Every time I read a paper, they are trying something new.
Now they are trying to end the season with some complicated series where they run multiple heats during a race. They think that is what the fans want.
I say at the end of the season, take the top 10 drivers and put them into a demolition derby. Maybe even a tournament series where they have to battle it one on one.
That's what people want out of auto-racing anyways. Lots of crashes.
The bolded portion is an absolutely dumb statement to make. While there's a small contingent of fans that live for crashes in all forms of motor racing, most don't want to see crashes due to the potential for serious or even fatal injury.
Honestly, I cannot understand why it was (or is) so popular. Have you ever sat all the way through a televised NASCAR race? It's freaking horrible.
Attend a NASCAR race in person, you'll understand why it's popular. Until you see cars doing north of 190MPH at a place like Daytona when guys are less than a foot away from each other, it becomes easier to appreciate what you are watching. Motor racing does not translate well to TV because conveying the visceral experience thru TV is impossible. It's the same reason why people who watch the Indy 500 on TV don't always think much of it. Bring those people to IMS for the 500, and when they see the cars doing 230MPH in front of them, along with the wind and sound it brings, it becomes a completely different experience. I've sat through plenty of NASCAR races, some are good, some are not so good.
NASCAR's problems currently are self-inflicted, and have a lot to do with Brian France. He took over from his old man Bill France, and has little understanding of the sport his family owns. He has been throwing endless shit at a wall for years now, and doesn't understand why they are losing fans. Once you alienate the diehard/core fanbase, you're going to have little ability to attract the casual fan. This latest effort to spice things up is probably going to result in a massive ratings drop due to the convoluted shitfest it is. Attendance and ratings have been on the decline for awhile now. Brian France spent $400 million to renovate Daytona Speedway the past few years, and it was not money well spent from my POV as Daytona hasn't sold out in a long time IIRC. If NASCAR wants entertainment, they need to move away from the current cars, and go back to low downforce cars as they were 25+ years ago...and running cars that actually look closer to their "stock" counterparts would do wonders. Most of the problems in 4-wheel auto racing today has to do with aerodynamics side of the car design. It does not facilitate interesting racing most of the time, and turns into a question of who has the most money to refine existing aero in order to find those precious tenths or even hundredths of a second in lap time.
