|
NASCAR’s TV ratings still are down and the sanction has yet to determine what it can be attributed to. TNT started its portion of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup on Sunday with a 3.4/9 (5.5 million viewers) for the Pocono 500, down 13 percent from last year’s Pocono race (3.9/9). Combined with the economy in the tank, a lot of the folks who have followed NASCAR in recent years continue turning away from this segment of motorsports. For about ten years NASCAR was on a fast track where it was upward and onward in the TV ratings race against other sports. It’s also no secret that the tracks that host NASCAR races have trouble selling tickets. That means that they are staying home. So why are they not watching the races on TV? |
TV TIMES
By Lou Modestino(for 6/19-6/21/09)
We have read on various webpages that NASCAR is looking into it. That was a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it’s taking some time for the Daytona Beach, FL based sanction to figure out what’s happening. Some birdwatchers(that’s what some race promoters call pundits and motorsports writers) feel it’s due to dull races, Kurt Busch is winning a lot, Junior isn’t and not doing very well, the Car of Today barely resembles what’s in the showrooms and the fans can’t relate to it. All that among other things.
On the last item, we can remember a Chris Economaki’s Editor Column in National Speed Sport News about a decade ago. It goes like this, “Midget racing faded because all of the cars looked alike and the winning cars/drivers had the same type of engines.” Economaki also warned NASCAR not to go to a common body or engine formula. At the start of the midget demise, stockcar racing took off because fans had their favorite type of car and the fans returned to the track in droves.
While all of this was happening NASCAR began it’s long 50 year journey of sanctioning races that were comprised of cars that were on the streets and highways of North America and it grew and grew and grew. About ten years ago, NASCAR was said to be a sporting juggernaut that was heading for the clouds and beyond. At the time there were cars competing with each other comprised of the Big Three-Ford, GM and Chrysler. The fact that NASCAR let Toyota into the Cup Series also turned off some of the old time fans.
Now let’s think about this, when NASCAR started to plateau it was around the time of the Car of Tomorrow or as it’s called the Car of Today. Can you see a correlation? We can and for some reason Chris Economaki did too way back when NASCAR talked about a common platform that would fit all of the templates in the tech line at each of the tracks hosting Cup races. To be fair, though, the COT is a much safer car for the driver. However, it’s still not a fan favorite.
There are those that will argue that these times are different than when the midgets faded and stockcar racing took off. Others will attribute the drop of TV ratings and popularity to fickle fans who followed NASCAR for a while and went onto something else. Another school of thought is that old time race fans who tinkered with the cars became stockcar fans. Because the new cars are so complicated and have to be serviced by the dealer or in shops that have all of the right computer gear. And today’s fan can’t relate to that or follow in the footsteps of the previous theory that made new fans.
Then there’s the school of thought that the old time fans are mad because NASCAR forgot about them and started to cater to the new fans, the younger set. According to a good source, a key NFL official said “that NASCAR will find out what we did. Those young fans really can’t afford the price of the tickets for the NFL games and the Cup races”. Then there’s latest theory about fans not watching the races on the tube but keeping tabs on what’s going on via the internet where there are live updates. I’d say that’s true for fans from Europe, Australia and Asia. Also starting the races later in the day, into prime time, with two hours of pre-race hype turned a lot of the fans off. It was all done to improve ratings and at the suggestion of NASCAR’s TV partners, the alphabet and cable networks. Maybe it worked for a while but it’s going nowhere now since the beginning of the Cup season in February.
We can remember a few years ago that NASCAR’s success could be attributed to the fact that they made a lot of good decisions. That’s a reasonable hypothesis given their past performance. So if all of things that we talked about here resulted in the ratings going negative for NASCAR, maybe NASCAR should think about going back to Square One. Remember when Coke tried to get the customers to try the New Coke it didn’t work. It was too long after that that we saw Classic Coke hit the shelves of the supermarkets and other retail outlets. Going back in history there have been a lot of other duds like the Edsel. There are other examples that we can bring up. But, you get the picture. Sometimes change is good other times it doesn’t work. So let see what happens here. NASCAR has some hard decisions in order to get back on track. That’s why they pay those guys the big money in NASCAR’s front office to figure out.
Here’s what’s happening on the tube this weekend for gear head action. NASCAR Now goes on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. Monday. Tuesday it’s the Canadian Superbikes from Ontario airing on TSN at 1 p.m. with Speed kicking in at 2 p.m. with the SCCA World Challenge race from Ontario with NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. and ditto for Wednesday. Thursday has a 3 p.m. airing of the Camping World West race from Roseburg, OR on Speed. More NASCAR Now is on The Duce at 5 p.m.
