NASCAR and the younger crowd

JBone88 said:
There is no discernible difference between the majority of the tracks on the current schedule. Michigan, Kansas, Chicago, Fontana, Texas, Charlotte etc. All 1.5 to 2 miles with little to no racing for the lead under green, phantom debris cautions and gimmicky GWC fueled "excitement", and strung boring ass racing. Not to mention a racecar that more closely resembles a tank than a stock car, that's got too much horsepower, too much downforce, and not enough give up. Get these cars off the ground, get rid of the stupid ass splitters and put a real nose on there, dial back the engines and let's get back to sliding around and bumping and banging.
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Couldn't agree more. Ever been to your local small town circle track and watched a race in the "strictly stock" class? Some of the funnest s*** I've ever seen! Are the cars going 200mph? No. But are they ragged out, sideways, beating and banging the entire race? YES!
 
JBone88 said:
There is no discernible difference between the majority of the tracks on the current schedule. Michigan, Kansas, Chicago, Fontana, Texas, Charlotte etc. All 1.5 to 2 miles with little to no racing for the lead under green, phantom debris cautions and gimmicky GWC fueled "excitement", and strung boring ass racing. Not to mention a racecar that more closely resembles a tank than a stock car, that's got too much horsepower, too much downforce, and not enough give up. Get these cars off the ground, get rid of the stupid ass splitters and put a real nose on there, dial back the engines and let's get back to sliding around and bumping and banging.
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Horsepower is fine but a reduction in downforce is definitely needed. The splitter hasn't done anything good for the racing.
 
The younger generation is as diverse as the older generation. You can't change the basic NASCAR package to appeal to one segment of any generation without consequences.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
The all star race needs to be more exciting again as well. Invert the field like a few years back.
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Not saying I'm a wreck aficionado or anything, but that race was way better when it was basically a wreck fest. Old school hard knocks like Kyle Petty and Davey Allison in 92' or '93 whatever it was. Harvick and Nemechek going at it in the infield, the Busch brothers taking each other out the one year. Much MUCH more exciting then now where you have guys hanging at the back till the last segment and strung out boring ass paint drying duldrum. Also bring back all the awesome paint schemes. Part of the allure of the Winston was all the dope looking paint schemes!:punkrocke
 
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BenzTech99 said:
In regards to the argument about "ratings". I dont give a rats ass what the ratings are. The point of this thread was stating that in my opinion, the younger crowd (id say mid-20s and younger) doesnt embrace NASCAR. And, what can be done to change that. Call me crazy, but it just seems that way to me. I work in the automotive industry with a ton of people in their mid-20s. Usually if you wrench on cars for a living, you are into some form of racing. From what I gather, they dont care about NASCAR because again, its just "cars going around in circles." So, my thought was more road courses might help to change that. Considering ovals are whats keep them from watching in the first place.
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adding more road courses is not the answer in my opinion, nothing is, technology outgrew what nascar was. going in circles was fine, for all those years. then came the Gordon era, it took nascar way beyond what it was. it's no longer men racing men, it cars racing cars. nascar was about greasy hand, a hammer, screwdriver, not a computer. nascar is not a road racing series. nascar was the best thing going for a while and that meant the money, and the money got real big, so then the cars got so technical, that nascar lost it's identity. i actually see people wearing suits and ties at a race now. once a couple next to me had sushi. this is just my opinion of course, but i see no clear way of fixing it. and the only thing i do see that the young crowd are fully committed to is their iphones, everything else not so much.
 
pudge said:
adding more road courses is not the answer in my opinion, nothing is, technology outgrew what nascar was. going in circles was fine, for all those years. then came the Gordon era, it took nascar way beyond what it was. it's no longer men racing men, it cars racing cars. nascar was about greasy hand, a hammer, screwdriver, not a computer. nascar is not a road racing series. nascar was the best thing going for a while and that meant the money, and the money got real big, so then the cars got so technical, that nascar lost it's identity. i actually see people wearing suits and ties at a race now. once a couple next to me had sushi. this is just my opinion of course, but i see no clear way of fixing it. and the only thing i do see that the young crowd are fully committed to is their iphones, everything else not so much.
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Well put. I still think not all is lost though. I think if the cars were changed back to their showroom stock roots (safety provisions ofcourse), the younger crowd would connect. AND, it might be more cost effective for other manufacturers to join NASCAR hoping for the old, "win on sunday, sell on monday" mantra.
 
Every race that I go to I see younger and younger people. They are coming from somewhere cause they sure as heck aren't all getting older with me. People aren't into it as much as they were ten years ago but there sure are a lot more there now then when I started going 30+ years ago and yet they still seem to put on a race each week. To read most of the posts in this thread you'd think that NASCAR is on it's last leg. Not the case.
 
