NASCAR: State Of The Vvrroomin

After watching the State Of The Union address last night on TV, I began to wonder just how the state of NASCAR was.  No, I am not going to wax political and tell you all of my personal political beliefs, although, yes, I do have them.  But I just want to take a look at just how well NASCAR is doing, especially in comparison with the past few years.

Unlike in Washington where goal posts move one way or the other depending on which party is in power, lets have some clear issues that we are comparing.  First, how is NASCAR doing in popularity and following.  Second, how is NASCAR fairing in competition and in having a level playing field.  And third, how is NASCAR preparing for future seasons.

As many sports and sports venues have experienced the recession after 2008, attendance had been seriously slowed.  Part of this has been combated by the lowering of ticket prices at some of NASCAR's tracks, and attendance has somewhat recovered do to that along with a slow recovery in the economy.  NASCAR's TV ratings have also slowly been rising over the past few years, a trend that should continue over the next year after such a close points battle in 2011.

One area to look at to see if NASCAR's popularity is strong is advertising, both TV spots and sponsorship money.  Over the past few years we have seen cars with empty spaces on them indicating just how deeply the recession has affected NASCAR's ability to round up sponsorship money.  Gladly, although sponsorship is still tough to get, I believe we may have seen a "bottom".  EGR, fresh off a thoroughly disappointing season, just reported they have no primary sponsorship opportunities available for 2012.  For a second tier team that just underperformed the heck out of 2012, that is solid.  Yes, there are teams looking for sponsorship, but there always will be, however, the loud stampede of sponsors running away from teams due to tight budgets has definitely quieted.

Parity is one area where there was a definite gain for NASCAR in the 2011 season.  The Sprint Cup Series had 17 winners in 2011, four more than in 2010.  There were also 5 first time winners.  Another snapshot is how many wins came from teams with only one or two cars, this gives you an idea how level the playing field really is.  In 2011, 14 of 36 races were one by teams with only one or two teams.  Also, mostly due to NASCAR's revision of who can compete for the Nationwide Championship, there were 15 different winners in the Nationwide Series, including 5 drivers that were not Cup Series competitors.

On top of the season-long statistics being compared to prior years, one simply has to look at the 2011 points battle that came down to the last lap of the last race.  Not only were the top two battling within a couple points of each other for most of the race, but they came to the finish in the top two positions.  Ending the 2011 season with a Champion being congratulated after a tie-breaker rule was implemented is the largest reason that the 2012 season could be the most watched, most anticipated, and hardest fought season in recent years.

Finally, NASCAR's future was something that was somewhat in question several years ago.  I doubt anyone thought that NASCAR would dwindle away, but many doubted that they would continue to rise in market share and battle with the NFL for the most watched sport in the USA.  Although many of us have not liked all of the changes that NASCAR and Brian France have made over the past 10 years, not to mention those of you stuck in the '80's, we have to admit that even though most hated the look of the COT, didn't understand the Chase any better than its points system predecessor, and we absolutely dreaded a 6th Johnson championship in a row, all NASCAR fans must admit that the points system changes for 2012 and the new rule on racing in multiple series were great changes for 2012.  No, they are not perfect!  But they did produce a great season.

Changes NASCAR has on the horizon could make things very interesting.  The new car changes for the 2013 season may even make the traditionalists happy.  The ability NASCAR has given the auto makers to build car designs that more closely mimic their street cars may actually bring NASCAR closer to "stock car auto racing."  Now lets not get to excited:  the shape will be about the only thing that resembles a street car.  I seriously doubt that NASCAR will make owners install airbags, reach a certain fuel economy, or even make every driver have a wife in the passenger seat berating them for their poor driving.  That would be stock car.  But any change that more closely marries the sport to its history cannot be a bad thing.  I mean, short of moonshine...

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