Is Darlington

Spotter22

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watering down the Throwback weekend with them having it twice this year or do you think its twice as nice and you get to see more of your old favorites?
 
Are they doing it twice? I thought this was the only one this year. Everything I've read says 'moved' to this weekend, implying they wouldn't be doing it on Labor Day.
 
watering down the Throwback weekend with them having it twice this year or do you think its twice as nice and you get to see more of your old favorites?
They're not doing it twice. They moved the Throwback race to May and the Southern 500 is now just a race.
 
I wonder if they will rotate it between races and networks each year. Like next year the Southern 500, and NBC get it.
 
Well bust my buttons. I never saw that. Why in the hell would they seperate that from the 500? it was genius
Thought so too. It went well with the oldest race. Wasn’t that the reason the Southern 500 was one of the Winston Million races? Richest, Longest, Fastest, and Oldest? Throwback weekend went great with them bringing back the Southern.
I did hear some teams were doing it in Fall (Wood Bros)?
 
Thought so too. It went well with the oldest race. Wasn’t that the reason the Southern 500 was one of the Winston Million races? Richest, Longest, Fastest, and Oldest? Throwback weekend went great with them bringing back the Southern.
I did hear some teams were doing it in Fall (Wood Bros)?
My thoughts exactly
 
I thought with the added race they could use the 500 to focus exclusively on the playoffs now.

Continuing to obscure and cheapen their historical / major / crown jewel events with the delusional all-encompassing playoffs fixation.
 
I mean why would you possibly want to tie together a historical race and a throwback weekend?

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Where the Southern 500 should be is its traditional Labor Day weekend. Since that puts it in the playoffs, fine, whatever. That has nothing to do with the importance of the event though.
Absolutely agree.
Each a race is a big deal as a stand alone event or ir should be.
But I do be believe the playoff system or whatever term has degraded that some.
 
Well bust my buttons. I never saw that. Why in the hell would they seperate that from the 500? it was genius
Because the 500 already has several marketing advantages. It's on a holiday weekend, it's the first race of the playoffs, it has that 'Tradition!' thing so many find appealing, going back well before Throwback came along.

Spring races at Darlington usually don't drawn as many people, so moving the Throwback probably looked like an easy, free way to up the attendance.
 
Are they doing it twice? I thought this was the only one this year. Everything I've read says 'moved' to this weekend, implying they wouldn't be doing it on Labor Day.
I thought the Southern 500 wasnt a throwback race anymore, I think you're right.
 
Because the 500 already has several marketing advantages. It's on a holiday weekend, it's the first race of the playoffs, it has that 'Tradition!' thing so many find appealing, going back well before Throwback came along.

Spring races at Darlington usually don't drawn as many people, so moving the Throwback probably looked like an easy, free way to up the attendance.
But Covid will limit them anyway
 
I thought with the added race they could use the 500 to focus exclusively on the playoffs now.
This was the exact reason stated, its to allow 100% focus on the first of the final 10 races.

"With Friday’s announcement, the playoffs will become the main focus for that event, which is scheduled to run next season on Sept. 5."
 
This was the exact reason stated, its to allow 100% focus on the first of the final 10 races.

"With Friday’s announcement, the playoffs will become the main focus for that event, which is scheduled to run next season on Sept. 5."

The playoffs, cheapening another event.

I honestly think the playoffs are why viewership for the Daytona 500 is way down. How can the Daytona 500 be the "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing" when NASCAR now has a literal Super Bowl?
 
It's hard to say the 500 is the superbowl when its not in the playoffs and it's not even the biggest points paying event. The 600 pays out more points than any other event so in reality the 600 and the season finale are the 2 most important

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I honestly think the playoffs are why viewership for the Daytona 500 is way down. How can the Daytona 500 be the "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing" when NASCAR now has a literal Super Bowl?

The playoffs have no effect on the Daytona 500, good or bad. It has always been the case that a considerably larger number of people are interested in the Daytona 500 than in who wins the season championship. It always will be the case. This is due to the historical legacy of the Daytona 500 and the spectacle of DIS. The NASCAR playoffs have no legacy or perceived importance in the broader sports culture.

For decades, NASCAR viewership patterns have remained mostly the same. The Daytona 500 is by far the most watched event. The races that follow from March through May are more viewed on average, and races after Labor Day are the least watched on average. Nearly two decades in, the invention of a "post-season" has not changed this at all. For a time, it appeared that the finale race itself was the lone TV viewership success of the entire charade, but in the past two seasons it has declined by about 40% while overall viewership has been roughly flat.

In terms of the wider casual audience, nobody cares one way or the other. It is a resounding failure that nevertheless they keep leaning into. The only bright side is that the talk of more racing sanctions copying it has mostly dried up, because it doesn't work.
 
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The playoffs, cheapening another event.

I honestly think the playoffs are why viewership for the Daytona 500 is way down. How can the Daytona 500 be the "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing" when NASCAR now has a literal Super Bowl?
The "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing" is an invention of the CBS marketing department.
 
*Puts on asbestos suit* I'll say it: the whole throwback weekend concept itself has jumped the shark. We're just recycling the same 7 or 8 paint schemes every year, with some super obscure ones (my neighbor's dad ran this on his street stock twice at South Boston in 1982!) sprinkled in. I would say let the current crop of stars make their own schemes legendary, but when they have to run 7 different liveries a year that becomes difficult.
 