Zerkfitting said:
The younger generation is as diverse as the older generation. You can't change the basic NASCAR package to appeal to one segment of any generation without consequences.
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Maybe they could do another text-a-thon "fan vote" on car/track changes. Then maybe the younger crowd will weigh in lol :)
 
FLRacingFan said:
Nascar's audience has the highest share of women (37 percent)
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That's actually fairly impressive. I'm sure the Danica fans will take credit for it, but I think husbands have been talking wives into watching NASCAR long before Danica (although I'm sure she helps).
 
So I guess im not crazy. My age group is 9%...

EDIT: Or does that make me crazy for following Nascar at my age? lol
 
sloggie said:
Imagine you are a sponsor! The only demographic you care about is the under 35s and it's only 14% of the population.
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And nearly half the fan base is over the age of 55. I knew NASCAR skewed old, but that's a little more than I would have thought.
 
BenzTech99 said:
So I guess im not crazy. My age group is 9%...l
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You're not. I'm in the same group and most people I know don't care for it either. There's a good amount of support in the college of engineering for open wheel and sports cars though, presumably because those series are more innovative and have more relevance to developments in road car technology.
 
Are we talking about attracting the younger crowd or making the existing crowd happy? Regardless, the sport is fine. Kids are fine. As adults, show the kids the joy of the sport, and they will come. Then, they will bring their kids, and the crowd base will grow. We are probably a couple of generations from NASCAR becoming what it could be. The concern I have is that when you change the product too much then the sport kids fall in love with today could become something drastically different tomorrow. This is the advantage of stick and ball--they don't change as much. As I have said before, to grow the fan base, families have to spend time together. Not happening right now. Has to change.
 
BenzTech99 said:
Ever been to your local small town circle track and watched a race in the "strictly stock" class? Some of the funnest s*** I've ever seen!
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Quote of the week right there. Late Models and Modifieds are fun, but put 20 "stock" cars on a track for 20 laps and its funny as hell. Cars with duct tape numbers, wheels that have an almost-scary amount of camber, each car having its own distinct noise. Once I saw a car that had so much rust you could see though the hood.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
Quote of the week right there. Late Models and Modifieds are fun, but put 20 "stock" cars on a track for 20 laps and its funny as hell. Cars with duct tape numbers, wheels that have an almost-scary amount of camber, each car having its own distinct noise. Once I saw a car that had so much rust you could see though the hood.
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And you're guaranteed to see at least one #3 car and one #69 car in every race. ;)
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Guy that lives across from me bought the new Fusion. Bad lookin ride. Car looks much sportier than the NASCAR version imo.

Also if nascar wants to attract younger users, get these car's paint jobs looking hotter. Half these cars look so bland out there. I wonder how many kids in the 2000s became Gordon fans just bc his car had flames? They also need to be sponsored by things teenagers and 20s year olds like. Popular movies, energy drinks, video games, more alcohol, clothing brands, maybe even music artists... hell idk. Gotta give it more pop.
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This is similar to what I was saying earlier. Where are the sponsors from the younger generations "big companies"? Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter etc. Why are these companies not involved in the sport in any way? Is it because the NASCAR demographic is less 18-34 and more 34-65? Another thing that many fail to look at is that NASCAR is a sport that is geared towards men. Cars going fast, rubbing, exhaust, crashes....manly stuff. Has anyone stopped to think about the fact that men today have become less and less manly?

I will be 30 this year and there are a lot of my friends that are men who own homes and know of Home Depot/Lowes, but never go into one. They dont fix their homes or work on their cars or do their own yards. They pay people to. In all honesty after fixing up a house myself I never want to do it again. Thats what todays man is. We do less on our own so a lot of the sponsors in NASCAR are not relavant to todays younger men. Obviously there is a fine line in because NASCAR is built on the older generations and in most of those cases they will produce more NASCAR die hards. You dont want to run them out of the sport because they are the ones that will be tride and true consumers of the sport, but they need to get younger by infiltrating the younger demos. intrests.
 
StandOnIt said:
Here is an article that has opinions of experts who have a skin in the game Track big wigs, sponsors, media etc. about where Nascar should look for growth. might raise some opinions to keep it going. a lot of people here think it is a problem for some reason. I don't go with that as you can tell, solutions and changes are occurring all the time with the sport. You can see by reading this article that many changes are and have been made.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/02/17/In-Depth/Survey.aspx
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excellent article soi ! need corp speak decode manual for lots of it tho .

my apologies ta sloggie . my hogwash remark last nite was uncalled for.
all posts have validity........ unless it's idiotic..... like mine was .
 
plenty of burnt oil smoke and overheated radiator smells, along with the sound of fenders crumbling. Ahhh, I sound like one of those guys describing spring baseball.
 
BenzTech99 said:
In regards to the argument about "ratings". I dont give a rats ass what the ratings are. The point of this thread was stating that in my opinion, the younger crowd (id say mid-20s and younger) doesnt embrace NASCAR. And, what can be done to change that. Call me crazy, but it just seems that way to me. I work in the automotive industry with a ton of people in their mid-20s. Usually if you wrench on cars for a living, you are into some form of racing. From what I gather, they dont care about NASCAR because again, its just "cars going around in circles." So, my thought was more road courses might help to change that. Considering ovals are whats keep them from watching in the first place.
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I think your concern is valid and this is a good thread imo.
I dont care for Brians leadership, and some things could be done to attract younger fans.

