My Thoughts on Why Nascar TV Viewership is Down

Nascar race TV viewership is down for the whole year. A brief review of Nascar history shows that the Chase was created to generate more TV viewership, more at track attendance and to generate excitement for the sport. Brian France instituted the Chase after Matt Kenseth won the Championship with a runaway points lead.

This year it does not appear to be working. In theory, home viewership should be up: with the economy the way it is, at track attendance should be down as more people stay home to watch the races.

So why are the numbers falling? There are several reasons, some which Nascar cannot fix, but others that could be tweaked to gain back viewers.

Things Nascar Can Fix:

1. Overhype of the Chase. Starting with the Daytona 500, all we hear about is the Chase. The NFL does not hype the Super Bowl this way throughout the year, MLB doesn't hype the World Series this way, and neither should Nascar. We all know it is coming. And we all know that it is too early to talk about in the first couple races. Knock it off. In fact, it should not be hyped until we are within 3 races of the Chase's start, and then only sparingly. Save the PR until we have a field set.

2. Overhype during the Chase. Watching the first race in the Chase, the announcers act like every lap is vitally important in the Chase. "If Gordon doesn't pass Stewart soon, he'll drop all the way to third in the Chase." And it's lap #3! When something catastrophic happens, then let us know how it impacts the Chase.

3. Ignoring Non-Chase drivers. While the drivers having the best year are in the Chase and are likely to be up front, there still are 30 other guys out there. Talk about them, and not just when they (nearly) crash into a Chaser.

4. Tweak the Rules to get into the Chase. I'm fine with an arbitrary number of drivers, but let's look at the line. Change the rule to top 12 plus any race winning drivers within 100 points of #12. Some years this may be no one, and others it may be a couple guys. But if a team pulled it together enough to be within 100 points of the top 12 AND won a race, let them in.

5. Uniform Start times: I applaud Nascar for deciding on uniform start times. I think they may actually listen to the fans once in a while.

6. Fix the schedule: We have too many races. Trim a few by adding a rotation of tracks - instead of 2 races per year, Track #1 gets one race plus one race in odd years. Track #2 gets the other race in even numbered years. The Chase races should include a bigger variety of tracks. Why not Sonoma? Bristol? Richmond?

Things Nascar Can't Fix:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s past few seasons have not gone well. Despite the high hopes after his signing at Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Jr. has failed to deliver consistent finishes and wins. That hurts viewership when your most popular driver isn't in the Championship. Do you think Michael Jordan would have been as legendary if he had never played in the Championship games? The same applies here.

2. Jimmie Johnson's domination. Johnson has schooled the field each of the past three years. Before that, he was in contention up until the last race. Frankly, many long time fans I know are bored with the Chase because they expect Johnson to win it all. They are not excited about the Chase. Maybe when Johnson retires they will be back.

3. Football: Probably the biggest thief of viewers is football. College and NFL games lure away marginal & dedicated fans.

Nascar needs to look at its product and make a few changes. Otherwise, the decline of viewers will lead to a decrease in revenue as the TV package will not be worth as much as it did a few years ago.

California Proves It Knows Chasers Early in Season

Back in February, I posted a blog about a theory that Dustin Long, a nascar beat writer for Southern newspapers, proposed.  Basically, Long pointed out that for the past four years, on average, seven of the top ten finishers at California advance to the Chase.

How did California do this year? Well the track got 8 of the 12 correct.  Here is the Top Ten list from this year's 1st race at Fontana, California (I still can't bear to call it by its sponsored name).

1.  Matt Kenseth

2.  Jeff Gordon

3.  Kyle Busch

4.  Greg Biffle

5.  Kurt Busch

6.  Denny Hamlin

7.  Carl Edwards

8.  Tony Stewart

9.  Jimmie Johnson

10. Brian Vickers

Knoxville Nationals

Last week began the annual dirt track orgy in Iowa.  Knoxville Raceway was host to the three day Knoxville 360 Nationals, followed by a USAC Silver Crown Non-Wing Nationals on Sunday.

