NASCAR, once a cultural icon, hits the skids (WSJ)

AndyMarquisLive said:
Jeff Gordon changed the driver role in NASCAR so much, and IMO, it has ultimately been for the worse. Racers who work on their own stuff and come from humble beginnings, build their own cars and bust ass just to get to the track are a dying breed even at the short track level.

I remember one interview Earnhardt gave where he said finishing second meant not having enough money to eat the next week. It's nothing like that anymore. Now, you already have money and sponsors and, when a rising star races in short tracks, with the exception of a handful like Kate Dallenbach and Harrison Burton, they don't "need" to win, they just do it for a year to "gain experience" before automatically moving up to ARCA or K&N.

Honestly, capitalism has killed this sport.
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lol

You should be ashamed of yourself.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
This is one of the most egregious things Ive read today.
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I didn't expect a Jeff Gordon fan to like that. I'm not saying Gordon, himself, was the problem, just that when he came to the sport, the role of the driver evolved.

Many of today's drivers, and I like them, but many of them have nothing in common with the average person.

As a journalist, the hardest part of my job is doing stories on some of these guys, because many of these drivers (and again, people I like) are very cookie cutter. I feel like I've written the same story 100 times...

"My dad raced in NASCAR and I went to the track, so he got me a Go-Kart when I was six and I raced those before racing Legends at Charlotte and am running Late Model for a couple to get used to these full size cars. Our plan is to hopefully run some in K&N or ARCA some next year and hopefully, in two years, make the move up to Trucks or XFINITY."
 
aunty dive said:
I know Dave.

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See avatar.

As I'm sure you know, Pay 'n Pak assets became part of Lowe's.
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I didn't know who he was, I had to Google him :D
 
2 Sweet said:
I didn't know who he was, I had to Google him :D
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Dave is the person responsible for the interest in racing at Lowe's ... among many other things.

We were guests in his home and in the hydroplane shop whenever we were racing in and around Spokane. Worked on our stuff there.
 
aunty dive said:
Dave is the person responsible for the interest in racing at Lowe's ... among many other things.

We were guests in his home and in the hydroplane shop whenever we were racing in and around Spokane. Worked on our stuff there.
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Ah, that's why you mentioned him. I see the connection now. Interesting :cool:
 
I imagine a lot of car sponsers are taking a hard look at the money they're spending on Nascar.Dodge(FCA) would be crazy to jump in to this sport now.
 
2 Sweet said:
Ah, that's why you mentioned him. I see the connection now. Interesting :cool:
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It was a joke but in fact, he was a salesman with few equals. That's why Lowe's was interested in him and his stores.

The guy really knew how to move hardware and building supplies.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Jeff Gordon changed the driver role in NASCAR so much, and IMO, it has ultimately been for the worse. Racers who work on their own stuff and come from humble beginnings, build their own cars and bust ass just to get to the track are a dying breed even at the short track level.

I remember one interview Earnhardt gave where he said finishing second meant not having enough money to eat the next week. It's nothing like that anymore. Now, you already have money and sponsors and, when a rising star races in short tracks, with the exception of a handful like Kate Dallenbach and Harrison Burton, they don't "need" to win, they just do it for a year to "gain experience" before automatically moving up to ARCA or K&N.

Honestly, capitalism has killed this sport.
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Or maybe technology and engineering has actually advanced since the times you are reminiscing.
 
Reck said:
Or maybe technology and engineering has actually advanced since the times you are reminiscing.
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That's true too, but there aren't many "hometown heroes" anymore. That sets NASCAR a part from NFL, MLB and so on. The people you watch in the minors or in high school football might end up going to the big leagues and you root for them when they do.

The fact that Lee Pulliam, Bubba Pollard and Derek Thorn have never even started races in Trucks or XFINITY is especially egregious. I'll harbor resentment over the fact that Lee never got a shot until the day I die. How much **** does the dude have to win to prove he's among the greatest racers alive today and deserves to make a few NASCAR starts?
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
... Many of today's drivers, and I like them, but many of them have nothing in common with the average person. ...

