Much like what Nascar had with the drivers, I think an open thread regarding the state of the sport is needed.
My thoughts:
1) Competition. Nascar is not as competitive as it was earlier this decade. Ill pull some stats out from 2000 if it will please people but suffice to say the new car needs major changes. And I mean major. The leader is too hard to pass and the racing gets too spread out too quickly. I cant speak to what can be done to the aerodynamics of the car, but the mechanical rules need to be opened up so the crews can come up with some different variations of setup. I read some people on here thanking god they were a Nascar fan and not an F1 fan, well when the 10th place car is 12-15 seconds behind after 20 laps of a feul run, people thats not much better than F1.
2) TV Coverage needs a tweak. I like TNT and think ESPN is the best of the partners Nascar has. Last year at Texas and Phoenix, ESPN went the final 45 minutes commercial free to bring us the end of the race. Their coverage is mature, informative and concentrates on what we all want to see, the racing. Then put the start times back to where they were when Nascar was on the rise in TV ratings and you got something to work with.
3) Here is a big one. But the chase needs to go. It has obviously done NOTHING to increase veiwership since its inception. Jimmie Johnson has won 3 straight championships and nobody gives a damn and I think thats in part to the chase. The majority of fans of this sport reject this sport, and thus reject him. Nascar rise to fruition on a championship that could have potentially been decided with a race or two to go. I dont see anything wrong with that. When a championship is out of hand, then the race win becomes the focus. Now its just all championship all the time.
My thoughts:
1) Competition. Nascar is not as competitive as it was earlier this decade. Ill pull some stats out from 2000 if it will please people but suffice to say the new car needs major changes. And I mean major. The leader is too hard to pass and the racing gets too spread out too quickly. I cant speak to what can be done to the aerodynamics of the car, but the mechanical rules need to be opened up so the crews can come up with some different variations of setup. I read some people on here thanking god they were a Nascar fan and not an F1 fan, well when the 10th place car is 12-15 seconds behind after 20 laps of a feul run, people thats not much better than F1.
2) TV Coverage needs a tweak. I like TNT and think ESPN is the best of the partners Nascar has. Last year at Texas and Phoenix, ESPN went the final 45 minutes commercial free to bring us the end of the race. Their coverage is mature, informative and concentrates on what we all want to see, the racing. Then put the start times back to where they were when Nascar was on the rise in TV ratings and you got something to work with.
3) Here is a big one. But the chase needs to go. It has obviously done NOTHING to increase veiwership since its inception. Jimmie Johnson has won 3 straight championships and nobody gives a damn and I think thats in part to the chase. The majority of fans of this sport reject this sport, and thus reject him. Nascar rise to fruition on a championship that could have potentially been decided with a race or two to go. I dont see anything wrong with that. When a championship is out of hand, then the race win becomes the focus. Now its just all championship all the time.