If four days wasn't enough, tonight was the Front Row Challenge in Oskaloosa, Iowa for winged sprint cars.  Rumor has it Kasey Kahne was going to Osky immediately following his run at the Glen.

Tomorrow night, Osky runs non-wing sprint cars.  Then the Granddaddy of them all starts on Wednesday at Knoxville as qualifying runs, heats and features start.

The Knoxville Nationals culminate with the A Main broadcast on SPEED on Saturday night.  But before that, there are lots of great drivers to be seen, races to be run, and homemade pie to eat. (Thank God the Rotary has the pie tent back this year!  I think I'll gain about 10 pounds thinking of it.).

What drivers will be around, you ask? Kasey Kahne hangs around Knoxville until he has to go to Michigan.  Tony Stewart can be spotted frequently too.  Mario Andretti will be at the Hall of Fame tomorrow (he was inducted in 1996).  Doug Wolfgang usually appears, as does Shane Carson, and Sammy Swindell (he will be running this year).   Erin Crocker is running the Nationals, as is Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Joey Saldana, Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski and many other WoO drivers.  USAC regular Daron Clayton, California ace Tim Kaeding, Tyler Walker and several members of the Pennsylvania Posse:  Lucas Wolfe, Ed Lynch Jr,  Fast Freddy Rahmer, and Cody Darrah will all be at Knoxville this week.

Sponsorship Deals We're Unlikely to See Anytime Soon

The economy is tough right now and teams are scrambling to line up sponsorship for next year. Roush Fenway Racing announced that DeWalt would be leaving Matt Kenseth's #17, but Crown Royal will shift from the #26 to the #17.  However, with even more changes looming in the future, these are a few sponsorship deals I think we're unlikely to see.

Elliott Sadler &  PETA.  Sadler is an avid hunter, and I doubt he will give up his winter pastime so easily.  Equally unlikely is Ryan Newman - PETA, as he is an avid fisherman.

Kyle Busch & Self Tanning Lotion.  Kyle is nearly so fair that he is translucent.  As a hard-core sunscreen wearer myself, I sympathize.  But Kyle's complexion will not lend itself well to self-tanning.

Jimmie Johnson/Tony Stewart & Gillette.  Jimmie recently shaved his stubble, igniting news coverage.   Whether he remains clean-shaven the rest of the year remains to be seen.  Stewart has demonstrated his shaving laziness during his whole career. Can you imagine how long the the PR flack assigned to tell Smoke to shave everyday would live?

Jeff Gordon & Budweiser.  Somehow Gordon's suave aura doesn't bring to mind the partying ways of Budweiser.  Red Wine? Sure.  But Bud?!?

Kasey Kahne & A Dance School.  Commercial to the contrary, I doubt Kasey will be endorsed for his dancing skills. 

Greg Biffle & Whiffle Ball.  Although the slogan is catchy, I don't see "Biffle Whiffle" catching on.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Ford.  Junior's father would come back and spank him.  Although Senior may prefer it to Toyota/Honda/Hyundai...

Roush Fenway Racing & Toyota.  A sure sign of the end of the world.

Iowa Speedway's First Nascar Nationwide Race

This weekend, Iowa Speedway hosts its first Nationwide race. The track that Rusty Wallace helped build has generated a lot of buzz in recent years, but the anticipated Nascar arrival is finally here.

The track is a 7/8 mile track modeled after Richmond with a few Wallace tweaks. Drivers report the corners are "big" enough to allow racing through them, and the smooth surface allows maximum speed. Iowans have supported the Speedway with large crowds at events that don't traditionally draw crowds. USAC fans were heard to exclaim the crowd for a qualifying day was unlike anything they had ever seen at a track, while the IRL and Nascar Camping World East-West races boast capacity crowds for their events. Tomorrow, nearly 57,000 are expected, with the Speedway building temporary stands to accommodate the crowd. If the crowd is that large, it will be the largest crowd for a racing event in Iowa (which is saying something when the Knoxville Nationals at its height clocked in around 40,000 and the Boone SuperNationals have several thousand each year as well).

During a press conference, Kyle Busch pointed out that this Nationwide race would potentially have more people at it than attended the Cup race a couple weeks ago at Chicago.

