Passion
So what's wrong with NASCAR? That's the question my tiny brain has been tossing around since about halfway through Sunday's race.
Last week's USA Today story on the state of NASCAR started it. Big Brian France bit back (and here, too). He's paid to respond, even if he has nothing to counter with other than "just wait and see."
Then Charlotte's Tom Sorenson piled on ("If you would like to replicate the thrills at Homestead-Miami Speedway, do two things. (1) Go to Wendy's; (2) Check the action in the drive-through lane.") The Washington Post and the AP's Jenna Fryer also hit on the same themes.
Selena Roberts of the N.Y. Times stumbles onto something (it's behind the Times' stupid paywall): NASCAR lacks passion.
Forget the TV ratings and the high ticket prices and the long season and all of the commercials I have seen over and over and over again since February. (For the love of all that is holy, please someone come up with a new crop for 2007.) There's nothing fundamentally wrong with NASCAR that "Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2007 Nextel Cup champion" and the incessant ESPN hype machine can't cure. (You saw how Ohio State-Michigan was billed as The Biggest Game in the History of Organized Sport? You don't think ESPN can't do that with racin'? Just watch.) My gut feeling is that NASCAR is slumping a bit after some record years. Silicon Valley will tell you that you can't sustain that kind of growth forever.
On the other hand -- and Mr. Ambivalence here always has two hands -- I think NASCAR's missing that passion that the NY Times columnist wrote about. You know that guy screaming at his TV after Vickers took out JJ and Junior? He's got the passion and then some. My reaction was pretty much the same, minus the f-bombs, but I didn't have many moments like that this year. Even Montoya's flameout on Sunday didn't do much to raise my pulse -- yeah, that was one impressive wreck, but it has been a long season and let's just finish the race and give Johnson the trophy so I can eat dinner and watch the last Sunday night football game.
Last night I was surfing around and found the clip of Dale Sr.'s 2000 win at Talladega, his last victory, the one where he came from 15th or so to first in about two laps to win the thing. That was a race. It was so good, in fact, I watched it again.
That's what NASCAR needs. It needs that guy yelling at the TV when Junior gets taken out. It needs Jeff Gordon fans bragging that everyone is jealous that their guy has four Cup crowns. It needs me getting that knot in my stomach when the 8 car gets out front at Talladega. It needs everyone standing and cheering and going Wow! when a poor nobody like David Gilliland comes out of nowhere and wins a Cup Lite race.
Sure, try to keep selling me stuff. That's what the racing industry does. But make me feel something, too. That's why people keep coming back.
Comments (12)
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********* CALLING DANICA PATRICK (and her girls too) *********
Posted on November 21, 2006 2:39 PM
Oh you miss the days when not every incident resulted in a call to the NASCAR hauler after the race. Sometimes things were just settled... shall we say.
Honestly if the 2007 Daytona 500 ended the way first network televised live race did with the Allison brothers double teaming Cale Yarbrough in the 3rd turn after the race, Brian France would pass out in his Suite. Well maybe that's something to ask.... How many times did Brian Frances' father and grandfather watch a race from their respective suites?
Or if you want to watch some real racing before the end of the year the Mason Dixon Meltdown is at South Boston this Saturday. If you are tired on Turkey, all the Bologna Burgers you can handle. Plus Kyle Busch in the Late Model race and that Ted Christopher guy will be there racing those cars that John forbids me from mentioning.
Posted on November 21, 2006 4:21 PM
Goodness, I'd never seen that video before. Crazy. 8(
Posted on November 21, 2006 5:20 PM
Glad you, uh, liked it, Stephen. Which reminds me: My new acronym is TIFB.
@ Mark: You're free to mention the word "modifieds." It's just your use of "Ted Christopher" and "better than Junior Miller and all of those other Southern Tour yahoos" in the same sentence that bugs me. ;)
Posted on November 21, 2006 5:30 PM
John, I don't think I've ever said "better than Junior Miller". The problem with the southern modifieds is that they tend to get last year's model similar to what happens in ARCA getting the Cup models from last year.
The open competition races tend to even things out a little better similar to what happened at the North/South shootout at Concord a couple of weeks ago. Still won by someone from PA, but a little bit move even.
This is all going to change in another year or two. The scuttlebutt is that NASCAR is going to shift the modifieds into a North/South series similar to Hooters Pro Cup. It will only work if the financial insentives are there to get drivers from New England to periodically come down to VA, NC and SC and vice versa.
If this happens there are a couple of past champions with their youngest kids a year or two from graduating from high school. At that point the chassis are going to be built down here and be more prevalent. Then Junior Miller will be going wheel to wheel with TC.
