Sluggish television ratings and decreasing attendance has left NASCAR searching for answers.
INDIANAPOLIS -- It should be a time of great optimism within NASCAR. Except that it's not.
The season opened with the sport's most popular driver winning the biggest race. One of its most beloved figures nearing the end of an illustrious career leads the championship standings. Yet the problems, numerous, are visible for all to see. The solutions are numerous, too, and -- depending who you ask -- may not be necessary at all.
As all eyes turn to historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Brickyard 400 for the sport's second biggest race, it's hard to avoid the feeling that the sport has some key decisions ahead.
Among the most pressing concerns:
-- Television ratings are spiraling downward even with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the midst of a career year and Jeff Gordon appearing to be a strong contender to win a fifth championship. Fifteen of the first 16 races saw a drop in ratings (excluding three races that were either delayed a day or moved from network to cable because of rain), according to Sports Media Watch.
-- Despite no longer being made public, attendance continues to decline. Wide swaths of empty seats have been visible at several tracks. Dover International Speedway's CEO apologized in the prerace drivers' meeting for the lack of spectators prior to the June 1 event. Venues including Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway have combated this by removing seats, and in the case of Daytona, whole section of grandstands.
-- Most foreboding, a group of nine car owners representing the biggest teams in the garage have formed a coalition. They are seeking a way to control the escalating costs of operating a team in a still recovering economy, in which companies no longer see NASCAR as a money maker. Nothing is imminent, but a showdown between the sanctioning body and the Race Team Alliance seems looming.
Yet NASCAR's leaders insist all is good.
They point towards a record television deal that kicks in next season. One which FOX and NBC will pay a combined $8.2 billion to broadcast Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races for the next 10 years.
The level of competition, while not always the definition of edge-of-your-seat excitement, has improved. And numerous story lines have emanated from the revised process to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup that now features a greater emphasis on winning.
NASCAR deserves praise for both of these advances. Ironically, though, the positives have played a large part in forming the storm clouds that now hover over the sport.
Rolled out last season the Gen-6 was the second new car in less than 10 years -- each radical in design, requiring new parts, pieces and manpower, with little teams could carry over from one to the other. An expensive venture, which teams alone are responsible for footing, and with a sluggish economy and dwindling sponsorship, this has proven problematic.
Unable to secure funding and with skyrocketing costs, the number of owners in the Cup garage has been reduced dramatically either through consolidation or outright extinction.
Ten years ago in the first season of the Chase, the 10 playoff drivers represented seven different organizations and 13 teams were represented in the top-25 in points. And now? Even with the Chase expanded to a robust 16 entries, just nine separate teams would qualify. While 11 teams overall are better than 25th in points.
For a sport that has long prided itself on open competition, the reality is NASCAR's current business model has taken the form of cannibalization, where the bigger, more powerful teams have swallowed those with less money and fewer resources; a dangerous situation with serious long-term consequences.
Is it a positive that Hendrick Motorsports fields the maximum four cars while also sharing such a tight technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing to the point competitors openly joke about the eight-car super team? What if Hendrick decides NASCAR is no longer a prudent investment and closes shop? It's unlikely, but SHR and the assorted Hendrick satellite teams would be left scrambling.
Never in its history has NASCAR been more beholden to the teams.
In years past the sanctioning body had no qualms operating under an "our way or the highway" philosophy. You don't want to play by NASCAR's rules, too bad. Go race somewhere else. But still feeling the economic squeeze, teams have joined forces under the RTA banner. And because there are fewer of them, it's now easier for owners to align and form a consensus on reforms they would like to see implemented.
Although NASCAR continues to hold the greater bargaining power, it can no longer operate as a benevolent dictatorship. Concessions need to be made, a helping hand extended to foster growth and renewed prosperity.
Possible solutions as to how NASCAR can get back on a upward trajectory with television ratings rising and grandstands jammed are cosmic. Yet, all have their own challenges.
The ready-made answer is overhauling the schedule. Reduce the clutter of intermediate speedways where the racing lags, and look at ovals that regularly produce close competition and an exciting product -- i.e. short tracks and maybe another road course.
On the surface the idea of additional short tracks has merit, one that certainly should be considered. Why do Kansas Speedway or Dover need a pair of Cup races annually while Iowa Speedway can't find a place on the schedule?
Unfortunately the issue of realignment is inherently tricky with the invested parties having diverging interests.
International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc., which combine to host 31 of 36 Cup races, are publicly traded companies responsible to shareholders first and foremost. Why would ISC want to relinquish a favorable date to SMI? Have fun explaining that generosity at the next board meeting.
Then there is NASCAR's television partners (Fox and NBC). Laying out the schedule requires a delicate balance where NASCAR must consider market size and the popularity of certain races that can't be skewed in one direction or the other.
Moderate tweaks are also problematic. Kurt Busch theorized a swap of the falls dates at Richmond and Talladega (both ISC owned) Friday. Richmond would move into the Chase with Talladega, becoming the final regular season race, an enticing prospect considering the restrictor-plate track's noted unpredictability.
For Talladega it would be an easy sell. From Richmond's perspective, however, an October race creates weather concerns, as well as the possibility of competing for attention against the NFL's Washington franchise.
Tony Stewart has his own suggestion.
In the aftermath of another successful Mudsummer Classic Wednesday, Stewart touted Eldora Speedway as deserving of a Cup date. On the surface it's an intriguing concept. A dirt short track where good racing is almost a given to generate some excitement among the masses.
But when you look deeper a Cup race at Eldora may not be practical, particularly if the initiative is to help reduce a teams' bottom-line. Although Eldora was a near-sellout and attracted a larger crowd this season than last, attendance was only estimated at 20,000 according to sources. Additional seating could be brought in, but Eldora would still produce the smallest crowd at Cup level by a significant margin. Fewer fans means less revenue for all involved.
Consideration also has to be made to the expense teams must incur to run on dirt, including heavy wear-and-tear on equipment. Few, if any, drivers escaped Wednesday's race without body damage of some kind, even winner Darrell Wallace Jr., who smacked the wall several times.
Furthering this concern is that the Mudsummer Classic offers the lowest winner's purse of the 22 Camping World Truck Series races (Wallace won $33,585), and yet is an event that requires more investment than most races. And this is not even factoring the sizable sanctioning fee required of Eldora to host a premiere-division race.
Blow up the schedule and add more short tracks. Reduce costs while at the same enacting rule changes to make the racing more competitive. It's a convoluted set of contradictions where the exact solutions are from clear.
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