Iowa Speedway has hosted many events including IRL races, USAC races, Nascar's Camping World East-West series race, ARCA races, Hooter's Pro Cup races, Grand Am road races and motorcycle events. Nascar Sprint Cup stars who have tried out the track include: Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, and Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya ran one of his first stock car races at the track several years ago when he was transitioning from Formula One to stock cars. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards have both tested at the track. Earnhardt drew a crowd of a few hundred for a test session.

The track is ready to go and fans are urged to arrive early to avoid the typical rae traffic backup.

"I Never Understood the Utility of That Particular Appendage"

Originally Posted on May 2, 2006 on foxsports.com

Before Danica-mania, there was Janet Guthrie.  Guthrie was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame late last week for her contributions to the sport.  It is Guthrie's contributions to the sport that opened doors for Danica, Sarah Fisher and other women to enter motorsports.

Guthrie was the first woman to earn a starting position in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.  And she accomplished it in the same year, 1977.  She ran races in both the Indy car series and Winston Cup in the late 1970's.

It was not easy going for Guthrie, and she had to endure the trash-talking by a large number of the men she raced against.  Guthrie kept her sense of humor and won many of them over by her fearlessness, speed, and her car handling abilities. 

One of the stories Guthrie told during her acceptance speech was about a French driver who was asked what he thought about (professional) women drivers. The driver replied "I think they'd be missing something between the legs." 

"I never understood the utility of that particular appendage" retorted Guthrie to the laughs of the crowd.  She continued by telling another story about out qualifying three time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford.  After her qualification run, David Pearson commented "She's got to have them somewhere."

Guthrie was a racers racer - she's raced a variety of cars and has had success doing it.  Like many of her contemporaries, she drove both the nascar circuit and the indy car circuit along with other series and car types.

Sports Cars

Prior to her success in Indy cars or Nascar, Guthrie spent 13 years in sports car road racing where she built and maintained her own cars.   This was only natural given her physics degree and experience as an aerospace engineer and flight instructer.  During her sports car days, Guthrie had two class victories at the 12 Hours at Sebring.

Indy Cars

In 1976, Guthrie attempted to make the field at Indy, but was not fast enough.  The next year, she showed up and set the fastest time of the day at Indy on May 7th and May 22, 1977.  At the Indianapolis 50, Guthrie had the best finish by a woman until last year - she finished 9th in 1978.  To put this in perspective, in 1978, there were 92 entrants for the Indy 500 with 33 awarded starting spots.

She finished fifth in a race at Milwaukee in 1979, which was the best finish by a woman for 21 years.  That same year, she qualified fourth at Pocono to A.J. Foyt, Danny Ongais and Johnny Parsons.

Nascar

Guthrie is the only woman to lead a Cup race.  Her 6th place finish at Bristol in 1977 is the best finish by a woman in the superspeedway era.

She out qualified and/or finished better than Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnett and Johnny Rutherford at Talladega in 1977.

Guthrie out qualified and/or finished better than Elliott in 7 out of 10 races in which both ran.  She out qualified and/or finished better than Dale Earnhardt in 2 of 3 races in which both ran.  She out qualified and/or finished better than Johnny Rutherford in all 3 races both ran.

Given these statistics, the induction into the Hall of Fame was well deserved.

 Information from janetguthrie.com, nascar.com, indianapolis motorspeedway, indy racing league.

From Senna to Earnhardt: The Development of the HANS device

Originally Posted on Foxsports on April 25, 2006.

I am in the process of migrating many of my blogs to an archieve.  This is one I wrote three years ago about the HANS device.  I am still amazed that we had to lose two legendary drivers to implement a device that had been around for years before their accidents.

May 1st marks twelve years since Ayrton Senna was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.   While leading the race, Senna slid off the track causing his right front tire to break off with its suspension.  The tire and suspension hit Senna in the head, causing  his death.  Senna's death followed by one day the death of another Formula One driver, Roland Ratzenberger, at the same track.

