NASCAR Bailout Plan

Let's not kid ourselves anymore, NASCAR is struggling. Yes, people still come to races and people still buy souvenirs, but the excitement and popularity that NASCAR carried into the 2001 season has dwindled away. The fire has slowly burned out and the time has come for a drastic change.

I hate to steal the theme of the last presidential election and apply it to the Sprint Cup Series, but change is needed to overhaul and re-energize a sport once thought had the capability to compete year in and year out with the traditional "stick and ball" sports.

It's time we roll up our sleeves and help rebuild a sport that's struggling and in need of a competition bailout.

Regional Racing-Economically this makes a lot of sense. Instead of starting the year in Daytona and then turning around and traveling out to Las Vegas and California lets work on keeping the races in a regional setting as the year progresses. For example, after Daytona the series could then head to Homestead. After Homestead the series could make an east coast swing through Charlotte, Bristol, Richmond and Martinsville. After the east coast swing head down to Atlanta and then on to Talladega and once the southeastern swing is complete head over to the mid-west and then out west. This would save teams money and could help free up finances to do more testing, put better equipment under a driver, and even pay crews competitive salaries to keep talent around or bring better talent in.

Shorter races-With TV ratings down and attendance dropping, NASCAR needs to look at shortening races to keep fans interested in each race. Spending 4 hours watching a race unfold is not very appealing. As fans we all hope for that exciting ten-lap dash for the cash or an intense green, white, checker finish that has everyone buzzing the next day. Sadly, the first 2-3 hours of a race have become so uneventful that people turn the race off and ultimately miss the finish. Shortening a race to 300 miles or 300 laps instead of 500 would be just long enough to keep the intensity up on the track and the fans in the seats from green to checkers.

Halftime-Each major sport has a built in rest period that allows teams a chance to adjust for the final part of the game. This is something NASCAR might want to take a good, long look at. How many times have you watched a race and your favorite driver spends 100-150 laps struggling through minor changes hoping the car will come to life? With a halftime break of 10 to 15 minutes, teams can look at notes, chat with teammates and then make the necessary changes to the set-up to make the car competitive for when it counts. Having 15-20 cars fighting it out for the win sounds more appealing than 3-5.

Double flag restarts/Caution laps don't count-The IROC, Bud Shootout and All-Star Race promoters have it figured out. Instead of lining up lead-lap cars on the outside with lap cars on the inside, essentially in the way, NASCAR needs to let guys line up double-file according to position. With the Lucky Dog in play lap cars now would have a chance to race each other without the risk of taking out the leaders.

Another way NASCAR could tweak the yellow flag period would be not counting caution laps. Using laps during a caution period goes back decades, but now days it's taking way too long to clean up wrecks and blown motors and it's not fair to the fans who pay to see a full race at the track. Those fans, more so than those at home, travel to the track and drop hard earned money at the track and they deserve to see a full race start to finish. They don't deserve to see cars ride around for 5-8 laps while the safety crews clean up and load up wrecked race cars.

Bring back IROC-This option is obviously the most difficult part of the NASCAR Bailout Plan, but it would certainly be the most fun if pulled off. Bringing the best race car drivers in North America together for essentially a continental all-star race could really boost Saturday ticket sales for both NASCAR and IRL racetrack promoters. Who wouldn't want to see Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe, Jeff Gordon, Scott Pruett and the like in equally prepared cars at different types of tracks racing to see who's the best of the best. When I was a kid there was nothing better than an IROC race at Talladega. Dale Earnhardt going up against Davey Allison and Emerson Fittipaldi and Steve Kinser was worth the price of admission. There's just something about the best of the best flexing their muscles and showing what they got without any points on the line. Those were the good ol days.