Friday starts the ramp up for the weekend. At 9 a.m. Speed has F1 Practice from Silverstone. Speed comes back at 3 p.m. with Sprint Cup Practice from Sonoma, CA. ESPN2 airs NASCAR Now at 5 p.m. Then Speed/TSN2 both offer Cup Qualifying from Sonoma at 6:30 p.m. Speed has qualifying for the Camping World Series from the Milwaukee Mike at 9 p.m.
Saturday continues the increase of racing action with an 8 a.m. offering on TSN/Speed of F1 Qualifying from Silverstone, UK. TSN offers the Canadian Rally Championship event from Calgary at 11:30 a.m. Speed returns at 12:30 p.m. with Cup Practice from Sonoma and then Cup Final Practice at 1:30 p.m. At 3 p.m. Speed airs the WoO race from Dodge City, KS. Then at 5 p.m. that channel airs the Grand-Am event from Mid-Ohio. At 6:30 p.m. ESPN2/TSN2 both air the Nationwide Qualifying from Milwaukee. Then that race airs at 8 p.m. on ESPN2/TSN. Speed offers the AMA Superbike and Supersport race from Road America at 10 p.m.
Sunday will be almost as busy starting at 8 a.m. with TSN airing the F1 go from Silverstone. The Duce kicks in at 10 a.m. with NASCAR Now at 10 a.m. ABC/TSN2 each offer the IRL Indy Car race from Iowa at 1 p.m. Speed is back at 1:30 p.m. with NASCAR Raceday from Sonoma. Fox will air the F1 race from Silverstone at 3 p.m., SDD. Speed airs the FIM Superbike race from Italy at 3:30 p.m. while TNT/TSN2 each offer a pre-race show from Sonoma and then the road course race from that venue at 5 p.m. Speed airs the GP 2 race from Silverstone at 5:30 p.m.,SDD. And if you miss all of that, tune into the Speed Report at 7 p.m. for a weekend summary among other things followed by NASCAR Victory Lane at 8:30 p.m. and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. (END)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.
350z for sale
tHE CUP SERIES HAS TURNED ME OFF WITH d.w. AND DIGGER. dw thinks there are only 5 or 6 cars racing as he never mentions the rest of the field. The truck series announcers talk about all the drivers and it makes it more interesting. R.I.P. cup series.
I am on my way to memphis for the truck series on the 27th of june. Will attend at least 2 others.
I have been involved with racing all my life. My dad would take us to midget,sprinters, super modifieds races every weekend but we had the money to go. As I got older we were watching alot on tv, when you live on the west coast you are stuck with fox. which is great because we like DW. but when you switched to tnt, espn and speed then we cannot watch it for reasons of not having cable.I really enjoy watching it but would LOVE to be able to attend teh prices are so high and so far away its not easy to go to daytona, pocono, darlington…PLEASE find a way to get us involved on the west coast northern california is a racers dream.
Why watch, when the only 2 contenders are Kyle Busch and Jimmy Johnson?
Nascar is getting to be like wrestling. Weekend and weekout you have the same 4 or 5 drivers competeing for the top spots. The little guy or the everyday guy as we are does not have a chance anymore. Everything is hand picked by the guys with all the juice.The rules are too cut and dry. It has become too strict. What happened to the old run what you brung days. Let some of these low budget everyday guys race , like us. Bring back the old race tracks- maybe a few dirt tracks.get rid of the commercialism. All you guys made all the money already. Let it be for the fans again. Loosen up. Most of the tracks are the same. Get some good old racing going again. Get rid of the multi car teams , the Smiths and the ones who are in it just for the dollar . I know they have done a lot for nascar – but what we want is good old racing – like it used to be.
Furthermore – i am tired of hearing about Jimmie J and earnhardt (never thought i would say that) and jeff and all the hotshots. I want to hear about and sometimes it brings tears to my eyes to hear about the drivers who earned everything they ever got and struggled to get it. The Carl Longs (did i miss something) that struggled to get even a chance to drive. Not the guys who were raised and groomed to drive nascar that have affluence and long money to drive nascar. Get all the hotshots with all the money out of nascar. It is beginning to look like politics and we are getting turned off on that. Quit asking what the problem is: you guys know what it is. C’mon lets get back to racing.
I quit watching because of the Chase.
I’ve been a NASCAR fan since the late ‘50’s and never thought it would become an IROC series. NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint series are now nothing more than the former IROC series….same cars, drivers from different racing series and too much control by the NASCAR Gods.
