NA$CAR = NAPTIME

[NickHolt]

I've been trying to figure out exactly why I'd rather mow the lawn than watch a Cup race on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't all that long ago that I would look forward to the next Cup race and if it was an "off weekend" I'd actually feel kinda depressed until the next weekend.

 

1) We used to have 43 independent, no-holds-barred race teams trying to out-think, out-drive and out-smart each other on the track every week. At least half the field could win and everyone (except former champs) had to qualify or go home. Too bad if you had bad luck in qualifying - GO HOME! You never really knew what was going to happen next or if your favorite teams would even make the race. All that excitement has been cleverly wiped out by NA$CAR over the past few years. Now we have "team players" who slow down (is that racing?) to let a teammate pass in order to lead a lap. I'm sure Rick Rapp would have let Slick Yoemans or John Kelly pass him on purpose during some of their epic on-track battles. Yeah, right...Maybe when pigs fly.

 

2) About the time Stewart got fined for getting PO'd on live TV, the current generation of vanilla drivers hit the scene. Screw the passion for the sport. Be PC instead. I don't even know who half the current drivers are and wouldn't recognize them if I were sitting next to them in a restaurant somewhere. Not so with Petty or Allison or even backmarkers like Marcis. And the current crop of foreign open-wheel "stars" just make matters worse. What a crock of crap.

 

3) The only "drama" in Cup racing is generated by NA$CAR. And it's almost all artificial drama. The COT is a perfect example. The "Chase" is another example. The top-35 rules is almost sick. Naw, it IS sick.

 

4) NA$CAR has even removed the various makes. In the old days if your driver fell out, you could still root for a Ford, or Chevy, or Buick, or Olds, or Mercury, or Plymouth - and you could actually tell what make you were cheering for just by glancing at the car instead of looking for some sort of headlight decal... When you can't even tell a Toyota from a Ford it's time to stop the farce of even calling the cars "makes."

 

5) Politics and money rule NA$CAR. Certain teams get all the goodies simply because they are correctly positioned in the NA$CAR franchise pecking order. You have to go to a local short track to find a level playing field any more.

 

6) Part of the blame has to go to the TV coverage too. They play the NA$CAR game to the hilt. Heaven forbid if any Cup TV announcer were to even mention any of the issues listed above. I turn the sound off anymore. I used to leave it on in case there was a wreck so I could wake up from my nap.. but no more. I just check out SportsCenter for any highlights while I'm checking out the baseball scores.

[Budman]

7) I agree with all you've said above. To that I would add this. A huge hole was created dead center of NASCAR on the afternoon of February 18, 2001. It remains to this very day. It just ain't the same without the 3. No man in NASCAR has ever cast a bigger shadow.

[lenny66]

Nick, Tell us how you really feel!!! I agree 100%. Francecar sux!!! No excitement, no arguing, no real racing. Oh Well, may be time to go do some flat track or straight line racing. Lenny66

[abrungot]

ok.. billion $ question.. if N@$car sucks so bad why are they the one's pulling in all the $...

 

Is there something that local racing can learn from them?

[ProTree]

my $.02,local racing needs to quit trying to be like nascar.

[direct-flo]

What is NASCARS advertising budget?

 

I think all the cars entered in a race should get in on time regardless of who you are.

[Pappy_GT13]

ok.. billion $ question.. if N@$car sucks so bad why are they the one's pulling in all the $...

 

Is there something that local racing can learn from them?

 

 

NASCAR spoon feeds the media the stories THEY want covered. Local racers need to "feed the media" to get coverage.When my wife was doing RATTRAXX the hardest part was getting RACERS to supply anything about themselves to publish, so the people who bothered to respond got the coverage. Most media do not have the manpower to come out & do interviews but will use "press releases" if you supply them. Even before my wife worked for the local paper, I got coverage because she would write them a little story (which the paper would edit) & send it along with a picture. Sometimes you make the paper just because it's a slow news week & they need the filler. Now people come up & ask when is the next race, don't think that would happen without the publicity. JMO

[lenny66]

ok.. billion $ question.. if N@$car sucks so bad why are they the one's pulling in all the $...

