What to make of the NASCAR Nationwide Series?

Are the NASCAR Nationwide Series Results Qualifying the Series as a Good Circuit?

http://motorweeklive.com/are-the-nascar-nationwide-results-qualifying-the-series-as-a-good-circuit/

Very well stated, Patrick. You seem to have the same problem with the Nationwide as I do. I wish the Keselowskis, Buschs, and the other Cup drivers would stay away. I think the crowd in the stands at Vegas for the Nationwide race (all 150 folks) show that adding the "big" names does not mean a huge drawing crowd. I agree with you that Nationwide needs it's OWN stars and I think by allowing that to happen, the series will blossom into a viable racing series. When I see the JGR and Penske cars lining up to race, I see more money supporting those two cars than the rest of the field put together.

I also agree with you that by making it a series to stand on its own and develop its own stars, Nationwide, or whatever it will become after Nationwide Insurance leaves at the end of the year, could be a respected and sought after series for teams without the sponsorships necessary to run Cup. I also agree that some drivers could, and should, look at the series as the "home" where they belong.

Jack Ingram was, and is, the man, the Iron Man. I watched him race hundreds of times (literally) and most times if he didn't win, he was running second. It was so gratifying to see him inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Thanks, Patrick, for a well written article speaking to a point that needs to be resolved. For instance, I would travel to Darlington or Charlotte to watch a Nationwide race without a Cup interloper in the field. I bet I would see a great race too!

Thanks for reading and offering feedback, Tim. I feel the Cup drivers take away from the Series, not add to it. Let the series develop its own stars. The strength of 30 years ago is still reachable if the effort was put forth by the controlling powers.

Patrick, I agree. Today's Jack Ingram does not exist, and hasn't for years. The Nationwide topic is just one of many fundamental NASCAR problems. Maybe it began with RJR's exit from the sport, when the Saturday night tracks were tossed. At any rate, it's a problem that's been brewing for years, and like most basic NASCAR problems, it's only been given lip service, with a half-way catchy PR assault......."NASCAR home tracks........" (Bowman Gray notwithstanding, it's difficult to find a healthy NASCAR "home track"). Incredibly, NASCAR has allowed a rare bright spot, and boost of NEW enthusiasm to wither and fallow, with the apparent demise of Rockingham.

You are correct, time marches on, fans age, and in the case of NASCAR, new and younger fans have not been cultivated to fill the void. It a'int rocket science, but with a weak Saturday night audience, the top tier programs will suffer accordingly. And, like Christianity, a following can be lost in one generation. Could very well be the NASCAR-type short track racing has passed its prime. It was all somewhat new in the 1970's and '80's when the Iron-man and Sam Ard were battling all over. The very subject pales in comparison to some of today's motor sport alternatives..........mud bogging, stadium trucks, monster trucks, dirt late models, and sprint cars, just to name a few examples. Importantly, all these sports have heroes.....Scott Bloomquist, Steve Kinser, the Grave Digger, etc. the NASCAR "wow" factor is missing, except for the moon-lighting Cup drives, and likely can't be recaptured. Cars parading, single file, for 200 laps, on a half-mile paved track, just don't cut the mustard like it once did.

It's a very big problem, NATIONWIDE, is just Saturday racing for Cup teams. It has no heroes of it's own, no identity, and no place for a Jack Ingram. It's future will require some very focused and sensible attention. Window dressing and PR tricks have about run their course.

Identifiable and relatable heroes. The very concept that built NASCAR. Thanks, Bobby!

Remember IndianapolisRaceway Park.....that, always a bright spot on the Nationwide schedule? The marketing PR machine decided in 2013 the Nationwide carsneededto be at the Speedway, thus killing two birds with the same stone!

IRP was one of the best tracks on the Nationwide circuit. As a short track event, it was one of the best of the summer. That tells me NASCAR's "on track product" is not their top concern.

Yep... agree with everyone's assessment of the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

I am old enough to remember when NASCAR literally "FORCED" late model competition on the sanctioning body's short tracks in the mid-late 60s. Although the Carolina tracks had been campaigning late model cars, our Virginia and Maryland Modified and Sportsman cars were still the '36-'37 coupes.

It didn't take "our Virginia boys" long to adapt to the Late Model Sportsman cars and Ray Hendrick, Sonny Hutchins, Bill Dennis, Lennie Pond, Al Grinnan, Paul Radford, Jimmy Hensley, Eddie Royster, Gene Lovelace, Runt Harris, Ted Hairfield, Joe Henry Thurman, Tommy Ellis and others were a threat to win anywhere they showed up.

