December 7, 2006

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

If there's one complaint I've heard repeatedly about NASCAR in the past few months, it's simply this: NASCAR doesn't get it.

Particularly in light of this year's disappointing TV ratings, everyone has a theory about what's ailing the sport, and it keeps coming back to that sentiment.

NASCAR doesn't "get" what the fans want, they say. The sport is turning its back on tradition, disenfranchising the very folks who built it.

Older fans are leaving in droves and as a result NASCAR must continually turn to new markets to attract replacement fans.

Judging by the evidence, the critics may have a point. Final television ratings were down over 20% at Homestead-Miami - supposedly the season's big finale - compared to last year, for example.

But if Friday night's Nextel Cup Series Award Ceremony was any indication, the problem, if there is one, may be something different.

NASCAR is trying too hard.

It's trying to be all things to all people.

Both down-home and debonair.

Old school and new school.

A little bit country and a little bit rock and roll.

I got a lot of email from readers after the banquet, and none of them were very complimentary.

Even fans who adore NASCAR and were really looking forward to the televised event found it boring, and I have yet to hear from one person who thought comedian Jay Mohr was funny or that his presence was even necessary - although NASCAR inexplicably invites him back year after year.

Most fans I heard from did not care for Jewel's performance either, although some indicated that her style of music was simply too out of place.

But the biggest criticism of the event was that it was bland, uninspired, homogenized.

Where was the spark? Where was the genuine emotion?

When the most talked-about moment of the evening was poor Kyle Busch - a young man attending his first banquet as a top-10 driver - misspeaking his girlfriend's name, you know something was missing.

That something was spontaneity.

The majority of drivers read stiffly from teleprompters, thanking their many corporate sponsors and reciting platitudes about their teams and families in words that were, for the most part, written by speechwriters.

There were a few nice moments, but overall the speeches were bromidic and the event itself banal.

Perhaps, some would argue, not unlike racing itself these days.

Too many regulations. Too much oversight.

In attempting to appeal to new markets, NASCAR is trying too hard to sanitize its image. It's not letting racers be racers, including all the unruly, rough-around-the edges behavior that endears them to fans off the track and creates exciting competition on it.

If Friday's ceremony was any indication, those free-spirited days may be gone forever.

But if concerns over falling television ratings continue in 2007, NASCAR may have to stop treading a fine line between old and new, and look to its past to ensure its future.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.