I would propose a series, where the clock would be turned back to racing a la ‘60’s and ‘70’s racing. It would be refreshing to see the cars brought into the modern age, with overhead cam engines, electronic fuel management systems, electronic suspension control and cars using factory sheet metal so a Ford would look like the street version, Chevy, etc… Factory sheet metal would also reduce sheet metal costs for the teams. The series Gods would only police safety equipment by using the safety features of the COT. Teams would be able to do some REAL innovation, a la the ‘60’s-‘70’s era and not be stifled by all the NASCAR rules. Let the engineers and mechanics do some tinkering with the engines, drive train and suspensions. Any team that would dare to “innovate” today is fined and suspended by the almighty. I’m sure you remember when some of the NASCAR innovations of that era actually made it to the factory street cars. I know, some would say some teams would have an advantage, either by the aero of a street car or some other innovation. Yup, it happened back then and all the teams survived to race another weekend. Sure, one year Ford was winning, the next year Dodge was winning, etc…. Same might happen today, but it sure would be more exciting racing than watching the same-o IROC cars every weekend, which I don’t do very often any more. Let’s get back to the days of innovation and creativity and get the NASCAR Gods out of micro-manageing the race cars. We all remember what happened to the FORMER IROC series.
Only the top 43 cars in speed during qualifying would race. No more guaranteed 35, no more provisionals, except a provisional for the last year champion, if needed. If Jr. hits the wall during qualifying and doesn’t make the race on speed, better luck next week.
When a race is advertised as “X” number laps of racing, let’s have “X” number laps of racing, caution laps should not be counted as race laps. Caution laps are too numerous, lengthy, and sometimes “convenient”.
Will not be watching this weekend because I detest roadraces. We will attend 5 races this year. Compared to other sporting events, a concert, or a broadway show, the ticket prices are not unreasonable. I confess to being a JR fan, not a nascar fan and will turn the race off if he is out of it. I hate late start times, skip the entire pre-race show, and usually have the TV muted during the race. I have Raceview and focus on JR and listen to his scanner/MRN radio for a play by play. There are too many commercials and not enough post-race commentary. I doubt thst NASCAR cars about the fans and wish Bruton Smith would start his own racing series. Oh by the way, I think Danika Patrick coming to NASCAR is a joke, she has had little or no success where she is; what makes NASCAR think she will help the series. Oh I forgot she looks good in a swimsuit.Talk about insulting the intelligence of your female fans. go NASCRAP.
Why aren’t we watching on TV since we are not going to the races?
Good question.
Here are a few of my reasons.
COT/Common Template Car.
Free Pass
Green, White Checkers.
No racing back to the Yellow flag.
Double file restarts.
Non-stop coverage of Dale Jr. and very little coverage of the rest of the drivers.
Five hours of pre-race shows.
Starting times that are too late in the day.
The tv ratings have been going down steadily for 4 years with this year going down in double digits. They started going down before the COT and Toyota.
When Bill France Jr. and Mike Helton put their heads together and decided that entertainment, not racing, was the name of the game the decline started. NASCAR always was a dictatorship under Bill France Sr. but he did allow the drivers to be themselves, the crew chiefs to show some ingenuity and he did not attenpt to control the racing on the track with methods to artificially create close racing. How do they do this today you may ask? Well closing pit road when the caution comes out. Used to be the caution came out the guys went to their pits immediately and bunched up after they made their pit stops now they bunch up before they pit so a driver running 25th can take two tires and wind up in the top ten without passing a car on the track. In fact at Darlington almost every pass for the lead was made in the pits not on the track. Which leads to another fact. There are so few lead changes under green anymore it has become pathetic. I don’t consider inheriting the lead when the lead car pits under green a real racing lead change. Hence the problem with the COT, we hear and see it every race “clean air”. While the COT is safer it has not created better racing on the track. The “Lucky Dog” is a sham. Racing is about earning your position by racing. A driver races his butt off to put another a lap down and the lapped driver gets it back for nothing is not racing. They did do the right thing with the new double file restart. The old way should have never existed in the first place. This was the first attempt to create close racing several years ago.
As for tv viewership, fans are getting sick of seeing the same faces on every show. Just as I was happy when I thought Larry Mac was going away, bang ther is on TNT. They could actually tape a show for each race and forget live broadcasting because you hear the same thing everytime they visit a track. The commentary is the same as the year before, “That’s Bristol Baby”.
And of course the biggest problem they have created is the one of perception. May not be true, may be coincedence, who knows but many fans feel that they show favortism to certain drivers and teams. Like a debris caution comes out when a certain driver is about to get lapped, different penalties for similar rules infractions for different drivers. Too many cautions when a car scrapes the wall and keeps going or spins and keeps going. Obviuosly to close the field. This past race they never showed the debris that brought out two cautions. One when JJ had a seven second lead. Like a said all may be on the up and up but if the fans perceive this to be untrue it really doesn’t matter.