 

Is there something that local racing can learn from them?

 

They aren't pulling in what they were. People can't afford to go or just don't want to go anymore. It is killing itself. JMO Lenny66

[NickHolt]

ok.. billion $ question.. if N@$car sucks so bad why are they the one's pulling in all the $...

 

Is there something that local racing can learn from them?

Aaron, I'd like to hear just what you think short track racing should be learning from NA$CAR.

 

If the truth be known, there is much wringing of hands taking place at Daytona Beach these days.

 

Check out the TV ratings for Cup shows over the past few years. Downhill slide if there ever was one. And you can be sure that NA$CAR's advertising revenue is matching the downhill ratings. Pretty soon NASCAR advertising rates will be dirt cheap.

 

Check out the grandstands at most (there are a few exceptions) of the Cup shows over the past few years. Downhill slide again? Of course the TV cameras are not permitted to show the closed of sections of grandstands, empty seats in those that used to be full... Pretty soon you will be seeing reduced rates for Cup tickets. In the not too distant future I can envision that smaller Cup venues will be back in style...

 

However, there is a great deal of residual good will towards NASCAR left over from the days when the racing was real and the racers were real too. But that is slowly erroding - one race at a time.

 

Nick

[txtom]

They aren't pulling in what they were. People can't afford to go or just don't want to go anymore. It is killing itself.

 

While I also think NA$CAR is hurting itself, the reality is the tracks will hurt first.

Nascar charges each track a sanction fee per race. I don't know exactly how much, or how it is calculated, but the fee is paid up front in order to be placed on the schedule.

 

All those empty seats are the track's problem, not Nascar. Nascar already has it's money in the bank; they consider the seat and individual race sponsor selling to be the responsibility of the track.

[RETrott]

I've noticed the empty seats also. It seems worse at Lowes Motor Speedway, NASCAR's home track. I'm just glad to see other fans see what I am seeing. That's about all I'm gonna say...getting late...stop while ahead... ...

[Crazyhorse]

ok.. billion $ question.. if N@$car sucks so bad why are they the one's pulling in all the $...

 

Is there something that local racing can learn from them?

it use to be called 'trickle down economics',,,,,,,,call it the 'parcels effect', use all the good fireworks first,have your cake before your liver and spinach.

what they did yesterday locked them in to high dollar contracts with networks and networking sponsors. when those contracts run out they will be hurting.

stands are empty , t.v. ratings are falling and tradition died with north wilkesboro and the southern 500 (being replaced by the most cookie cutter of the cookie tracks).

they declared war on their own with saturday night races so i hope they get everything that is coming to them.

[tqj3]

Someone once told science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon that "90 percent of science fiction is crap;" to which Sturgeon replied, "That's okay. 90 per cent of everything is crap."

Yes, NASCAR is going downhill, but their downhill is still pulling better numbers than any U. S. sport other than the NFL. Part of the problem is that eventually everything is aimed at the lowest common denominator. Check out the movies being made. At least 90 percent are aimed at the teen market, or the 18-34 market; and as education gets worse and worse, the jokes have to be more and more basic. Very boring.

The point is that everything is going downhill, chasing the biggest audience for the dollar. Most best sellers are not that good, and many just keep writing the same basic story with different characters, like the formula movies Elvis made after he got out of the army. Not that he couldn't have done better movies, or been a pretty good actor, but Colonel Tom and the producers knew they had a sure-fire formula for drawing a huge audience, so why screw around and try to get creative?

An artist friend once told me that no painting was ever as good as it could have been, because most artists, even the great ones, don't know when to stop. Instead, they keep tinkering with it until they've made too many "improvements," and you can't go back to what it was. The master artists, according to him, are the ones who stop just one step past where they should have stopped.