As a journalist, the hardest part of my job is doing stories on some of these guys, because many of these drivers (and again, people I like) are very cookie cutter. I feel like I've written the same story 100 times...

"My dad raced in NASCAR and I went to the track, so he got me a Go-Kart when I was six and I raced those before racing Legends at Charlotte and am running Late Model for a couple to get used to these full size cars. Our plan is to hopefully run some in K&N or ARCA some next year and hopefully, in two years, make the move up to Trucks or XFINITY."
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But how many people in professional sports do have anything in common with the average schmoe?

It's not like there are that many paths into the sport. If you were interviewing football players, they'd all have played Pop Warner, high school, college, been drafted, etc.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
It's not like there are that many paths into the sport. If you were interviewing football players, they'd all have played Pop Warner, high school, college, been drafted, etc.
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But a quarterback at Westlake High School doesn't have a contract with the Washington Redskins when he's on the JV team. A running back at Eastside High School doesn't know for sure that he will be a running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars when he's trying out for the varsity team.

It's totally different. Football is a meritocracy, NASCAR isn't. It's totally possible for some broke ass poor kid from "the projects" to make it to the pros. That's why Earnhardt was, and still is, so beloved. Sadly, if Earnhardt started out today, he wouldn't ever get to start an XFINITY Series race and that's something that upsets many old school fans.

And I've covered high school sports. I've never heard, "Well, I was just out here to learn about the game and get some experience. I'm totally fine with losing this game because I learned a lot for when I play for the Jacksonville Jaguars next year." :lol2:

When I interviewed Kate Dallenbach one time, I was expecting some of the same "just here to learn" **** because of her last name and stuff. Instead, she says she needs to win and she needs a win to prove herself and prove that she belongs. I was thrilled to death.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I'm still amazed NASCAR is getting as much as they're getting because TNT and ESPN never seemed interested in re-upping with the sanctioning body.
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The perfect storm of 2 fledgling sports networks needing programming is all I can think of. There was one guy that used to post here that claimed the networks would get rich from Nascar as they would be able to dramatically increase the fees they charge to cable/sat companies but that has not happened to the best of my knowledge.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
The perfect storm of 2 fledgling sports networks needing programming is all I can think of. There was one guy that used to post here that claimed the networks would get rich from Nascar as they would be able to dramatically increase the fees they charge to cable/sat companies but that has not happened to the best of my knowledge.
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To be fair to NBC, NBCSN is on the highest, most expensive tier package on many cable and satellite providers. One of sticking points with getting DIRECTV... it costs $30/month more to get that one channel, but getting cable is useless if I don't have NBCSN.
 
NJJammer said:
Anecdotally, I'm hearing rumblings that Jimmie Johnson's sponsorship may not be renewed by Lowe's when the sponsorship ends. If a 7 time champion cannot retain sponsorship, the sport is really unhealthy financially.
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I don't know the exact number Lowe's pays per season, but I'm willing to bet my house that it's at least $10-15 million too much based on calculated ROI. Jimmie (and others) will always find sponsors. It just won't be at the $20-30 million per year level anymore. This is all part of the bubble burst. Everything will eventually right itself. The "rich" teams will soon be bringing in $10-15 million a season in sponsorship, and the lesser teams will be bringing in $1-3 million. You will still see those differences on track. There will still be front runners and back markers. The only difference will be the actual operating budgets, which are usually invisible to fans anyway. I've said this once, I'll say it a million times - the biggest losers will be the drivers. The biggest star in the sport 10 years from now will probably make around the same money that someone like Jamie McMurray makes today.
 
:unsure:
Allenbaba said:
I don't know the exact number Lowe's pays per season, but I'm willing to bet my house that it's at least $10-15 million too much based on calculated ROI. Jimmie (and others) will always find sponsors. It just won't be at the $20-30 million per year level anymore. This is all part of the bubble burst. Everything will eventually right itself. The "rich" teams will soon be bringing in $10-15 million a season in sponsorship, and the lesser teams will be bringing in $1-3 million. You will still see those differences on track. There will still be front runners and back markers. The only difference will be the actual operating budgets, which are usually invisible to fans anyway. I've said this once, I'll say it a million times - the biggest losers will be the drivers. The biggest star in the sport 10 years from now will probably make around the same money that someone like Jamie McMurray makes today.
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The may have to [GULP] give up their private jets. :unsure:
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
But a quarterback at Westlake High School doesn't have a contract with the Washington Redskins when he's on the JV team. A running back at Eastside High School doesn't know for sure that he will be a running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars when he's trying out for the varsity team.

