NASCAR’s personality problem

It has more to do with the decline in NASCAR's popularity overall. Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott are close to "household names" and Ryan Blaney isn't far behind, but the complete corporatization of the sport will never allow driver popularity to return to the glory days of the '70s-early 2000's.
 
JimmyJ4UK said:
It has more to do with the decline in NASCAR's popularity overall. Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott are close to "household names" and Ryan Blaney isn't far behind, but the complete corporatization of the sport will never allow driver popularity to return to the glory days of the '70s-early 2000's.
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None of them are household names. No current drivers are household names. They aren't close to being household names. Maybe in the south but not in any other parts of the country.
 
Daytripper said:
None of them are household names. No current drivers are household names. They aren't close to being household names. Maybe in the south but not in any other parts of the country.
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While NASCAR eliminates the California fanbase.
The sport is a shadow…
 
I’d argue the proliferation of 3-4 car teams teams has a lot to do with this. Imagine if for years Busch, Hamlin and Truex weren’t on the same team? Those first two would be wrecking the hell out of each other. It really leads itself to friendlier racing and less drama
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I have never seen a video more on point than this in my life.

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Why the hell NASCAR spends so much time marketing the drivers is beyond me. Celebrate the cars and OEMs....while the colors on the cars change race to race the emblem in the grill stays the same. Let the personality of the sport be expressed in how the drivers manage the machines, and less on what they had for breakfast. BTW...the focus on Ty was BS....my 2 cents. What separates this sport from the others are the cars. Who gives a **** if drivers are athletes or not?
 
Daytripper said:
None of them are household names. No current drivers are household names. They aren't close to being household names. Maybe in the south but not in any other parts of the country.
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Totally agree. We badly need at least one current-generation driver to step up in the spotlight like Jeff Gordon did. I know that trail has already been blazed, but it kind of kills me that no new driver saw it through and worked to keep mainstream relevance for the sport like Jeff, Dale Sr and Jr, and Tony Stewart did.

Blaney, Larson and Chase don't seem to be the types to want that spotlight, even though Blaney especially would be perfect for it. The issue too, is that you need drivers that have charisma in front of the camera, and also go out and win. It can't be somebody that's running 15th every week. Only reason why Dale Jr got away with a four year winless streak is because he was already Dale Jr.

Ross Chastain can be the guy if they let him off the leash like he was before the Hendrick call. He's aggressive, he's a winner, he has a beer sponsor now. That's a popular mix. Bowman could be household too if he won more and if HMS would let him be himself in front of the media more. He's very funny when he isn't in corporate mode.
 
Revman said:
Why the hell NASCAR spends so much time marketing the drivers is beyond me. Celebrate the cars and OEMs....while the colors on the cars change race to race the emblem in the grill stays the same. Let the personality of the sport be expressed in how the drivers manage the machines, and less on what they had for breakfast. BTW...the focus on Ty was BS....my 2 cents. What separates this sport from the others are the cars. Who gives a **** if drivers are athletes or not?
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NASCAR already owns IMSA.
 
cheesepuffs said:
Totally agree. We badly need at least one current-generation driver to step up in the spotlight like Jeff Gordon did. I know that trail has already been blazed, but it kind of kills me that no new driver saw it through and worked to keep mainstream relevance for the sport like Jeff, Dale Sr and Jr, and Tony Stewart did.

Blaney, Larson and Chase don't seem to be the types to want that spotlight, even though Blaney especially would be perfect for it. The issue too, is that you need drivers that have charisma in front of the camera, and also go out and win. It can't be somebody that's running 15th every week. Only reason why Dale Jr got away with a four year winless streak is because he was already Dale Jr.

Ross Chastain can be the guy if they let him off the leash like he was before the Hendrick call. He's aggressive, he's a winner, he has a beer sponsor now. That's a popular mix. Bowman could be household too if he won more and if HMS would let him be himself in front of the media more. He's very funny when he isn't in corporate mode.
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It’s not what NASCAR wants.
NASCAR believes they can be the star, without the drivers/teams.
 
