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closePerfection? Maybe racing isn't where you should be looking
THATSRACIN.COM OPINION
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007
NASCAR is not perfect.
It’s also not in the desperate straits some people seem to think it is. But a lot of fans are in kind of a strange place in terms of the sport.
They’re complaining, a lot, but what should be more troubling to NASCAR is some fans almost revel in any sign the sport is struggling.
Television ratings are down, and some fans view that as validation of their gripes. Races start too late. Races are too long, or not long enough.
NASCAR is choking off competition with the car of tomorrow or personalities with too many rules and penalties. An oldie but a goodie: NASCAR is playing favorites with one driver, one team or one manufacturer or, well, just Chevrolet.
Some fans say ratings are down because of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Ratings were down pretty much all season, and it’s impossible to know whether television numbers would be lower if there was no Chase.
Look, as long as the Bowl Championship Series exists in college football, there’s no way the Chase will be the worst championship format in major sports.
I actually think a Cup season without a Chase would be too much like the ridiculous BCS system.
Fans who like the previous system say they want a champion to be determined by what happens during the entire season. Well, should a bad race in March cost you a championship in November, any more than one game lost during September knock a good football team out of the national title chase?
At least with the Chase, everybody knows to win the championship you have to play well enough to make it into the postseason and perform well once you get there. Wouldn’t college football be set up for an absolutely great playoff this year?
The point is a lot of race fans are discontented with what they’re still quite likely to call their favorite sport. The passion that sets NASCAR fans apart from fans of some sports cuts both ways.
If the fans feel their sport is being wrongfully attacked, they’ll rally to its defense. They’re also very quick to turn on things when they think the sport has gone awry.
If you’re running NASCAR, the question is whether your fans are more disgruntled today than they were 10 or 20 years ago? Or, does it just seem that way because of e-mail and message boards and a 24-hour satellite radio network and other places for opinions to be vented?
Honestly, I don’t know. I do know what I think NASCAR should do during this offseason, beginning with this week in New York, to try to address this discontent.
Absolutely nothing.
Could the Chase stand tweaks? Should NASCAR look again at the rule that exempts 35 teams into each race based on owner points? Should NASCAR try to encourage manufacture rivalries? Should the path toward consolidation in team ownership be thought through in detail?
In a long-term sense, the answers to those questions is yes.
Now, though, more major change is the last thing NASCAR needs. The titles of the top series are going to change to Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series next year. That’s enough.
The sport needs a year to stabilize.
Let teams run a couple of races at every track with the new car. Let the tweaks made to the Chase before 2007 run another year. Allow the major changes, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing switching from Chevrolet to Toyota, play themselves out.
The ship that is NASCAR is not on fire and sinking, despite what some would have you believe. The boat is being rocked by some fairly rough seas, and I think the smart move is to just ride it out to see if the waves won’t settle down, at least a little, before you start needing to bail water.