@mlwilliam213

NASCAR started to lose popularity long before 2012. Alienating their fans is a big part of it, but it’s not the main reason. Their real problem is the people making decisions don’t really have any passion for racing. Brian France has admitted to looking to other sports like the NFL to see what they’re doing. That has nothing to do with racing. They think that closer competition means better racing. So we get the “Chase” and playoffs, and cars that depend on air so they run close together. They want ten-wide for the lead coming out of turn four on the last lap.

What real fans want is honest competition and let the best car win. Sometimes you may have a season like 98 where someone just smokes the field for the entire year and you know who will be champion with a couple races to go, but that’s who should be champion. Everything doesn’t need to come down to the last second. Nobody wants to see what they’re doing now. Trying to manufacture excitement. From NASCARS inception until the mid 2000s you would see teams winning by 10 seconds in a race and wrapping up championships early, but it was fair, and the sport got more and more popular every year.

This past week the #19 won, but it didn’t matter because they already had a win and were already in the playoffs. Nothing else mattered because good points days don’t mean anything. In the 90s, maybe Rusty would gain some spots on Earnhardt. Maybe Mark Martin would blow up and take a hit in the points. These days none of that matters, so people don’t have to tune in. Then by the time we get to the “championship 4” nobody has been watching so nobody cares. When all that matters is getting a win to get to the playoffs, why watch if your favorite driver has won? Why keep watching if they’re having a bad day. NASCAR wonders why nobody watches anymore, but they’re the ones who told us it doesn’t matter.

 

charlesbarefieldjr544

You nailed it. I'm Seventy-Six years old and I started going to Cup races in the sixties I used to have permanent seats at Darlington I just told a friend of mine last week that would NASCAR switch from country music to rock and roll that was the beginning of the end along with taking the southern 500 from Darlington and moving at the California. That did it for me. That and the fact that men used to drive these cars and not little boys that cry all the time about somebody bumping them.

 

And maybe NASCAR will get off their butts, and work on something for a change instead of
just take the money and run.