Posted on November 21, 2006 7:09 PM
Passion?
How much do you want? Really!
Isn't passion that caused the upheaval over at the corporate blog whose name won't be mentioned?
Isn't passion more than likely also in countless unseen homes that didn't get tossed up on YouTube. (shouldn't that be "YourTube, or at a 1.5 billion Google buyout, CashTube?)
What botters me are some of the very same ones that do show passion by tossing things and or making ludicris comments supporting "their driver" in forum and blog threads are more than likely also crying about a percieved lack of excitement in NASCAR.
You can't have it both ways.
Far from defending France (a/k/a He Who shall Be Obeyed) I think he does have a point about NBC and its lack of support the last few months.
The same can be said of Fox, they hardly ever note a race result on Mondays Fox and Friends unless it's a Montoya flameout (while talking about a Johnson Championship) or some other accident. They have stick and ball scores every Monday but NASCAR makes the grade about once every month.
Very sad for a network that broadcasts the sport.
Posted on November 21, 2006 8:55 PM
I'd start by not continuing to read the most liberal news sources in the country (WashPost and NYTimes). They hardly cater to NASCAR fans or pen anything NASCAR unless they have something negative to say. Whether it's a boring season, or about how the diversity program isn't producing; bad NASCAR news is good news to them.
Second, this is a sport. It's outcome is not predetermined to satisfy the entertainment needs of the masses, and that's why I love it. The skill of driver and team make the saying "any given Sunday" meaning. The fact that you have to watch 'till the very last lap to see who won is great. Knowing any lead can vanish for a number of reasons in a flash keeps us on our feet until the checker falls.
If Tony gets taken out, do I yell at the TV? Yes. When Tony's in the lead with 25 to go, am I pacing? Yes. Have I got it bad? Yes. And I think 95% of NASCAR fans are with me (and their favorite driver), despite what the bleeding hearts of the press have to say. We could use some new commercials, though.
Posted on November 21, 2006 10:18 PM
StewartFan: So the Great Liberal Media Conspiracy extends to racin' coverage as well? I must have missed that memo.
Frankly, I thought the NY Times piece got NASCAR better than the column in Charlotte Observer, which has covered NASCAR since the Red Bynum days. Roberts was wrestling with the "why" behind the USA Today story; Sorenson seemed bummed that Johnson's car didn't get caught up in a 20-car wreck halfway through the race.
Marc: You'll rot your brain watching the a.m. shows. And you'll strain something looking for sports news on those things. Isn't SportsCenter on an endless loop all morning?
Posted on November 22, 2006 1:15 PM
Passion for NASCAR from the fans is there, but passion for the fans from NASCAR isn't. The only thing NASCAR has a passion for lately is the dollar. That is why they went with Fox and NBC/TNT in the first place, and now that the contract is up they are complaining about them. You make your bed, you've got to lie in it too. They didn't go to Fox and NBC/TNT for the benefit of the fans, they went for the money. To be honest with you the coverage in Canada was better before Fox and NBC/TNT took over. Now I miss races whenever TNT takes over the broadcast (especially the Busch Series)because the Canadian sports channels don't have solid enough contracts with TNT to carry their full coverage of NASCAR events.
Posted on November 24, 2006 12:55 AM
You won't miss much this year, Bob - just the mid-summer stretch where things are slowing down. The only one that might hurt is 2nd Daytona and Infineon, though I'd be stunned if you missed the Daytona race. Pocono? Yes.
Do you get all 16 ESPN channels up your way? Is there a special Canadian flavor in the vein of the world-renowned ESPN Ocho?
Posted on November 27, 2006 10:35 AM
Unless you have a dish, you are pretty much out of the ESPN loop, but TSN is the Canadian version of ESPN (I also think that it has an affiliation with ESPN, because their version of Sportsdesk is the same as ESPN's but with more Canadian content - but they usually use the same Top 10) so I would imagine that the coverage will be better this year - unless they opt out of Busch coverage for whatever reason. As far as I know they (TSN) won't even be televising the new Canadian NASCAR Series (NCTS - not to be confused with the American NCTS) live, it'll be taped (and edited no doubt) broadcasts.
Posted on November 27, 2006 8:16 PM
No ESPN?! Gasp. That's just ... un-American!
And so much for ESPN being the Worldwide Leader. More like "ESPN: The Worldwide Leader minus Canada and most of the rest of the developed world." But don't worry -- no national border can contain the ESPN hype.
And after you mentioned NASCAR highlights show, I've got the voice of Lindsey Nelson in my head. "Moving to further action on lap 185 ..."
Posted on November 27, 2006 8:36 PM