It's totally different. Football is a meritocracy, NASCAR isn't.
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Yes and no. Obviously there's many factors that go into racing success stories, and there's many examples of people "buying" their way in, especially at the top levels. But you'd be surprised at how much effort does go into scouting drivers, really young drivers, you'd never think were even being scouted. Kids who don't have the equipment to win races are still being graded on a scale. I read this article earlier today about TRD's driver development. And I know enough about their inner workings to know how many kids they watch who have no idea they're even being watched. It's (refreshingly) more a meritocracy than you might think.

http://www.sbnation.com/2017/2/21/14625128/toyota-racing-development-nascar-sabermetrics
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Forgive me @TexasRaceLady for I am about to go there.

Name one other sport where Danica Patrick would produce the results she does and still land a job on an elite team.
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You've done it this time! I was not good enough to be a pro hockey player but I tried and worked my way up as far as I could and realized the chasm between me and the best would only increase. It didn't matter if you lived in the PJ's or a mansion as all the coaches were looking for was talent and nothing else and if you had it you suited up and if you didn't you went home.
 
Allenbaba said:
I don't know the exact number Lowe's pays per season, but I'm willing to bet my house that it's at least $10-15 million too much based on calculated ROI. Jimmie (and others) will always find sponsors. It just won't be at the $20-30 million per year level anymore. This is all part of the bubble burst. Everything will eventually right itself. The "rich" teams will soon be bringing in $10-15 million a season in sponsorship, and the lesser teams will be bringing in $1-3 million. You will still see those differences on track. There will still be front runners and back markers. The only difference will be the actual operating budgets, which are usually invisible to fans anyway. I've said this once, I'll say it a million times - the biggest losers will be the drivers. The biggest star in the sport 10 years from now will probably make around the same money that someone like Jamie McMurray makes today.
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So then the question is, how willing will the "Rich" teams be to cut costs? Will they accept a much lower per-race sponsorship fee to maintain some semblance of sponsor continuity? or will they sell their race inventory piecemeal to the highest bidder?
 
Allenbaba said:
Yes and no. Obviously there's many factors that go into racing success stories, and there's many examples of people "buying" their way in, especially at the top levels. But you'd be surprised at how much effort does go into scouting drivers, really young drivers, you'd never think were even being scouted. Kids who don't have the equipment to win races are still being graded on a scale. I read this article earlier today about TRD's driver development. And I know enough about their inner workings to know how many kids they watch who have no idea they're even being watched. It's (refreshingly) more a meritocracy than you might think.
http://www.sbnation.com/2017/2/21/14625128/toyota-racing-development-nascar-sabermetrics
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I'm not just talking exclusively about "ride buying". Some drivers work very hard at being marketable and they get opportunities because of it. As far as scouting and driver development, IMO this is why TRD stands out. Money still talks though... it is possible to both bring money to the table and be a good driver.

But I'll still defer to this point: Lee Pulliam, Bubba Pollard and Derek Thorn have a combined zero starts in the three NASCAR national touring series.
 
Acs said:
So then the question is, how willing will the "Rich" teams be to cut costs? Will they accept a much lower per-race sponsorship fee to maintain some semblance of sponsor continuity? or will they sell their race inventory piecemeal to the highest bidder?
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I guess it all depends on the team & owner's pain threshold. A team like JGR has no backstop. They'll spend exactly what they can find in sponsorship, not a dollar less, but not a dollar more. While teams like Penske & Hendrick have backstops of gazillions of dollars, or whatever Roger and Rick are worth. They can make up whatever $$ differences they feel like by looking under their couch cushions.
 
