Is NASCAR Turning the Wrong Direction?

Most of us, whether you follow NASCAR or not, would answer my question with a "yes".

At the recently completed Brickyard 400, considered by many to be NASCAR's second biggest event of the season, it was reported that only an estimated 141,000 (give or take 1,000) people attended the event. IMS can hold about 250,000 according to reports. The second biggest event on NASCAR's calendar at the prestigious IMS and you only draw approximately 56% capacity?

Where has NASCAR gone wrong?

There are actually so many answers to that question, it would boggle your mind. I do have my own reasons. Here are a few of those.

1. Misplaced "pushes". What I mean by that is that NASCAR itself pushes for the wrong driver(s) in their ads and any other associated promotions. I know I'll catch some crap over this, but please fully read this explanation before you throw your stones.

Junior is popular but has yet to lift a Sprint
Cup Championship trophy.

The most glaring example is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. No, I'm not a fan of Junior. He does hold great respect from me. He's extremely marketable and some would argue it's based on his name only and not on his accomplishments and performance. He has a wholesome rep, but he's never won a Sprint Cup. His fans are loyal and supportive, no question. He has been voted the most popular driver on many, many occasions.

With that now being out in the open, ponder this. Imagine what it wouls be like if another sports league were "pushing" on of its less successful teams. That would be like the NHL shoving the Washington Capitals on all of us because of Alex Ovechkin. In the NBA, take the Phoenix Suns and Steve Nash and place all their players in every forms of media. What would happen if Bud Selig and the MLB decided it was time to lift up the Milwaukee Brewers and Prince Fielder (Selig used to be an owner of the Brewers so that may not be too far fetched.)? Could Roger Goodell and the NFL find a way to justify "selling" the public to the Atlanta Falcons and Matt Ryan to everyone? All teams have made the playoffs in their leagues, but no titles to show for it. There's a big difference here.

Add to the fodder the arrival of Danica Patrick. One win in her open wheel career and she's a marketing queen in both NASCAR and IndyCar.

2. The season is really too long. February to November, almost December. If you take into account the duration of baseball's spring training and postseason, the NASCAR season is still longer. All the other "major" sports seasons pale in comparison in the length of their seasons. NASCAR CEO Brian France did announce at Indy that there could be some changes to the 2011 schedule. Will it mean less races or different venues? I'm guessing the latter. One's that can seat a bunch of people, too.

Johnson has won the last 4 Sprint Cups due
to crew chief Chad Knauss' ability to have
the last 10 tracks down pat.

3. The Chase hasn't quite worked out. It was initially designed to be NASCAR's playoff format. It's been tweaked here and there, but it still doesn't deliver. France also indicated that a format change could come here. In the Chase's current configuration, once the Chase starts, what you did in the previous 26 races (again, too freakin' many races) really doesn't merit all that much. All it does is warrant a driver a placing among 12 total drivers. In that sense, it is a playoff. It's now down to what can you do in 10 races. It's really become the Jimmie Johnson Invitational over the past four years. Maybe a switching of venues involved in the Chase on an annual basis is what is necessary.

I had posted about Johnson's superior luck in his winning four in a row back in March. It was part of a post when Kevin Harvick said Johnson and his team had a golden horseshoe up their butt. Well, Harvick didn't say "butt", you get the meaning.

4. Cost. Plain and simple. It costs too much to go a race. We all know that concession prices are absolutely ridiculous, but ticket prices have become the same. I saw a commercial last week about the upcoming night race at Bristol and the impetus was that there were tickets available. The most exciting race has tickets? Less than a handful of years ago you had to take out a mortgage to attend due to the jacked up prices from "ticket brokers". You can get tickets now. The cheapest seat I could find for that one race were $109...in the "aluminum" section. What's that tell you? Take two seats, snacks and parking and you're seeing at least $300.

No, NSACAR is not alone in this. The other leagues have their issues on pricing as well, but I would much rather spend $300 going to multiple baseball games than one race. It really can be done depending on which market you live in.

5. Bottom line, it's all about the buck. Surprise! But there's a reason for this that ESPN's Marty Smith points out in a recent blog entry. The post is about some unannouced fines doled out to drivers about negative comments about NASCAR, but the following helps explain my point here.

"NASCAR is a family business and the France family answers to no driver. NASCAR answers to myriad corporate sponsors and partners, and on behalf of those partners it must do whatever it takes to preserve the value of the sport.

