NASCAR TV Analyst Larry McReynolds Asks for Positive Coverage,

YOU LEAVE DOVER ALONE! It's the only track with an on-site hotel, meaning I could sleep until two hours before the race started on Sunday instead of having to be in the media center at like 7 a.m. It also has a casino, which started live table games last year. AND it has Miles the Monster, the best!

 

Maybe It's just me but I think Nascar could benefit from taking a page out of a Dirt Tracking Book, it would make races more entertaining to watch more events with fewer laps.

For example, they could run time trials to set up heat races take the fastest 44 cars. Put 11 cars in each of the 4 heats and let them run 20 laps on a track; with the top 4 advancing to the feature event and the rest of the cars to a "B" or "C" main to try and race their way into the feature.

Have a dash for the top 2 finishers in each of the heats to determine feature starting position.

I think it would add to the viewership of the product. You may say that it wouldn't give the cars time to warm up on the short run, but the teams can set the cars up for it and scuff the tires ahead of time. It would cause the cars to move up in the pack quicker and show more action.

 

Sponsors would NEVER go for that. That's why the 35 cars rule exists now.

 

With all due respect, doesn't your last sentence tell you why we do these kinds of stories?

I agree that there are very few fans who care whether the attendance was 50,000 or 60,000, but the trend is worth noting. After all, would NASCAR have taken away one race if Fontana had drawn capacity crowds for both races?

You say it will be interesting to see how many people show up for the March race, the one and only race in Fontana this year. I agree. So why wouldn't that be a story?

 

I notice in your defense of Dover you make zero mention of the on-track product. Wise move. There's no need to sleep the night before a Cup race at Dover. Just wait until the race starts and then start your four-hour nap. ;D
I fell asleep trying to watch the June 2002 Dover race. Woke up and the race was over. I doubt I missed a thing. I stopped watching NASCAR a week later.

 

When you have a sport that requires sponsorships to exist - I can understand the call for more favorable coverage. The shorter races might be more viewer friendly but will give less screen time to sponsors.
They might be better off capping teams at two cars and/or limiting team cooperation to spread the sponsorship dollars out more and making things more competitive.

 

The problem with NASCAR is everyone keeps trying to fix what wasn't broken, starting with Brian France.

I'd dearly love to get in the Way Back Machine and get the sport back to where it was 20 years ago. If the newbie fans don't like it, fine. Go back to whatever you were watching before you went to see Days of Thunder.

NASCAR's biggest problem is it's worried about the new fans its losing and not those of us who have been around for four decades.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ x infinity.

 

WFW, Shoeless Joe.

 

If you never saw David Pearson race, you don't get a vote.

 

Make the Nationwide "Old School" NASCAR, reset all the technology back 20 years, give drivers a fitness test (if they pass, they can't race in the Nationwide).
I do think the elimination of tobacco sponsors has been a double-edged sword, it has made room for new sponsors but deregionalized the sport making it more corporate.
Maybe they should just make the whole series like IROC.

 

On a good note - don't think it was mentioned anywhere else here - Nashville Fairgrounds was recently saved from it's carpetbagger mayor who wanted the track demolished.