By now we've all heard NASCAR has called a 'town hall" style meeting for owners and drivers Tuesday at the Research and Development Center in Concord, NC. The purpose of the meeting is to give drivers and owners the chance to openly debate what is good and what is not so good about the current state of the sport. The media, team members, crewman and industry executives are not allowed at the meeting.Just last week The NASCAR Stimulus Package was unveiled here on The Spotter Stand to give NASCAR a few ideas that might help boost and re-energize NASCAR's top series. We all know the drivers and crews make the "cars go 'round" but it's the fans that drive the sport. Speaking on behalf of the fans, and building off of last week's blog, here a few more ideas and areas that NASCAR might want to consider during Tuesday's meeting.
Hire "Humpy" Wheeler-Is there a better promoter or anyone better at generating race day hype? The answer is no. Even though he wasn't at Charlotte you could still feel his presence and see his influence. With the sport desperately needing a kick start, who better to bring in and shake things up than Wheeler. His innovative ways and fan-friendly approach might be just what the sport needs to change the race day and race weekend experience. NASCAR might want to grab him before the IRL does.
Improve The Race Day Broadcast-The more you watch a broadcast the more disgusted you get. The "cheese"factor is at an all time high as broadcasters are left trying to fill holes left by boring racing. Broadcasters need to be more critical, more in-depth, and more realistic at how they call a race. Fans don't want to hear sappy story lines they want realistic and critical analysis of what is going on. Don't give us Digger, give us inside access.
Go "Side By Side" During Commercials-The IRL figured it out a long time ago; give the fans every lap of the race even during commercials. The only way you get that during a NASCAR broadcast is if you happen to get HotPass on DirectTv (and everyone doesn't have DirectTv). All too often fans lose interest during the race. If they lose touch with what's going on they often times walk away and hope to catch the tail end of the race. By going "Side by Side" you give fans the chance to catch all of the action even during commercials. With ratings slumping week in and week out it might be a good idea to find a way to keep people watching. "Side by Side" gives you that chance.
Improve The Quality Of Racing-Last week we touched on the idea of double-file restarts and implementation of a halftime break; but it's the technical side of things where the most can be done to improve the quality of racing. Bottom line...changes need to be made to this car to allow for better passing and ultimately better racing. Maybe it's the wing; maybe it's the nose; whatever it is it needs to be changed. This car was supposed to level the playing field so that on any given day 20-25 drivers would have a shot at being competitive ultimately putting them in position to win. However, the cream has risen to the top and the powerhouse teams have quickly adapted. Engineering has taken over and traits from the old car are becoming more and more prevalent. Clean air is the most coveted part of race day and once a guy gets out in it, he is gone. Let's fix the car so that we can fix the racing.
Give Firestone And Hoosier A Shot-Teams and drivers won't come out and directly say it, but the tire Goodyear continues to bring to the track is wreaking havoc on the set-ups. Maybe it's time to let another tire company come in and give teams a second or third choice. It couldn't hurt. Maybe a little competition is what Goodyear needs to get their act together.
Limit Cup Driver Starts In Other Series-As fans we all love watching the"big boys" race on Friday or Saturday night. It makes for great racing and increased ticket sales. As sad as it sounds, the time has come to limit the starts a Sprint Cup driver can make in the Nationwide and/or Camping World Truck Series. For the sake of ticket sales you've hindered those who are out there racing to pay the bills and put food on the table. I'm not saying totally stop Cup drivers from racing, but let's limit how often they run. Let's also not award them points if they aren't running for a championship. Plus it would be nice to see what the future of racing looks like when everyone is on a relatively level playing field.
Look, we all know the sport is struggling; the attendance and ratings support that. The panic button hasn't been pushed yet, but apparently someone has their finger on it. It's become crystal clear to the higher-ups that changes must be made or else the sport runs the risk of losing their fans and their foothold in mainstream America. By the looks of this meeting, it's a scenario the sport can't afford to encounter.
3 comments:
After the debacle that was the Coke 600, er Coke 340.5, I would like to see one thing changed in addition to all of the other changes that have been proposed.
If a race gets past halfway and then a yellow is thrown for rain, then NASCAR should close the pits and keep them closed and red flag the race immediately. If the rain clears up and the track dries and NASCAR restarts the race then they can open the pits. But if it doesn't and the race is called then the guy who was the best on the track is the winner as it should be.
But the way that the current system is, rewarding dumb luck over on track performance is a bassackwards way of deciding a race. Is that really the impression that NASCAR wants to give to people tuning in to a race for the first time? No wonder they're losing viewers. So please NASCAR, fix this mess during rain shortened races that allow someone who gambles and gets lucky to beat the guy who was the best on the track. Races should be decided on the track and not by dumb luck.
I agree completely with that comment. i read the previous article too about the stimulous package and love these ideas. NASCAR needs to be reading this article, they might just fix their problems.
Good stuff and the stimulus article was good too. Great ideas. Noticed how espn did an article today about this same stuff. Its time for some changes.
Post a Comment