Five New Year's Resolutions NASCAR Should Make

December 28, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

Boy, did I receive a reality check today.

I opened an email notice regarding SPEED TV's coverage of NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona.

The first show airs on January 8, 2008 - less than two weeks away.

Wasn't it just yesterday that we were all catching our breath after Homestead, looking back on what seemed to be a very long 2007 season, and looking forward with anticipation to some well-deserved time off?

NASCAR's very short offseason may be coming to a premature end, but with January 1st still a few days away, I figure there's still time to respectfully recommend a few New Year's resolutions to powers-that-be at NASCAR. So here goes:

1.    Eliminate the Top 35 qualifying rule - If I had to single out the one complaint I heard most from fans last season, it would be this rule, which assures that the top 35 cars in owner's points race each week regardless of how well (or how poorly) they qualify. This essentially nullifies the importance of qualifying except as it effects pit selection - other than for a handful of teams that compete for the remaining seven or so open spots in the field.

The rule was designed to placate some of the sports' biggest sponsors who argued that they don't pay the millions it takes to support a top team just to have their drivers sit on the sidelines come Sunday. But fans perceive this rule as a microcosm of everything that's wrong with modern-day NASCAR - handing over control of the sport to the guys with the checkbooks. No doubt NASCAR needs its sponsors - but it also needs its fans, and this rule goes against the grain of everything racing should be about.

2.    Let loose the reins on the drivers - During Champions Week in New York this year, Jeff Gordon said, "If you go back to the days when maybe guys were a little rowdier, I definitely think there wasn't as much media scrutiny. The repercussions weren't as broad as they are today … It's almost as if sometimes I watch the sport and see some of the interviews and I think it was scripted."

Fans are longing - aching - to see, hear and feel the raw emotions of the drivers, even if it means somebody says a naughty word, puts a bumper to someone or, heaven forbid, has a physical altercation with another driver every now and then. If there's one thing Home Depot has shown us, it's that even big-time corporate sponsors aren't necessarily going to abandon the sport just because a driver says or does something deemed politically incorrect.

3.    Fix the Chase - In previous years, I would have simply recommended getting rid of the Chase. But now four years entrenched, I fear NASCAR's version of a playoff system is here to stay. And while it's hard to justify making wholesale changes every year to the way we determine our champions, I do think some a bonus for the team that leads the first 26 races is sorely needed. Whether a points bonus, a monetary reward, or even a title of some sort, anything would be more recognition than the regular season winner receives now - which is nothing at all.

4.    Encourage lower ticket prices - If NASCAR is at all concerned about empty seats in the stands - and they should be - all they have to do is lean on the track owners a little about lowering ticket prices. With the cost of gasoline hovering around $3.00 a gallon and the price of a rubbery concession stand hot dog about twice that amount, a generous reduction in ticket prices would go a long way toward helping fill the stands again.

5.    Remember who got you here - Without question, NASCAR fans, especially those who've been around for a while, are feeling disenfranchised in record numbers. The sport should be proud to its success, but there's nothing worse than that old cliché of the person who reaches the pinnacle of success in a given field and promptly forgets all the "little people" who helped get them there. NASCAR needs to take immediate measures to bring its lost fans back into the fold before it's too late - because I guarantee that once they're gone, they're never coming back.

Agree or disagree? Let me know your suggestions for NASCAR's New Year's resolutions.

You can contact Rebecca at.. Insider Racing News

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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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