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NASCAR fans are an interesting bunch, and they always want things to be different in every way no matter what NASCAR changes or does… Or do they? Today I want to look at what NASCAR fans want and why the complaints levied by many over social media may not hold the water that many, possibly including NASCAR, think they are. So this is why NASCAR should not (kinda) listen to fans.
Video Credits:
ABC Sports
Dave W
ESPN
FOX Sports
Kevin MacLeod
Motorsports on NBC
NASCAR
NASCAR on FOX
NASCAR Productions
NascarAllOut
NBC Sports
Skewcar
Turner Sports
YouTube Audio Library
Thumbnail Credits:
NASCAR Images
USA TODAY SPORTS
Vasha Hunt
Outro Song:
Strange Animal (Crowder Remix) by Gowan
Songs:
Cold Funk – Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod from the YouTube Audio Library
#NASCAR #Motorsports #racing
50 comments
Do you think NASCAR should listen to fans on social media when making changes?
No
To some extent, but not react to every comment
Yes and no, you can never please everyone. You can never win with NASCAR fans.
NASCAR definitely needs to listen
They should be aware, but not make decisions just from social media
I think NASCAR should listen to a point. Listen to fans on ways to make racing better, like getting rid of stage breaks, but don’t to a point that it makes your product worse.
Well, when they got rid of stages on road courses, fans came out in droves wanting them back.
@Dexter Hochstetler Stage cautions are universally disliked. Even when they said they were going to be reinstated, a lot of fans and drivers were against it. NASCAR has a direction it wants to go, and they have a selection bias when it comes to listening to fans.
@Dexter Hochstetler I think it was NBC that wanted them back.
I think listen to fans on adding new tracks is a start.
Getting rid of the stages and tracks with two races taking the other dates to new tracks and Chicago and the clash should have been back in Daytona for 24
Genuinely think they should ignore fans more. Nascar should look more towards drivers and teams and people actually part of the media then ask fans.
Not even drivers though. I thought getting rid of stage breaks was great, but then drivers like Logano complained too much.
i completely agree with logano though, the road course races this year were so boring
Yeah fans don’t know what they want and it’s always split
@ssigeon I disagree. I was at Indy and it was easily one of the best road course races in a while.
Completely ignore the media. Stop that.
I agree with the drivers and teams.
Well, whenever NASCAR listens to the fans, and do what they want, Fans still complain once they get it. Which is probably the main reason why NASCAR nowadays has the worst fanbase.
So true
Besides the NFL.
Meh I’d say nascar has a pretty average fan base for sports nowadays, there’s a few bad apples that make everyone look bad like anything.
@Nascarfan1896 Unfortionatly, it’s the ones who are everywhere
I was a little disappointed because of how good the last race at Daytona was. I was expecting at a wider track they would go three wide a lot but that wasn’t the case. But I still wish there was tandem racing so what do I know lol
Something I find interesting is how different Nascar’s in person fanbase is compared to their online fanbase. I remember I went to the all star race in 2021. First year at Texas and the crowd LOVED it. Meanwhile, online everyone was saying how awful it was. Definitely doesn’t help when it comes to making decisions.
That’s why if I am one of the ones that run NASCAR, I make decisions based on crowd attendance and TV ratings. Those online are typically coming from X/Twitter and we all know it’s a cesspool of negativity there. Marketing these races better would certainly help NASCAR to make smarter decisions. It probably was a better experience to be at the race for those who went to watch that Texas race. I watched on TV at that time and you never got to see much passing because the network that aired it did a poor job of showing any racing behind the lead. There wasn’t much happening up front, but I am sure in the middle and back of the pack there was probably some good racing. I didn’t think it was a good race either, but that’s because I only got to see the action from my TV. It could very well have been a good race. If the networks aren’t doing a good job of showing anything that isn’t up front though then it’s hard to know if the racing was good or not. I hope I made sense here.
Texas is one of the worst cookie cutter tracks that actually drove a lot of the old school auto racing fans since those tracks are not even popular. If you do not have fans showing up to the races or not watching those races? You do have a problem, and it could make NASCAR go broke.
I agree you go to a race and everyone Is super cool and happy then the online base are assholes and they are probably the ones who never go to races. Same with local racing the ones who make the most noise on social media are the ones who never attend the race
@Joey Warning I am online, and make a noise how I hate what NASCAR have become. I am the old school of the 80s. I attended races at local tracks since I was a kid in the 70s. My dad was a race car driver. He does not like what racing have become today. There were reasons why no kids under 18 were allowed in the pits back then.
