NASCAR: One thing fans have stopped complaining about

As the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season progressed, there was one once controversial aspect that many fans seemingly stopped complaining about.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season was a chaotic one in many ways, and the championship was decided in last Sunday afternoon’s race at Phoenix Raceway, with Team Penske’s Joey Logano winning his second title.

It was a season of change on many levels, with the introduction of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the venue for the preseason Busch Light Clash, the addition of World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, the addition of the Gen 7 car, among others.

The NASCAR fanbase generally isn’t too receptive to change, and there is no better way to illustrate this than the fact that the introduction of the playoffs is still a sore spot with many fans — nearly two decades later.

But there was one particular change which a lot of fans shunned for 2022, and that was a change in number placement on the cars.

After the idea was tested during the 2020 All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway by moving the numbers to the rear of the cars, it was implemented in 2022 along with the introduction Next Gen car, but by moving the numbers forward.

Because the Next Gen car features a smaller quarter panel, the move increased the available space for sponsor logos.

As you would expect, when the change was officially confirmed, there was the usual uproar, led, of course, by the traditionalists threatening to leave the sport for good and never watch or attend any more races.

However, following the 36-race season, it seems that the number placement change for 2022 is the furthest things from fans’ minds.

At the end of the day, it appears as though some complaints were merely voiced for the sake of complaining about something.

It proved to be nothing more than an aesthetic change, making it completely trivial in terms of the racing product itself — the good, the bad, and the ugly — and the more important issues within the sport have justifiably been the focus of the majority of fans.