NASCAR & Her Fans

All of the comments below come from my (The Outsider) observations and are merely my opinions and only my opinions.

I watched and enjoyed the NASCAR Cup 500 lapper at Bristol yesterday and followed that up on Twitter so that I could monitor what the fans had to say.  I follow Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Petty (tv) and others on Twitter.

I have mentioned in previous blogs that I have been a car racing fan since I was three.  I was a photographer (for publications) from 1971 to 2006. 

In my earlier days of being a racing enthusiast there were basically two kinds of fans.  There were open wheel fans and stock car fans.  An open wheel fan was either a F1 fan who tolerated Indy Cars, or a midget, sprint car, Indy car, super modified fan.  A stock car fan always watched NASCAR, but probably (unless they lived in the south) followed a series like USAC, ARCA or even ASA or ARTGO.   The open wheel fan was aware of and followed NASCAR and probably (if in the Midwest) USAC.  The stock car fan new little of open wheel racing beyond the INDY 500. 

Today there are auto racing fans and NASCAR fans.   Auto racing fans follow NASCAR closely, and do the same for the IRL, WoO Sprints, USAC, local racing and maybe F1.
NASCAR fans follow NASCAR and maybe a weekly short track near home.  Many, many NASCAR fans are new to racing and only know what they see on tv.  There might be a short track ten miles from home and they don't even know it is there.  These are the fans that are quite sure they know everything there is to know about car racing. They are the experts.  Just ask one.

NASCAR has spent the past 15 years of its  existence trying to please those short-term NASCAR fans who know everything.  They alter their rules, their cars, their tracks and everything else, and still can't please the experts that have found NASCAR on channel 4 or 12.   Such was the case with yesterday's Bristol race.

I have watched racing at Bristol since the early 1970s and covered (as a photographer) one race in the late 1980s.  The late great Davey Allison won that one over Mark Martin.  Until a couple of years ago Bristol was a steeply (36 degrees) banked half mile.  It was fast and it had one groove. The groove was right at the bottom of the track.  The racing was single file until someone tried the impossible task of passing, which caused an accident.  About 30 times a race with 15-20 caution flags. It was exciting at the very moment that you knew that someone was going to try to pass.  When it was time to re-pave Bristol, owner Bruton Smith
changed Bristol. He created progressive banking that allowed for side by side racing for the first time in Bristol's history.  He reasoned that the fans wanted side by side racing.  I enjoyed the old Bristol and love the new Bristol.  The comments that I see on Twitter, and I am sure the comments that Smith will see on Bristol's website, will make him quite sure that he needs to tear up the track and turn it back into the single file crash fest it used to be.  NASCAR might even encourage that as they continue to pursue the "perfect race" that the new NASCAR fan wants to see. 

Please!! Don't tear up Bristol and start all over again.

Over the past ten years I have been reading what the NASCAR fan wants.  Doing some very unscientific studies, I have found some of the same fans rant will that....yesterday's race was terrible because......of all that single file racing......all of that two by two racing......all of the four abreast racing......not enough passing......too much passing......too many yellows......not enough yellows.......same drivers always winning.......nobody seems to win twice.  I actually read a post from a fan who stated "who cares about also rans like Jimmy Johnson".  He never runs good. "A backmarker"  You guessed it, this same NASCAR fan used to rant about how tiresome it gets watching JJ win all of the time. Some of these fans are not only fickle they are border line crazy.  They are typical of much of today's America. Those that whine the most know the least. They don't like racing, they like the spectacle, and even that want to bitch about.  Their memory usually extends to last week.

NASCAR, please take care of actual "auto racing fans" as they will be here for life.  You
have done a great job of creating "pro wrestling type" rules such as the Lucky Dog, etc., etc., etc., to make sure everyone's favorite driver has a chance.  Just make sure that you do not throw out all of the actual race fans in an effort to please a group of people that you will never please.  I am not saying that racing should go back to 1965.  Some smart rules to keep it exciting combined with a healthy respect for "real race fans" will go a long ways.

The Outsider.