The Americanization of NASCAR is now complete. Saturday's sparsely attended fuel mileage contest at Charlotte, was thefirst NASCAR Grand National/Cup event since 1961 without a North Carolina driver in the field. Way to go NASCAR, you finally subdued the long-held fear that your product was too localized, and only a niche sport with too many blue collar stars. Well, they're gone, and judging by the TV, most of the fans too.
Several folks who attended the race Saturday night were at Memory Lane yesterday. Surpisining, I talked with four different families from Canada who came down for the race. Everyone of them were talking about the lack of fans at the track. One guy from Indiana said it was a terrible race and although he had been coming to Charlotte since 1983, this was his last trip.
Progress...hmmmm.
Tim, you make an excellent point, an one that NASCAR and it's marketers have never understood. The talking heads are convinced, that NASCAR will only grow, if the sport is fundamentally changed, and brought to new areas, neatly packaged, with sophisticated-appearing players. Such a strategy would surely attract the new fan. But, years after implementation, has itworked?
"Old" NASCAR attracted fans forwhat it was and where it was. Fans came to it. They came from Canada, and other distant locales. They CAME to experience the NASCAR culture.......for what it was. That WAS the attraction. Now, it don't have a culture.
Bobby, we had folks at Memory Lane yesterday, many of them who praised all the guys there for being at the show and for so many other things. A NASCAR Hall of Famer, not kidding, opined the crowd at Memory Lane was larger than the crowd at the speedway the night before. Winston Kelley from the HOF was there too and I think his comments sort of hinted that he wished he could get that many guests at his HOF. Barney Hall was also there and it seemed he was absolutely impressed. I had several fans tell me what it was like to be able to hang there with us and get pictures and autographs and just talk. They compared our group with the drivers of today and our group came out far on top. One guy told me he had asked a certain Cup driver for an autograph at Charlotte Saturday afternoon LONG before the race, and he was told "I don't give autographs". That amazed me. But, then thinking about it, not so surprised after all. Many stories were told of fan experiences with drivers of today and not one of those stories were positive. The folks I met, telling the stories, could certainly not be judged as obnoxious. Wonderful family people. Guess the guys today are just to "big time".
Gene Hobby, Rex White, Donnie Allison and I discussed how professionals in other sports charge for autographs. We had a good laugh over that. We also discussed how folks get things autographed and then those items appear on e-bay a day or two later. Of course, I haven't had that problem but it seems all the stars have.
Just one little side note here. More than one person talked about Dale, Jr. yesterday and the concussion. More than one person said his career MAY be over completely. Several said they hope it is so he won't further injure himself.
Bobby, I'd bet the farm that "the first NASCAR Grand National/Cup event since 1961 without a North Carolina driver in the field" was not an event held anywhere near North Carolina. The fact that this happened at Charlotte just adds insult to injury.
I agree Dennis....Charlotte, North Carolina!.
We enjoyed seeing and talking with you yesterday Tim. Hope to see you again soon!
Had to work yesterday. Sounds like everyone had a good time. Wish I could have made it myself.
One must also remember many of the teams, drivers and crews still call North Carolina home. I do not even think there is asingle driver from South Carolina in the field.The thing is most were not born or raised in the Carolinas.What could be to blame for this? Could it be the fact that thelocal or regional tracks in the Carolinas not producing enough prospects? Are the big teams not scouting local tracks nearby? I think it has alot to do with the fact that the oldBusch Series, Dash Series and other series of racing that ran on many tracks in the Carolinas is no longermuch ofa pipeline anymore. Therefore, less drivers from the Carolinas racing.
I saw alot of empties in the stands at Charlotteand I think it is a bad idea to put this race on Saturday Night. College football in the south is watched more. Hate to say it like that but NASCAR has to compete with College Footbal and NFL when we get later into the season and the Chase was put in to compete with that. So far it has not correlated into attendence or ratings for that matter. The prices for tickets to Charlotte were actually pretty good too. Again, I blame distractions, College Football, the home entertainment system and disgust with the NASCAR product in general.
We also discussed how folks get things autographed and then those items appear on e-bay a day or two later.
This of course, is why athletes charge for autographs and why they have become so hard to get. People aren't in it for the personal memory but for the money. I don't know who you blame for that attitude of greed. Ironically, if the drivers were willing to sign a lot of autographs, the supply would be great enough to drive the price down to the point where they weren't worth selling. I don't know what Petty's autograph goes for but with so many in circulation, it's probably much less than you'd expect for a seven-time champion.
