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Sponsor-loss, Branding, Cost Cap?
46 comments
Man all those changes made to help teams financially sure are working out. Glad we had to sit through the torturing 550 package for as long as we did just for it not to do anything for the teams.
They need to go with a bigger motor and or more horsepower. I should say and take the restrictor plates off the cars and have the final race of the year at Daytona instead of a half mile track if you really want people to watch until the end of the year, you do the last race at Daytona or a super Speedway somewhere to make it exciting
@@kevinpratt8476 you want the championship race to be at a superspeedway? Let’s think this out, this shouldn’t be hard. That is a stupid idea.
At the end of the day, this is still racing. If you want all the focus to be on excitement, go watch a fireworks show. Hell, we may as well put jumps and ramps in the middle of the track too so every single left is exciting…… Right?
The drivers have been complaining for years now that they want more power but NASCAR is too married to their idea.
They are like politicians when things aren’t going well, they won’t just take the l and fix the problem, they just keep doubling down
I just hope NASCAR heads in the correct direction and gets many new young fans. That’s all I can ask for at this time.
As long as Steve Phelps is employed they won’t
NASCAR will always have older fans. The goal should be to bring in younger fans and not run off older fans. There’s a balance.
@@fenderGregthis guy gets it.
The whole playoffs was designed for the younger fans….guess what, didnt work.
All these body/car changes were brought in for new fans….didn’t work.
Adding tons of road courses and 2 more super speedways were to bring in young fans. Didn’t work
NASCAR was ruined by chasing new fans and not tacking care of the ones they already had
At this point I wish Mike Helton was back in charge of the ship again.
He still has a voice at the table but he never handled the business stuff Bill Jr did and then Brian did. Jim France changed all that and had Steve Phelps handle it. Steve is 20 years younger than Jim France
OEM’s run nascar now this is exactly why big bill and bill Jr were so protective about outsiders being too involved because now you have corporate suits who have no idea how the real world works let alone any idea how to run a racing series making dumb decisions over and over again.
The old guard of NASCAR leadership gave zero regard to the rights of the teams or drivers. They could care less if drivers and teams were bleeding money, drivers were dying left and right, races were garbage, etc. If they were around today, race teams would be losing way more money than they do now and the response from NASCAR would be “cry about it more”. People like to complain about Steve Phelps and the new NASCAR, but this modern-day organization is much more friendlier to the rights of the teams and drivers and is willing to work with them on a much more even playing field.
The fall in popularity of the sport after it’s peak has led to a negative feedback loop which has compounded the loss in the relatability of NASCAR. Fans started leaving and then the big well known consumer sponsors started leaving with more and more business to business sponsors filling their place. Once the business to business sponsors took over, less kids got into NASCAR at a young age because the cars started looking more boring. Losing M&M’s was a major hit in capturing fans at a young age. NASCAR needs more sponsors that connect with kids in order to secure the future of the sport. The average viewer age sure isn’t getting any younger right now.
The OVERWHELMING vast majority of viewers are 65 and older, this sport will be dead within a generation. NASCAR is gaining zero new fans, just riding coat tails of former glory.
Bring back the old point system and allow the Champion by the body of work for the entire year, not who gets hot for 2 or 3 races.
and dont forget the games! the early 2000’s NASCAR games got a lot of us motivated to watch the home depot, M&M, and Bud cars drive. now the games are okay at best, legendarily bad at worse and no kids nowaday play them! the sport as a whole has lost its cultural importance and has been languishing since.
i still think we’re trending in the right direction, though.
@@Warriorcats24 Its also important to note the last game was released in Oct of 21 – for the 21 season. Other than Iracing there has been no Next Gen game yet –
Thats why i love the 48 car its had a single sponsor for multiple seasons ally=bowman lowes= jimmie
The biggest thing is car culture. It is dead. What is popular is driving trucks and suvs. The off-road scene for consumers is the most relatable. People are not working on hot rods like they once did.
Valid point there my friend. Most NASCAR parking lots are wall to wall with enormous pick up trucks
@@mattcardarellithose $80,000 mall crawlers never see dirt or being used for actual work.
yes! like Eric said, relatability matters. Ford no longer manufactures sedans. Chevrolet only manufactures the anemic Malibu. Dodge (Stellantis) is gone and never coming back. ironically, Toyota catches flack, but is the only NASCAR make who manufactures multiple sedans and sports cars.
@@aaronbrown3901that lies at a major problem, that the American manufacturers are all on the decline. The trucks are the best sellers. But in every other category they aren’t anything special. The Koreans are cheaper, the Japanese more reliable and the Europeans are fancier and more luxurious. All the American manufacturers have is the v8 and that isn’t going into normal cars.
agreed people are not into supped up cars anymore
Our retired, elder statesmen have literally bought or created their own racing series’. Jr., Harvick, and Burton teamed up. Also, Larson created his own series. This says a lot about the ability to be competitive as a team owner. Imagine if those 4 (hypothetically) ran NASCAR. The fans and drivers, along with the team owners, would be ecstatic. I bet the product would be fantastic!
