RaceCritter
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Must be a slow week
Who brings more eyes to NASCAR? Cleetus or MJ?
- Thread starter wi_racefan
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2 Sweet
HMS 4-life
I'm a big fan of Michael Jordan, but Cleetus definitely brings more eyes. As others have said, his followers already have an appreciation for cars/racing, so it's logical for a lot of them to show interest in NASCAR. If Jeff Gordon buys a soccer team, I'm not going to start watching soccer.
As far as the O'Reilly Series, I called it Busch (or BGN) for the longest time, because that's what I grew up with. By the time it became Xfinity, I had just started calling it Nationwide. So of course as soon as I get used to calling it Xfinity, the name changes again.
I still call Sonoma "Sears Point" just out of habit. I never called Rockingham "North Carolina Speedway" or Charlotte "Lowes" or California/Fontana "Auto Club" etc. And I really don't care what anyone calls anything, as long as I can understand what they are referring to.
As far as the O'Reilly Series, I called it Busch (or BGN) for the longest time, because that's what I grew up with. By the time it became Xfinity, I had just started calling it Nationwide. So of course as soon as I get used to calling it Xfinity, the name changes again.
I still call Sonoma "Sears Point" just out of habit. I never called Rockingham "North Carolina Speedway" or Charlotte "Lowes" or California/Fontana "Auto Club" etc. And I really don't care what anyone calls anything, as long as I can understand what they are referring to.
RaceCritter
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Cleetus seems to bring eyes that are already here. Isn’t that just preaching to the choir? I think the question needs to be who brings the most NEW fans to the sport. I don’t have that answer but I think that is the necessary qualifier to the question. Because we need new fans. Someone who was watching football or soccer or the Fake Housewives of Idiotville last week and not watching racing to start watching racing. Just a thought so we don’t just base it on YouTube clicks or shoe sales.
2 Sweet
HMS 4-life
IMO, NASCAR made a huge mistake by alienating their hardcore fanbase for so many years. When longtime fans got fed up and quit watching, that means their kids don't watch either, so they don't become fans.
They should focus on making another Netflix "behind the scenes" show, promote the races through people like Cleetus, ticket promos to get new fans to the track, hell, just getting some NASCAR apparel into Walmart would be a start
RaceCritter
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I would like to see a lot more of these docuseries about all aspects of the sport. Feature the drivers and those who contribute in other ways.
You are in one of the right threads.
I think free O'Reilly and Truck tickets for kids does more to build new fans than any other single factor.
I think Nascar needs to bring in a promoter like Cleetus to bring in the pre race show entertainment myself. Pretty lame to have some lightly known band as your idea of a pre race show. They need things jumping and blowing up to bring the youngsters in. Monster trucks, motorcycles, drift cars, and never forget explosions and fire.
Didn't Monster try those things? I recall reading about several promo activities early in their tenure. I don't remember exact details since I wasn't going to check them out when I was at the track. People who viewed other events under its sponsorship umbrella were supposed to flock to NASCAR because of the name association. Then those promos stopped.
I'm a lousy judge of the value of promotions or sponsorship 'lifestyle' since I'm going for the racing itself. Anything else just causes more knots of people I have to push through.
Kenny Wallace and Kelly's kid Wyatt Miller.
Jorge De Guzman
2017, 2021 Pick Em Champion 2018 Bold Prediction
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Yea I agree with your point that when the old fans went away, their kids did too. I became a racing fan because of my dad. My soon to be 5 year old son will be going to his first race because he discovered the sport though me. While I don’t think the generational fandom is the whole puzzle it’s a big piece and that wasn’t cultivated when NASCAR honchos were trying to push the quintessential NASCAR narrative.
Naitch
Reads history books
The evolving identity of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points to a deeper problem that has been building for years.
In the span of about two decades, the series has cycled through multiple title sponsors. Each change comes with a new name, a new logo, a new color scheme, and a new attempt to reset how fans are supposed to see it. On paper, that is just business. In practice, it creates something much thinner than what a national racing series needs to feel like.
Because identity in sports is not built overnight. It comes from repetition, memory, and a sense that what you are watching today is connected to what you watched ten or twenty years ago. When the name keeps changing, that thread starts to fray.
Fans do not build emotional attachment to a rotating list of corporate brands. They attach to moments, drivers, rivalries, and traditions. The more the series name shifts, the harder it becomes to anchor those memories to something stable. You end up with a history that feels fragmented, like it belongs to different eras that do not quite connect.
