August 22, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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The sagging economy has struck everyone hard and NASCAR has been no exception. No matter where the circuit goes, ticket sales are down and television ratings have dropped.
NASCAR officials have made a series of sweeping changes designed to restore fan interest and bring people back to the grandstands. The new Green – White – Checkered rule has garnered more criticism than praise. Even the so called "Boy's Have at It" policy is suspect due to the penalties handed down over the recent Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski incidents.
The most recent changes were made to next season's schedule. A new track was added, Kentucky, and a couple of tracks lost one of their race dates while a few tracks gained a race. The changes made to the schedule were due to the fact that some tracks simply cannot support two races a year, a fact made obvious by the ghost-town-like grandstands seen on television coverage recently.
However, this could have been avoided if NASCAR had one important aspect among its drivers.
Officials attempted to silence some drivers who have made remarks that were deemed "disparaging to the sport." Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman received hefty fines for recent comments.
The fines were a horrible move by NASCAR that sends a bad message to the drivers and fans. It discourages driver individualism, something that has always differentiated stock car racing from the other popular American sports.
NASCAR needs drivers who have character and aren't afraid to display their emotions. In other words, drivers need to be people that fans can identify with and relate to, not carbon copies of each other like many of them are now.
The 1979 Daytona 500 is the platform that launched NASCAR into the mainstream. The race is not remembered for the racing, or for who won the race, or even for the fact that it was the first race televised live.
What made the '79 Daytona race famous is the fist fight that transpired after the race on the infield grass between Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers. It made the American public realize that stock car racing was not just cars going around in circles for 500 miles, but that there were real people driving those cars.
"I think it made a lot of fans," Yarborough said in an interview years after the race. "People looked at that and said, 'These boys are real people and they do real things.' Looking back now, I think it's one of the biggest things that ever happened in the sport. It got people's attention."
Without that fight, NASCAR would not have become what it is today.
Imagine the media blitz that would result if such a scene were to occur in modern times. Say for instance Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski got out their cars after one of their recent racing altercations and started throwing punches. What would happen then?
NASCAR would be everywhere and everyone would be talking about it. Television ratings would skyrocket and the grandstands would overflow.
There's nothing wrong with displaying anger with strong words and flying fists. There's less chance of injuring someone by settling differences after the race than by taking retribution on the track where someone could be seriously injured or even killed.
As long as there is no individualism among drivers and as long as fans cannot identify with the men behind the wheel, officials can make all of the changes under the sun and ratings will still continue to drop.
Until NASCAR has character, no amount of change will restore fan interest.
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
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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