It was a real highlight to have a North Carolina LMS driver like Morgan Shepherd, Jack Ingram, or Harry Gant show up at Richmond's Souithside Speedway on Friday night and have their lunch packed for them by our 4-H boys, just as it was always good to have brash newcomers like DW show up from Tennessee and have his lunch packed for him.

It was even better when we ran the big Martinsville shows and "our guys" beat the comers from all over.

The big deal, though, was that the drivers our guys beat were established heroes in their own neck of the woods. We had read about them in Southern MotorSports Journal and NSSN.

All of that "our guys" vs. "your guys" competition was lost in 1982 when NASCAR moved the Late Model Sportsman division off the local tracks as a cost cutting measure and began the Tour concept that has evolved as today's Nationwide Series.

I'd argue that banning the LMS division from local tracks did a lot more harm than Winston leaving.

Today, nobody talks about the Late Model Stock Car division hero from one track showing up at another. It is just not the same.

Although Martinsville continued to try to run a big show featuring LMSC replacing LMS, it was never the same and the attendance sucked, just like it did at the weekly tracks when the LMS division went national touring.

Pre-1982, we knew a big LMS race would attract the best of the best from weekly tracks hundreds of miles away. We got to see how our our guys stacked up against your guys. People talked about the races and wondered which drivers would show.

For the ten years (1990-1999) that I handled media relations at the Richmond Cup track, I had the luxury of total and complete sellouts for our two Winston Cup races. All advertising and most of the news releases were geared toward the then Busch Series races and later the Trucks in 1995 also received focus. The result was Friday night crowds of 62,000 for our Busch races and car counts at some races as high as 62 cars for a 40 car starting field.

When was the last time you wondered or even cared who'd show up for a Nationwide race?

Here's the kind of race I'm talking about... a good old fashioned Late Model Sportsman race before the watered down touring series began in 1982... check this field (by the way... that's Ray 1st, Jack 2nd):

Dogwood 500 Classic

NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race
Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, VA
March 21, 1971
250 laps on 0.525 mile paved oval; 131.25 miles

Fin St Driver # Owner Car Laps Money Status Laps Led
1 Ray Hendrick 11 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 250 2,650 running
2 Jack Ingram 31 1957 Chevrolet 250 running
3 Eddie Royster 88 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle 250 running
4 Jimmy Hensley 63 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle 250 running
5 Friday Hassler 39 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 250 running
6 Harry Gant 76 1957 Chevrolet
7 Bosco Lowe 00 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle
8 Hank Thomas 0 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
9 Tommy Ellis 4 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle
10 Allen Rankin 6 1957 Chevrolet
11 Lou Austin 02 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
12 Tommy Houston 45 1967 Ford
13 Rene Charland 46 1967 Ford
14 Buddy Arrington 29 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
15 Paul Radford 22 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
16 Carl Allred 54 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
17 Benny Kerley 14 1957 Chevrolet Chevelle
18 Mike Porter 78 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle accident
19 Herman Wells 99 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
20 Lee Sigmon 35 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
21 Joe Hendricks 30 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle
22 Jimmy Griffin 26 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
23 Al Grinnan 42 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
24 John Rosati 37 1967 Ford
25 John Ditges 56 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
26 Bruce Warren 47 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
27 Bill Dennis 90 1964 Ford
28 Bobby Waddell 18 1957 Chevrolet
29 Phil Spiak 52 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
30 Bryant Wallace 98 1964 Mercury Comet
31 Don Miller 69 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
32 J.D. Johnson Jr. 3 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
33 Bob Dobyns 66 1964 Ford
34 Joe Westerman 9 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle
35 Junior Crouch 71 1957 Chevrolet
36 Lennie Pond 1 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
37 Frankie Burnham 33 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle
38 Melvin Chilton 25 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle
39 Sonny Hutchins 01 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle
40 Bubba Tatum 27 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle

I erred in claiming the great Eddie Royster as a Virginia boy. He was most definitely a North Carolina tobacco farmer whose son is a RR member.

North Carolina LMS driver, Eddie Royster with the Frank Edwards #98 at Martinsville as posted by Eddie's son, Johnny.

A couple of other thoughts on the Nationwide Series:

The very first race in what is today's touring Nationwide Series took place in February 1982 at the 2.5 mile Daytona track and I was fortunate to sponsor the winning car of Robert Gee driven by Dale Earnhardt and stand in victory lane.