And honestly, fans can be excused for sticking with whatever name feels natural to them. If someone still calls it by a past sponsor, that is not stubbornness. It is continuity. It is how people make sense of a sport they have followed for years. Expecting fans to constantly update their vocabulary to match the latest sponsor does not really work, especially when everyone understands that the current name is temporary too. These deals come and go. The attachment never has time to fully set in.
At a certain point, it starts to feel like fans are being asked to act as walking billboards for whatever company happens to hold the naming rights at that moment. The identity of the series becomes secondary to the branding cycle, and that is a tough way to build anything lasting.
You can see the contrast when you look at the other national series. The Cup level still feels like the Cup Series, regardless of who is attached to it. The Truck Series has its own distinct identity that has carried through different sponsorship eras. Those names mean something beyond the logo. They feel rooted.
That is what is missing here. The constant resets make it harder for this series to build its own legacy. Instead of adding chapters to a single story, it feels like starting a new one every few years.
In the long run, that comes at a cost. Not in the immediate revenue, but in the depth of connection. And in a sport that depends on generational loyalty, that connection is everything.
At the end of the day, people are going to call it whatever they want anyway. And they should. Some of us don’t feel the need to chase sponsors.
This is longer than I intended but I feel like I needed to fully explain myself.
In the span of about two decades, the series has cycled through multiple title sponsors. Each change comes with a new name, a new logo, a new color scheme, and a new attempt to reset how fans are supposed to see it. On paper, that is just business. In practice, it creates something much thinner than what a national racing series needs to feel like.
Because identity in sports is not built overnight. It comes from repetition, memory, and a sense that what you are watching today is connected to what you watched ten or twenty years ago. When the name keeps changing, that thread starts to fray.
Fans do not build emotional attachment to a rotating list of corporate brands. They attach to moments, drivers, rivalries, and traditions. The more the series name shifts, the harder it becomes to anchor those memories to something stable. You end up with a history that feels fragmented, like it belongs to different eras that do not quite connect.
And honestly, fans can be excused for sticking with whatever name feels natural to them. If someone still calls it by a past sponsor, that is not stubbornness. It is continuity. It is how people make sense of a sport they have followed for years. Expecting fans to constantly update their vocabulary to match the latest sponsor does not really work, especially when everyone understands that the current name is temporary too. These deals come and go. The attachment never has time to fully set in.
At a certain point, it starts to feel like fans are being asked to act as walking billboards for whatever company happens to hold the naming rights at that moment. The identity of the series becomes secondary to the branding cycle, and that is a tough way to build anything lasting.
You can see the contrast when you look at the other national series. The Cup level still feels like the Cup Series, regardless of who is attached to it. The Truck Series has its own distinct identity that has carried through different sponsorship eras. Those names mean something beyond the logo. They feel rooted.
That is what is missing here. The constant resets make it harder for this series to build its own legacy. Instead of adding chapters to a single story, it feels like starting a new one every few years.
In the long run, that comes at a cost. Not in the immediate revenue, but in the depth of connection. And in a sport that depends on generational loyalty, that connection is everything.
At the end of the day, people are going to call it whatever they want anyway. And they should. Some of us don’t feel the need to chase sponsors.
This is longer than I intended but I feel like I needed to fully explain myself.
DaleJrFan2003
Welcome Winston Cup fans!
Idk why they don't just call it the NASCAR [Insert title sponsor here] Grand National Series. That would be the best of both worlds; keep the title sponsor, but now the series has its own distinct identity and fans have a specific name to call it instead of having to remember the sponsor name of the week. Similar to the truck series currently, Craftsman Truck Series is perfect.
They did.
Naitch
Reads history books
They dropped “Grand National” in 2002.
I know.
RaceCritter
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I wonder about the impact of popular movies. If Days of Thunder 2 brakes big does that translate into 500k new fans?
LewTheShoe
Seeking Skill-based Meritocracy... More HP Less DF
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To me, the real question is not about counting eyeballs... it's about something bigger than that, I believe. It's about the perception of legitimacy. NASCAR's bungling mismanagement over the last 15+/- years has created a legitimacy crisis. Is Nascar an actual sport? Or is it merely an entertainment property? NASCAR has struggled mightily with sporting rigor versus entertainment expediency for well over a decade. Under Brian France's rule, entertainment won over sporting interests rather too frequently, in my opinion. Jim France hasn't really been an improvement until this year.