Also driving the throwback paint schemes is the collectible market. Having multiple sponsors and attractive paint schemes entices idiots like me to purchase the car. And then I have buyers regret but dumbass me will probably buy another to fight with the wife over where I can display it.

I think the falloff from Labor Day on has to be the start of football more than anything else. NASCAR boomed in the 90’s/early 2000’s and then the fad waned. I’m not sure the huge amounts of fans at the races and DE/JG/D Jr fans were REALLY into the races as much as the fad of NASCAR and jumping on a winner. I’m not talking about ALL their fans but a significant portion In the 90s And early 2000’s. And a lot of the “fad” fans jumped on Rusty or Dale Jarret too but not like those other 3. Again, if you’re still here and a fan of one of those 3 I’m not talking about you.

I don’t believe the falloff of fans has much to do with the points system or lack of competition. It’s been WAY more competitive at each race as years have gone on and if you attend/watch races paying attention to the points paid out more than anything else, you’re doing it wrong.
 
*Puts on asbestos suit* I'll say it: the whole throwback weekend concept itself has jumped the shark. We're just recycling the same 7 or 8 paint schemes every year, with some super obscure ones (my neighbor's dad ran this on his street stock twice at South Boston in 1982!) sprinkled in. I would say let the current crop of stars make their own schemes legendary, but when they have to run 7 different liveries a year that becomes difficult.
I think this is a fair take, because it’s not wrong. There are a lot of repeat schemes, but that happens when schemes are iconic and drivers want to pay homage to their heroes.

For some reason I was under the impression that these races were supposed to be “decades” themed so that we wouldn’t have a rainbow warrior throwback racing with a Fireball Roberts throwback. I guess not.
 
*Puts on asbestos suit* I'll say it: the whole throwback weekend concept itself has jumped the shark. We're just recycling the same 7 or 8 paint schemes every year, with some super obscure ones (my neighbor's dad ran this on his street stock twice at South Boston in 1982!) sprinkled in. I would say let the current crop of stars make their own schemes legendary, but when they have to run 7 different liveries a year that becomes difficult.
I agree with this. What was once organic is now contrived and forced. Additionally, I absolutely cringe when the broadcast team goes retro. You put Bowyer in throw back attire, and he will go off with Goofy Gordon chuckling all race long.
 
I guess that I just now realized that fox will be doing its first throwback broadcast. Be interesting to see how they handle it.

IMO NBC has a better booth/team for handling the throwback.

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The playoffs have no effect on the Daytona 500, good or bad. It has always been the case that a considerably larger number of people are interested in the Daytona 500 than in who wins the season championship. It always will be the case. This is due to the historical legacy of the Daytona 500 and the spectacle of DIS. The NASCAR playoffs have no legacy or perceived importance in the broader sports culture.

For decades, NASCAR viewership patterns have remained mostly the same. The Daytona 500 is by far the most watched event. The races that follow from March through May are more viewed on average, and races after Labor Day are the least watched on average. Nearly two decades in, the invention of a "post-season" has not changed this at all. For a time, it appeared that the finale race itself was the lone TV viewership success of the entire charade, but in the past two seasons it has declined by about 40% while overall viewership has been roughly flat.

In terms of the wider casual audience, nobody cares one way or the other. It is a resounding failure that nevertheless they keep leaning into. The only bright side is that the talk of more racing sanctions copying it has mostly dried up, because it doesn't work.
I think that 40% decline for the final race has a lot to do with the hands off approach to the top 4.
I watched championship race with much anticipation the first year and that has declined drastically every year since.
I understand the "respect the contenders" mentality but this has been taken to the extreme and the finale has become a 4 car snoozefest IMO
 
I think that 40% decline for the final race has a lot to do with the hands off approach to the top 4.
I watched championship race with much anticipation the first year and that has declined drastically every year since.
I understand the "respect the contenders" mentality but this has been taken to the extreme and the finale has become a 4 car snoozefest IMO
I don't agree with that, I was on the edge of my seat last year when Chase won.

With that being said, we see this in all forms of racing anymore. IndyCar with their double points in the last race, WoO when Sweet & Schatz came down to the wire.
 
I don't agree with that, I was on the edge of my seat last year when Chase won.

With that being said, we see this in all forms of racing anymore. IndyCar with their double points in the last race, WoO when Sweet & Schatz came down to the wire.
We all see different things when we watch a a race. I saw Chase lead a large portion of a race where once again the top 4 were the championship 4.
I'm sure I'll watch it and will have much more interest in it if my driver is involved but I would be happy to see the whole field involved in the race and not just a 3 hour helmet dash with four drivers.
 
I don't agree with alot of things NASCAR does but I credit them when they make good decisions and putting a 2nd race back at Darlington was one of their best moves in recent memory. One of their other good moves was moving the Southern 500 back to Labor Day weekend in 2015 and I believe that's what brought about the throwback theme idea. So yea the throwback theme made perfect sense in 2015 and I remember the race being a huge deal that year.

Bottom line, the throwback theme has probably run its course but if they're going to keep the throwback they should have it on Labor Day weekend for the Southern 500l
 
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