The scariest part of this whole thread, is the last paragraph in the WSJ article:

"The group and Nascar decided to divide each race this season into three stages, awarding points to the top drivers at the end of each stage. The Daytona 500 will be the first major race under the new rules, and Nascar is working on at least a dozen more potential changes."
 
So far so good.....I read on the "new" Jayski that 15K showed up for the clash. How is that possible?
 
NJJammer said:
The scariest part of this whole thread, is the last paragraph in the WSJ article:

"The group and Nascar decided to divide each race this season into three stages, awarding points to the top drivers at the end of each stage. The Daytona 500 will be the first major race under the new rules, and Nascar is working on at least a dozen more potential changes."
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Yep. Sports business journal just happened to have an article come out yesterday talking about 12 potential changes "bubbling beneath the surface". Hmmm.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/20/In-Depth/Proposals.aspx

Adam Stern tweeted screenshots of two of them: #1 A salary/expense cap for teams. #8 Quieter cars.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I'm not just talking exclusively about "ride buying". Some drivers work very hard at being marketable and they get opportunities because of it. As far as scouting and driver development, IMO this is why TRD stands out. Money still talks though... it is possible to both bring money to the table and be a good driver.

But I'll still defer to this point: Lee Pulliam, Bubba Pollard and Derek Thorn have a combined zero starts in the three NASCAR national touring series.
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True. But then I can point to Erik Jones and Christopher Bell, two kids who don't come with big boy funding, and (and I mean this will all due respect to both of them) when they were "discovered" and put on the path to success neither of them could sell water to a man on fire. (They're both still pretty raw in that area.) They are where they are now because of racing talent. Kyle Larson was a similar story. I mean, there's only so many spots at the top level, and not all lower success translates on the higher levels. Look at Rico Abreu. He might be the best dirt driver in the world right now (certainly no worse than top 5). His one season in the NCWTS was a disaster. Most don't think he wanted to be there, but the results weren't nearly good enough for anyone to take the time to convince him otherwise.
 
Acs said:
Yep. Sports business journal just happened to have an article come out yesterday talking about 12 potential changes "bubbling beneath the surface". Hmmm.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/20/In-Depth/Proposals.aspx

Adam Stern tweeted screenshots of two of them: #1 A salary/expense cap for teams. #8 Quieter cars.
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I wish I could see that whole list. In response to #8, Daniel Suarez wins his first Championship in the 2022 Nissan Electrix Deltawing!

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NJJammer said:
Nascar, Once a Cultural Icon, Hits the Skids By Tripp Mickle and Valerie Bauerlein Dow Jones and Company, Inc.

Nascar threw a bash at Kansas Speedway in October to thank Sprint Corp. for being stock-car racing's top sponsor for 13 years. More than 800 Sprint employees received hot dogs, burgers and seats to a nail-biting race.

One thing was missing: a new sponsor. Despite knowing for two years that Sprint was leaving, Nascar didn't announce a replacement until December, when it announced that energy-drink maker Monster Beverage Corp. had won naming rights to the top-tier racing circuit.

Monster paid about $20 million, below Nascar's asking price of $35 million and nowhere close to the original goal of $100 million, according to television and racing-industry executives familiar with the new contract. A Nascar spokesman wouldn't comment.

With the first big race of the new season on Feb. 26, Nascar's problems seem to have spun out of control.

About a decade ago, the sport was a cultural icon and inspired the hit car-racing comedy movie "Talladega Nights," starring Will Ferrell. Since then, television viewership is down 45%, according to an analysis of Nielsen ratings by SportsBusiness Daily, a trade publication. Viewership has fallen for nine years out of the past 10, compared with four down years each for the National Basketball Association and National Football League.

Tracks have torn out about a fourth of their seats to look fuller but still have wide stretches of empty bleachers on race days. Nascar's fan base, largely working-class and white, is getting older over all and was hit harder by the recession than the more-affluent fan bases in other major sports.

"There's no magic pill for this one," says Ed Rensi, a former Nascar racing-team owner who was a longtime head of McDonald's Corp.'s U.S. operations. "It's about economics and demographics."