Senna was and is regarded as one of (if not the) best Formula One drivers ever.  Last weekend, another great driver, Michael Schumacher, captured his 66th pole - breaking a tie he held for most poles with Senna.  Ironically, the race last weekend was at Imola.

The race following Senna's death was marred by a serious accident involving another Formula One driver.  While this accident did not result in death, the press and public were disenchanted with the dangers of Formula One racing and began demanding new safety measures. In a twist of fate, Senna had been leading the charge for safety the morning of his death during an informal meeting with other drivers. 

February 18th marked five years since Dale Earnhardt was killed during the Daytona 500.  Earnhardt was and is regarded as one of (if not the) best stock car drivers ever.  Earnhardt was on the final lap of the race when he crashed, ultimately dying from the head injuries he sustained.  Earnhardt's death followed the deaths of Kenny Irwin, Adam Petty and Tony Roper.   

Following Earnhardt's death, the public and the drivers were unhappy with driver safety and demanded that something be done to prevent any further racing deaths.

Fast forwarding to today, most race sanctioning bodies mandate the use of a HANS device (Head And Neck Support) for drivers.  The device is to prevent the violent and often fatal head injuries sustained in high speed / high impact crashes.  The HANS device was brought to the forefront in most American's minds after the death of Earnhardt, however, the device was available well before that. 

And perhaps the tragedy is that the device was available to drivers before the death of Earnhardt and even before the death of Senna.

The HANS Device was developed by Dr. Robert Hubbard , a professor at Michigan State and his brother-in-law, Jim Downing, to prevent head injuries from racing accidents.  After testing, the device was marketed in 1991 - a decade before Earnhardt's fatal crash. 

In October of 1996, (after Senna's death), FIA, Mercedes-Benz, and McClaren contacted Hubbard and formed an agreement to adapt the device to Forumla One use. 

Why mandate HANS?  According to "Helping Hans" by Ross Stonefeld in Atlas F1:

Below are average strengths of the head and neck. The force withstood is dependent on location of impact, strike object size, and bone tissue density amongst other factors.

• Frontal bone (forehead): 1,000 to 1,600lbs of force
• Temporal-parietal (sides of head): 700 - 1900lbs of force.
• Rear skull: 1,440
• Facial: 280 - 520
• Neck (under forward movement): 140

In a full human form crash test simulating a 40mph dead stop impact utilising the HANS device, neck loading was kept under 130lbs whilst the unrestrained head endured over 1,000lbs

"As soon as your head - which weighs, with the helmet, 13 or 14 pounds - has a sudden acceleration, it stretches your neck," (Jim) Downing explains. "If it stretches a little too far, you get a neck fracture or a skull fracture at the base of the skull where your head connects to your spine. With HANS on, the head sort of goes forward then back and looks OK. At the same speed with a fully belted dummy, the head smashes into the steering wheel and it's just appalling. The drivers say, 'Wow. That can't be.' In layman terms, keeping your head close to your body is what it's all about with HANS."

Racing will never be an entirely safe sport.  Hopefully the HANS device, or devices similar to it, can cut down on the number of deaths and the severity of the injuries sustained. 

We will never know if Senna or Earnhardt could have been saved by a HANS device.  But we all know drivers who's lives were saved by it - whether we know it or not.

 

Information gathered from Stonefeld, Wikipedia, Formula One, Jayski, and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain.

Confessions of a Racing Junkie Part II

Originally Posted on December 15, 2005 on Foxsports.com

I realized I had a problem when I watched the 1999 Daytona 500 _Qualifications_ on TV.  I was craving a racing fix, and the winter without a race had been tough.

Tony Stewart was a rookie in 1999.  He earned lots of money racing; I spent lots of time watching racing. 

It was a small addiction then.  Missing a race didn't bother me (especially in the summer stretch).  Sometimes I wouldn't even know who won until a week later.  Nascar racing was available most of the year - no worries on missing a race.

Eventually, that changed when I moved and didn't have cable or satellite TV.  As the weeks went by, I missed racing again.  I needed the high of seeing stock cars race.  So, like any junkie, I found a new "dealer" = the radio.  It got me through the part of the schedule when I couldn't get the race on TV.

