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Gas prices not the only reason seats are empty
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A photo that ran on the sports front of Wednesday’s paper was telling. It showed a whole lot of empty seats at Daytona — and Daytona doesn’t normally have a whole lot of empty seats at a NASCAR event.
Do we blame it on gas prices? That’s obviously a big factor. It costs a lot of money to drive hundreds of miles to see a race. Shoot, it costs a lot of money to drive anywhere these days.
But I refuse to blame sagging attendance solely on the terror at the tank.
From what I’ve heard from you — and from my own experience — Cup competition just isn’t that much fun anymore.
It’s certainly not stock car racing. It hasn’t been for years, of course, but with the Car of Tomorrow it’s even less so. There was a time when fans rooted for manufacturers as much as drivers. Except for the company logo, the cars are all the same now.
Take away the colorful logos and numbers and you can’t tell one from another. The winner of an event might be driving a Chevy, but you know as well as I do it has no relation to the kind of Chevy you see tooling down I-85.
NASCAR officials called a meeting with drivers last month and told them to stop “whining” about the COT, but fans don’t care too much about the vehicle, either.
While we aren’t concerned about how it handles in corners (after all, we’re not driving it), we see it as yet another move by an organization hell-bent on turning the sport into some sort of Madison Avenue event.
First we get cookie cutter tracks, then we get cookie cutter cars. And more and more drivers are being forced to become cookie cutter drones who simply reel off a list of sponsors, sport a Stepford smile and say nothing more dramatic than, “The guys in the shop gave me a great car.”
Say what you will about Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, but at least they say what they think and show some passion. It’s usually not politically correct and I might not even agree with all of it, but at least it makes me realize there are still some individuals in a sport that should celebrate individuality.
Before the green flag fell on the 2008 season, NASCAR CEO Brian France said it was time to get back to the basics and return stock car racing to its roots.
Was I absent the day that happened?
I mean, I didn’t expect the competitors to start running moonshine again but I don’t see any signs of the Cup series catering to its core audience, do you?
This year’s version of NASCAR seems just like last year’s version of NASCAR — a slick Hollywood production that tries to hit on all the demographics except the ones that really matter.
With gas prices continuing to rise, chances are more and more people will have to pick and choose which tracks they visit and which ones they take a pass on. But NASCAR has bigger problems.
At some point the corporate giant is going to have to loosen its tie, roll up its sleeves and start paying attention to the little people.
Because little people like us are the ones who made it big to begin with.
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Some of the decline started about the time Brian France decided to pee on the Confederate battle flag.
consitor_veritas why did you waste your time opening this article if this sport is such a waste of time? You must have some interest. I think maybe you are the ignorant one.
Excellent article. NASCAR has been destroying itself for 5 years or more now. When the economy was good and the YUPPIES started a fad of watching NASCAR the NASCAR people thought they would expand the sport to these YUPPY Centers like Las Vegas, California, Chicago, etc. They took races away from the faithful southern race tracks and gave us boring cookie cutter tracks that fit a lot of YUPPIES around them. Well the fad has worn off for the YUPPIES and the economy is in the tiolet so who's left? Yes, the fans that you treated like poop for the past 5 years or so.
The COT is a joke. The drivers don't like it and the fans don't like it. NASCAR dug its own hole and now they are going to have to find a way to climb out of it.
NA$CAR has become a joke. I've lost a huge amount of respect for the sport. That started at Miami when they threw that "Debris" caution just a Tony Stewart was about to go a lap down thus costing him the title. They wanted a "young gun" to win not Mark Martin. That was compounded last year by letting them race to the finish on the last lap at Daytona. There was a crash....Martin was ahead. End of race. But no....can't have the old guy win.
Brian France is an idiot and should be taken out and flogged. He's taken a great spot and destroyed it. Now they've even gone as far as to tell the drivers they'd best keep their mouths shut. What next...scripted races????? Oh wait...I think we already have those.
I went to my first and last NASCAR race in March. My husband and I got free tickets to Bristol from a friend. I was not impressed. I am not bashing NASCAR, I just did not see the point in it at all.
Look at the cars that are racing now, versus what they were driving when awesome Bill from Dawsonville won the champion ship. His car still had factory bumpers, you could tell what Bill was driving, you could tell what type of car Dale was in. In the late 90's it started changing, just like someone said. They started trying to please the snobs of hollyweird with cookie cutter tracks, and cars. Now they look the same, one template to fit. Why not just put the same engine in them and run them like that; Oh wait a minute, they do, it's called IROC. I was a long time fan, but I don't watch em anymore, they lost me when FOX started broadcasting them.
I also used to love Na$$car when it was Nascar. Now it has become so commericalized I don't go anymore. All Brainny France is interest in is the bottome line, that almighty precious dollar! They think they are too good for us Southern rednecks now. So I say, let'em suffer!
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