Former NASCAR and Indy Car driver Danica Patrick thinks that NASCAR’s races are too long and that’s why the club isn’t successful in drawing new fans. Danica isn’t the only critic, though.
We also saw a piece that former NASCAR Cup driver Geoff Bodine of NY State and also residing in Franklin, MA shares Danica’s thoughts. Bodine spent a long-time racing and winning many NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races in New England and the northeast before he graduated into the NASCAR Cup Series and won several of those Cup races, including the Daytona 500 and many other marque events.
Bodine thinks lots of wrecks on the NASCAR tracks are another factor contributing to NASCAR”S problems. “In my day when I made a deal with a car owner, I was told don’t wreck my cars because they are worth a lot of money.”
The writer’s opinion is that the tide receded on NASCAR many years ago starting with the Recession of 2008 and the tragic accident at Daytona that took the life of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
Another critic is my friend Bruce Cohen AKA the “Rag Man” of Somerville, MA who rarely goes to any races these days because he’s lost interest and has other family responsibilities.
He told me the other day that he agrees with both Danica and Geoff. Rag Man’s views the fact that the current crop of Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series drivers could care less about getting close to the fans for autograph sessions and the like and mixing it up with the public.
Both legends of NASCAR Richard Petty and Bob Allison would stay in the pits into the wee hours after a Cup race signing autographs for their fans. Both Petty and Allison knew the importance of pressing the flesh with those ticket and souvenir buyers.
Rag Man also cites the fact that when NASCAR was almost as popular as the NFL big crowds showed up for every race. Going back to 2008, it was very difficult to get a ticket for a Cup race everywhere that series appeared at coast-to-coast venues. Then all the gold mines disappeared. I had a friend the late Peter Clancy of Pembroke, MA who often said, “When you’re on top there’s on one way to go and that’s down.” That’s the history of NASCAR.
When NASCAR was at the top of its game, the driver and race team souvenir trucks crowded the midways behind the grandstands to sell T-shirts, team jackets, hats, model race cars and the like. When the late Dale Earnhardt was asked by a press wag what he thought about winning a NASCAR Cup Championship. He replied ” That’s nothing compared to the fact that I sold $15 million in T-shirts!” We’re sure that other successful Cup Teams shared in that money waterfall then!
Those were the good old days that were followed by removing half the seats from those tracks. Some marketing whiz in the NASCAR corral called it “Right Sizing” rather than admitting that he and the tracks had no idea what went wrong?