For several years, we've all heard about how NASCAR television ratings are down, how the sport's popularity is declining, how there is a lack of interest among former diehard fans, how the sport is failing to engage a younger audience – and much more.
And when you compare the modern state of the sport to its "glory days", there is certainly some truth to all of that.
However, how much truth there is to the "doom and gloom" is something which one particular team owner has questioned, based on the support that he has seen just for his small, underfunded part-time team.
Several less-than-ideal developments have surrounded MBM Motorsports, including scaling back their Xfinity Series operation in 2023 just two years after doing the same on the Cup side, in recent years.
After the latest of those developments, when NASCAR did not approve Mike Wallace to compete in the Daytona 500, and MBM Motorsports (now Garage 66) ended up failing to qualify with Chandler Smith, we promised that we would revisit an interview we did with team owner Carl Long from the spring of 2021.
So let's take a quick look back at that.
In March 2021, Timmy Hill and MBM Motorsports were omitted from the entry list for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series opener at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track.
This omission came despite the fact that there were still spots open in the field for the event, and it also came despite the fact that Hill had been competing full-time behind the wheel of the No. 66 car since the start of the 2020 season at the time.
In fact, during the 2020 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, which was introduced as a result of the lack of live action due to COVID-19-related restrictions, Hill recorded six top three finishes in seven races and won the virtual race at Texas Motor Speedway. Had points been officially tallied, he would have run away with the championship.
Hill did compete in the 2021 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series opener after all, but he did so in a Team Penske car after a kind gesture by the organization and two of their drivers. MBM Motorsports weren't affiliated with the entry and didn't compete until the No. 66 car was run for Hill in the following race at virtual Talladega Superspeedway.
Long couldn't have been prouder to see everybody stand up for Hill the way they did after he was omitted from the entry list for the opener.
"I was very proud to see all of the people who emailed and voiced their opinions that Timmy was not involved in the iRacing and MBM wasn’t," Long told Beyond the Flag back in 2021. "And that was a very good positive to see just how many people responded to us not being able to run that first iRace."
That alone caused Long to wonder just how much truth there is to some of the things that are said about NASCAR's declining popularity and fanbase.
"The way I look at it is, Nielsen ratings, and a lot of stuff has been written and wrote out that NASCAR doesn’t have the popularity that it used to have, that people aren’t watching it on TV," he said. "I’m not sure how they decided who’s watching what on TV and how they come up with that."
He specifically noted the fact that this was an outpouring of support toward one of the sport's smallest teams, not just a huge driver fanbase rallying around one of the powerhouses like we see so often in NASCAR and in basically every other sport.
"But I was very, very proud to see how many people – Timmy Hill was trending, that he didn’t get to be in the race! – and that’s, to me, that’s just a very positive for the entire sport on how many people really are watching and paying attention to NASCAR – and how many people like seeing all of us involved in racing, and just not the big teams, but the little teams like us and Timmy and the ones that are still hustling to try to get sponsorship."
He truly believes that far more people are interested in NASCAR than many like to let on.
"Bad news will travel twice as fast as good news…When I look back at my people, they can see the effect and how many people actually are paying attention to racing and keeping up with it," he said. "And I think the number is way greater, way higher than what’s being published for fan views, because right now, with TV being streamed, I don’t see any way that those guys can track who’s streaming what, who’s watching different things."
Of course, he knows that there are technically ways to track those kinds of numbers, but he also illustrated what he believes to be some shortcomings with those systems.
"I get it, during the live broadcast they have some stuff, but I know a lot of people on the west coast or wherever, they just watch the race whenever," he explained. "I’ve gotten emails about it, stuff like that, that they just go back, they DVR it, whatever it is, and they watch it later. So like I said, just looking at NASCAR itself, I think it’s way stronger, way more views."
Even now, skipping ahead to 2025, it's a great perspective to have. And it's a perspective that, despite the fact that the team haven't competed full-time in five years, keeps them coming back to the Cup Series. They have competed in 31 races since that iRacing debacle.
Smith's Daytona 500 DNQ marked the team's fifth Daytona 500 DNQ in a row, as both of their cars failed to qualify in both 2021 and 2022. But they are set to make their official 2025 season debut at Martinsville Speedway this Sunday, March 30 in the Cook Out 400, with Casey Mears set to make his first Cup Series start in more than six years behind the wheel of the No. 66 Ford.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage from "The Paperclip" beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and be sure to catch all of the action!