past its prime?

[Mike.357]

So I tuned in the NASCAR race today. The first thing I noticed other than Kenseth leading ( hell must have froze over) is all the empty seats. Lots and lots of empty seats. I would be suprised if they had 80% capacity.

Maybe it is TNT and their camera angles. I am thinking NASCAR has burned the candle both ways and has run fans off. Ticket prices are ridiculous not to mention the high cost to get to the middle of nowhere Michigan.

I pretty much blame DW and his annoying commentary.

[G27]

First off, not a NASCAR fan, but my Dad is so we go to the spring Talladega race together every year as a 'guy's day'. We're were somewhat surprised to see that about 10% of the stands were empty at this year's Talladega race.

I don't think their viewer ratings are down, I really think more people are saving their money and not taking road trips with the increased fuel costs...

[nightrunner]

a BIG part of it i believe is that it is now called Sprint Cup, they have spoilers that look like they belong on a Formula 1 car and they have bascially neutered the sport with no beer or cigarette sponsorships for the cup series( i mean for the name of the series) and they brought in toyota a foreign manufacturer to an all american sport. i feel nascar is on the downward slope, and itll be hard to climb back up to the top

[TripleDigitRide]

I've been a dedicated NASCAR fan for several years, but I've watched only 2 races all season. I just can't stomach it anymore. I can't say I've had any issue with DW, but for some reason it's become so much easier to tune out.

NASCAR president's, Mike Helton and Robin Pemberton, are complete douches. These morons aren't happy unless they're constantly making "changes" to everything and anything. I think they've forgotten where they've come from. No, I don't expect them to stay in the Richard Petty days of things, but come on, let the boys run. Every time we tune into the next race, they've found this ultra-cool way to slow down the cars. Slower cars make for less entertaining racing.

I'm fully aware of the safety aspect, but come on, the F-1 series can still manage to run well in excess of 200mph and still be safe, but NASCAR feels the need to keep the motors choked back. NASCAR and the teams make gazillions (that's a number, right?) each year, so why not invest in safety features that will actually allow them to race each other.

Another change that needs to be made is, quit allowing team owners the luxury of owning several NASCAR teams. No owner should be able to own more than two teams. Hell, one team is satisfactory with me. You get the ultra-rich guys who own several teams, with an endless supply of money, and we wonder why the same handful of guys are winning all the time. The smaller, less wealthy teams just can't afford to keep up with the big dogs. It's almost sickening to know there so many teams/driver who go into any given race, on any given day, knowing they have NO chance of really competing against the bigger teams.

You can go through the list of nearly 70 NASCAR drivers, and point out nearly 40 of them who have no chance in hell of ever winning a race, and nearly another 15 who have very little chance at being any real competition. Hell, there is a large handful of drivers who can't even seem to make it into the field for race day. They get sent-home-a-packin' before the race even starts. Bottom line, it gets old watching the same drivers/teams win day after day, week after week, year after year. Yes, even if my driver is always towards the front.

Anyway, I'm sure I could come up with at least 10 more reasons why NASCAR isn't what it once was (to me), but I'll leave it at that.

[xd shooter]

I'm in the same boat as you TDR. Well stated!!

[deerslayer]

A bit off topic...

I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I'm curious about the black chick who filed the racial/sexual discrimination lawsuit against NASCAR. Supposedly it's huge--if half of her allegations are true, NASCAR sounds like they will shell out some huge $$ and get some lousy PR. Anybody know more about this?

[nightrunner]

never heard about it...

[Guest darkstar]

A bit off topic...

I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I'm curious about the black chick who filed the racial/sexual discrimination lawsuit against NASCAR. Supposedly it's huge--if half of her allegations are true, NASCAR sounds like they will shell out some huge $$ and get some lousy PR. Anybody know more about this?

Same here, not a fan but find this interesting. Here is a link

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/racing/06/10/bc.car.nascar.harassment.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

[Mike.357]

actually Mike Helton is a helluva guy, but I can easily understand how people can get a bad feeling about him. Pemberton has tons of racing knowledge. I am not sure how much I blame on him.

NASCAR seemed to peak between about 1997 and 2005. I feel it has been sliding since 05 anyway. There was a period where they did sell out most every race and TV ratings were through the roof. I feel that ever since ESPN lost the TV contract that NASCAR started getting to big for its britches. Of course ESPN is back in the picture again now.

I do not mind Toyota being in the series. In this day and age it is a global economy. Toyotas are made domestically, Dodge is owned by Germans ( I think). I don't doubt that half of what goes into Chevys and Fords are made overseas.

In a nutshell I think over-commercialization has hurt the sport.

This thing with the Black race official is going to be interesting. Her story is almost unbelievable but I don't doubt there is some discrimination going on too. The truth certainly lies somewhere in the middle. But in the middle will probably yield her a large payday.