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Subject

After years of changes, France wants NASCAR to get back to basics

After years of changes, France wants NASCAR to get back to basics

Let me say that I never dreamed that one day I would be writing about Brian France announcing that NASCAR needed to get back to the basics.

As we all know, since the third generation France took over for his tour as the main man at NASCAR, all we have heard and seen is that change is definitely good for the sport.

Maybe France finally looked up in the stands on race day and found out that where only a few years ago you would have never found an empty seat, that the reality of the present day Cup series is that sold out race dates are no longer a guarantee for most tracks.

France might have also picked up the TV ratings and found that the sport no longer was enjoying the growth that it did just a few years ago. Truth is that the ratings have fallen some 21 percent over the last two seasons and could be headed in the same direction if the on-track product doesn’t improve.

In France’s defense, he isn’t at the root of all of the sport’s problems, but when you sit in its highest office, everyone looks to you for answers. Apparently, he has noticed the empty seats and dwindling TV ratings as he said during the recently-completed NASCAR media tour that the sport had to get back to basics to bring back its core fans.

Now I don’t know who the core fan is that France is looking to lure back to the track or in front of a TV, but it can’t be what I call the “bandwagon” fans of the late 90’s that jumped into the sport thanks largely to the success of Jeff Gordon.

The sport’s true core fan has to go back to 70’s and 80’s when the schedule still included stops at North Wilkesboro and Rockingham and you knew that on Labor Day, the sport would be unloading its haulers at Darlington.

Those days are gone, but those fans are still out there and now it is up to France and the sport to somehow try and bring those fans back to the track and in front of their TV sets.

It will not be easy, as the sport has very little resemblance to what lured them to the sport in the first place. You can make a case that the core fans left because of increases ticket and motel prices but for a hard-core race fan, the reason was probably more in line with the product that was racing on the track each weekend.

It was taking more and more money to stay competitive in the sport during the 80’s and 90’s and those teams that had the big-time sponsors soon began putting some distance between them and the rest of the field on race day.

It hurt the sport as the money led to the multi-team approach that help to increase the advantage that those teams were already having on the track. The rich kept getting richer and the rest of the sport suffered and, with it, a large section of the fan base.

The competition on the track came down between just a handful of teams with so many of those drivers content to ride in line and not really trade a paint for the win.

The winners became predictable and when that happened, the real core fan lost interest. It was no longer a sport driven by competition; it became a sport driven by the dollar.

Maybe where NASCAR made its biggest mistake was to side more with the dollar side of the sport than with the competition side. They didn’t want the ol’ throwback driver that would get out of a car after a race and actually show a little emotion because he had lost or another driver had put his bumper to him. Instead, they wanted the “politically” correct driver that got out of the car and said exactly what NASCAR wanted him to say.

The sport we now have is the result of the blueprint that has been formulated by NASCAR but as the 2008 season begins, France now realizes that all is not well. The blueprint took away much of the competitive nature of the sport and that is what needs to be brought back. The Car of Tomorrow may be the answer but if the results of last year are any indication, it will just be another case of the rich getting richer in the sport.

Now is the time for France to follow the footsteps of his grandfather and father when they were at the helm of the sport and put it back on the level playing field that insured a great show at each stop on the schedule. If he can, the seats will fill back up and the TV ratings soar!

Save your butt, get a colon screening TODAY

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Duane Davis

Laser Engraving 
641-751-7777
101 N Center
Marshalltown, Iowa 

Naxcar might finally be "seeing the light" but now we'll see if they just sit there like a deer in the headlights or actually do something about it.

Stan Meissner

Good analysis Duane.

Sorry about the Typo on NASCAR

This was an email that I got about NASCAR but I could see this coming a couple years ago.

Save your butt, get a colon screening TODAY

For complete line of Sponsor Awards check out 
MarshallTownLaser.com

Duane Davis

Laser Engraving 
641-751-7777
101 N Center
Marshalltown, Iowa 

I moved back to California from AZ in 63 and went out to Riverside International speedway with my dad and uncle for what was then NASCARS Grand National series. I was a freshman in high school and of course was already a open wheel fan. My dad started running open wheel stuff after the war back in Indy and I had spent my early youth in Torrance, so guess who we were rooting for? LOL

I agree about Gorden, but check out who was in that race, no lacking of open wheel guys to root for , that's for sure, and the men who drove stock cars in those day's, were no wimps.

There was no good reason not to go see that "stock car" race!

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

They can start by bringing back the "Rock"!

_

Interesting article - but the "bandwagon fans" term applies much more to the folks whose interest quadrupled after the hated - then -suddenly - beloved Dale Earnhardt died on the last lap at Daytona. A very sad deal indeed. but even more so the amount of people that hopped on it and then "honorably" put #3 stickers all over their trucks or SUV's.

I'm not quite sure why I even read it - for me if it ain't on dirt it ain;t worth watching, attending, or even listening to. but thats just me. for dis-satisfied nascar fans - I hope the racing gets better soon. but I kinda doubt it. it's like the music industry. talent hardly matters - sure you gotta have some. But it's really all about image. whatever works I guess.................

