NASCAR is Dying: Here's Why

I was avidly following NASCAR whilst growing up in the 2000s and heading into adulthood in the 2010s, so I have been able to see firsthand how this sport has slowly but surely (if not rapidly nowadays) fallen from grace since its 1990s explosion in popularity. With each passing year less and less seats are being filled, television ratings are tapering off, and to add insult to injury its biggest personalities are retiring one by one, leaving the sport without a true star which is so desperately needs. Today I intend to go through each and every one of the problems that have plagued this sport over the past 15 or so years.

The Drivers
As I stated in the introduction, all of NASCAR’s biggest stars and stalwarts have been retiring over the last few years. Drivers such as Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart (a man who added some much needed personality to the sport, with his hilarious sarcasm and general toughness) have both retired. Jimmie Johnson is getting to be around that age as well. The biggest blow to the sport being that Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sports most popular driver for the past 18 years (which let’s be honest is only because of his father) is now retiring. Brian France must’ve soiled his underwear when the news broke. Half the people who watch the sport are fans of Junior. Mark my words, they’ll be giving away tickets for free just to fill some seats because of this. It’s not just that the current stars are retiring. Its that so many of the drivers don’t have anything about them that makes them stand out (at least not in a good way). Guys like Chase Elliot, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson are great drivers. Definitely future champions in my opinion. But what can you say about them off the track? What are they like? Exactly, NOTHING! They are the racing driver equivalent of bland white bread and water. NASCAR even managed to tame the Busch brothers. Gone are the days of Kyle Busch saying the cars suck after winning a race, flipping off officials or spinning people out to get the win. Same goes for his older brother Kurt. They’ve both been watered down so much. Leaving the sport without villains. Sports need guys like that. Heroes are only as great as their villains. Then at last, we have the totally unlikable drivers. Guys who are only their because of nepotism and money. The Dillon brothers and Paul Menard immediately spring to mind. And don’t even get me started on that whining puke Joey Logano who is talented, but is just an insufferable little turd.

The Tracks/ Schedule
This… oh god this schedule sucks a** through a Sourpunch straw. The season starts in February with the Daytona 500 and ends in November at Miami which is way too long in my opinion. In between all of that is a season filled to the brim with cookie cutter tracks with brief moments of greatness. Atlanta, Texas, Las Vegas, Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Charlotte. What do all of these tracks have in common? Well… everything. And what does this commonality result in you ask? Overlong, boring, for the love of god someone please blow my brains out to end the tedium races. Everyone hates them, and many are vocal about it, yet NASCAR like always, refuses to listen to the fans and drop them off the schedule. In fact, many of these tracks get visited TWICE a year. Every season, the road courses such as Watkins Glen and Sonoma, are frequently ranked among fans as being the best races, with many fans requesting to have more of them added to the calander, even in the Chase (and oh boy I’ll get to that shortly). But still, those cheers fall upon deaf ears. Other NASCAR series race at places like Road America, Monteral, and Road Atlanta, so why not the Cup series?! It doesn’t make any sense! Why don’t you listen to us NASCAR? It seems that everyone likes road course racing, except for NASCAR, which in fact started with doing left AND right turns on the streets. Kind of hard to outrun the cops when you’re driving around in a circle don’t you think?

The Chase and the Subsequent Gimmickry it Spawned
Let’s wind the clocks back to the end of the 2003 season. Matt Kenseth has just won the championship. Now the “problem”, (and I’m using the loosest possible interpretation of that word here) was that Kenseth who had only won a single race that season, the third race of the year at Las Vegas, had just beaten Ryan Newman (who finished 6th in that year’s standings) a man who had won 8 races (22% of the season). How is this possible you ask? Well, it’s a little thing I like to call, CONSISTENCY. Kenseth had a grand total of 25 top 10 finishes, allowing him to accumulate enough points to make up for a 1 win season. Newman on the other hand had suffered 7 DNFs that season, so despite winning almost a quarter of the schedule, he did not have enough points to become the champion. Now this, caused a lot of controversy from owners, drivers and fans alike. Personally, I don’t have any problem with this, Kenseth deserved to win the championship and he did it fair and square. But, this was a new era in NASCAR, and they simply had to create some artificial excitement for the sake of ratings! Now how’s that been working out for ya? Enter, the Chase for the Cup, NASCAR’s playoffs. A 10 race sprint to the finish filled to the brim with… not much to be honest. Lots of drivers who did great in the regular season and who would’ve won the championship with the old points system have gotten screwed over by this (Looking at you 2006 Jeff Gordon). Not only that but it seems to be changing every single year, along with the regular season points system, leading to lots of confusion among fans. NASCAR’s overtime, the Green-White-Checker finish has done nothing, but yet again, screw the most deserving winner over. Most of these artificial finishes aren’t even genuine as they are created by phantom debris cautions half the time, leading to a, WWE like atmosphere. They’ve even made it so that there are three attempts to finish the race under green, so if there is a crash before they take the white flag, the drivers have to start again. This creates huge problems at places like Daytona and Talledega. For the love of God just end the race already! No other motorsport does this, (although INDYCAR tried once and realized that it was a waste of time) just end the race under yellow! Its fine! All of this, putting emphasis on winning and creating artificial excitement had led to the “Win and You’re In!” rule. Basically, if you win a race and you’re in the top 30 in points, and there are still slots available for the playoffs, then congratulations! You’re automatically a title contender! Even if you are racing for a small uncompetitive team who can only ever win at Daytona or Talledega! Here’s to you David Gilliland! Oh, but then we have the mother of all gimmicks. It was implemented just this season, the one you’ve all been waiting for. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, let’s get ready to STAGE RACE! What are the people who are ruining, oh excuse me, “running” this sport smoking and where can I get some?!

So there you have it folks, my reasoning as to why NASCAR has fallen so much in recent times. I sincerely hope that these issues get resolved because while I’m currently losing interest in NASCAR faster than Usain Bolt can run a 100 meter sprint, I’ve still got a soft spot for it deep down inside. It’s how I got into motorsports in the first place, so I owe a lot to it. Do you have anything to add? Anything that you disagree with me on? Feel free to let me know!