Jeff Owens: Five things NASCAR needs to happen to rekindle fan interest

By Jeff Owens

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Denny Hamlin fights for position at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hamlin, or someone else, needs to step up and challenge Jimmie Johnson this season in an effort to help rekindle fan interest.

Archive
NASCAR Illustrated

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- StumbleUpon
52 Comments

Excitement is in the air as NASCAR’s Sprint Cup teams descend on Daytona International Speedway and fans get revved up for the Daytona 500 and the 2010 season.

But NASCAR faces some serious issues as it heads into a new season.

Attendance is down. TV ratings continue to decline. Souvenir sales are in the tank. And the tough economy is taking a toll on the sport, forcing teams to tighten their belts and making sponsors more difficult to find.

All this means one thing: Fan interest is on the decline.

How does NASCAR address these issues, appeasing disenchanted fans and curbing declining interest?

There are five things NASCAR needs to do, or needs to happen, to spark a revival, reigniting the passion and loyalty that once made stock-car racing America’s fastest growing sport:

1.   Dale Earnhardt Jr. needs to win

Brian France, much to the chagrin of Earnhardt Jr. and fellow competitors, said two years ago that the lull NASCAR was experiencing could be solved by one thing – a resurgence by Dale Jr.

That’s the kind of pressure that’s on Earnhardt Jr. Not only does he have a family legacy to live up to and the largest fan base in the sport to please, he has the weight of the whole sport on his shoulders.

But like it or not, France is right. An Earnhardt Jr. victory would do more for the sport right now than anything NASCAR could do.

Earnhardt Jr. has the largest fan base in the sport. His fans are more loyal and more passionate than any others, and their interest in the sport as a whole ebbs and flows with Junior’s success on the track. When he struggles, many simply tune out.

If Earnhardt Jr. suddenly turns things around and becomes a consistent winner, and maybe even a championship contender, again, fan interest would soar.

And that would immediately translate into more fans at races and in front of television sets each week.

2.   Jimmie Johnson needs a challenge

Johnson is one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, and his run to four straight championships is one of the sport’s greatest achievements.

But instead of reveling in his record-setting accomplishments, fans are tired of seeing him win.

It’s no coincidence that TV ratings have declined during the Chase as well as the regular season. As Johnson has cruised to title after title, fans have tuned out. Why watch when you know who is going to win?

Johnson is the overwhelming favorite to win a fifth straight championship this year, but someone needs to step up and present a serious challenge.

It’s been two years since he has faced a serious threat in the championship race. Teammate Jeff Gordon, who once dominated the sport himself, gave him a run for his money in 2007.

Tony Stewart led the points standings during the regular season last year, but fizzled prior to the Chase. Mark Martin looked like a threat for a while, but couldn’t sustain the momentum.

Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards were threats two years ago, but flamed out in the end.

Whether it’s Stewart, Martin, Gordon or someone else, fans need to know that there is a driver and a team that can beat Johnson and his No. 48 team.

Either someone needs to step up and demonstrate the type of dominance that Johnson displays at times, or Johnson and his team need to finally have an off year.

There have been a handful of potential threats the past four years, but only Johnson has sustained excellence.

Different drivers pose a threat each year, but, deep down, fans know that once the Chase begin, Johnson will kick it into high gear and take off, leaving all challengers in his wake.

That needs to change. Someone needs to step up and knock Johnson off his throne.

3.   The new spoiler needs to work

NASCAR is making a good move switching from the rear wing to a more traditional spoiler on its new car.

The wing, and the splitter, are both strange, making the car look like … well, not like a race car. It’s so different from NASCAR’s traditional stock car that fans – and competitors – just haven’t accepted it.

Worse yet, the wing and the new car have done very little to improve the competition on the track. Drivers and teams have had a tough time adapting, and it has shown on the race track.

To NASCAR’s credit, it realizes that and is making a drastic change.

Now, it needs to work.

The spoiler needs to make the new car look more like a race car, and it needs to produce better racing.

It needs to make the cars easier to drive and easier to adjust, allowing drivers to race closer together and put on a better show. Or, it needs to make them harder to drive, allowing the top drivers to go bumper to bumper and door to door.

Whether the current racing is worse or not, fans believe that it is, and often perception is more important than reality.

The spoiler needs to improve the competition on the track, or at least make fans believe that it does.

4.   NASCAR needs a rivalry

NASCAR officials have given drivers free reign to mix things up this year, to bump and bang and run into each other and throw a fit if they want.

Now the drivers must take advantage of it.

Fans may not want a fight each week, but they want to see contact on the track – as Brian France says, this is a contact sport – and drivers show a bit of emotion when they get riled up and things don’t go their way.

Rubbin’ is racing, and when drivers trade enough paint, it eventually leads to heated moments and a few eruptions.

NASCAR needs that to happen more often. It needs those moments to spark a feud or two, and it needs those feuds to develop into some long-lasting rivalries.

NASCAR burst onto the national scene in the 1970s thanks to rivalries between drivers like Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison. Its popularity exploded in the ‘80s thanks to rivalries between Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, and in the '90s between Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon.

Whether it’s Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya or Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, NASCAR needs a new rivalry to stir fans up.

NASCAR officials have laid the groundwork. Now it’s up to the drivers to mix things up.

5.   NASCAR needs to keep listening to the fans

After occasional missteps and questionable moves that damaged its credibility over the past 10 years, NASCAR appears to be back on the right path.

It’s doing perhaps the best thing that it can do to win fans back – listen.

In the past year, NASCAR has made several positive moves that fans asked for.

It implemented double-file restarts that have made the racing more exciting.

It is switching to earlier start times this season, appeasing fans that complained that the races have been starting too late on Sunday afternoon.

It has listened to complaints about the new car, and is attempting to address them by switching from the wing to the spoiler and pledging to make more changes if necessary.

And it is encouraging drivers to mix it up more and show more personality and emotion.

France and NASCAR’s current leadership acknowledge that the sport is in a bit of a lull. And they appear to understand that the best way to turn things around is by listening to the fans.

The fans are NASCAR’s greatest asset. Everyone else – the drivers, teams owners, sponsors and TV networks – don’t matter if there aren’t any fans to watch them perform or to see their products.

NASCAR needs to keep listening and do everything within reason to keep its fans happy and to protect its greatest asset.