Holiday Wishlist for NASCAR Fans

What do NASCAR fans want to find in their stockings—or whatever gift delivery system they subscribe to—this holiday season? Besides a Red Ryder BB Gun, that is.

After trolling the trolls one thing is certain: Drivers wish the most ghastly of harm toward Jimmie Johnson. That’s not exactly the holiday spirit we’re after.

NASCAR has had its issues attracting fans to the races. High ticket prices and higher hotel rates price out many middle class fans. When the cost of attending a race exceeds monthly mortgage or rent, the choice becomes easy to stay home, watching the race with your own familiar amenities.

We’ve made a list and we’ve checked it twice. Let’s take a look and see what NASCAR fans want from its sport.

NASCAR has an attendance problem. That’s no secret. Hotels, tickets, concessions, travel can cost as much as a few classes at the local community college. But lowering ticket price never seems to cross anyone’s mind as a viable option.

Phil Richards of The Indianapolis Star reported, "NASCAR estimates that attendance for its premier series, the Sprint Cup, was 4.67 million in 2005, an average of 129,722 a race. In 2012, the last season for which NASCAR provided attendance estimates, the total was 3.52 million, the average 97,722."

That’s a lot of empty seats at a high price. What if you cut prices by 25-30 percent and filled those seats? Say the tracks made the same amount of money off gates by admitting more at a lower price, that’s thousands more eating, drinking and buying swag. And, more importantly, more people experiencing the live product.

That begets more fans in the long run.

People will point to Brad Keselowski and call him a punk. I disagree.

Here’s a previous champion who upset the Hendrickian establishment and races hard every week. Not only that, but when Kevin Harvick shoved him into Jeff Gordon’s posse and a melee ensued, Keselowski was alarmingly cool in the interview.

Gordon, on the other hand, flew off the handle, slipping a four-letter expletive past ESPN censors. #notapedelay

But you know what? It was great television. I don’t necessarily condone fighting in any sport, but this was a welcome reprieve from NASCAR’s nauseating uniformity.

It has to be real, not manufactured, so when Gordon pipes off about Keselowski or Johnson chastises Ryan Newman, it feels charged, and the sport is better for it.

We get it, you’re fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-the-blank Chevy was really fast today. We get that you also want to thank fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-the-blank and fill-in-the-blank before you say that the car was just too loose.

We’ve watched your car with the Lowe’s logo, the Target logo, the Miller Lite logo and those cute M&M's circle around for over three hours. We promise to buy Kobalt ratchet sets, Method cleaning products, a 30-rack of beer and some candy. Do you really need to spout about the sponsors like a speed talker?

On what level is the sponsor happy with this perfunctory recitation in a post-race interview? Can’t the driver send the executive a nice scented candle or a gift card to the movies?

The Chase is good, but how about rotating some of the Chase venues? There’s no reason why it should always be the same 10 tracks.

Watkins-Glen may be too cold and potentially snowy come October, but a road race in the Chase would be exciting.

The point being, why not bring this new, ramped-up Chase format to some new tracks that don’t typically get that kind of play? It may draw in newer people who get to see racing at its most pressure-packed.

Take what Bleacher Reports Jerry Bonkowski wrote: 

I'm not advocating getting rid of all 10 tracks currently in the Chase. Rather, I'd like to see those that currently do not have a Chase date be given one every, say, two or three years. Example: Have Martinsville hold a Chase one year, and then Bristol the next. Or, have Kansas have a Chase race one year and Las Vegas the next.

One track from each of the first three rounds should rotate on an every other year basis.

Try following some of the other drivers. It’s a long race, and we don’t have to be inundated with the drivers who routinely finish in the top 15.

These drivers are often the most relevant, but there’s 43 in the entire field, and they are largely ignored…except when they invariably cause a crash. Then you hear about them.

Here’s the thing, these drivers are also talented in their own right and have stories to tell. Maybe their teams don’t have the resources that would put them in the top 15 and thus garner more attention from the television broadcast.

Judging from many comment threads, it appears NASCAR fans have had quite enough of Johnson and would welcome the idea of a new face to the scene.

Do all these races need to be as long as they are? Many get to the point of impossible boredom, especially when you get a Harvick getting loose on the lead.

The best racing always happens in the final 20 laps. If there are fewer laps in a race to score points and the pressure is higher from the start, it makes sense to make the race shorter.

Now, the length of the races allows television networks to sell more ads, but those ads are finding fewer and fewer eyeballs to land on, so what difference does it make?

B/R’s Jerry Bonkowski asks some great questions:

Would you like to see 500 miles (or laps) of semi-boring follow-the-leader racing, with the only excitement coming in the last 15-20 laps?

Or would you rather see 400 or even 350 miles/laps of non-stop action, tighter pit strategy (and windows), continual battles for the lead, constant passing for position and more?

I’m much more in favor of the latter, in which case it would also makes sense to…

Have you ever noticed how alike all the drivers are?

Who would have ever thought that Johnson’s beard or Newman’s receding hairline would constitute flare in style?

Gone are the days of the Intimidator’s shades or Richard Petty’s equally iconic garb. The drivers of today are meant to be one thing and one thing only: inoffensive. 

All these drivers are clean-shaven, well-spoken, attractive men and women who look nice as a cardboard cutout.

There’s some exceptions. Nobody would confuse Tony Stewart with Thor, but for the most part, these drivers appear to be made in a petri dish specifically cultured for this sort of tonality.

More splashes of personality, the likes of which we saw in the heightened drama of the Chase, would make for a more exciting product.

A friend of mine once passed on seeing Bruce Springsteen because he said, “I didn’t have anyone to go with.”

This man spoke to another friend who told him, “You’re never alone at a Bruce concert!”

Depending on the NASCAR venue, you may feel very much alone, especially at the Brickyard. Watch any race on television and you’ll see the vast emptiness of many of these tracks.

Reducing the seating will put people in greater contact with one another. Who wants to be that lone man out in the middle of the bleachers with nothing but the brow-beating sun to keep you company?

Cutting seats is an illusion to make the attendance look fuller, but lopping off some seating can open up some real estate for some other fan attractions.

Writes B/R’s Jerry Bonkowski, “Rather than having rows and even whole sections of empty seats, NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp., decided to take away seats and essentially bunch up fans to make the place look filled to capacity.”