"NASCAR answers to the dollar bill.

"Its racetrack business, International Speedway Corp., is different. It is publicly traded and has shareholders. But NASCAR Inc. is still private -- and it devises and enforces every rule in the game. Therefore it's NASCAR's game by NASCAR's rules."

The almighty dollar. Since the France family is deemed as the sole beneficiary of those sponsors, that dough goes in their pockets, well, after the "expenses", of course. Granted, the France's must provide a product or the sponsors pull their money. It's happened once and it will happen again. With the current economic climate, it might be happening as you're reading this. I couldn't put it any better than Smith did.

I will add this. I grow weary of hearing sports bigwigs and athletes spewing that it's all about the fans. It's not. It's all about their wallets and pocketbooks.

Can these be corrected? For now, I must say no.

My other four points cannot be rectified unless less emphasis on my final point is taken into consideration. And we all know that no one takes their eyes off of a crisp $100 bill.

Junior Repeats History as Tribute to His Dad

You just couldn't peel yourself away from the set. A green-white-checkered finish might keep him from winning. One thing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. requested was a nice push from Joey Logano...and he got it.

That push from the 20 car piloted by Logano was all Junior needed to start out in front and capture the Subway Jalapeno 250 last evening. And it was historic in many ways.

First was the number on Junior's car...it was the number his father made famous. The #3. That #3 was once again in Victory Lane at Daytona. A sight Dale Earnhardt fans had seen on many occasions. This time was a little different. A collaborative effort by JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and DEI through Teresa Earnhardt made happen. That in itself was an accomplishment.

It was the paint scheme and sponsor. Wrangler had sponsored Dale Sr. and now Dale Jr. But it just wasn't any old paint scheme. It was Junior's favorite colors that his daddy featured when he held the Wrangler sponsorship. It was the yellow and blue.

It was the tone in Andy Petree's voice as Junior won. Petree spent significant time around Dale Sr. He helped captain the last two championships that Dale Sr. would win before attempting to have a go at his own racing team. It was one thing, just one thing Petree said. "I've got chills." That's all that needed to be said. Period. If you watched and didn't feel those chills, well, I feel sorry for you. This was in the class of fairy tale endings.

It was once again seeing Junior smile. He knew that this victory was important and he made no mistake on who wanted it most.

"Just all his fans. He had so many great fans. Not just mine. This is for his fans. Hopefully, they enjoyed this."

The fans have been the one constant for Junior. With so many ups and downs over the past couple of seasons, this one moment not only brought back memories, it brought back a desire from Junior and he wasn't shy about the intended goal.

"I was so worried that I wasn't going to win," Earnhardt said in Victory Lane. "Nothing but a win was good enough. It's emotional, I'm proud of myself, I'm proud of what I've done with this group. It was trying emotionally to put it together."

But overlook all that for a moment. Tony Eury Jr. summed it all up the best.

"We lost everything here," Eury said softly. "To come back with that number and do this, it means everything."

No one said it any better. Short and simple.

We'll never see the #3 again. Junior has no plans on doing it again. When Childress was asked about that same topic, he stated there were no plans to do it again.

And that's okay. The track Dale Sr. loved the most was won by the car his son loved the most.

Yes, Dale Sr. is proud.

McMurray overcomes many obstacles to win Daytona 500

Jamie McMurray overcame many things to capture the Daytona 500 yesterday.

He overcame being the odd man out at Roush-Fenway Racing. NASCAR mandated that starting this season that each team owner could only put four cars in their stable. With the like of proven winners Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and the young talent of David Regan, McMurray was the driver steaming the glass of Jack Roush's shop.

McMurray sought the familiar face of Chip Ganassi and the Earnhardt-Ganassi team which was created last year out of necessity between Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. McMurray had previously driven for Ganassi a few years earlier. Another familiar face, Felix Sabates, drew McMurray back to the stable. His old ride(#42) is currently in the hands of Juan Pablo Montoya. Not a bad ride.

He overcame two red flag stoppages totalling almost two and a half hours to repair a pothole. This is something that no one expected to happen. Between turns 1 and 2, a pothole developed during the race. A piece from Clint Bowyer's splitter was a broken away and it was also believed that the same pothole led the Jimmie Johnson incurring a flat tire. It was caused due to the large amounts of rain dumped on the area and the moisture began working on breaking up the asphalt.

