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Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Nascar's apparently for sale

Reports indicate the France family is looking to sell their majority share of Nascar. If they do sell it, I hope whoever buys it gets it back to the roots of Nascar. If you have a few billion lying around you don't know what to do with, give the France family a call. (Goldman Sachs is working with them finding a buyer. If you've got that kind of money, chances are Goldman Sachs is already on your speed dial.) 

 

Over the last ten years or so they've gone from sold-out tracks that were expanding to keep up with demand, to nearly empty tracks with a general loss of interest.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,936
Registered: ‎07-02-2015

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

@gardenman

 

I read a while back about declining attendance and interest in NASCAR.  Also saw the story this morning  about the entire thing being up for sale.

 

  This amazes me, because even I, the most unlikely race car fan in the world, took some interest in the sport when Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhart and other well-knowns were in the news all the time.

 

Do you have any idea as to why interest has declined?  Are there no more outstanding stars to worship?  Is the public turned off by accidental injuries to spectators at racing events? 

 

What has caused this declining interest to happen?  I don't follow the sport enough to even have a clue, but a curious mind would like to know.  I"ve always wished to have a chance to attend a NASCAR race, myself.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

What caused the decline in Nascar? In my opinion, the answer is Nascar. They're constantly tweaking the rules and changing things. Nascar has taken a rough and tumble sport and turned it into a modern day version of the old IROC series of racing with identical cars prepared identically. IROC failed and Nascar is on the same path.

 

There's no individuality in cars these days. Every car is the same other than the decals and paint color. Every single aspect of racing has become regulated to the point where the rule book is bigger than the car. I go back to when nearly every car was different. You had Richard Petty and his Superbird with the giant wing on the back. You had really different cars. How the cars were set up was determined by the crews, not Nascar. Want a loose car? No problem, set it up to be loose. If it's too loose, you bump up the rear wing to give it a bit more downforce. You can't touch the wings now. Everything is regulated.

 

Nascar has gone from down and dirty racing to a scientific experiment with everything equalized as much as possible to find the best driver on any given day on any given track with that specific setup on the car. Like a looser car? Too bad. Like a tighter car? Too bad. You've got what you've got and learn to live with it. While I'm sure there are some who like watching scientific experiments play out, they're not generally Nascar fans.

 

Last year and this they've divided the race into segments. (One of the posters here described them as potty breaks for the cars.) There's not one race now but three. You can race to win each segment in addition to winning the whole race. I could care less who wins which segment and I hate the segments. 

 

There are enough different types of "stock" cars on the road these days that Nascar could figure out a way to make each make of car on the track look different. A Corvette doesn't look like a Ford Fusion. Put a Ford Fusion shaped car out there with a Corvette shaped car, an Audi A8 shaped car, and tweak their engines so they travel at roughly the same speed, but give us something different to look at.

 

Let teams set up cars how they want the car set up. Let them adjust whatever they want to adjust. Kind of turn a blind eye to cheating and go back to the old "If you ain't cheating you ain't trying" style of racing that made Nascar great. 

 

Those now running Nascar have lost their way and have turned it into the old IROC (International Race of Champions) series of racing and it's just not fun. Watching a race should be fun. Sadly, they've taken the fun out of it. They've made it into a scientific experiment with tight controls and regulations on everything where the goal seems to be to find the best driver on that track, that day using that particular setup on the car. At most races, you can pretty much know who's going to win by how they qualified and how they're racing early on. Those who qualified fastest tend to stay at the front. Those who lead early tend to lead all the way through as there's little the other teams can do to adjust their cars to make them faster. They've taken one of the most exciting sports and made it boring. The fans have noticed and wandered off. 

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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Posts: 1,687
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

[ Edited ]

@gardenman

 

I could not have said it better. Too many rules, not enough fun.

 

They are also missing the "good old boyz" that made Nascar fun. Not just the "stars" like Dale and Jeff and Rusty Wallace and but the real "characters" like  Daryl and Mikey Waltrip, the Bodines, Jimmy Spencer, Sterling Marlin. Sigh, those days are long over.

 

 

Darrell Waltrip

 

 

"If you don't cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don't get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope. Put me where I belong."

 

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Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

@FlyersGirl

 

There are some drivers in Nascar now who would fit the old style of driver. Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch are sort of the old prototypical Nascar "villains," while you've got the white knight drivers also. But, the whole thing has become so corporate that you don't get to see much fire and emotion any longer. Everyone's become kid of bland and cardboard cutouts. You've got cookie cutter cars, cookie cutter drivers, and way too many cookie cutter mile and a half ovals. 

 

I hope whoever buys Nascar gets it more back to the roots. Toss out 90% of the rule book and largely ignore the ten percent you keep. Make Nascar fun again. 

