Official NASCAR Series News Thread

[brandon27]

Quote: Originally Posted by jasontoddwhitt

It was something that was needed. I always felt that the playoffs should have every style of track featured. Shocked that they decided to switch Charlotte to a road course, but I welcome the news. NASCAR still needs to figure out how to fix their struggling ratings and race attendance. I think the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is that races are too long. Nobody wants to sit around and watch an oval race for 3.5-5 hours. I think NASCAR should shorten races to 300 miles except for the crown jewels... Daytona 500 Spring Talladega race Coke 600 Southern 500 And make those races worth double points. Just a thought. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with this more than anything. I think this would help them more than they think. I imagine their fear here is a loss of TV revenue for the networks as they would be losing quite a bit of commercial time by chopping 100 miles off the race/broadcast length. However, I think the old supply vs demand issue would come into play here, maybe they could charge a bit more for ad time with a reduced supply.

In the past, when I became a fan of the sport back in my late teens/early 20's I had no issues with race length. I had the luxury of having 4 hours to spend. Now that I'm in my mid 30's, I just don't have the time, or the patience to devote to a race that long when the majority of it seems just riding around. Sure, that's changed a bit with the stage racing, but all the stages have done is lengthen times even further it seems.

I agree though, drop 100 miles from the majority of the 500 mile races and make them 400. I think you've got to find a way to drop at least an hour off each event from a TV standpoint. Doing this, while keeping the crown jewels longer makes those events standout, and make them "special" My crown jewel list though would be something like this:

Daytona 500 - for obvious reasons
Coke 600 - Again, for obvious reasons of the tradition, and endurance.
Southern 500 (Only at Darlington) - For the obvious reasons of tradition.
Brickyard 400 - I know this race struggles, but it's Indy. Anything less than 400 here doesn't seem right. They just need to improve the racing.

I may be inclined to include the "regular season finale" in the list of keeping the longer race distance, along with the season finale at homestead.

That gives you a nice list of premier events based on tradition, and based on competitive situations/points in the season where you may benefit from a longer race.

Ultimately, there's no secret people's interest is declining because it's too long, at home, and at the track. Common complaint I hear a lot is weather. Especially in the dog days of summer, sitting at the track in heat and humidity for that long can be a struggle. I remember being at the June race in Michigan about 6-7 years ago. It was 95 degrees that day, and basically 100% humidity. A brief shower came through before the race start which ramped up the feeling of the humidity even more. The track dried almost instantly because it was so hot. 4 Hours, on a day like that, on a follow the leader type 400 mile race is just... insufferable to a lot of people nowadays.

I think they need to look at their ticket prices too. That's likely another key factor in keeping people away from the tracks on race days. They need to do a better job of getting people to the tracks. Reduced pricing helps that. Once a majority of people go, especially for the first time I think they get "hooked". It's pretty impressive to experience live, but that being said, unless you're completely into it, the desire to return year after year dissipates rather quickly for most people I bet. Reduce ticket prices, improve seating, improve shading in the hotter environments, improve traffic flows post race, etc. etc. There's a lot of little things that tracks didn't stay on top of well enough as the sport boomed 15-20 years ago. It's gotten better, but there's a lot more they could do though, but I get it, it's tough when most of those facilities only generate significant revenues 2 weekends a year when Nascar roles into down, aside from the few markets that attract Indycar events as well, although the revenue of course isn't as high.

TLDR: Reduce race lengths except for key events, reduce ticket prices, improve track experience.

[dochalladay32]

They took Shrub's team to the woodshed for what was entirely an accident. I figured it would happen because rules are the rules... ok, even that isn't always true in NASCAR. But they clearly had equipment issues and that's why they didn't get a single lug nut on. They didn't try anything malicious. They hurt themselves immediately. Similar for the #29 in the truck series.

I get penalizing because it's your job to make sure you have the tires on before you leave the pit stall, but something still feels off with suspending the crew chief, etc. 4 races for what could only be seen as an f-up and not an intentional way to speed up the pit stop.

[Dead2009]

Jimmie Johnson out of title chase after flat tire results in crash
http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/st...ship-next-week

[pk500]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dead2009

Jimmie Johnson out of title chase after flat tire results in crash http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/st...ship-next-week

He never was a factor in the playoffs. That team -- and all of Hendrick Motorsports -- didn't show enough speed during the first nine races.

[BurghFan]

Brian France Arrested on DUI, Possession of Controlled Substance Charges

Quote:

NASCAR CEO and chairman Brian France was arrested on charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to a Sag Harbor Village (New York) Police Department news release. According to the news release, France was arrested at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, held overnight and arraigned Monday morning at the Sag Harbor Village Justice Court, where he was released on his own recognizance. "Mr. France was observed operating a 2017 Lexus northbound on Main Street failing to stop at a duly posted stop sign," the news release said. "Upon traffic stop, it was determined that Mr. France was operating said vehicle in an intoxicated condition.

[Thrash13]

In happier news, it was great to see Chase Elliott finally get the 2nd-place monkey off his back and win. That's big for Nascar as proven by the crowd reaction Sunday.

Miss doing the Nascar game here at OS.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

[franko3219]

Quote: Originally Posted by Thrash13

In happier news, it was great to see Chase Elliott finally get the 2nd-place monkey off his back and win. That's big for Nascar as proven by the crowd reaction Sunday. Miss doing the Nascar game here at OS. Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

They definitely need some of these young guys to step up and contend for wins, not just top 10’s. The other thing that is plaguing NASCAR right now, at least this has been my opinion for a while, is that all of these young guys are all the same. I blame this on NASCAR and their penalties on drivers that show emotion, but all of them are just, “aw shucks, it was just an accident. I’ll probably go have dinner with him in a little bit”, no personality drivers. There is no drama in the races anymore other than Kyle Busch’s child-like antics. If NASCAR does not allow the sport to get back to their roots, they will struggle to get new people interested, and bring back older fans.

[superjames1992]

The racing has been good this year, at least.