Much is being said about how this pothole virtually ruined the race. Not so. NASCAR deserves major props on two fronts. One, they made sure the track was safe. Two, the race went the entire length. During the stoppages, I did not hear one person affiliated with NASCAR or any of the drivers hollering for the race to be stopped. And there's the measure of all the fans in attendance, too.

Dale Jr. under more pressure this season

Update: Patrick finished sixth in the ARCA race. She will give it a go for Saturday's Nationwide event.

It's a lot of pressure having the last name Earnhardt in NASCAR.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has felt the pressure to perform from day one. This season will be the most he's ever felt, but it's more than just to getting back into a winner's circle on a consistent basis. He's also the owner for one Danica Patrick.

Junior has been voted NASCAR's most popular driver for many years running, but will his fans jump if he can't find that winning formula again? Doubt it. Earnhardt fans are as loyal as they come.

And he has that legacy...

The two most marketable drivers in motorsports have merged for this season. Needless to say, the merchandise sales will go through the roof despite the economy. But the pressure to put together a successful season for Patrick and Junior will be high.

Patrick rolls off 12th in today ARCA race. If she does well, there's an outside chance she'll make a go of the Nationwide race later this week. If not, she will make her Nationwide debut in California.

Back to the travails of Junior.

Some time back Junior's Cup team owner Rick Hendrick charged Mark Martin and his crew to fix the #88 team. I shuttered when I read this. I know Martin and Junior are in the same garage at Hendrick Motorsports, but pressure has now been added to Martin and his #5 team, too. But Martin is as professional as they come in any sport. Other drivers can't say enough good things about him, and that includes Junior.

Strories from 2009

Over the next few days, I'll be bringing back some of the stories and events that made sports headlines from 2009. I have a few here that were great stories, but didn't quite make my top 5 in each category. These fall into the Honorable Mention title.

1. Usain Bolt at the World Championships

Is there any question who's the fastest guy on the planet? Bolt set new world records in both the 100 meters (9.58 seconds) and 200 meters (19.19 seconds). His charisma brings a new and fresh feel to the track and field world as is on display in the picture to the left. Bolt is just the jolt the sports needs. You can't help but love this guy. You also can't overlook his Sports Center commercial.

2. The continued struggles of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

After signing with Hendrick Motorsports prior to the 2009 NASCAR season, a lot of Junior's fan, and haters, thought he would be back in the Chase. Not so much. Junior struggled to a 25th place in the final standings. No poles, no wins, only 2 top 5's and 5 top 10's made the 2009 season one to forget for the #88 team. One consolation was that he was once again voted the sports most popular driver.

3. The untimley death of Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry

Much has been said about the former West Virginia Mountaineer over the past couple of weeks. The most startling fact is that Henry was on injured reserve at the time of his death. A broken forearm against the Baltimore Ravens forced Henry to miss the remainder of the '09 season. If he hadn't been on IR, he would have been with the Bengals making preparations for its next game.

4. Cries of more replay in baseball

With all the technological advances in the world these days, why not? After a number of missed calls by umpires in the postseason, fans all over were screaming for the replay rule to be expanded. Commissioner Bud Selig seems somewhat reluctant to make such change, but I think it's inevitable. There's a long road to go on this, but with Selig to leave office within the next couple of years, it might happen sooner rather than later. That could leave a positive legacy on Selig's reign as commissioner. Those who don't want it say the obvious: it would slow the pace and change the flow of the game. And MLB does not need that.

5. LPGA ousts Commissioner Carolyn Bivens

In a move that, in the end, surprised no one, some of the LPGA more prominent players held an informal meeting with plans for a change of  direction at the top of the tour. On July 13, Bivens announced her resignation as commissioner. A bit of controversy looms over her reign. Bivens imposed a clause in the media credentials contract stating that the LPGA would hold free rights to all the photos and stories from events. Many publications were irked at this and boycotted covering the first round of the 2006 season opener. There's also the "requirement" that Bivens wanted to impose requiring LPGA members to become proficient in English by 2009 or a suspension would result. That was later reversed in order for the tour to avoid potential lawsuits. Dwindling sponsorships and dollars were also viewed as an ends to justify the means.

If you have any sports events or stories from 2009 that you think you should be listed, let me know and we'll grade them against what we already have in mind. If we choose an event you suggest that we haven't already chosen, proper credit will be given. When you submit, please leave any information (website, blog, etc.) and we will gladly link it to you.