BobbyFord said:
It’s not what NASCAR wants.
NASCAR believes they can be the star, without the drivers/teams.
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Which may be a reaction to them losing their star power (Junior, Gordon, Smoke, Danica) all within a short amount of time and wanting to shift the focus to themselves, but I think that's a mistake. They just need to keep propping drivers up each generation.
 
cheesepuffs said:
Totally agree. We badly need at least one current-generation driver to step up in the spotlight like Jeff Gordon did. I know that trail has already been blazed, but it kind of kills me that no new driver saw it through and worked to keep mainstream relevance for the sport like Jeff, Dale Sr and Jr, and Tony Stewart did.

Blaney, Larson and Chase don't seem to be the types to want that spotlight, even though Blaney especially would be perfect for it. The issue too, is that you need drivers that have charisma in front of the camera, and also go out and win. It can't be somebody that's running 15th every week. Only reason why Dale Jr got away with a four year winless streak is because he was already Dale Jr.

Ross Chastain can be the guy if they let him off the leash like he was before the Hendrick call. He's aggressive, he's a winner, he has a beer sponsor now. That's a popular mix. Bowman could be household too if he won more and if HMS would let him be himself in front of the media more. He's very funny when he isn't in corporate mode.
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Bingo for the three above.
Another driver left out that had personality in spades was Carl Edwards. He would talk the ears off of a pit mic person and it wasn't the typical driver line, it was interesting.
 
cheesepuffs said:
Which may be a reaction to them losing their star power (Junior, Gordon, Smoke, Danica) all within a short amount of time and wanting to shift the focus to themselves, but I think that's a mistake. They just need to keep propping drivers up each generation.
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There was star power before the aforementioned drivers. NASCAR wants to be the star now. They’re just killing the sport. Wiped out ACS, which was one of the highest rated tracks, because of greed. Money wins every time over quality racing. The cOnTrAcT; more money = progress, at the expense of fanbase and good racing.
 
I think there are plenty of likeable guys in NASCAR. Obviosuly, personality is a different subject. I don't think lack of personality is what is hurting NASCAR though. There is star power in the sport.

NASCAR can't force people to like the sport, no matter how hard they try to bring new people. They should focus their energy on the fans that have been watching for decades, there's still a loyal fanbase around.
 
JJ_14 said:
I think there are plenty of likeable guys in NASCAR. Obviosuly, personality is a different subject. I don't think lack of personality is what is hurting NASCAR though. There is star power in the sport.

NASCAR can't force people to like the sport, no matter how hard they try to bring new people. They should focus their energy on the fans that have been watching for decades, there's still a loyal fanbase around.
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It's a very fine line between attracting new fans and pissing the old ones off. The problem, is that NASCAR fans are on average, very old. So old that they are literally dying out. When the current fans are gone, and there's no new fans to fill that viewership void, the sport is going to have a problem on its hands. This is exactly why they brought The Clash to LA and got the Chicago street course going. They need to take the sport right to the masses, instead of trying to get everybody to randomly commit to driving out to the boonies to see a race.
 
JimmyJ4UK said:
It has more to do with the decline in NASCAR's popularity overall. Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott are close to "household names" and Ryan Blaney isn't far behind, but the complete corporatization of the sport will never allow driver popularity to return to the glory days of the '70s-early 2000's.
Click to expand...
None of them are close to being household names.
 
cheesepuffs said:
It's a very fine line between attracting new fans and pissing the old ones off. The problem, is that NASCAR fans are on average, very old. So old that they are literally dying out. When the current fans are gone, and there's no new fans to fill that viewership void, the sport is going to have a problem on its hands. This is exactly why they brought The Clash to LA and got the Chicago street course going. They need to take the sport right to the masses, instead of trying to get everybody to randomly commit to driving out to the boonies to see a race.
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You should attend some car shows. The majority of the cars are muscle cars, the majority of the participants are old guys.
There is a smaller market of participants that are the “new” crowd. They aren’t interested in V8 horsepower and stock cars. They like imports, anime stickers, LED lights…
 
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cheesepuffs said:
It's a very fine line between attracting new fans and pissing the old ones off. The problem, is that NASCAR fans are on average, very old. So old that they are literally dying out. When the current fans are gone, and there's no new fans to fill that viewership void, the sport is going to have a problem on its hands. This is exactly why they brought The Clash to LA and got the Chicago street course going. They need to take the sport right to the masses, instead of trying to get everybody to randomly commit to driving out to the boonies to see a race.
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NASCAR's actually doing a good job walking this tightrope. The older fans aren't gonna be happy no matter what. But, along with adding Los Angeles and Chicago, NASCAR's gone back to North Wilkesboro, is committed to returning to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, and appears destined to return to Rockingham.

