Hey NASCAR, your season is too long and people are getting burned out

MRM

MRM

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Reading between the lines of the Carl Edwards presser, I believe we are seeing more drivers getting burned out on the grind of the season as it sits now. There is a lot of burnout and turnover among crew members, those that work in the shop, and even crew chiefs. I think we are starting to see it with drivers too. They have a 36-race schedule, the All-Star weekend, and the weekend of qualifying for the Daytona 500 and the Clash. That's 40 weekends out of 52 in a year. Those weekends usually consist of arriving late Thursday and being there until Sunday. Then, there are days for sponsor obligations, etc.

With so many drivers in the garage area with small children, I think we will see more drivers walk away earlier to be with their family and their kids. NASCAR needs to look at this closely. I know some drivers will race no matter what. But many just want to get away from it as much as they can. They'll never do it, but the schedule needs to be reduced in some way. I think that is one of the reasons we see a decline in attendance and on TV among fans. There's just too much of it. Sometimes less is more.
 
And all but 3 of those 40 weeks are spent on the road away from home and family too. Not like the NFL where the season is 21 weeks and half of those are at home. There's a reason why other pro athletes don't buy expensive RV's and Airplanes, they don't need them. Carl needed a million-dollar Cessna and a pilot's license just to be able to be home during the week and see his family. Saved him the equivalent of 100 days a year, and even that wasn't enough to keep him from burning out.
 
I agree but it's been like that for the past 16 years now, why is it that now people are burned out and stepping away at a younger age?
 
The NASCAR season has gone from February to November for fifty years (actually it used to start in January with Riverside). It wasn't a problem during all the years of growth in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.
 
MRM said:
Reading between the lines of the Carl Edwards presser, I believe we are seeing more drivers getting burned out on the grind of the season as it sits now. There is a lot of burnout and turnover among crew members, those that work in the shop, and even crew chiefs. I think we are starting to see it with drivers too. They have a 36-race schedule, the All-Star weekend, and the weekend of qualifying for the Daytona 500 and the Clash. That's 40 weekends out of 52 in a year. Those weekends usually consist of arriving late Thursday and being there until Sunday. Then, there are days for sponsor obligations, etc.

With so many drivers in the garage area with small children, I think we will see more drivers walk away earlier to be with their family and their kids. NASCAR needs to look at this closely. I know some drivers will race no matter what. But many just want to get away from it as much as they can. They'll never do it, but the schedule needs to be reduced in some way. I think that is one of the reasons we see a decline in attendance and on TV among fans. There's just too much of it. Sometimes less is more.
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At one point North Carolina had 7 races including the All Star Race, South Carolina had 2 and Georgia had 2. Out of those 11 races 6 no longer exist. Those races were held in or in close proximity to Charlotte which is at or near the home base of teams and drivers. There were less races and many of the drivers did not begin full time cup careers until they were in their 30's so the dynamic was completely different.
 
NasNYG567 said:
I agree but it's been like that for the past 16 years now, why is it that now people are burned out and stepping away at a younger age?
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Harry Gant did run his first full cup season until he was 39 and other drivers started at older ages as at the time it was felt that younger drivers needed "seasoning" and needed to "pay their dues." An 18-21 year old cup driver was a rarity.
 
29-4 said:
The NASCAR season has gone from February to November for fifty years (actually it used to start in January with Riverside). It wasn't a problem during all the years of growth in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.
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If memory serves the last time Riverside was run was in June or July of 1988 and Nascar had 28 or 29 races that year. Nascar's seasons have not been lengthened technically but they have shoehorned races into what used to be off weeks.
 
Drivers making piles of cash and being able to retire comfortably at early ages likely has more to do with it than the "grind" of a season.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm only passingly familiar with WoO. Does every driver participate in every event, or it more like golf where players pick and choose their events?
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The core group runs every event or very close to it ... points fund in play.
 
29-4 said:
The NASCAR season has gone from February to November for fifty years (actually it used to start in January with Riverside). It wasn't a problem during all the years of growth in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.
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But they weren't zig-zagging all over the country like they do now (well maybe in the 00s they were). In the 80's and 90's the vast majority of the races were in the southeastern quadrant of the U.S.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Combination. When you make a pile of cash during the grinding seasons, you don't have to put with as many of them.
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It sounds like Carl Edwards did the same thing I did as I worked and worked and when I became successful and started making money I didn't dare spend it as I didn't know how long it would last.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
I work 52 weeks a year out of the 52 and I don't get paid millions to do what I love with beautiful women kissing me...

...so suck it up.
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It is nice when you can work long enough and hard enough to be able to walk away and do what you enjoy. I realize that for some folks it is not possible but I certainly don't begrudge those that can and do.
 
The season should be 30 races maximum.
Even as a fan I find it too long and I just have to sit on the couch and watch.
 
There may be merit to cutting the length of the season in terms of time. I have posted multiple times on this forum how to cut three weeks and maintain the number of races. But it is hard to claim there are too many races. Baseball has 162, 3-hour games per year. The NBA and NHL have 82. Add to that the fact that fans could potentially watch 14-16 games per day if they wanted. NASCAR has far fewer events per season than any of these. If you don't feel like watching a particular week, don't watch.
 