Many people in the sport increasingly blame the France family, which runs Nascar and controls racetrack company International Speedway Corp. Long adored for turning fender-crunching races between moonshiners into the nation's richest and most popular form of motor sports, the founding family's leadership is now being criticized by drivers and team owners, who fear the Frances are incapable of reversing the fade in fan interest and retreat by sponsors.

Nascar's chief executive is Brian France, and his older sister, Lesa France Kennedy, is CEO of International Speedway.

One of the most daunting problems is how the siblings' power is divided, which causes tensions and makes it harder to implement far-reaching changes, according to people throughout the industry.

Richard Petty, a team owner who was so dominant as a Nascar driver that he is considered the sport's Michael Jordan, complained last summer that owners don't know who is in charge.

A spokesman says Mr. Petty can tell Mr. France is trying hard but wishes he was more visible at races, like Mr. France's father and grandfather were.

Brian and Lesa say their disagreements don't hurt the sport. They say their relationship has never been better, adding that they speak almost every day and are optimistic about stock-car racing's future.

"We have very strong personalities and express our opinion, but when we get together, we say: 'What's best for the industry over all?'" says Ms. Kennedy, 55 years old.

Mr. France, 54, says the downturn reflects challenges faced by all sports as fans increasingly consume content on mobile devices and ticket sales are squeezed by growing demands on people's time.

He says Nascar also has suffered from a dearth of stars. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sidelined last year by a concussion but plans to return in the season-opening Daytona 500. "Would we like to be the only one in sports with no headwind? Of course," says Mr. France. "But that's how it goes."

Nascar was born in 1947 in a smoky hotel bar in Daytona Beach, Fla.Bill France Sr., the grandfather of Lesa and Brian, was a gas-station owner who took over a ragtag group of race promoters and created a rule-making body to preside over races.

His son, Bill France Jr., catapulted stock-car racing to prominence by cultivating memorable rivalries between drivers like Dale Earnhardt, who was nicknamed the "Intimidator" for his aggressiveness and died in a 2001 crash, and Jeff Gordon, known as the "Rainbow Warrior" because of the colors painted on his car.

Bill Jr.'s love of hot dogs made just about anywhere and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, Calif., encapsulated the sport's rags-to-riches swing.

After Mr. France was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, he divided his 50% ownership stake in Nascar between his two children, Lesa and Brian. Their uncle, Jim, owned the remaining 50% stake, according to three family advisers familiar with the ownership structure. Bill Jr. died in 2007.

While growing up, the siblings were groomed by their father to take over different parts of the family business. Lesa, a Duke University graduate, began selling tickets at Daytona International Speedway as a 12-year-old. Brian left the University of Central Florida in Orlando after a year and was more interested in competition. He rose from painting walls around Daytona to promoting races at a family-owned track in Tucson, Ariz.

They developed different management styles and ideas about how to advance the sport. Ms. Kennedy says she took after her grandmother, a conservative woman known for managing Nascar's finances during the early years of the sport, which included making sure the bills were paid.

Ms. Kennedy became interested in refashioning tracks to offer fans views of teams working on cars and building luxury suites to attract a wealthier clientele. Roger Penske, a race-team owner, says the typical Nascar fan makes $ 35,000 to $45,000 a year. Nascar says average household income of fans is $70,000, close to the U.S. average, citing data from Nielsen Scarborough.

Like his father, Bill Jr., Mr. France pushed for ambitious changes, such as consolidating TV rights from racetracks and selling them in season-long packages, which he succeeded in doing in 2001. That has helped Nascar secure more than $ 13.5 billion in TV revenue through 2024.

Lesa and Brian worked together to expand the sport beyond the South. Mr. France opened Nascar offices in New York and Los Angeles between 1996 and 2000 and tried to make stock-car racing more like the blue-chip NBA and NFL, says Paul Brooks, a former Nascar senior vice president.

International Speedway, led by Ms. Kennedy, built new racetracks in Kansas City, Kan., and Joliet, Ill., near Chicago. Mr. France overhauled Nascar's schedule and shifted races away from historic tracks like Darlington, S.C., (nicknamed "The Track Too Tough to Tame") to newer ones.

