Believe it or not, there is a correlation between the lack of fans for the two lesser series in NASCAR and the short tracks no longer held in favor by that sanctioning body. Bear with me folks, as we'll have to go back nearer to the beginning and follow the yellow brick road that led to today. Let's just hope they haven't repaved it!
If I ask you unexpectedly to name the NASCAR Series Sponsor, does the word "Sprint" roll trippingly from your tongue or do you have to stop and think for a few seconds first? Me too. It's unfortunate that the sponsor shares its name with another form of racecar altogether, and it's confusing as well. Sprint cars, and their little brothers, the Midgets, are like roll cages without sheet metal in appearance, yet the larger Sprints generate more horsepower than the average Cup car. All that power in a very lightweight vehicle makes those things pretty peppy on a short track, be it asphalt or dirt. But alas, that is the name now carried by NASCAR Cup cars as well.
However... and I know some of you are already ahead of me, back in the day, as they say, we had another Series Sponsor, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and their Winston Brand. As a sponsor, they were fantastic; they knew perhaps better than anyone, exactly how to best "market the product" and what to promote to further both their own goals and those of NASCAR, both of which of course, involved the bottom line aka profits.
The folks from Reynolds, men such as Ralph Seagraves and T. Wayne Robertson, knew the business side of racing and understood from the outset that in order to maintain a healthy sport, one must maintain a healthy base, which in the case of racing, was and is the small local tracks found throughout the country. You don't need to be very old at all to remember the tracks within proximity to your neighborhood, and almost all of them proudly proclaiming their affiliation with "NASCAR WINSTON RACING SERIES."
or with "NASCAR Weekly Racing Series"
If straight-line racing was your thing, Winston was right there with the NHRA
You get the idea. Winston was everywhere that NASCAR and NHRA were found, and they sunk a fortune into backing and advertising those little local tracks that ran everywhere several times a week. Why? Because RJR employees knew that those tracks provided the training ground from whence would come the next generations of racers in their primary series, Winston Cup Racing.
Nextel/Sprint came along when the government, always there to "help you", all but drove the tobacco industry out of business, but the sponsorship package now is very different from the Winston days. The small local tracks, left with no support from anyone, began to close their gates in alarming numbers, thereby serving to cut off the roots of the thriving entity we know as NASCAR.
Along about the same time, Bill France Jr. turned the keys to the NASCAR Kingdom over to his son Brian, who came with a whole package of new ideas, all of which were to be implemented ASAP or preferably, yesterday. NASCAR, always notoriously slow to move, suddenly had a brand new car... the COT... running under a brand new point system... the Chase... with brand new rules including the Lucky Dog Giveaway, a free pass to the top-35 in owner points that serves as a guarantee, and many others.
Mr. France will tell you that the empty grandstands we see each week are merely a product of the down-turned economy, but I beg to differ. The "Housing bust" that sent America's economy into the tank occurred in 2008. NASCAR's own downturn began much earlier, in fact, in that same year 2004 that saw a new hand at the helm of the Good Ship NASCAR. Most certainly, the economy has not helped, nor have the hospitality services, lodging, food, gas, etc. that surround each track and continue to treat race fans as a never-ending source of revenue.
Loss of roots, drastic major changes all implemented at once, a car that fans hated to a man (or woman) and a failing economy... there you have a recipe for disaster. Stir well and let simmer for eight years and we have the NASCAR of today. Is it cooked? I'd say it's very near to being charred to a cinder, but someone keeps stoking the coals to make them hotter. At this point, a good cook takes it off the fire and tries to salvage enough for supper, while keeping open the option to call for a pizza. Mr. France, please dial the pizzeria, but let Mr. Helton give the order. Just trust me.
Now, let's move to the races this past weekend, where both the NNS and the CW Trucks raced to an empty house. Exactly why are those series racing at Chicagoland anyway? Does anyone remember that they are not premiere series? Both those series grew up on short tracks and are ill-suited for racing on tracks larger than a mile in length. With the exception of the interlopers from the Cup Series coming in with their cars prepared by the Gibbs/Childress/Roush/Hendrick conglomerate, the teams are mostly of the underfunded variety and driven either by the very young or the very old, depending on which way they are headed on the ladder.
It should be noted that at least on the Nationwide side, there are many cars starting only for the purpose of parking and cashing a check, just as we see in the Cup Series. I've never paid much attention to that aspect of the truck races, but one might safely assume it is the case there as well. I wonder if that problem couldn't be solved with some good old-fashioned logic? Here we have two series, each of which one would hope would be feeding into rides at the Cup level, yet neither able to adequately fill their race cards with qualified and/or competitive drivers.
Why not combine the two and make one totally competitive series that might even give qualifying back its good name instead of being a joke? Yes Sir, Mr. France, that would probably cost you some money in the beginning, but you must have noticed at some point that the dollars are no longer rolling in as they have in the past. No Sir, glass dashboards are not going to fix that, but listening to sensible ideas coming from caring fans that love the sport of stock car racing just might.
The topics up for discussion today are being talked about on every racing board on the Internet, and I'd wager at every ball park and sports bar in America as well. Racing is in trouble; we all know it, and denial won't help a thing. Sir, we realize we cannot have everything. Some of our ideas might be every bit as bad as some of yours, but I'm sure all of us have good intentions. Mr. France, we are not the enemy. We are, in fact, your source of revenue, and I mean no disrespect in saying that. I only mean to speak the truth, which I've found will always serve me best.
As a point of supposition, let's just imagine that the two lesser series are combined. Do they race cars or trucks? How about half and half? What about having a few races where they race both? Maybe we could even consider a dirt race or two on the schedule. One thing I'd strongly urge Sir, is to put them back on short tracks, maybe keeping a road course or two, but taking them off the Superspeedways and those omnipresent 1.5-mile tracks. Sure, you might lose money in the beginning, because you'd be taking races away from both ISC and SMI while allowing tracks such as Hickory, Myrtle Beach, Bowman Gray, Motor Mile and several others to return to the sort of racing that to them is big-time.
Well race fans, I think I've tossed out more than enough ideas to generate some conversation between us for Mr. France's benefit. Think about it; the Cup Series standing alone with maybe only ARCA to provide a support race... OR, maybe Mr. France could find support races within his own Whelan Modified Series. I miss seeing the Mods regularly, and I bet many of you do as well. That way, the fans get a new short track series from the combined NNS/CWTS and a chance to see the Modifieds in action once again. I'm liking this more and more as I type!
Mr. France Sir, I can almost guarantee you that there will be fannies in the seats at those locally run short tracks. Certainly far more than we saw at Chicagoland on Sunday. To both you and Mr. Smith, I would urge that if you must buy those tracks, just don't change a thing on the program except the owner's name. If you start with something that is working, there is no need to change it for the sake of change alone.
Be well gentle readers and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you.
~PattyKay
Email: nas3car@etcmail.com
Twitter: @MamaPKL
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