OH boo hoo hoo. I would do that job for free and they get millions. As a fan I want more racing, not less. There should be two to three races a WEEK for at least 10 months of the year. Then they might start earning that huge paycheck.
 
One thing that comes into play is these drivers coming in now are a lot younger than they used to be. When they come into the Cup series in their late teen's and early 20's, they've already raced into their late 30's/early 40's if they've had 20 successful years. I'm sure that's plenty enough for many of them.
 
People comparing this to decades past are so out of touch. The sport, and the world in general is nothing like it was then. The sponsor and media obligations these guys have when they aren't in a racecar consume their entire week outside of maybe a day. And if it isn't that it's work at the shop. Constant travel and being on the go. I can totally get it. Also, back in the day those guys were a different breed, it was racing and racing only, there was no other way. These days there are so many other avenues and opportunities and there's now a lot more money and freedom to do these things that racing is just a job to a lot of these guys I bet
 
StealthyMcStealth said:
OH boo hoo hoo. I would do that job for free and they get millions. As a fan I want more racing, not less. There should be two to three races a WEEK for at least 10 months of the year. Then they might start earning that huge paycheck.
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Not sure if serious. If you want 2 or 3 races a week follow multiple series. The gall of someone like Carl Edwards to have been successful enough to retire at 37. Like we all wouldn't love to do it.
 
29-4 said:
There may be merit to cutting the length of the season in terms of time. I have posted multiple times on this forum how to cut three weeks and maintain the number of races. But it is hard to claim there are too many races. Baseball has 162, 3-hour games per year. The NBA and NHL have 82. Add to that the fact that fans could potentially watch 14-16 games per day if they wanted. NASCAR has far fewer events per season than any of these. If you don't feel like watching a particular week, don't watch.
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Those leagues' seasons don't run 9 months, and half their games and nearly all of their practices and PR appearances are in their home cities.

Stick and ball comparisons almost never work. Length of season and number of events are two of the reasons why.

As to shortening the season, good luck convincing the tracks to give up dates. There's your stumbling block.
 
StealthyMcStealth said:
OH boo hoo hoo. I would do that job for free and they get millions. As a fan I want more racing, not less. There should be two to three races a WEEK for at least 10 months of the year. Then they might start earning that huge paycheck.
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To explain how ridiculously misguided and wrong your post is would take way more effort than I care to exert. However you do win the award for posting the stupidest effing thing I've read all day! Congrats!
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Those leagues' seasons don't run 9 months, and half their games and nearly all of their practices and PR appearances are in their home cities.

Stick and ball comparisons almost never work. Length of season and number of events are two of the reasons why.

As to shortening the season, good luck convincing the tracks to give up dates. There's your stumbling block.
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As long as it pays to put on boring events with enough left over to rip out seats every few years who can blame them?
 
StealthyMcStealth said:
OH boo hoo hoo. I would do that job for free and they get millions. As a fan I want more racing, not less. There should be two to three races a WEEK for at least 10 months of the year. Then they might start earning that huge paycheck.
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Are you being facetious, serious or trolling?
 
You mean these millionares have to work 40 weeks a year to entertain their fans who work 50 weeks to live paycheck to paycheck, and its too much strain for them?

Help me care.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
You mean these millionares have to work 40 weeks a year to entertain their fans who work 50 weeks to live paycheck to paycheck, and its too much strain for them?

Help me care.
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You must care some; you weighed in on the topic. But who asked you to care? Certainly not Edwards. I don't recall him asking for anyone's sympathy in his conference today. He looked like he'd have preferred issuing a statement electronically and left it at that.

Geez, people. Y'all know how jealous some of y'all sound?
 
ChexOrWrex said:
You mean these millionares have to work 40 weeks a year to entertain their fans who work 50 weeks to live paycheck to paycheck, and its too much strain for them?

Help me care.
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They're human, too.

They have families, too.

The only difference is that they make more money. Some were blessed to have wealthy families, some had to scratch and claw their way to where they are. Its a year-round grind for not only the drivers, but the crews as well and all of the unsung heroes at HQ constantly working.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
You must care some; you weighed in on the topic. But who asked you to care? Certainly not Edwards. I don't recall him asking for anyone's sympathy in his conference today. He looked like he'd have preferred issuing a statement electronically and left it at that.

Geez, people. Y'all know how jealous some of y'all sound?
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Some people like being angry
 
Simple Fan said:
40 cars 40 races is how it should be. We need more races not less.
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The teams and drivers are very glad you are not calling the shots. A buddy of mine was a tire tech for Petty Enterprises when they fielded 2 cars and his schedule was brutal and he finally had to leave as he wanted to get married and start a family.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
You must care some; you weighed in on the topic. But who asked you to care? Certainly not Edwards. I don't recall him asking for anyone's sympathy in his conference today. He looked like he'd have preferred issuing a statement electronically and left it at that.

Geez, people. Y'all know how jealous some of y'all sound?
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Its a discussion forum, weighing in on topics is what we do. I dont have to care to comment.

You must have missed my comment about edward's reasons for leaving being "simple enough for me". I understand his logic. That doesnt mean I have to have sympathy for how millionare pro race car drivers "are burnt out" & can retire before 40
 
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