NASCAR may have gotten it right, but they're trying to improve the product, and they've blown it. Still, they'll stay around a long time if they quit digging the hole any deeper.

Pappy has it right. NASCAR (and every other successful sport) feeds the media the stories, makes it easy for them. You would be shocked at just HOW easy they make it for them. And he's right that most racers won't give you information about themselves even if you ask. (Been there, done that.)

Aaron is doing a lot of things right, and so is John Mandabach in Houston. But John's closer to what needs to be done, which is do the basics, and keep doing them every week: give the media an advance that is more than "tell people to come to the track this week;" give them at least one or two interesting stories before the race; even if they come out and cover the event, give them a well-written race story after the event, one that makes people who read it want to come see the next race; and, if you want TV coverage, have a professional videographer tape EVERY race, then send different short edited pieces along with a "script" to each TV station in the market.

If you are operating a touring series, send all of this to every media outlet in all of your market areas. That is, if the Pro Modifieds or the Texas Trucks are racing at Thunderhill and Houston Motorsports Park, send the stories and advances and the results and race reports and TV tapes and scripts of each race to all of the Central Texas media and the Houston media. If you race in Corpus, add them to the group.

It isn't rocket science, but it is work. It means hiring professionals when necessary, but it mostly means acting as if you want the media coverage and working hard so it's easier for them to cover your sport.

What you are trying to do is reach a new market, one that only knows of racing through NASCAR, if that. They've seen race cars on TV, but they are all neatly turned out, professional-looking race cars. That means you will need to show them similar cars. They'll need a little more time to catch on to Modifieds or Grand Stocks, so those, too, should be as professional looking as possible.

That doesn't mean you need a Grand Stock that looks like a NASCAR stocker. But a simple coat of paint and some professionally-done stick on numbers and ID will make the car look "just like a NASCAR" from 20 feet away, and that's all you need.

Trucks should be a big draw, but they'd better be doing some promotion. Mary Ann is on the right track with TSRS and the team shirts and so on. Remember, the crowd, particularly the number of new fans we need to attract, expects to see neatly-done cars, not refugees from a demo derby.

Along that line, we also need a class of imported cars and small sedans; kind of a "beginner" TPS class. Most people don't drive the kinds of cars we race, and the dealers don't sell them.

As I said, it isn't rocket science, but it isn't that easy, either. It just has to be done if we want to survive, let alone succeed.

[rebelracewriter]

Ummmmmm......nevermind!!!!

[Definitive]

My sentiments exactly reb.......and Nick....thanks for backing me up(probably accidentally)on all of those posts I've made on this subject.

 

I don't take naps during the race,I just race through a four hour race in about an hour and a half with the magical life saving DVR.

 

8) there aren't any more speed records being set

9) there isn't anymore "real" danger....although this may be a good thing,it sure does'nt allow for the "goose bump" effect anymore.

10)TNN broadcast...limited commercials on it...announcers that knew what the heck they were talking about,and were allowed to say what they wanted to....man you just don't know how good you have it until it's gone.

 

 

Am I the only stock car fan that looks at the Snowball Derby as the "real" superbowl of stock car racing?

[jumbo]

my $.02,local racing needs to quit trying to be like nascar.

AMEN

[champ1796]

I dont agree with the direction Nascar is headed either, and its just not been the same for me since Dale passed. Having said that, Any given Sunday if I have the choice of mowing the grass, watching baseball or watching the race on TV, its still a no brainer for me. I may Tivo through the commercials but it sure beats stick and ball or landscaping.

