out of watching them. Pointing out the WEC though, the Silverstone 6-Hours and it was riveting racing throughout each class. And, although the winning Audi was excluded due to one of these very rules we're discussing, it takes nothing away from the event itself which was superb racing and it has to be the coolest thing going currently. Speaking of rules, NASCAR has fined Tony Stewart $35K for comments he made with regard to some new NASCAR thing where not all of the lug nuts have to be on the wheels which would seem to be a serious safety concern. Of course, the very notion that NASCAR still uses lug nuts vs. a single single locking hub is another issue entirely. NASCAR fines Tony Stewart $35,000 for violating member conduct guidelines BHW
They were using 4 last year, did they drop to three? I think the engineers account for this? Used to be one loose lug nut, the driver could tell a vibration and bring it in. Now its always 4, or maybe 3 now, and I don't hear anything from the driver behind the wheel.
Watching the NASCAR prerace show and could only laugh. Gordon has a better chance now at getting whiplash sitting between CM and DW than he ever did as an active driver.
NASCAR: Five lug nuts or else! Wait a minute, didn't they just dock Stewart $35K for speaking about against the (urm) previous rule? For once, Stewart's big mouth was useful. So much for the 2016 NASCAR rules being written in stone (again). BHW
among other things, this kind of nonsense I find really distasteful and is part of the reason NASCAR has little interest to me. it's managed like a poorly run student government.
Not sure if it's fate or luck or both but I've not seen one lap of one NASCAR race this year and I'm pretty much fine with it. BHW
WOW - times sure have changed - I was on the Richmond Tracks waiting list for tickets for over 9 years - I finally just gave up. Turned the race on Sunday and I don't think the stands were 50% full.
that's an old trend....NASCAR stopped reporting attendance numbers in 2013 for that reason. it's just painfully obvious now
well she is an idiot (seriously a true idiot) and needs to find something to act angry about...she feels included and relevant when she is talking out of her azz. truth is she is right but that does not mask the fact that she is among the biggest jokes ever to taxi a winning package around the oval in a single nascar event. sadly she has been like a bad disease and we may be stuck with her.
I'm not sure I follow the call....did the freeze the field before start/finish (i.e. revert to the previous scoring loop)?
It occurred during the 'overtime' laps. The leaders wreck, causing the yellow, yet are able to finish one two because of their placement when the yellow is triggered, even though they may not be able to cross the finish line. Anything for the favourite son. Deplorable.
OK, it's a weird combination of 3 rules merging into one incident: - reverting to last previous timing line/field frozen when caution comes out (NASCAR uses these two somewhat interchangeably even though they may not be the same ) -Logano was damaged in the crash and was off pace -Sadler was below the yellow line but there due to circumstances, not driving there to improve position. I think you could take it a few ways, one would be Sadler won, another would be Logano won, third would be that Poole won since he was the first car not principally involved in that crash. I do think they were right to through the caution before s/f. as to giving a victory to Sadler or Junior/JRM, I don't know....I don't think an Xfinity win means much in terms of money or status these days.
Really? In between helmet hurls and kicks to the privates, you believe Donnie or Cale deserved the Daytona win in place of 43? Identical circumstances. An utter disgrace and although it is a secondary series, the fans got to see a Junior win, one way or another.
