NASCAR Is Getting Harder To Watch
July 25, 2017 at 4:16 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
1. Watched 13 episodes of “Last Man Standing.” If I were watching on Netflix, that number goes to 20.
2. Enjoyed replays of two NFL games.
3. Mowed our lawn five times (with a riding mower ... with a push mower I’m not sure I’d have finished once).
4. Smoked a six-pound brisket, macaroni and cheese and baked beans for dinner.
5. Driven to downtown Chicago and back (with time to spare).
6. Watched four innings of a Major League Baseball game ... probably.
I will concede the rain delay was unavoidable. But the things that plague the race that most fans refer to as “The Brickyard 400” (regardless of sponsorship) have absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of rain in the middle of a midwestern summer.
An additional concession I must make is that I am a casual NASCAR fan at best; I follow it enough to try and make a conversation with my in-laws, but not anywhere near enough to carry on when the talk moves to the technical or mechanical aspects of the sport.
But frankly, the powers that be in NASCAR should have been embarrassed every time the broadcast showed cars on the backstretch. I’ve never seen that many empty seats in a venue that’s open for business. Not even for a December football game in Cleveland.
I’m sure people with a much bigger stake in the race are asking why people are staying away by the hundreds of thousands. I have a few theories.
First of all, fans don’t connect personally with the drivers like they did 20 or 30 years ago and more. A good ol’ boy sport has become increasingly corporate, but that’s a double-edged sword.
The Brickyard has had at least three title sponsors in its history, and when the money dries up NASCAR moves on to the next nourishing teat. The old timers tell me, in effect, that when the sport was dependent on ticket and T-shirt sales it was a lot more interesting to stick with ‘your guy.’
Everyone understands the need for increased safety, and I get there is that element of the fan base that loves a good crash (where everyone walks away). I can’t help but wonder if the skill level of the drivers has gone down to the point that we can blame all the late-race crashes on human error.
Or maybe, in an effort to gain speed, the cars become so flimsy that they can’t withstand the bumping around that happens during good racing. I can personally testify the cars are amazingly lightweight.
No sport has mastered the art of the rule change to draw in more fans than the NFL. Since its inception, the NASCAR playoffs have felt as convoluted as when baseball awarded World Series home field advantage in the All-Star Game. And the rules have changed enough that I have to ask my in-laws how the NASCAR playoffs work these days.
Starting with the 2018 season, The Brickyard will move to September ... I’m not sure if the new date will put Indy in the “playoffs.”
What I do know is that the Brickyard is now attracting about the same number of fans to its NASCAR race as either of the two held in Kansas City, Kan. Even as a native Kansan, there’s something unnatural about that to me.
I doubt I’m the only one.
At the rate NASCAR is going, I may have to find something else to talk to my in-laws about.
1. Watched 13 episodes of “Last Man Standing.” If I were watching on Netflix, that number goes to 20.
2. Enjoyed replays of two NFL games.
3. Mowed our lawn five times (with a riding mower ... with a push mower I’m not sure I’d have finished once).
4. Smoked a six-pound brisket, macaroni and cheese and baked beans for dinner.
5. Driven to downtown Chicago and back (with time to spare).
6. Watched four innings of a Major League Baseball game ... probably.
I will concede the rain delay was unavoidable. But the things that plague the race that most fans refer to as “The Brickyard 400” (regardless of sponsorship) have absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of rain in the middle of a midwestern summer.
An additional concession I must make is that I am a casual NASCAR fan at best; I follow it enough to try and make a conversation with my in-laws, but not anywhere near enough to carry on when the talk moves to the technical or mechanical aspects of the sport.
But frankly, the powers that be in NASCAR should have been embarrassed every time the broadcast showed cars on the backstretch. I’ve never seen that many empty seats in a venue that’s open for business. Not even for a December football game in Cleveland.
I’m sure people with a much bigger stake in the race are asking why people are staying away by the hundreds of thousands. I have a few theories.
First of all, fans don’t connect personally with the drivers like they did 20 or 30 years ago and more. A good ol’ boy sport has become increasingly corporate, but that’s a double-edged sword.
The Brickyard has had at least three title sponsors in its history, and when the money dries up NASCAR moves on to the next nourishing teat. The old timers tell me, in effect, that when the sport was dependent on ticket and T-shirt sales it was a lot more interesting to stick with ‘your guy.’
Everyone understands the need for increased safety, and I get there is that element of the fan base that loves a good crash (where everyone walks away). I can’t help but wonder if the skill level of the drivers has gone down to the point that we can blame all the late-race crashes on human error.
Or maybe, in an effort to gain speed, the cars become so flimsy that they can’t withstand the bumping around that happens during good racing. I can personally testify the cars are amazingly lightweight.
No sport has mastered the art of the rule change to draw in more fans than the NFL. Since its inception, the NASCAR playoffs have felt as convoluted as when baseball awarded World Series home field advantage in the All-Star Game. And the rules have changed enough that I have to ask my in-laws how the NASCAR playoffs work these days.
Starting with the 2018 season, The Brickyard will move to September ... I’m not sure if the new date will put Indy in the “playoffs.”
What I do know is that the Brickyard is now attracting about the same number of fans to its NASCAR race as either of the two held in Kansas City, Kan. Even as a native Kansan, there’s something unnatural about that to me.
I doubt I’m the only one.
At the rate NASCAR is going, I may have to find something else to talk to my in-laws about.
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