The other solution would be to personalize each autograph with a name and comment pertaining to the meeting "Hey Bobby, hope that sunburn heals up quick". Personalized autographs always sell for less. It would take drivers longer to sign, and fewer would get a chance for one, but it beats none at all. Fans also would get a few more seconds of conversation with their idols. Most driver signings now are rushed and impersonal. And hey, maybe it would give drivers an idea that there's more to this sport than an having your own airplane.
Hate to say it like that but NASCAR has to compete with College Football and NFL when we get later into the season and the Chase was put in to compete with that.
NASCAR just got 33% more money from Fox to run the first thirteen races. I assume that there's not a lot of concern for attendance when they can rake in cash from TV and race sponsors. There's been a lot of talk that people today have a short attention span; they need to be able to constantly switch between football and racing.
I don't think that's true. I think they've been told that over and over to the point where they're just doing what they've been told. I think that TV broadcasts, in trying to serve the short-attention span, do more and more annoying things that subconsciously drive viewers to seek a break from them. I no longer have TV but was fortunate enough to catch an illicit transmission of the Charlotte race. I could barely keep my eyes on the cars with all the distracting tickers and banners and logos popping up on screen. They reduce the race coverage by at least 25% just to fit all that junk in. I had to keep turning away because my eyes were tired from bouncing all over the screen.
Fans who attend races in person don't get to hear all those mentions of "a can of Sunoco fuel and four Goodyear tires".The networks (and NASCAR) get paid a lot of money for all that subliminal advertising. That tactic isn't as effective for fans in the bleachers, so agencies won't pay much for the privilege.
Auto racing already has higher attendance than the NFL or any other sport. They don't care about asses in the seats. Professional sports is an advertising delivery system and that's best done on TV. NASCAR doesn't want more fans, it wants more viewers. For decades, the Indy 500 has been the world's largest sporting event. The race pulls in fewer TV viewers than the Superbowl (and maybe the Daytona 500), so the series is relegated to the last five minutes of Sportscenter.
Heck, Charlotte doesn't even have to schedule their qualifying times around the shift changes at Cannon Mills or Philip Morris anymore. The Kannapolis towel plant that once employed the blue collar Earnhardt family is now gone, along with the more recent cigarette factory just a smoke ring or two down U.S. 29 from the track.
There was a movie titled "The Americanization of Emily." What would you title this show?
It's interesting that someone would complain about the sport going national. It created jobs and made many people rich, which is a good thing. It helped the Charlotte area a great deal and possibly North Carolina as a whole. But I understand your point.
It's the eternal irony of success. He much you have to give up in order to have so much. The price of fame.
I get annoyed when people who have been fans since the Nineties say how bad the sport has become. They don't know the half of it. It was already damaged then. Offhand, I don't know any sport that is better now than it was between 1955 and 1985. I guess that officially makes me an old codger.
In the interest of keeping the pot stirred, I took the liberty of looking at the listed hometowns of the 33 drivers in the inaugural 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock race at Charlotte Speedway. 48% of the starting field called North Carolina home.
Here's the state by state driver breakdown for Race #1 in what was to become today's Cup Series:
North Carolina - 16
Georgia - 7
Virginia - 5
Florida - 2
Alabama - 1
Kansas - 1 Eventual declared winner Jim Roper
New Jersey - 1
RR member, LaVerne Zachary has a very interesting story regarding the winner of this race told directly to him by Hubert Westmoreland (one of the owners of the winning Johnny Mantz car at Darlington in 1950) and how he was paid back by Bill France for what happened at Charlotte and why. We need to get him to tell it here sometime.
hey tim - the autograph issue doesnt surprise me - drivers sign when the camera is rolling but even then they rarely look at the person their signing for - dale jr is doing better - his career is not over - he is recovering - not sure how long he will be out but he will be back .
Bobby, I've often thought about how many of Bell & Bell drivers are born and raised in NC? Though I've lived here 30 years I can't be considered a native and, neither can all the snow birds that make up about half of the series. It's just a sign of the times, the world is a much smaller place than it was when I was born in 1961, and the last time a North Carolina driver didn't compete in a NASCAR event. However, there are plenty of local drivers from North Carolina I would pit against a lot of the spit and polished drivers today. Even the ones from North Carolina in the Nationwide Series (the Dillon bros.) are not really considered "blue collar" however, at least in a few years there will be a few more in the ranks now that the of the Son's of the South's kids and grand kids are up and coming.