Some die-hard fans were turned off by the changes. At Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Sam Cobb, 41, and his wife, Lisa, 48, reminisce about the raucous parties with stripper poles and kegs that used to be held at a campground near the track. These days, the campground gets quiet at about 10 p.m. on the Saturday nights before big races.

"They're strangling the fun out of Nascar," says Mr. Cobb, who misses counting on race weekend for the "largest concentration of rednecks in sport."

Mr. France and Ms. Kennedy typically don't spend holidays together and often communicate through emissaries when wrestling with touchy subjects such as scheduling major races, according to a half dozen current and former Nascar industry executives who have worked closely with the France family.

The siblings won't disclose their exact ownership stakes in Nascar. Four people familiar with the matter say Mr. France sold his entire stake in the company more than a decade ago. He says he still holds equity in the family-owned company.

As a result, these people say, Mr. France essentially works for his sister and uncle even though he is Nascar's chief executive. That means he runs the sport on a day-to-day basis but is supposed to seek approval from Ms. Kennedy and their uncle for major changes.

She didn't know ahead of time that Brian planned to announce in 2015 a ban on flying the Confederate flag at races. The announcement came right before Daytona International Speedway, owned by International Speedway, which she runs, was about to host a race.

The company had to scramble to develop a policy on what to do if fans brought a Confederate flag anyway. They were offered an American flag.

Last year, Mr. France endorsed Donald Trump for president at a political rally after being called onstage by the Republican candidate. One racing-industry executive says Ms. Kennedy found out about the endorsement on the news. She donated to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential campaign.

Ms. Kennedy says she can't recall how she learned her brother was publicly supporting Mr. Trump, adding that it was Mr. France's personal choice.

Mr. France says he didn't plan the endorsement until Mr. Trump urged him to speak, adding it didn't occur to him that supporting Mr. Trump might estrange some of the Hispanics Nascar is trying to lure as new fans.

"I didn't calculate it that way," says Mr. France. "Maybe I should have." Mr. Trump drew 29% of Hispanic voters on Election Day, according to exit polls.

Three-time Nascar champion Tony Stewart said last year in a radio interview that Mr. France should pay more attention to the sport and attend more races.

Mr. France says he went to roughly half of the race weekends last season. He says Nascar teams, drivers and auto makers are working more closely than ever to improve competition and boost interest in the sport.

Most of the 13 tracks owned by International Speedway rely on hosting two top-tier races a year for the bulk of their ticket revenue. Yet Nascar makes the race schedule, with an emphasis on attracting the most possible TV viewers.


(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

02-21-17 0959ET

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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I just read this whole thing.

So let me get this straight, the guy who runs NASCAR doesn't actually own any stake in it?

OKAY!
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I don't believe this is entirely accurate.

TNT's primary interest in NASCAR was having digital content rights, which they had for many years. Once NASCAR took those, they were out.

ESPN, from what I remember hearing, only wanted the Chase races and they weren't willing to take anything else (XFINITY, the summer races, etc). Some of us knew way back in 2011 and 2012 that NASCAR was going to end up back on NBC.

All the talk about doom and gloom, but motorsports programming is still essential to the cable sports networks. NASCAR helped ESPN grow every bit as much as ESPN helped NASCAR grow. NASCAR made FX, now one of the most watched cable networks in America, a household channel. VERSUS (now NBCSN) took a big gamble on INDYCAR. Fox Sports has IMSA, NHRA, ARCA and Monster Jam. CBS Sports Network picked up a ton of old SPEED programming. And NBCSN has F1, NASCAR and INDYCAR. And American Sports Network used ARCA to break past just being a syndicated programming deal.
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I found where I read that now. ESPN and TNT had an exclusive negotiating window and told NASCAR they were gonna pass. I guess NBC were still expecting them to throw in some sort of bid after the window expired?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/07/29/Media/NASCAR-NBC.aspx

During the week of July 7, NASCAR officials started to realize that the sport’s long-standing, multi-decade relationships with ESPN and Turner were coming to an end.