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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Registered: ‎05-23-2015

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale


@gardenman wrote:

Reports indicate the France family is looking to sell their majority share of Nascar. If they do sell it, I hope whoever buys it gets it back to the roots of Nascar. If you have a few billion lying around you don't know what to do with, give the France family a call. (Goldman Sachs is working with them finding a buyer. If you've got that kind of money, chances are Goldman Sachs is already on your speed dial.) 

 

Over the last ten years or so they've gone from sold-out tracks that were expanding to keep up with demand, to nearly empty tracks with a general loss of interest.


I'm not a fan, but my dad sure was. We come from Bodine country and racing was always popular in our area. I went to a few races in Watkins Glen with my dad and although I didn't really enjoy the race it was fun being with my dad at something he really liked. He would not like the new direction of NASCAR. Oh, and my mom was a fan too, she loved Mark Martin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts."
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,030
Registered: ‎03-29-2015

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale


@gardenman wrote:

Reports indicate the France family is looking to sell their majority share of Nascar. If they do sell it, I hope whoever buys it gets it back to the roots of Nascar. If you have a few billion lying around you don't know what to do with, give the France family a call. (Goldman Sachs is working with them finding a buyer. If you've got that kind of money, chances are Goldman Sachs is already on your speed dial.) 

 

Over the last ten years or so they've gone from sold-out tracks that were expanding to keep up with demand, to nearly empty tracks with a general loss of interest.


" gets it back to the roots of Nascar".  I'm not a fan.  Never was never will be.  I am curious however, what are the roots of Nascar?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale


@JillyMarie wrote:

@gardenman wrote:

Reports indicate the France family is looking to sell their majority share of Nascar. If they do sell it, I hope whoever buys it gets it back to the roots of Nascar. If you have a few billion lying around you don't know what to do with, give the France family a call. (Goldman Sachs is working with them finding a buyer. If you've got that kind of money, chances are Goldman Sachs is already on your speed dial.) 

 

Over the last ten years or so they've gone from sold-out tracks that were expanding to keep up with demand, to nearly empty tracks with a general loss of interest.


" gets it back to the roots of Nascar".  I'm not a fan.  Never was never will be.  I am curious however, what are the roots of Nascar?


If you go way, way back, Nascar got it's start from moonshine runners who would soup-up their cars to try and outrun the authorities. They then started to compete against one another to see who had the fastest car and the best driver. These races between moonshine runners started to draw crowds and soon  moved to race tracks to house the crowds. More and more tracks sprang up, but the rules of the race would vary from track to track. What was allowed at one track was banned at another. In 1949 Bill France first organized Nascar. It was designed to be a governing body that would unify the rules so every track would have a shared set of rules for racing. (There just weren't a lot of rules back then.) 

 

It wasn't long before drivers were making more money with less risk racing than delivering moonshine. Competition between drivers was more than a little intense with races often ending in fisticuffs between rival drivers. Rules back then were more general guidelines than strict rules and the old drivers would say, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying."

 

Over the years Nascar has evolved to the point where everything is now micro-managed. In the old days teams could set a car up to suit their drivers. Different drivers like their cars to handle differently. Pretty much everything but the engine was changeable. Teams could pick different transmissions, rear ends, gear ratios, control how much or little spoiler they used, etc. They could adjust and even swap out components midrace. Now  absolutely everything on the cars is specified and monitored. The cars are measured to the thousandths of an inch to be sure they're all in compliance. 

 

Nascar has gone from being a down and dirty sport to a scientific experiment. It needs to get back to its roots. We need to see it de-evolve back to what it was before the last decade or two when it really started to be micro-managed. 

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
Honored Contributor
Posts: 33,631
Registered: ‎03-20-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

@gardenman

 

And who does Kyle Busch drive for ---my main man Joe Gibbs!

After Riggo...big personalities like Kyle dont scare him---Woman WinkWoman Very Happy  Your right, most everything is the same....all the cars, and the majority of the drivers's personalities are all the same NASCAR is BLAH!

 

I dont call myself a NASCAR fan, but if nothing else is on I do peek into a race every now and then to keep an eye on how Joe Gibbs Racing is doing...........

Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, grateful. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”
Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Nascar's apparently for sale

I suspect that Joe Gibbs and the other team owners are a tad concerned about the falling popularity of Nascar. About twenty years ago there were waiting lists for tickets at most tracks. Now there are tons of empty seats and declining television ratings. Creating a Nascar team involves the investment of tens of millions of dollars. You make that investment expecting a good return on your investment, but that's looking less and less likely these days.

 

Nascar needs to fix what's broken, and they need to fix it soon. If they don't, Nascar may no longer exist.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!