Years had gone by since I discovered this euphoria called racing, and I thought I had been hiding my racing problem well.  I didn't discuss racing because no one knew or cared anything about it.  I realized I had failed at hiding the amount of time I was spending on  racing when my brother bought me tickets to a race for Christmas.  "You should probably see one live sometime." he said.

My persistant- yet almost manageable - addiction was about to get a lot worse.

Confessions of a Racing Junkie Part I

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on December 14, 2005.

It started innocently enough.  After I finally finished my education, I was traveling across country with my Dad, and we stopped in Indianapolis (where else) to visit my aunt & uncle.  My uncle offered me the first seductive hit of racing by "forcing" us to watch a nascar race.  I don't recall seeing stock cars race before.  I suppose I knew it existed, but it had never registered on my radar.  Traditional stick & ball sports were my experience - both watching and playing.  However, my uncle's enthusiasm for this motor sport thing was catching.  And after that first hit, I remember thinking "I could learn to really like that."

Several months later I had my first memorable encounter with a nascar junkie.  He had all the trappings of a true nascar fan.  He owed numerous die cast cars, T-shirts, neon signs and other assorted junk.  I don't think he could decide which beer company to support, so he bought racing stuff from them all.  To top it off, he couldn't stop explaining the Daytona 500 qualification process to me and my co-worker.  We thought he was a scary  - so we set a new land speed record cleaning his house and bolted.

Shortly thereafter, I moved to a new town.  And, in the secret confines of my apartment, I began regularly taking hits of nascar races.  On Saturdays, I watched Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth battle it out for the Busch series championship.  But on Sundays, I avoided the racing scene - everyone would be talking football, basketball or baseball  - and I didn't want them to know about this new habit I had picked up.

Tragedy Barely Avoided at Georgia Aquarium

Originally Posted on March 6, 2009 on foxsports.com.

ATLANTA, GA.  Quick thinking by Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds saved the life of one of Fox Sports' broadcast team.

Last night, the Fox Sports broadcasting team visited the Georgia Aquarium to gather footage for the broadcast on Sunday.  During the visit, Digger, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum, Chris Myers and Larry McReynolds all stopped atop the Hammerhead shark tank to watch the after-hours feeding.    Something horribly went wrong as Digger was tossed into the tank as the shark feeding frenzy began.

"I don't know what happened," said Byrnes.  "He was standing beside me, and suddenly launched into the tank.  I don't know if he jumped or was pushed."

"All I heard was Yocum yelling about how he couldnt' ruin his hair getting into the water, while Hammond was complaining about his tan running," remarked Myers.  "I was worried my expensive Italian loafers would get wet, so I couldn't jump in.  No, I'm not kidding and I don't care."

"It was then that Darrell just jumped right in there.  I think he said 'bogity, bogity, bogity, get outta my way, boys!' as he dived in," explained Yocum.  "Larry tossed a wrench at one of the sharks who didn't acknowledge Darrell.  It bounced off his snout.  But overall, I've never seen such professional courtesy.  The sharks knew him and let him take Digger out.  I guess that 'Jaws' nickname was legit!"

Digger is expected to fully recover, although he has put off several appearances in the Atlanta area today and tomorrow.   One source close to Digger said that Digger wasn't sure what happened, but he swore he was pushed and didn't slip into the tank.

Officials have begun an investigation into who may have pushed Digger in.  "Digger isn't as well loved as Fox would lead us to believe.  There have been credible threats by several people.  Namely FoxSports bloggers and Nascar fans," added Detective P. Columbo.  Columbo noted that several blogs, email accounts and twitter accounts had subpoenas issued for them today.

"And we haven't ruled out the crew either.  Byrnes had been heard complaining that Digger got more air time than he did just last week.  Yocum grumbled to friends that he thought Digger was stealing the cute fans away from his fan club.  Don't forget Miles Monster, of Dover, Delaware.  He issued a challenge last week that Digger had not better show his face in Dover or there would be serious consequences." 

The Nascar on Fox representative brushed aside all concerns, and commented that, "We are confident that this was an accident.  Fortunately no one was hurt."