I’ve been going to races for over 55 years. Belive me when I say the fans will not be back. The game right now is to stop the bleeding. And that can only come by good racing and giving the sport back to the drivers and crew chiefs. Get rid of the rear end ratio rule, let the crew chiefs pick the shocks and springs etc. Let the drivers speak their minds and shoave each other after the race occassionally. That’s where the sport came from.
NASCAR just plain got too expensive for me to attend. The last races I attended was Daytona 07/08. The cars are no longer an attraction. It all relates to the dollar. Multicar stables always win. The old “big bucks win” theory. I refuse to watch a sports broadcast on FOX. Exploding football helmets, robots and a gopher? Give me a break. I was a kid 60 years ago. With split screen, stations could avoid the old “while we were away” stuff. Personally I prefer listening to a MRN broadcast. It is a race happening, not a bunch of useless chatter and junk entertainment.
The IROC series was fine for what it was originally intended to be. Bring all the series chamionship winning drivers in to compete in identical cars. But over time for what ever reason, various series champions began declining invitations. And then the series evolved into just another NA$CRAP drivers race.
The Chase sucks. It diminishes the importance of each race, so now you only have to follow for updates of the races. The COT sucks. Nowadays we just have parade lap racing. When all the drivers are battling their race cars so much, because of poor handling, there will be less side by side racing. This means that the actual on track product is garbage. If the product is crap, nobody is going to want to watch. Thus we have empty stands and dropping ratings. So much for Brian France’s belief of “The fans will like the changes eventually because they will make the product better”. Watching NA$CAR die is more interesting than watching the actual racing (if you can call it racing)
80% nuts and bolts 20% live race. WHOS RUNNING SHOW HAS NO CLUE WHY FANS TUNE IN, GET A FAN TO SHOW US THE RACE. NOT A WRENCH
I DVR’d the Mich Cup Spec Car Race. I watched the interesting parts of the race in 38 minutes. That was not racing, it was a fast moving parade. In a 2 hr Sun evening period, I watched the race, a college world series game, and a mlb game. They all have something in common — brief moments of intense activity linked by long periods of unwatchable tedium (fast forward). Saturday nights are for family and friends and sometimes includes attending local short track races. All Sat evening NASCAR races are recorded at our house. The telecasts are overproduced,superficial and obviously tailored to the celebrity worshipping “fans” targeted by the advertisers. The producers and directors no longer respect the sport.
Nascar sucks. The only race that has my interest is the truck series. The 27th I will be in memphis. Nascar cup is totally junk. Everyone should qualify each and every race. The top 35 rule is a insult to the fans along with the chase format. Nascar is losing everyday and cant understand why. When they lose all the sponsors they will try to blame the fans for not supporting them. Loyalty is a 2 way street and nascar has not lived up to there side of the deal.
the chase has chased fans away. if your favorite isnt in the top twelve,forget it!
when dale jr is not running good or up front an racing for the win i shut the tv off,an fine somthing else to do,
Start times too late. Living in the Central time zones most races start at 1:30 or later. Having 3 kids by then we have already started something else. If we waited until race is over then it is too lated to do anything. Always liked the races that started at 12:15 to 12:30. Then races would be over by 4:00 at latest. Then I could spend the rest of day entertaining the kids.
the number of commercial breaks ruins the race coverage, the top 35 rule is insane, and NA$CAR tempered any rivalry their could be among drivers so the could be politically correct and appeal to coperate america. add too many cookie cutter tracks, throw in the ridiculus COT, NA$CAR is reaping its reward
I’ve been following NASCAR racing since the 60’s, when I could only read about it in car magazines as a kid. My feelng is they took the MAN out of the driver. He now has to be a pretty face and can’t say or do anything wrong or else be fined. I say junk the COT and build cars with strong engines and narrower tires and see if these wimps can muscle a stock car for 500 miles like Cale, Allison, Petty, Turner and Lund used to do.
Get rid of the chase,the points and all the other give aways ,put the money in the purse and let them race.That will put some excitement back in ……
I raced modifieds, minisprints, late models over 30 years. I watched the rules get narrower, costs go up and prize down. Now I see Cup at the same level. Rules that squelch creativity.
Top 35
Chase
Spec Racing
Bad Handling
Boring races
Closed pits
Petty and arbitrary rule enforcement
Long out
Single car teams going extinct
I think they should have limited rules. Have a common tire. Cubic Inches, compression, fuel rules.
Weight rule, and left side weight. Driver safety rules such as cage requirements.
No body rules.
Two cars per team.
This would bring the racing back into the game. It would be a high dollar asphalt series running more like the late model dirt cars series.
Qualify for each race position
One provisional start per season
Race back to green
Let the men take back racing. Excitement is the answer. All the rest is just boring.