If they ran Nascar (along with other people that have any type of common sense), this series would be so much better
Having a decent video game would make a huge difference. Gotta get the younger crowd interested
Yes
Indycar also needs to learn this lesson
I’d like to see NASCAR host international exhibition races and various exhibition “legends” races. A short race that’s only 25 laps long on some of the smaller tracks that the veterans of the sport might be interested in doing. Think SRX, but exclusively retired NASCAR drivers in either cup or xfinity cars during the NASCAR race weekend. Make it a charity event and let the fans pick their wraps.
I also wish NASCAR would embrace it’s past the same way nearly every other major racing series does and allow various “classic” exhibition races using previous gen cars. Think Goodwood Members Meeting, but NASCAR stock cars.
Drivers were relateable to the fans. They were rough and tumble, wear jeans, need a hair cut, dirt under their fingernails, drove a pickup truck. Todays driver isn’t old enough to buy a beer, can’t change a tire on his personal car, drives a car none of us can afford, gets his hair and nails done at the salon, has the personallity of a snail. But brought a large check to the owner.
I was a huge NASCAR fan in the Dale SR. and early Kevin Harvick days, but I went to Petit Le Mans in 2000, and became a massive ALMS and IMSA fan. That was my youth watching SCCA and IMSA races with my parents all the time.
As a European I would describe NASCAR like this: High speed racing with robust cars on Stadium-like tracks where strategy or chaos rules and you never know till the checkered flag which one it is.
NASCAR has to make sure, that:
– non-ovals are the rare occasion
– boredom like in F1 ( who of the 3 Top guys will win? The rest are just filler-drivers) has no chance
– the cars don‘t get too refined. They have to be on the edge to break down, crash out, run out of gas or eat their tires, so the drivers who navigates the issues best wins
The only time I’ve ever heard interest from non-NASCAR fans is when NASCAR races on road and street courses. Ovals are seen as so dumb that they won’t tune into a lap. As a European, I feel like you might see that in your fellow Europeans, because I certainly do.
@@AM-tu1rc There are plenty of racing series on road courses all over the world, but only 2 that race ovals. Nobody outside North America is interested in Road Racing Series which only run in North America, same as nobody outside Downunder cares about their V8 Supercar Series. Thus NASCAR has to focus on their unique selling points which are Ovals and light body contact.
The charter system was a good idea at the time, but it stifles others from trying to make it into the cup series. Unless they have unlimited money and resources. If nascar got away from the single source supplier stipulations, allowing other certified companies to make the parts. That would create competition between them, which could bring some costs down. With the max horsepower they currently have is actually costing the teams more money. Kevin harvick made a lot of good points on dale jr’s podcast about the engines.
It does not as 4 open spots exist
@@johnhaas2523 And those four spots remain unfilled at most races because the cars cost more than you can make with an unchartered team.
There’s definitely a balance in terms of increasing the field and not devaluing the charters, but I don’t see why the various charter owners can vote to make a charter available every couple of years for open bidding, then split the proceeds evenly among the existing charters. If the sale price isn’t high enough, they can always veto the addition. The existing charter owners would get a huge chunk of change for the sale and the vote would eliminate potential devaluation of the charters. If charters continue to go for 40 million dollars, that would be about a million per team. I’m no economist, so I don’t know if that would offset potential devaluation of charters, slightly less purse money, and more competition for sponsors.
Let the teams build their cars .
NASCAR shot themselves in the foot with this charter nonsense. They can’t turn back now. They got teams dumping 20,30, or even 40 million bucks on one, to late to say “nah, we don’t need those anymore”
Agree to its relatability…Dale Jr is a prime example. And brand identity has slipped. It is difficult to impossible for new fans to tell racecars apart at races when cars are different every race and that is a huge issue…
At least Denny Hamlin’s Fedex 11 hass tuck around. And Bass Pro Shops has remained with Martin Truex Jr. since the Furniture Row days.
And of course, we can’t forget Corey LaJoie and Celsius. That commercial lives rent-free in my head.
Edit: I’d also add Busch beer to this list but it recently changed drivers
Driver personalities made nascar relatable back when nascar was relevant. We are severely lacking in that area now. Drivers just say what they are supposed to say, thank the sponsors. Most are not active on social media, if they post anything it’s some generic “It’s race day sponsored by” crap post. Look at Ross chastain. The first driver in a while to generate buzz and a new fanbase. It was fun for a while to see what Ross was going to do, going to say, what other divers had to say about Ross. Then Hendrick and NASCAR tell him to fall in line and now he’s just as boring as everyone else.
Been watching NASCAR for a while now. What drew my attention was the racing. I love the fender rubbing and bumping. Also love that the races are usually decided in the last handful of laps. Passing all over the place. Very rare that someone checks out. F1 has very little passing, lost interest during M Schumaker’s domination; Verstappen’s doing the same thing. Indy kind of is like F1, lots of single file, follow the leader.