Although the first season opened on a superspeedway, the bulk of the races were on short ovals:

Racing Reference

23 of 29 races were on tracks under 1 mile in length - a full 79% of the schedule.

And, once you account for NASCAR "stretching" Caraway to 1/2-mile, 14 races took place on tracks under 1/2-mile in length. In other words, 48% of the races in the first season were on true bullrings.

Look at the first year and look at the current schedule. Gone are Martinsville, Hickory, South Boston, Caraway, Langley Field, Asheville and IRP, as well as the old Richmond half-mile.

Only 6 events (Bristol, Richmond, Iowa) in 2013 were run on ovals under 1 mile in length - just 18% of the schedule that used to showcase the hometown heroes.

Somewhere along the way, NASCAR got the notion all races had to be on superspeedways. They did the same thing to the Truck series and killed it. When Trucks were conceived by a couple of Winston West car owners, races in the 1995 inaugural season included a variety of short tracks, including some really good west coast short track venues. Now, they've all fallen by the wayside.

NASCAR is its own worst enemy. They have filled their executive ranks with a bunch of yoyos who never attended weekly racing at a hometown track and have no conception of the transferrence of that idea.

In the 1990s at Richmond, our events were combined Busch Series / Busch North events and paid points in both series. That was another reason for our tremendous car counts exceeding 60 cars.

Another philosophical issue may be in play here too........perhaps from day one, NASCAR has been all about big money. If this wasn't true, early on, this concept is totally and completely embraced now. NASCAR does not want any start-up, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps, Alan Kulwicki- type stories any more. The top levels are the private domain a few select individuals. No Carl Long's, please, or the blue collar school-bus-driving-fans either. IRP was too "school-bussy", the Speedway is far more exclusive AND expensive. Perfect. We are seeing the end game now. Not pretty, and may be too far down the path to correct. We'll see.

Dave and Bobby, FANTASTIC history here. These posts bring back memories. As a kid I loved the Late Model Sportsman. Their own heroes and their own superstars. Thanks for sharing. Great stuff!

Bobby, NASCAR honchos today probably wouldn't approve of "The World's Ugliest Human" contest our Wrangler group from Wilson, NC staged at Darlington in 1970 and 1971. They'd probably fine us and say it was fixed just because one of our truck drivers won both years. The two-time Darlington "World's Ugliest Human" winner later moved to Kingsport, Tennessee and went to work for Kodak. Jeff Gilder may have spotted him at one time or another!

The thing is..........those school-bus driving, blue-collar fans built NASCAR.

The two things I would certainly change with the series is 1 - limit 'outsiders' to 5 racers per year. You pick. Kind of the way the points system is set up now. You can race in more than one series...but you have to pick which you are earning points for. If I was in control of the Nationwide series. I would tell them you can pick 5 races per year in a series you don't normally race in. Most cup guys would go for Daytona, Atlanta, Homestead, Charlotte, and either Talladega, the #2 Daytona race or Darlington. Then for the better part of the season, you would have just Nationwide guys racing for the win. As stated previously...I don't think that the Nationwide attendees really are there to see the cup guys. After all, it's basically just practice for them.

Next thing I would do was to bring back (like Bobby said) the hometracks. When Chase Elliott signed to drive the full Nationwide schedule this year, I compared the cup and NW schedule. In total, the Nationwide went to the same tracks, on the same weekend as the cup except for two races in the summer. NW goes to Road America (I believe) instead of Sonoma and they also visit one more roadcourse, which makes three in total. That means that besides those two races out of the year, the NW goes everywhere the cup guys go. If you looked at the Busch schedule 10 years ago, you would see NW and Truck only tracks such as IRP, Nazareth, Milwaukee Mile, Gateway, Nashville, Memphis, Pikes Peak, Rockingham, etc.

Also, I quickly done some research on the 2003-2004 seasons. (10 years ago). Out of all the 2003 races, 16 were won by Cup regulars and/or cup and Busch full-timers....and 20 were won by Busch regulars.

In 2004, 20 races were won by Cup guys and the remaining 16 by Busch drivers..

I also looked at last year's results. In 2013 Nationwide races, 25 were won by Cup regulars and the remaining 7 were taken by Nationwide guys.

Anyway....just a few things that could really turn the series around in my opinion!

-Cody

well spoken Cody. I totally with your view point...