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

Yeah, Duane, we'll go back to 30 x 90 cars, with spring front ends and double dianond tires, T-shirt wearing drivers, and Cromwell leather helmets and Sam Brown belts.... NASCAR cannot unring this bell, neither can sprint car racing/racers

If you're gonna go back, why not go way back?

Chuck.....

BigFish I take it that you were a fan at Ascot Park in the 60's and 70's ? I ask because my dad raced there for about 20 years. He raced for Carl Alleman and his son Smokey. CRA was alot of fun then and very fast. Alot of cars at the races also. I was lucky to attend some of the last races at Riverside as a kid including the old Lions drag strip.

You bet I was, and man those were some years weren't they? The Saturday night show was packed and we would wait to see what someone was going to stuff in one and then try to hang on to it. Try is the key word there. We were there when the first cages showed up and my dad and that old school crowd would say things like " he's just going to drive over his head and get someone killed" and other choice words. I know he rolled over in his grave when Keading knocked down the fence at Manzy at both ends of the track a few years ago. He would have had some choice words and that dumb SOB would have been part of it. LOL

What's your dads name? I don't remember Carl Alleman, I probably should.

Oh, I just thought of the time Allen Heath won the main and took a hot lap afterwards running er sideways with one hand while shaking his hook in the air like a madman. I'll never forget that, and in 1958 he won a 500-mile midget race held on the road course at Riverside, California.

Ken Clever, Prescott AZ

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

BIG FISH    My  dad is Ned Spath. We started racing in SoCal 1959 -1960 thru the late 70s. Carl Alleman owned a company called Alcast Foundry. Smoky who is Carl's son did all the fab work. All this was based out of Redondo Beach. We lived in Ojai Ca and we had a machine shop in Ventura Ca.. I now own a stable of sprint cars. Two winged and two non-wing. My youngest son Tyler Spath drives and my oldest Jacob wrenches. We also operate NorCal Performance Inc. in Chico Ca.

I guess you could be called racerson, and the way things are going, racergramps..LOL if your not already.

How great that you have been involved all these years. I'm sure you must understand when I say how much I miss the traditional rivalry we had with USAC for fifty some years. Loved it when they came, glad when they left..

Thank's for sharing that with me.

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I'm already a grandpa. My granddauater is three yrs old now. Where do you go to watch racing now days?

I thought you spelled it that way on purpose.

Stan Meissner

Lets see, I spent my first 8 in Torrance, then in 56 we moved to Phoenix and I started going to Manzy and the big cars at the fairgrounds till we moved back to California in 63, Ascot till 74 when I went up to the Pacific Northwest. Skagit had some great shows in those days, tacky as all get out and some real good super mods to go with them, whites in the pits. Portland was paved and I watched Bliss come up, knew he was a good one. Man did I miss a 1/2 mile with traditional non wing cars. Back in AZ in 85 and the AZ boys were HOTand I got to see Eddie Worth drive like Allen Health, without the hook. LOL Over in N.M. in 96 for a few years but still came over to Manzy for the big races and the Classic. Here in Prescott now and Prescott Valley has a short track and has got a limited sprint series going, but it's down the hill to Manzy for the 410's and some of the 360 shows.

I can't wait for the Copper on dirt in a few weeks, it sure was a good show last year and great to see the Champ cars on dirt again...........Oh, Manzanita mostly, and I love that big bad 1/2 mile, watched some of the best come up there. It truly does separate the men from the boys and when it's done right up top, it's a beautiful dance, a true art form.

Where do you guys run? I assume because you have two winged cars and two traditional that you are mid state?

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Kenny   If you were around Ascot in 65 thru 70 you watched my father race at Ascot . He has about 20 main event wins there. Right now we race out of Chico Ca. aprox 100 miles north of Sacramento. My son is a student at Ore. State in Corvalias. We have been racing early on in the season in Northern Ca , Ore and Elma Wa. We have raced Skagit twice and really sucked. In Aug the boys pack up and head to the midwest and run some 410 wing stuff and the TNT tour. We do ok with the funds we have. Tyler's main goal is school right now. the racing thing will come soon. The kids got alot of talent, just needs to be patient.

Ned

Ned, You raised some fine Young Men! A Class act for sure. Pictures at Tulare 2005

Bruce

Hey Bruce, I'm not sure but I think you might have mentioned that young man and maybe sent me some pictures. Speaking of pictures, I finally took in some film in yesterday and I'll be sending you some pictures next week.

I was looking at that site you sent me again last night. Why didn't you tell me not to open it unless I had at least a hour to spend?

Bruce you need to hitch a ride to the Copper, we can always sleep under the bridge. I know a good spot. LOL

OH!........ NASCAR, it's to late to turn back the clock but if they put em out on a big 1 mile dirt track..

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Need to bring a fishing pole then