Soon after the July 4 holiday, Turner’s David Levy called NASCAR’s Steve Herbst to say that Turner wasn’t going to make a formal bid for the NASCAR media rights that were available, sources said. The network had looked into expanding its six-race package for months, but it was in the middle of its lowest-rated season in 29 years of carrying the sport and ultimately decided that more NASCAR races weren’t worth the investment.

The rejection narrowed NASCAR’s focus to ESPN, which, like Turner, still had an exclusive negotiating window until July 14. NASCAR was hoping ESPN would pay a significant increase, believed to be a minimum of 30 percent bump from the $270 million a year the network currently paid. But ESPN had soured on the sport because of declining TV ratings, an aging fan base and a tough ad sales market.

Just like Turner earlier in the week, ESPN’s John Skipper called NASCAR executives and told them not to expect a bid.

Executives in NASCAR’s Daytona Beach, Fla., headquarters who weren’t involved in talks sensed negotiations weren’t going well and became concerned. But Herbst, NASCAR Chairman Brian France and the sport’s main media adviser, Doug Perlman, weren’t dismayed at all.

They knew they had an eager suitor waiting in NBC and its sports chairman, Mark Lazarus, who viewed NASCAR as an integral part to growing his division.

NASCAR officials just needed to wait until ESPN and Turner’s exclusive negotiating window ended before starting formal talks with them.

On July 15, as the window ended, NASCAR officials called Lazarus. They set up a meeting in New York the next day. By the end of the day, the two sides had reached a broad agreement on a deal.
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NJJammer said:
I wish I could see that whole list. In response to #8, Daniel Suarez wins his first Championship in the 2022 Nissan Electrix Deltawing!
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1. SALARY/EXPENSE CAP FOR TEAMS
2. CREATE A FRANCHISE MODEL
3. HOLD MIDWEEK RACES
4. MAKE RACES SHORTER
5. SCHEDULE ONE-DAY OR TWO-DAY RACE WEEKENDS RATHER THAN THREE DAYS
6. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF RACES
7. TWEAK THE EXCLUSIVITY MODEL OF THE SPORT
8. MAKE THE CARS QUIETER
9. INCORPORATE EMERGING AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGIES LIKE ELECTRIC VEHICLES
10. CHANGE TRACK CONFIGURATIONS TO SLOW CARS DOWN
11. ADD MORE ROAD COURSES AND/OR SHORT TRACKS TO THE SCHEDULE
12. ADD INTERNATIONAL RACES


They go into some detail as to why each could/couldn't work but that's the gist of it.
 
Acs said:
Yep. Sports business journal just happened to have an article come out yesterday talking about 12 potential changes "bubbling beneath the surface". Hmmm.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/02/20/In-Depth/Proposals.aspx

Adam Stern tweeted screenshots of two of them: #1 A salary/expense cap for teams. #8 Quieter cars.
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Unfortunately I was unable to read the article but I am not sure what the reasoning behind quieter cars would be. The salary cap is interesting but I see no conceivable way it could be enforced.
 
Hot take incoming!

1. SALARY/EXPENSE CAP FOR TEAMS - Yes
2. CREATE A FRANCHISE MODEL - Don't we have this already?
3. HOLD MIDWEEK RACES - Yeah why not?
4. MAKE RACES SHORTER - NO
5. SCHEDULE ONE-DAY OR TWO-DAY RACE WEEKENDS RATHER THAN THREE DAYS - Yeah why not?
6. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF RACES - Yes
7. TWEAK THE EXCLUSIVITY MODEL OF THE SPORT - What does this mean?
8. MAKE THE CARS QUIETER - Meh. Give it a try for one race first.
9. INCORPORATE EMERGING AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGIES LIKE ELECTRIC VEHICLES - Sure, update the cars, but F*&k no to EVs!
10. CHANGE TRACK CONFIGURATIONS TO SLOW CARS DOWN - NO! just do #11
11. ADD MORE ROAD COURSES AND/OR SHORT TRACKS TO THE SCHEDULE - Hell yes!
12. ADD INTERNATIONAL RACES - Sure why not?
 
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