Randy Smith: The Decline Of NASCAR

  • Friday, July 13, 2018
  • Randy Smith
Randy Smith
Randy Smith
The buzz that surrounded Nascar races in the Daytona Beach area a decade ago is no more. I have been coming to Ponce Inlet Florida annually for the past forty years or so and bringing my entire family with me. Usually, it's in the summer months around the time of the mid-season race at the Daytona International speedway. Ten to fifteen years ago, you couldn't find a hotel room, condo or even a house available to rent because of the huge crowds that surged upon the Daytona area. There was an electricity all week long, with vendors selling Nascar souvenirs on every corner.
A good portion of the Daytona Flea Market parking lot would be covered with some of those same vendors for almost two weeks before the race, and even a few days after. When you would enter some of the eating and drinking establishments you could see walls lined with sacred pictures of Nascar legends from the birth of the sport through the modern day. That's even gone away. There used to be a huge Nascar gift shop on the beach, near the Boardwalk but it went out of business a couple of years ago. 

Nascar stopped reporting attendance figures at races a few years ago but if you go to a race at any track you can see a lot of empty seats. The projected attendance for the 2017 Brickyard 400 was only 35,000 fans. In a venue that seats close to 235,000, that's a lot of empty seats; 200,000 of them to be exact. There is a lot of speculation about the reasoning behind Nascar's decline. One is the economy, but with the nation's economy being better in the last five to six years, I find that hard to believe, though when the economy really tanked in 2009, Nascar was affected more than any other professional sport. It's like fans left the sport and haven't returned. Another reason that it's not all the economy's fault is that it doesn't cost a penny to watch a race on television, but TV ratings are way down as well.

There is also the theory that the business is poorly run. The France family ran Nascar from its inception and the family still runs the sport, though Nascar legend Richard Petty recently asked, "Who's running Nascar? Where does the buck stop? "
     
I personally believe it's a combination of these things and at least one more. There is no real face of Nascar. For years it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was the most popular driver in the sport for years and years, yet he never won a cup series championship. The highest Junior ever finished in the chase for the cup standings was third. Now, he has retired and gone to the broadcast booth on NBC's coverage. The winningest drivers in the last two decades have been Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who are both from California and are anything but exciting.  

Perhaps the biggest single factor in the decline is this; Nascar has really gotten to be a boring sport. Most fans came to Nascar races to see the big crashes and wrecks, but safety issues have made a Nascar race really vanilla and unlike the sport that was run on the beaches of Daytona in the 1950's and 60's. When there is a big pile-up on the track now, it seemingly takes forever to clear the track and re-start the race. The Busch brothers, (Kyle and Kurt) as well as Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick seem to be among the best drivers but none has a dominant personality like Dale Junior. 

So, where does this lead us ? I have never been a huge fan of Nascar but I covered the sport on television and even attended a few races. It used to be a fun sport to watch, but now, not so much. I don't have any idea how to get the "buzz" back but if something doesn't happen soon, Nascar will be no bigger than the professional bowling circuit. Nascar really needs a "Ricky Bobby" type figure, (Will Ferrell's character in Talladega Nights) to save the sport and "Shake and Bake" things up.  
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Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com
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