So, NASCAR has brought me back for one race. It will be a one-race contract with an opt-out clause before next year’s Daytona 500, but they’ve got me. To be fair, I’m told daily by a coworker that we live in a hot bed for racing. Whether it’s the World of Outlaws or NASCAR, it seems that racing fans are predominant throughout this region of the country. It’s a sport that peaked my attention, but couldn’t hold it throughout the mid 00’s. Now, with the new chase format, I find myself a bit more interested than before. A 10-race tournament-style format has peaked my interest. NASCAR has put winning races at a premium, and makes every race extremely important to each driver, so much so that Sunday evening was the first race in the last three that we haven’t seen a post-race scuffle. The NASCAR diehard’s don’t seem to be into the format as much as I am. They believe it’s turned races into glorified bumper cars. Drivers are not willing to give up spots, but are more than willing to wreck someone in order to jump up a few positions. The intensity is at an all-time high, all while running at 180 mph. It’s a recipe for disaster. I love it! So does NASCAR. It’s a sport that peaked in popularity just under a decade ago and has slowly been on a downhill decline for the last four years. Ticket prices have gone up as attendance numbers have been dwindling. While the Indy 500 and open-wheel races around the country have begun to surge, NASCAR has started to lose not only passionate fans, but also the casual fans that helped the stock car boom. Enter the heart-pounding 10-race Chase that is directed at bringing the casual fan back. I think it has done just that in its first year. The sport has once again found a spot on Monday morning sports highlight shows. It has grabbed the attention of sports talk radio, and even has drawn me away from football on Sundays. That’s no easy feat! So, here we sit with one week to go in the NASCAR season. With the new format, four racers have a chance to win the series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The rules are simple, as the driver among those four that finishes the best wins it all. Well, it sounds easy if you forget about the other 39 drivers that are still trying to win a race. With any luck, the drama we have felt for the past two months will continue Sunday. If it doesn’t, at least there will finally be some college basketball watch.