Older fans are stuck in their ways. For them, the positive of going to Wilkesboro and doubling down on Chase Elliott as the face of the sport is negated by going to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Whether it's here or on social media, you'll see older fans explain all the time that NASCAR should NOT try to get newer fans and need to cater exclusively to keeping them. That attitude is what NASCAR's not going to be able to overcome anytime soon.

Just look at the feedback to the new TV deal.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
None of them are close to being household names.
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People talk about baseball "dying" but the media was literally obsessed with where Shohei Ohtani was going to sign and it was breaking news everywhere. When was the last time a NASCAR free agency attracted even a fraction of that attention? Dale Jr.?

Revman said:
Why the hell NASCAR spends so much time marketing the drivers is beyond me. Celebrate the cars and OEMs....while the colors on the cars change race to race the emblem in the grill stays the same. Let the personality of the sport be expressed in how the drivers manage the machines, and less on what they had for breakfast. BTW...the focus on Ty was BS....my 2 cents. What separates this sport from the others are the cars. Who gives a **** if drivers are athletes or not?
Click to expand...

People want to watch people to whom they can relate and/or idolize.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
NASCAR's actually doing a good job walking this tightrope. The older fans aren't gonna be happy no matter what. But, along with adding Los Angeles and Chicago, NASCAR's gone back to North Wilkesboro, is committed to returning to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, and appears destined to return to Rockingham.

Older fans are stuck in their ways. For them, the positive of going to Wilkesboro and doubling down on Chase Elliott as the face of the sport is negated by going to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Whether it's here or on social media, you'll see older fans explain all the time that NASCAR should NOT try to get newer fans and need to cater exclusively to keeping them. That attitude is what NASCAR's not going to be able to overcome anytime soon.

Just look at the feedback to the new TV deal.
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The “new” NASCAR fanbase is a very small fantasy.
 
The Nature Boy said:
People talk about baseball "dying" but the media was literally obsessed with where Shohei Ohtani was going to sign and it was breaking news everywhere. When was the last time a NASCAR free agency attracted even a fraction of that attention? Dale Jr.?
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Danica Patrick's decision to go NASCAR racing.

The ARCA race she ran got more viewers on SPEED Channel than many of today's Cup Series races get.

The only times, the past few years, I've seen NASCAR get mainstream attention was Ryan Newman's crash, Kyle Larson dropping the n-word, the Bubba Wallace noose incident, and the Hail Melon.
 
New car fans are attracted to cars spinning donuts at local intersections and laser lights. They don’t have the attention span for a three hour race.
 
BobbyFord said:
They don’t have the attention span for a three hour race.
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I disagree.

With the exception of a handful, the races shouldn't be longer than three hours to start with.

TV coverage matters here too. I, a lifelong, die-hard NASCAR fan, find my attention span shortened dramatically when the races are on Fox Sports because their coverage is a mess and the races are hard to follow.

ESPN has commercial-free coverage of F1, which helps a lot. It's easier to follow a race when you don't have commercial breaks every 3-5 minutes.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I disagree.

With the exception of a handful, the races shouldn't be longer than three hours to start with.

TV coverage matters here too. I, a lifelong, die-hard NASCAR fan, find my attention span shortened dramatically when the races are on Fox Sports because their coverage is a mess and the races are hard to follow.

ESPN has commercial-free coverage of F1, which helps a lot. It's easier to follow a race when you don't have commercial breaks every 3-5 minutes.
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The races are the same length regardless of the network.
If you have an issue with your attention span then…I don’t know.
NASCAR is doing a poor job of attracting fans. The gimmicks aren’t helping and are actually deterring the original fanbase.
There isn’t anything happening on SM that promotes cars driving in a circle for 3 hours. The youngsters like cars going in circles at an intersection with laser lights, loud schit music and the threat of law enforcement intervention. At least here on the west coast. There weren’t any young people attending ACS races unless they were with their parents. The same with Avondale, no young crowds.
NASCAR is chasing their tail.
Maximize that air contract and continue to remove seats. That’s the future of the sport.
 
Check the rate thread here. NASCAR chose to sell ACS because greed and money is more important than great racing…even when you’re a millionaire, riding in on big Bill dollars.
I hope they choke on steak and lobster.
 
