RIP, NASCAR, Part 3

If NASCAR is already on life support, is there any way to save the sport? That's a very slim possibility. With today's youth being more attracted to technology, and not mechanics, there is not much chance to grab the young demographic. The last boom time in NASCAR were the mid-90s to mid-2000s. Plenty of new tracks, new sponsors, and new fans during that decade of growth.

The sponsors drove the sport back then. Fortune 500 companies, tech firms, entertainment platforms, etc all came and went. Bringing new fans with them. Most of the huge sponsors used NASCAR as a way to reward thousands of their employees and entertain customers. Hospitality at the track meant as much to those sponsors as the tv time their logo received on the side of a car. 

If NASCAR is serious about gaining fans they need to reward long time fans, instead of gouging them, and attract new fans with hospitality and interaction. Of course, it will take much more than this to bring the crowds back. But, better on-track action will not attract new fans. Something else is needed to pull them in.

RIP, NASCAR, Part 2

What went wrong with NASCAR? What will be the 'cause of death'? Mismanagement is the primary killer, but there are so many secondary factors. I will review a couple that NASCAR never addressed... at their peril.

Most older fans grew up during this country's love affair with the automobile... the car culture. These were the die hard NASCAR fans. They related to the speed, and mechanics of racing. Now, we can't tell a factory Ultima from a factory Fusion. How many people still change their own oil, let alone perform any after market modifications on their rides? 

We went from car culture to an internet world, where everyone is connected and anything is available at the touch of a keyboard. NASCAR missed the boat on this conversion. Their biggest chance to make new, younger, fans was through the web. They should have concentrated on interactive, fantasy, virtual reality, type connections with potential fans. Instead, they are still ironing the wrinkles out of the worst website a major sport has ever debuted.

When NASCAR's biggest benefactor of all time, RJ Reynolds, was being regulated out of business, they went global to try and gain market share. NASCAR tried to emulate this globalism, when they should have tried to grow their base in the US. There are plenty of fans here to attract without going overseas. 

Next: Can anything save the sport?

RIP, NASCAR Part 1

NASCAR, as we knew and loved it, is dead and is not coming back. Once you realize that fact, it is easier to understand what their owners are doing. The brain trust at NASCAR realize their time is up and are planning the exit strategy best for them.

With that in mind, they really have no interest in spending time and money on "saving" NASCAR. They are actually helping their stakeholders by not trying to make NASCAR great again. Currently they are squeezing the last few dollars out of the last big TV contract they will ever see. The next TV deal will likely be the last for NASCAR as we know it. The only play NASCAR has after that contract is to be bought out by a TV network, or internet entity desperate for content. What's left of the France family ownership is betting on that final payday to sail off into the sunset.

Next: What went wrong, and is there any way to save NASCAR