NASCAR’s Greatest Strength Is Also Their Greatest Weakness
Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR is great in that it offers an experience that some of the bigger sports don’t. NASCAR is often shunned in the sports community and not viewed as a real sport or at least a sport that matters. Regardless of how non-NASCAR fans feel, NASCAR does certain things far better than anything else out there at the moment.
What Makes NASCAR Different Makes It Better
Someone who follows the NFL, MLB or NHL most likely has a favorite team. That person will live and die by the success or failures of their team. While there is nothing wrong with this (heck, this is what makes sports great), time has made it so that fans cheer more for laundry as opposed to players. Fans of the New York Yankees hated Johnny Damon when he played in Boston but once he became a Yankee all was forgiven. Fans of the Cleveland Cavs loved LeBron James when he was with them, hated him when he left and loved him four years later when he came back.
In sports there are a million more situations similar to the two above and in every one of those it’s a case where fans put the jersey before all else. Fans of the Indianapolis Colts said for years how Peyton Manning was the greatest ever, remove him and insert Andrew Luck and it’s like Manning was never there.
In NASCAR it’s different and that’s what makes NASCAR better and worse all at the same time.
NASCAR’s strength is that it provides athletes who fans follow as people. Sure, there are teams in NASCAR but NASCAR is by no means a team sport. The dynamic of following one driver makes the fans feel more invested into what is happening with said driver. Couple that with the access that NASCAR gives fans to the drivers and it creates an amazing environment.
Today I am willing to bet that thousands of Texas Ranger fans are calling Elvis Andrus a bum (or other colorful language) after his three-error performance in the MLB playoffs. Those fans still love the Rangers but today they could probably care less about Andrus. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in NASCAR. NASCAR fans will ride and die with their drivers until the very end. Tony Stewart has had three consecutive years in NASCAR that most would rather forget but you wouldn’t know that from talking with one of his fans. Stewart fans will speak of him as though he is in contention to win a race every weekend.
What Is A Sport Without Any Stars?
The connection that NASCAR fans have with their drivers sets them apart and helps drive the sport. It’s also that connection that is going to potentially ruin the sport over the next five to seven years.
Teams last forever and athletes don’t, it really doesn’t get much simpler than that. There is almost a 100 percent guarantee that you will witness the moment in which you favorite NASCAR driver retires whereas you could go a lifetime and not see any of your favorite teams fold or move. In other sports when a legend retires they are replaced by the next batch of potential legends, in NASCAR that simply isn’t the case.
NASCAR doesn’t churn out talent the way the NFL or the NBA does.
The 2015 Chase field started with 16 drivers. Of those 16 drivers, 13 of them will be 35 or older come December. That means that in five years they will all be 40 or older. NASCAR is losing Jeff Gordon this season and Tony Stewart after next season. Over the next five years it’s quite possible that names like Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson could all be heading out of NASCAR.
If that were to happen where would that leave us?
Fans Want Someone To Root For
Sure, guys like Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch would still be around. The issue here though is that NASCAR doesn’t have an abundance of younger stars nor do they have somewhere to pluck them from. The even bigger issue here is that NASCAR has a small window to maintain the fans that they could be in line to lose when certain drivers leave the sport.
Jeff Gordon did things in a way that benefits NASCAR. Gordon announced his retirement at the beginning of the season and then it was announced that a rookie in Chase Elliott would be taking his ride. This won’t change the fact that some Gordon fans will be done with NASCAR after this season but it does at least soften the blow and offer them someone to root for in the absence of Gordon. Fans of Tony Stewart are in a more difficult spot since Stewart is being replaced by Clint Bowyer.
This isn’t a team sport in which the name on the jersey (or the number on the car) rules supreme. Putting Bowyer into the No. 14 machine doesn’t make things okay for Stewart fans. The fact that Bowyer has a history in NASCAR doesn’t help either. At least with Elliott fans of Gordon can feel like they are starting fresh. Fans of Stewart will not have that feeling if they begin to support Bowyer.
Some will tell you that Joey Logano, Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson are the future of NASCAR.
That’s all well and good but it isn’t going to help down the road. A fan of Matt Kenseth isn’t going to want to go and support an established driver that Kenseth fought for wins against for years once Kenseth retires. To a NASCAR fan that would seem as though they were betraying their driver.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As NASCAR’s current top-drivers continue to age and phase themselves out of the sport, fans will be forced to make a choice. The other unfortunate side of the coin is that NASCAR hasn’t done much to help themselves when it comes to having stored equity with their fan base. A fan of Jeff Gordon watches NASCAR because he loves Gordon and he loves NASCAR. However, NASCAR today isn’t what it was 20 years ago, heck NASCAR today isn’t what it was five years ago.
That disparity is another thing that NASCAR will be fighting as the drivers call it a career. Many Gordon fans will be done with NASCAR (or at least not follow it as closely) once Gordon leaves because they don’t care for the current product. If NASCAR had stored some equity with these fans over the last decade and consistently provided them with a high-quality product, you might see more Gordon fans stick around. However, that has not been the case and it would appear that the lack of quality coupled with the loss of their driver is going to be too much to overcome and hold their viewership.
Despite these issues being obvious, the answer is not.
NASCAR has two lower national series and both of those series have talented young drivers in them. However, NASCAR does very little to showcase these series or these drivers and unless you’re a die-hard fan you’ve most likely never heard of many of these drivers. NASCAR has the Drive For Diversity Program which is supposed to funnel talented drivers from diverse backgrounds into the sport and provide them with opportunities that they might not have had on their own. In 11 years that program has really only produced one major name and that is Kyle Larson. For years and years the on-track product in NASCAR has declined. The COT hurt NASCAR in a major way and just now in 2015 NASCAR is finally taking action to make racing better but for the fans that they have already lost it appears to be too late.
The passion that NASCAR fans give to their favorite drivers is what makes NASCAR tick and it’s awesome as long as that driver is racing. The fact that NASCAR hasn’t allowed themselves to be in a position to keep that passion once any given driver leaves is why NASCAR’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness.
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