[REBELRACER]

the races for the most part have gotten boring. i dont think nascar is hurting like many think. the tv ratings are most likely down because alot of people use tivo or dvr for the race so they can fast foward thru commercials, and im sure that has some impact on the way they do their ratings. plus with track pass, people can follow their driver instead of the ones that nascar seems to favor. plus there is the mrn and sirius nascar to listen to the race, which i prefer because the current analysts they use really suck. and if you subscribe to dish network hot pass, you can follow along with your favorite driver too. with the cost of nascar tickets compared to being able to see all the action on tv, most likely has a lot to do with the empty seats at the track. nascar has so many alternatives out there to follow the race, tv has almost become back seat to it all. as boring as nascar is to watch now days, they are still a lot better to watch then the 10 irl cars on the other channel. espn or speed needs to start following local street stock racing. maybe sign on with a track or go to a different street stock race each week. i would much rather watch that then the current na$car crap they show.

[bigfat]

Nascar = arid, bromidic, bummer, characterless, cloying, colorless, commonplace, dead, drab, drag, drudging, dull, flat, ho hum, humdrum, insipid, interminable, irksome, lifeless, monotonous, moth-eaten, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, repetitious, routine, spiritless, stale, stereotyped, stodgy, stuffy, stupid, tame, tedious, threadbare, tiresome, tiring, trite, unexciting, unvaried, vapid, wearisome, well-worn, zero

 

But their really rich. So who's the idiots?

[RETrott]

A lot of good thoughts posted here. I am not being critical, and hopefully don't appear to be, but reading closely it appears to be various age/era groups and opinions. Really, that's a good thing. Some posts are long, but the problems do run deep and require considerable understanding. As for TV, no one likes commercials, but understand the need. But, they have reached new levels. Especially, after enduring three or four minutes of advertising, the broadcast resumes with the screen blocked with promotional ads for another minute or two. And why do previous races need to be reviewed during current green flag race conditions. What's wrong with those reviews being done during the prerace show. A lot of that filler could be eliminated. I also notice drivers suddenly getting thirsty when the interview begins after a race. Especially Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth. At least Gordon seems to take a drink of his Pepsi, unlike Matt's Gatorade. My main displeasure regarding TV Race Coverage, is Friday and Saturday night broadcasts. I will never, ever be convinced that local tracks are not harmed by night races, whether NASCAR or IRL. I know other racing events are televised then also, but those events were always night races, and don't necessarily compete with local venues. But even those might be better taped, and then shown during the week.

[Danielsen Motorsports]

Nascar over the next 5 years will go into the [edited out by Nick Holt, 11/24/07]. Thats my guess, its hot right now because everyone has already jumped on the bandwagon because of the last 20 years. That success cant be matched and I see them continueing to change to keep. Everything they are doing is directly hitting the short tracks of america and will basically kill most of em at the rate they are going. This running on friday and saturday night stuff in rediculous. Every nascar owner and driver should be told to sponsor a track and a % of their money should help them keep interest in racing along with assisting them in keeping their doors open. Anything less they can kiss my short track a$$ because when these groups of nascar drivers are done so will the sport.

[sprintsrule]

I do not know any statistics but I know we do not watch. We had four families that used to get together to watch the races and BBq. None of us watch the races anymore.

[thrss1]

today was the perfect day for a wuscar oops i mean nascar race. cold weather combined with being on call and not able to go out i sure coulda used a nap.

[rebelracewriter]

Nascar = arid, bromidic, bummer, characterless, cloying, colorless, commonplace, dead, drab, drag, drudging, dull, flat, ho hum, humdrum, insipid, interminable, irksome, lifeless, monotonous, moth-eaten, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, repetitious, routine, spiritless, stale, stereotyped, stodgy, stuffy, stupid, tame, tedious, threadbare, tiresome, tiring, trite, unexciting, unvaried, vapid, wearisome, well-worn, zero

 

DAYYYYYYYYUM Jody!!! How many of those words do you actually know the meaning of? Ok, I'll grant you stupid, flat and dead...........LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO You forgot banal, inane, moronic and probably a few others I'll think of later.

[Definitive]

The question is....did he use a real dictionary....or did he take the easy road with the internet based dictionary?