Who Exactly Is NASCAR Competing With?

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Eagle1

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Insider Racing

By Carol Bell


June 10, 2004


As our dear PattyKay would say, I’ve taken a few turns around that ‘ol sun of ours. Although I don’t have “TIVO”, I’ve had a satellite dish since they were the size equivalent of a trampoline. And I’ve done my fair share of surfing over the years. So think about it. How many times have you been surfing your cable or satellite and come upon something that made you stop and think “Oh no! Did I miss a NASCAR race?” Of course not.

I would seriously doubt if one of the items on the agenda during the meeting held in 1949 down in good old Daytona included knocking the Indianapolis 500 off it’s perch as the premier racing event in the hearts and minds of all Americans. But I could be wrong. If it was, it was a supreme waste of time. They’re two entirely different animals and as we all know, the end of Indy’s reign was due largely in part to the split between the CHAMP drivers. Baseball? Hockey? Apples and oranges.
 
Folks,

It would appear that this lady's knowledge of NASCAR is somewhat limited and she missed a few points in her research of the subject as well.

NASCAR was founded in December of 1947 (not 1949), at the old Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida.

And indeed, one of the ultimate goals of Bill France Sr. was to build an organization which could someday compete with, and hopefully exceed, the Indy 500 in size, scope and popularity.

That was his reason for building the 2.5 mile track at Daytona Beach and later the Talladega superspeedway and his reasoning behind the 500 mile distance of races.
(O.B. and Humpey had to of course outdo Big Bill and have a 600 mile race at Charlotte.)

Uniform rules, guaranteed purses, insurance, promotion assistance to track owners and the crowning of a single national champion were some of the other issues which that first meeting discussed as well; but there is no doubt that Bill France had every intention of having a bigger and better racing organization than what existed at that time. (AAA was the premier santioning body of the day.)

Of course NASCAR is in competition with itself. If any organization wishes to have continued growth and prosperity, it must constantly compete with itself.
It must be in a constant state of change and be organized in such a manner that those changes may be modified or even reversed immediately, if not sooner, if the expected results are not achieved.

While I am not in total agreement with all that NASCAR has become and what it has done to what was once a sport, I am positive there are quite a number of multi-millionaire members of that organization who are more than happy and content with their relationship as independent contractors who have to work on Sundays.

Offhand, I would have to say that the France family has done a pretty good job of bringing Bill Sr.'s dream of making stockcar racing bigger than the Indy 500 quite close to a reality.

In closing, I sort of chuckle at all the fans who are calling young Brian France incapable of running the family business.
I really wonder where those people are coming from; what they have in the way of education and experience in racing, business, marketing and human relations which his job requires and what makes them feel they know more about how the business should be run?

I would remind all those folks that Brian France literally grew up in that enviroment and has not only the formal education needed, but also the practical experience to do the job. Not to mention all of the associates and others around him to provide the necessary information and advise he will need to insure the continued success of NASCAR.

I'm old enough to remember all the concern, consternation, and hateful remarks that were made when Bill Sr. turned the business over to his son.

The last thirty odd years appear to have proven that all of those folks had no idea what they were talking about either.

Probably thirty or so years from now when another young France takes over the family business, those who are complaining loudest today will hear similar complaints from another younger generation of fans.

Such is life!
 
I'm an Irl fan and all i have to say is that if someone from ChampCar or Irl doesnt seek a one seris solution for open-wheel racing they need to get ready in negotiating one. Open-wheel racing is the most entertaining racing there ever will be. I love the fast speeds, the three wide racing ( i mean texas was a great race today) the only thing Both seris need is sponsors. NASCAR took off in the 90's with its young star Jeffy Gordon and from there it was a cakewalk. Since the split NASCAR has become a worldwide phenom while CART and IRL are on the verge of looking for enough cars to race and if they can have a season next season. I dont want Open-wheel racing to die and i hope OWRs and the IRL quit bickering between themselves and come up with a seris with road racing, oval racing. There will be a bigger fanbase and more sponsers will be into representing cars. The Split killed the sport. Its been slowly dying. I mean it even shows in the forums. the only frequent posts on a racing topic is NASCAR. USAC which used to have a lot of its young guns go to open wheel racing is now moving on and most young stars dream of being a NASCAR star. mayeb its more money, sponsership, who knows but its shown. I mean Christian Fittapaldi! what reason does he have to be in racing NASCAR? hes a CART racer. its just horrible how much cost has gone up in preparing cars these days which is another reason. Im sure someone will step up lets just hope it doesnt take long.
 
Who are they competing with? The NFL. And they're still losing.
 
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