The "issue" is the decline of asphalt oval racing as a whole, imo. If Tony Stewart, Dale Jr, of Jeff Gordon did a one-off in Cup next season in top tier equipment I doubt it would move the attendance or viewership needle more than a few single digit percentage points.

Heck Jimmie freaking Johnson raced this year (ok sure, in the back of the pack) and it was a massive nothingburger, and I bet it would've still been had he run well.
 
JJ_14 said:
I think there are plenty of likeable guys in NASCAR. Obviosuly, personality is a different subject. I don't think lack of personality is what is hurting NASCAR though. There is star power in the sport.

NASCAR can't force people to like the sport, no matter how hard they try to bring new people. They should focus their energy on the fans that have been watching for decades, there's still a loyal fanbase around.
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Up 50% in sell outs last year and they just signed a sizable contract for the next 7 years. But yet another "Nascar needs to" thread lol. I do miss some of the retired drivers. You never knew what Stewart was going to say. I think drivers are more aware of not be saying anything that would drive off sponsors or get themselves thrown out of the series.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
The "issue" is the decline of asphalt oval racing as a whole, imo. If Tony Stewart, Dale Jr, of Jeff Gordon did a one-off in Cup next season in top tier equipment I doubt it would move the attendance or viewership needle more than a few single digit percentage points.

Heck Jimmie freaking Johnson raced this year (ok sure, in the back of the pack) and it was a massive nothingburger, and I bet it would've still been had he run well.
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Jimmie Johnson wasn’t a needle mover with the older generation.
Lots of crap going on in the sport during that era. He certainly wasn’t a David Pearson.
 
BobbyFord said:
The races are the same length regardless of the network.
If you have an issue with your attention span then…I don’t know.
NASCAR is doing a poor job of attracting fans. The gimmicks aren’t helping and are actually deterring the original fanbase.
There isn’t anything happening on SM that promotes cars driving in a circle for 3 hours. The youngsters like cars going in circles at an intersection with laser lights, loud schit music and the threat of law enforcement intervention. At least here on the west coast. There weren’t any young people attending ACS races unless they were with their parents. The same with Avondale, no young crowds.
NASCAR is chasing their tail.
Maximize that air contract and continue to remove seats. That’s the future of the sport.
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What is NASCAR supposed to do then, nothing? Just accept that the series is doomed and plan on going out of business in a couple decades?
 
cheesepuffs said:
The Clash and the Chicago street course absolutely drew eyeballs to the sport that wouldn't normally watch
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Let’s see how that relates to fanbase.
NASCAR personnel has been blowing up my phone to commit to the Coliseum and I’ve never been there and have no desire to watch that crap. Nobody in my clan that has attended ACS for the past 20 years is interested in the Coliseum.
 
BobbyFord said:
There weren’t any young people attending ACS races
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I forgot to add this: This is precisely NASCAR is solving with the Coliseum. Young people aren’t driving over an hour to Fontana in LA traffic when they have entertainment options that are much more convenient.

Congrats, you acknowledged the problem but selfishly don’t give a **** about solving it.
 
The Nature Boy said:
The only reason that damn track existed was because of greed. You’re the only person who treats like ****** Rockingham or North Wilkesboro.

It didn’t put on good racing until the asphalt wore in.
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Bobby is a PEZ dispenser of bad takes today.

The existence of Auto Club Speedway pissed off old school fans more than new school fans. When NASCAR took the Southern 500 off the schedule for Fontana, it was literally one of the top news stories in the country.

It's actually the younger fans who want NASCAR in Southern California. Old school fans wanted that place bulldozed 15 years ago.

The place was gonna have to be repaved, and we were going to get at least 10 years of bad racing once it was.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Bobby is a PEZ dispenser of bad takes today.

The existence of Auto Club Speedway pissed off old school fans more than new school fans. When NASCAR took the Southern 500 off the schedule for Fontana, it was literally one of the top news stories in the country.

It's actually the younger fans who want NASCAR in Southern California. Old school fans wanted that place bulldozed 15 years ago.

The place was gonna have to be repaved, and we were going to get at least 10 years of bad racing once it was.
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Stick to the small town tracks that you report on that nobody cares about.
Derp. Tell us how good Mahomes is.
ACS has been a top rated track here on our own rate threads. Aim higher. You’re an irrelevant correspondent on the NASCAR level.
 
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