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Meg, I liked the flowers, too! Especially the gold/yellow one. I would much much rather look at those than the wrecks. I opened one of the wrecks and ignored...
Erik Spanberg: Business in racing
By Erik Spanberg - Contributing writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008
COMMENTARY
NASCAR’s junior circuit is showing signs of life with TV ratings early in the season.
The uptick comes even as many around the sport remain convinced that NASCAR must do more to differentiate what was born as the Busch Series and is now known as the Nationwide Series from its big brother, the Sprint Cup.
Through ESPN2’s first five Nationwide Series races, household viewership increased by 10 percent over 2007. That figure excludes the rained-out California date, which was run on a Monday.
ESPN/ABC has TV rights for all 34 Nationwide Series dates, with most airing on ESPN2. Through May 8, ESPN (two), ABC (two) and ESPN Classic (one) had also aired Nationwide races.
Network officials point to improved ratings for Sprint Cup races as a factor, as well as ESPN/ABC’s streamlined approach to NASCAR coverage. The latter emphasizes using the same production techniques and crew and presentation for Nationwide events as for Sprint races. ESPN/ABC carry the final 17 Sprint Cup races of the season, beginning in July with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
That’s why everything related to NASCAR is billed as NASCAR on ESPN. So whether it’s a Nationwide race or a Sprint Cup event, the same prerace coverage, whiz-bang production elements and announcing lineups are used.
ESPN officials acknowledge the most important factor is interest in NASCAR’s top-tier series, coming off consecutive years of declining ratings.
“Experience shows that Sprint and Nationwide generally trend together” in TV ratings, says Scott Guglielmino, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions. “And one of the things that’s happening across the board is you’re seeing drivers be more vocal and passionate with their emotions. That helps us a lot because it gives us threads for storylines and really helps you during a long season.”
A prime example was the recent on-track bumping between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond during a Sprint Cup race, sure to spark a long-running antipathy for Busch among Earnhardt’s legions of fans.
Earnhardt’s jump to Hendrick Motorsports to start 2008 had already piqued fan interest. Now, with the Busch episode and a far less dominant performance by Hendrick Motorsports compared with 2007, fans – for the moment, anyway – seem to be watching more NASCAR than they did a year ago. On the Nationwide side, the April 26 race at Talladega has been the top performer to date. It was watched in 3 million households, the highest for a Nationwide event since ESPN/ABC returned to NASCAR in 2007. ESPN and ESPN2 each reach 96 million TV households.
Despite those gains, many industry experts say the biggest potential for the No. 2 NASCAR series lies in what is done to make it unique.
“All of the buzz that I hear is about what they’re going to do with it,” says Trip Wheeler, vice president of motorsports at consulting firm
Velocity. “A lot of people are waiting for it become something else.”
The main problem, Wheeler and others say, is the double-edged sword of having numerous Sprint Cup drivers participating in Nationwide races. Their presence helps attract fans, but, at the same time, curbs the potential for cultivating young stars. It also creates an identity problem, as the Nationwide Series becomes little more than a watered-down Sprint Cup race.
Among the possible changes Wheeler finds intriguing is putting drivers in sports cars such as Mustangs and Camaros to make the Nationwide circuit stand out and, perhaps more important, no longer allowing Sprint Cup drivers to accumulate points when they race at the lower level.
“Otherwise it’s like letting Michael Jordan go back and play college ball while he was in the NBA,” Wheeler says. “Who would have wanted to see that? I think [Nationwide] can be distinctive with a few changes that would make a huge difference.”
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the AMP Energy 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6248 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -184 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -192 |
| 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -239 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -279 |
| 6 | Kurt Busch | -312 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -340 |
| 8 | Ryan Newman | -402 |
| 9 | Kasey Kahne | -414 |
| 10 | Carl Edwards | -437 |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | -448 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -556 |
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