Thanks a Lot Craftsman!

December 5, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

The Craftsman Truck Series (CTS) joins ranks with the other two major NASCAR divisions and now will need a new full time sponsor in 2009. Craftsman has been synonymous with truck racing form day one and will not renew its contract after the 2008 season.

Unlike the Cup Series, TV viewership and attendance has grown in the Truck Series. They have seen an increase in the coveted younger male demographic this year and it is too bad that Craftsman leaves the CTS when they have been with it for so long. And while CTS racing has been among the best NASCAR has had to offer for years, especially this year, it has had little national TV time to show for it. Relegated to the SPEED Network, the CTS has been a cornerstone for SPEED in its race offerings. In addition to that, the CTS and SPEED offered on air talent that was truly race knowledgeable and excited to be there. There was no “air” graphics or cut away cars to show us where an oil filter was mounted. This was just plain old good racing and broadcasting the way it was meant to be.

Let’s hope it is another sponsor that makes sense for the series and not just a generic sponsor. Sears and Craftsman Tools was a match made in heaven. Thank you to Sears for all its efforts. And let’s hope that the new spotlight on the CTS does not destroy the way it is now.

Brian France opens his big fat mouth

King Brian had the gall to lay some of the season’s ratings loss and poor attendance at the feet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. France pointed to the failure of NASCAR’s most popular driver to have a strong season hurt the sport’s television ratings. “It would have helped if he would have been competitive,” said France. “He didn’t win an event and he certainly didn’t make our playoffs. And that’s unhelpful if you’re trying to build ratings.”

France also said he was not worried about the sports popularity after a 13% decline in ratings over the past year. “The margin of error for all the sports to manage their business smarter is more narrow,” said France.

More narrow than what, your mind?

The race at Homestead has been losing ratings consistently. In 2006, ratings were off 20% over 2005 and 24% lower than 2004. 27 of the 36 races had lower ratings in 2006 than in 2005. Of the ten Chase races, eight had lower ratings that the previous year. And both Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon were in the Chase in 2006. So what gives? Oh that’s right, it was Tony Stewart’s fault that year.

Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon did not make the Chase in 2005 and France was noted as saying that the sport was bigger than any driver. So why the sudden change of heart? Could it be that fans have grown weary of the France induced changes in NASCAR’s top series? This is no scientific poll, but here are the facts – according to ESPN, growth among the coveted younger male viewers, 18-34, has been flat while the biggest loss was that of the older male viewer, 55+.

Hmmmm, that is the older, more attuned race fan. It is also the demographic that likes change the least. Which gets me to my point – longtime NASCAR fans have given the Chase its due and have found it to be lacking.

And the heralded Car of Tomorrow sure gave us a few exciting finishes, but the rest of the race was 300-400 laps of boring. Nice way to encourage those young viewers to stay tuned next week and keep the old fogies awake.

Note to NASCAR: shorten a bunch of the races! Most fans attention span runs 3-3 _ hours, max.

Why do you think the NFL and MLB have gone to such lengths to speed up their games? You have a race on every week over 36 weeks and fans know they can miss a race or two and not miss a thing compared to the NFL with 16 regular season games and a playoff system that actually means something.

The Awards Show

OK, can we just say boring again? And David Spade??? Was Rosie O’Donnell too busy? I thought no one could be worse than Jay Mohr. I stand corrected.

Next time, look to Larry The Cable guy or Jeff Foxworthy or someone that actually knows what the sport is about and can liven up this bunch of stiffs. And another thing, let’s do away with the long sponsor laden speeches. These guys suck at this. How about a quick 2 minute sit down with each driver and Foxworthy and have a fun chat? Ten guys at 2 minutes each is 20-30 minutes tops. The let the champ do a 4-minute sponsor thing and be done with it.

And next time, let’s not hide it on ESPN Classic. That was the biggest joke of the evening.

Thank goodness the Daytona 500 is only 75 days away.

Let me know your thoughts on the year.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News. The blog at www.turnleftracing.com is down now due to spammers. We will have that back up as soon as we can.

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.

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