But I think the greater problem is a generation culture shift. I am not sure how Nascar can drive more kids to be gear heads. A lot of good things and mistakes could probably be noted from the past as well. But the fans and growth didnt decline, they just kept on increasing until the last few years.

Todays fate (decline) may be inevitable, and it may be more about a generational change, then the racing management.
 
hawg dawg said:
excellent article soi ! need corp speak decode manual for lots of it tho .

my apologies ta sloggie . my hogwash remark last nite was uncalled for.
all posts have validity........ unless it's idiotic..... like mine was .
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Ha good man!
 
StandOnIt said:
not to mention the honkers that sing the National Anthem..that is the WHOLE problem, the jets scare off fans, and the parachutists should be banned, not to mention the stars yelling start your engines, Darell...what can ya say, he is running them off in droves. Not to mention the whole thing started in the south east..that really does it for some..dang southerners with their country music and cowboy hats, they need farmer bib overalls and John Deers hats like they have up north and learn to polka. I can't believe all this has been going on for over 66 years, there should be a law about it. It is a bad example for young people.
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^^^Typical small mindedness. This is exactly why the demographic which NASCAR needs to attract in order to grow views NASCAR as a dumb hillbilly sport. Nice work.
 
sloggie said:
This is great information, but it leaves me wanting more. What's the trend? If it's a downward trend, then that's a much bigger problem than if it's static.
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As far as I can tell that's the first year Nielsen reported those profiles in their annual sports report. I'm sure they've lost more than they've gained since the mid-2000s, though.
 
Reality isn't nearly as popular as blaming those who are unafraid to speak the truth about opinions formed outside of the southern NASCAR bubble.
 
We need to get the younger folks off of Face Book and to the local short tracks. I grew up 20 miles from 2 dirt tracks. We went every weekend.
 
Matthew2470 said:
Reality isn't nearly as popular as blaming those who are unafraid to speak the truth about opinions formed outside of the southern NASCAR bubble.
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and it would be futile to change your bigoted opinion even though the statistics prove different. Compared to the general population, there isn't any area of the U.S. that has more Nascar fans per capita than another.
 
Matthew2470 said:
^^^Typical small mindedness. This is exactly why the demographic which NASCAR needs to attract in order to grow views NASCAR as a dumb hillbilly sport. Nice work.
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You should read the comments on NASCAR's Facebook page. They had to pull a post about Bubba Wallace down earlier in the week because of all of the racism. The ones on Jimmie visiting the White House and whether or not road courses should be in the Chase are just as riveting.
 
While it has national appeal, I think the majority of NASCAR fans are still concentrated in the southeastern quadrant of the US. Not saying that's a good or bad thing, it just is what it is.
 
FLRacingFan said:
You should read the comments on NASCAR's Facebook page. They had to pull a post about Bubba Wallace down earlier in the week because of all of the racism. The ones on Jimmie visiting the White House and whether or not road courses should be in the Chase are just as riveting.
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Several of those have migrated over here trying to boss the Forum. I'm grateful we have a good sheriff.
 
I've read thru a fair amount of this thread but not all, and much of if not all of the key items have been hit upon. Anyway, these are my high-level thoughts on the rapid decline over the last decade or so:

- The Chase. It's more than a coincidence that the decline started with the induction of the Chase format. Quit trying to be like the stick and ball sports. Also, get rid of the lucky dog.
- Moving out of too many old-time, unique tracks, and too many cookie-cutter 1.5 milers. Not only are these tracks almost identical with no uniqueness to them, they're too wide with too much room for all the cars. Tight racing makes for more exciting racing.
- The clean-air factor. Once a car gets into the lead after a restart it more often than not pulls away. And not just the leader, look how strung out the cars can get into a long green-flag run, particularly on a 1.5 miler. With 2, 3, 4-second gaps between the top 10 cars it doesn't make for very exciting racing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like this clean-air factor started when the COT car came along around 2007 or so.

The first 2 I blame NASCAR for. The 3rd one they're fully aware of and are trying very hard to get corrected.

I also agree with the other factors which have been mentioned in this thread, such as lack of brand loyalty and people not being able to work on modern cars. Also the lack of brash personalities in the sport.
 
Revman said:
Are we talking about attracting the younger crowd or making the existing crowd happy? Regardless, the sport is fine. Kids are fine. As adults, show the kids the joy of the sport, and they will come. Then, they will bring their kids, and the crowd base will grow. We are probably a couple of generations from NASCAR becoming what it could be. The concern I have is that when you change the product too much then the sport kids fall in love with today could become something drastically different tomorrow. This is the advantage of stick and ball--they don't change as much. As I have said before, to grow the fan base, families have to spend time together. Not happening right now. Has to change.
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Yup.
 
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