MJ on the pit wall as owner of a dynamic and successful racing team brings a very healthy dose of legitimacy (and welcome diversity) to the sport of Nascar. His world renown as an athlete and businessman adds substantial luster to Nascar generally and the role of race team ownership specifically. MJ is a huge asset to the sport of Nascar.
Cleetus MacFarland seems completely the opposite to me... yet another example of Nascar trying to bring in an entertainment act to attract non-fans of premier stock car racing, hoping a portion of them might like what they see and stick around. He might be better at it than Travis Pastrana, or maybe not. But any success he has with the eyeball count just adds to Nascar's legitimacy crisis, I believe.
Yeah, he's a real racer down in Florida... yeah, sure, LMAO.
MJ on the pit wall as owner of a dynamic and successful racing team brings a very healthy dose of legitimacy (and welcome diversity) to the sport of Nascar. His world renown as an athlete and businessman adds substantial luster to Nascar generally and the role of race team ownership specifically. MJ is a huge asset to the sport of Nascar.
Cleetus MacFarland seems completely the opposite to me... yet another example of Nascar trying to bring in an entertainment act to attract non-fans of premier stock car racing, hoping a portion of them might like what they see and stick around. He might be better at it than Travis Pastrana, or maybe not. But any success he has with the eyeball count just adds to Nascar's legitimacy crisis, I believe.
Yeah, he's a real racer down in Florida... yeah, sure, LMAO.
Who gets more wins in NASCAR; MJ or Cleetus?
Who cares.
Hocevar at the 2.4 hours of Lemullets.
wi_racefan
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If someone isn’t bringing in the TV money then all the money MJ and Denny sued to get disappears.
Guess he never heard of Humpty Wheeler. Ignorance is bliss.
The guys that are invested for the purpose of competitive racing.
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Nobody has ever heard of Humpty Wheeler.
ARCA @ Kansas Cleetus and LS George. I'll be watching, so will many others. Record attendance and viewership the last race at Hickory they were in and 18% jump at Rockingham.
Naitch
Reads history books
If you were crying about the playoffs making NASCAR “less legitimate” and you now support this Cletus farce, how do you square the inconsistency?
A YouTuber with no top 10s in ARCA does not belong anywhere close to a competitive car in the secondary series.
A YouTuber with no top 10s in ARCA does not belong anywhere close to a competitive car in the secondary series.
You figured it out. Good for you.Wasn’t his name, Humpy Wheeler?
I think you’re thinking of Humpty Dumpty.
How in the hell is anybody who is part time going to be in any chase nonsense. Your stretching man, lol. Weak sauce. BTW Top 4 in ARCA at Rockingham. lol.
Naitch
Reads history books
My mistake, I missed his top 10s last year.
You misunderstood my question. You were concerned about “legitimacy” when it came to the playoffs but not when a YouTuber is showing up in the secondary series? 5 ARCA starts with an average finish of 15.4 is a paper thin resume. He has one Truck start but nothing there to show he’s a prodigy either.
And his top 4 this year. How many ARCA races have they ran this year? How many Truck and O'Reilly races? Now how many has Cleetus been in? It's simple math. Nobody says a driver has to run all the races, nobody says a driver has to win races. He can compete and he does. You don't like it so what. Don't watch. I'm going to watch and those two will make me laugh and have a good time doing it.
Trying to compare full time drivers making their living having to run every race to a gentleman racer sponsoring himself for a handful of races doesn't stretch/compare either. You people live in fantasy world.
Willowisherself
I get bricked for the brickyard
Very slow week... nothing really that interseting
Nothing really. Just a few, same ones who cry about all the poor drivers who never get a break to race in Nascar and here comes somebody spending his own money bringing tons of fans to the sport and they hate it.
Plunks down his own money.....Why he's one of them there Youtubers, he's not serious lol.
Childress gives him a free ride opportunity in a O'Reilly car with free training and Cack suck Freddy Kraft says he should have known better. Says so after the fact of course. People talk about legitimacy with this clown show? Lighten up people, there are plenty of Bozo's to go around.
Naitch
Reads history books
He barely registers in ARCA, which is just rich kids and weekend hobbyists and did not look competitive in his Truck and O’Reilly starts.
Cleetus needs to run CARS and more ARCA. That RCR ride could have been given to a driver who actually earned the opportunity. But I guess earning something is foreign at Rich Children Racing these days.
Now you are a career consultant. Good luck with that.
Beat me to it, I guess he doesn't remember or never saw Humpy at work, some of the craziest pre-race shows you ever saw...lol