Truth is what you see at the track and what you see on TV are 2 completely different things.
At the track you could see a ton of great battles around 5th, 10th, 17th, etc. You will see a few guys driving up through the field. On TV, it’ll just show the first 3 guys all separated by 1.5 second.
NASCAR fans are unsatisfied with the current plate track package, but I actually really like it. It combined the best parts of tandem drafting and pack racing into one. At least, that’s how I see it.
Dega and Daytona were amazing don’t change the plate package
Exactly. I love it, I think it’s a massive upgrade. The second Atlanta race was freaking amazing too.
But the pest part of pack racing was that it’s fluid, here it’s not and I think that’s something the drivers themselves are unsatisfied with. Bumper to bumper rows surging one after the other , wish it was a bit more fluid . It also is less interesting when you realise they are only 3 wide when fuel saving and nothings happening (was impossible to go 3 wide in the final laps )
@Cool Cup SeriesDaytona and Talladega are always amazing tracks
Nascar needs to run the show and try to make the best racing at each track. Owners have had a lot of changes they want that may not be the best for the sport ling term aka charters
They should definitely listen to fans but it doesn’t mean they have to take action to every comment online. Your video perfectly explains why i stay away from social media orher than YT (if that even counts). They need to listen to their drivers and teams 1st before the fans.
There are too many fans who act like they know how everything works, and that everything can easily be done. Requests to add new tracks is probably the worst example of this. NASCAR can’t just go to some track and ask “Hey, can we come here next year? Pretty please?” And magically have a race. There are things like:
1. Talk with track owners and promoters.
2. Possibly talk with locals near the tracks. (look at the Fairgrounds)
3. Find a title sponsor for the race.
4. Find a place on the schedule that EVERYONE can agree on.
And there’s probably oodles of other things that go on in these dealings. Track negotiations are more a nightmare then people realize. We’re probably seeing it right now, since the 2024 schedules are STILL not out, and the big rumor is that NASCAR is still in talks with Montreal to have a race there. Basically, don’t blindly request new tracks. It’s a long, nightmarish process that some don’t want to see NASCAR go through.
I just want them to fix the short and road course packages, instead of having less RC races, which it seems like will sadly happen
That was an awesome race at Dega! I have been there live over a dozen times and it never disappoints. Fix the short pack package, make the cars/racing race like they did in the 1990’s. I admit I’m old but that is what it needs, younger people need to see short track racing as it was. It can be as exciting as a dega race if it was like the past, let the cars beat and bang, fight for each position.
In my opinion a good short track race is the best product NASCAR has to offer.
While not perfect, Talladega was a great race to watch. Probably my favorite of this year.
The Indy Oval/RC debate is probably the biggest example of this. We all hated the RC (for the most part) and then this year it puts on one of my favorite races (the other being Atlanta 2 before being shortened). I loved this past sunday’s dega race (except for my boy Brad pushing a rookie, what else are you gonna expect?)
Ultimately we’re a pretty fickle bunch, especially those main social medias.
Honestly I don’t care because I didn’t really like or hate either
what i find crazy is how everywhere you go you see the entire fanbase crying about stage breaks.
but once they removed the stage breaks on road courses earlier in the year, every single comment on NASCAR’s posts were people begging for them back.
what the hell???
Me personally as a Nascar fan I want Nascar to be more popular. I want more horsepower I want a street course at NYC. I want Rockingham to comeback. I want Nascar to get rid of the double yellow line rule. I want Nascar to go back the Winston cup points format. I want Nascar to stop making the cars aero dependent.
The fans don’t know what they want
It’s all “I want this.” and then NASCAR changes it and there like “Changed my mind”
The same thing happened with stage cautions on road courses
It’s a balancing act. They should listen to the fans while also focusing on current marketing while also not forgetting where they came from as a sport which right now they’ve been doing a lot. There’s the old saying that you don’t mess with tradition and they really need to take that back to heart and it can be done even in 2023.
In my opinion, I think NASCAR needs to balance things out in terms of how they do things. They need to be able to do things their way, but every once in a while, NASCAR should listen to the fans based on race reception.
You nailed it with the silent majority. The squeaky wheel gets the grease: in this case it is the people complaining on twitter. It’s what got us the current playoff format. I go to Indy regardless of oval or road course. What I find interesting is that I, and probably we in general, will scrutinize the racing product of the oval more than the road course. With the RC, I don’t have any expectations of seeing great racing- it is really just spending the day at the track and hey there’s some cars! The RC makes the poor attendance look less embarrassing for some reason. I still think they need to go back to the oval even though it looks empty.