NASCAR TV Analyst Larry McReynolds Asks for Positive Coverage,

To play devil's advocate -- I don't think the media should spin their coverage to favor a corporation, team or person -- we usually write, "The Mariners beat the Orioles in front of 14,970 fans at Safeco Field on Sunday." It seems fair to write something similar for a NASCAR gamer. Now, if you want to write about the empty seats, you can mention the number of empty seats and network ratings being down in a notebook or another story focusing solely on that. It's still news.

 

The races are far too long in an age of endless distraction. How many teenagers will sit through a three-hour race? Answer? None. Why do we need 500 or 600 laps? I have a shirt that describes it perfectly..booooooring in the NASCAR logo typeface.

The schedule takes the entire year. Ridiculous. Why does Pocono and other tracks need two dates apiece? Make it one date apiece per track and reduce the schedule to 25 races. Go to some non-traditional tracks like some road courses (like Sebring or Road America or Barber Motorsports Park) and some more short tracks and make these goons perform left and right turns with their under-tired, overweight, sluggish beasts. That'll be fun.

The cars look like nothing, NASCAR spec racers with headlight/taillight/sponsors aplenty stickers all over them. How are you supposed to be a Chevy fan when you can't tell a Chevy from a Ford or a Dodge or a Toyota if not for the stickers?

Make them have something to do with cars we drive on the street and more people will care. Real stock bodies, real stock engine blocks would be awesome, kind of like the British Touring Car Championship or the Australian V8 Supercars series, which is awesome, by the way.

One of the hallmarks of great motorsports is technology that returns to cars we drive everyday, like the dual-clutch gearbox. NASCAR is as expensive as the more technologically interesting series. So why not turn NASCAR from a 1950s organisation to one that's at least in the 1990s?

They'll get positive coverage when it's earned. Right now, the racing is as exciting as watching paint dry. But nothing is as bad as Formula 1. When your qualifying means more than the actual racing (where the car aerodynamics prevent close racing or passing), you're in deep doo-doo.

Best motorsports in this country is the American LeMans Series, bar none. Now if they could just get the governing body out of France... ???

 

Which is fine and good, but "usually slumming" seems a bit strong for four races in two years for Stewart.

 

Fair enough, but I think the larger point stands. The regular drives in the Nationwide race hurts both Sprint Cup series by taking the specialness away, as well as Nationwide by not allowing young drivers to develop a fan following.

 

To a point, yes. But I think it's less about not developing a fan following as taking the best rides in the series and giving them to Cup drivers, which limits the DEVELOPMENT of the drivers as a whole. There are some good young kids in the series who are having to scrap for second- or third-level rides because Cup guys are who the sponsors want.

 

Who beat?

 

Stewart went off on this last season, the idea of development.

His question was development for what? Who's going anywhere, or where are there any more sponsors willing to fund a ride?

His thing was they've signed drivers to developmental deals, and they leave decent situations only to never put them in a Cup ride. Then when they go back to where they were before, the rides there are gone, too.

I don't know that there's a good situation for the development issue. There's Cup, Nationwide, Trucks, ARCA, NASCAR West, and various other random short/dirt tracks across the country where there are guy who might deserve a look.

At the end of the day, there's only 43 spots each week. That makes it one of the tougher sports on the planet to break into the upper echelon. Especially when guys like Mark Martin can drive well into their golden years, spots don't open up every day.

 

btw, anybody got any idea one what the listen-only teleconference tomorrow is about?

 

If they used the banana peels and turtle shells like in Mario Kart, that would do great things for ratings.

Of course, Brad Keselowski already drives as if he used the invincibility star.

 

Well, here's the problem. There was a BIG rush of big-time guys retiring/leaving a few years ago, which brought some young blood to the Cup Series. Now, we're in a long period with all the stars in their 30s or younger, which means it's going to be a long time before a glut of top rides open. But that's what the Nationwide Series is FOR. To put drivers in better equipment to get ready for Cup. Not that there's a set schedule to get them into Cup, like if you spend 1.5 years in Nationwide you'll automatically get called up. But guys who are Nationwide drivers should have a shot at being the top drivers in that series.

And the teleconference is the annual NASCAR event, where they announce any rules changes/etc.

 

I think Stewart's main bitch was that it became the thing to do, because all the cool kids were doing it and nobody thought it through.

At the end of the day, it's not ALL about how good of a driver one is, and that's sad. Well, it's sad for the folks that can drive, and just don't get the chance.

 

The sport has become so homogenized that all the sponsors want the young guys to be clean cut and JJ-ed out. Tony can only be Tony because of what he's accomplished.

I do agree with Tony. The "developmental deal" is overdone. But the Nationwide Series itself should be to develop talent. Not necessarily guys who are already signed to Hendrick or RCR or Roush.