Web17 votes, 351 comments. Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, NASCAR (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images). The 2021 installment, won by Michael McDowell, drew a 2.8 rating and 4.83 million viewers, the lowest rated and least-watched Daytona 500 of all-time. Keep reading with unlimited digital access. For some NASCAR fans, this marked a betrayal by the sport they loved. No one should expect to make money from the picks and predictions discussed on this website. Earnhardt had been the fourth driver to die in eight months across the sport. Before the Car of Tomorrow, the manufacturers insignia on a race car meant something. 3-5, 2023. Mar. Its a little bit changed since theyve moved a lot of stuff out of North Carolina. For more information, please read our Legal Disclaimer. NASCAR fans sent Elliott their best wishes following the news. We have a brand-new fan base thats being welcomed by fans who have been fans of the sport for decades. Throughout the last 10 years, NASCARs fan base has become more diverse. One sent an anonymous death threat against Dale (you fucking people wont do anything about his dirty driving so someone else will have to) that the FBI took seriously enough to assign a protective detail to the Budweiser 500 at Watkins Glen and the Miller High Life 500 at Pocono in 1987. WebSalute your to commitment to high speed racing with a NASCAR ceiling fan from Ceiling Fan Designers. Build your customFanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis onAll Racing and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more. WebRibbs noted NASCARs struggles with television ratings and attracting a broader audience. The earliest drivers bought cars off the lot and souped them up. Dubbed the King, Richard Petty was the quintessential carburetor cowboy. As part of its 75th Diamond Anniversary season, NASCAR has launched NASCAR Fan Rewards, a free program that rewards fans for simply engaging with the sport they love. When they allowed a car with BLM painted on the side to run in their races, I shut off the TV. Someone should start another racing league where confederate flags are welcome and woke dipshits are not. This year, fans get to pick from jackets, hats, koozies, baby bibs, key chains and so much more. Webtried to watch Busch Light Clash - couldn't get through pre-race circus old clip still relevant CLAY TRAVIS: NASCAR ALIENATING ITS OWN FAN BASE BY GOING WOKE NASCAR ALIENATING ITS OWN FAN BASE BY GOING WOKE . bronze statue of him stands in the center of town, in Dale Earnhardt Tribute Plaza. Donald Hill of Trinity, NC, was interviewed by a journalist at a race in Martinsville, VA, just over the Carolina border, in 2006. NASCAR seems less concerned about a reckoning. Lee Petty was a successful driver and the sports first three-time champion. NASCAR president Steve Phelps has an ingenious solution to This article was gathered automatically by our news bot. This July, NASCAR comes back to the Windy City for the inaugural Chicago Street Race on Sunday, July 2 (5:30 p.m. I found that disturbing. American stock car racing originated with bootleggers in the Carolina Piedmont, running moonshine and dodging the revenue man. Webnascar alienating fans. "But with this meme going viral, it was more of, I had to stay more silent, because everybody wanted it to go on to the political side. You see that flag, you see the scope of whats going on One bad apple spoils the bunch.. Showed me that the new NASCAR is made up of douchebag White boy sissies. A race fan is a race fan. It seems as if we are truly on the cusp of breaking through to a much broader and diverse audience, said David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development. NASCAR executives also feared that the points system failed to fully incentivize winning. Were into a new You can hear the PA announcer, and we have big screens. Earnhardt was a legend. But little else remains. is the research director at American Compass. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. New graphics, helmet cams among F1 broadcast updates. However, it's not a very nice term to use any more, I don't think, because it's been stereotyped in such a bad way.". It was designed to reward good, consistent driver performance. Fans across social media, including commenters on the 23XI Racing tweet, have voiced their lack of approval over the new Victory didnt count toward the championship; only money and pride were on the line. NASCAR is actively looking to draw in more fans, but at the expense of its die-hard fan base, says OutKicks Clay Travis. "Let's go, Brandon" became the Im meeting fans, interacting with people, and Im like, Oh, this is a safe space, Kamara said. By now, a certain amount of meme-driven absurdity is an expected feature of national politics. Weve had some challenges with needing to rebuild the fan base with the pandemic. WebMost die-hard fans of NASCAR are those that have followed it the longest. WebNASCAR fans who find gambling distasteful will have reactions that are more negative in a survey than they may be when they see the sports betting ticker during the race. WebThe first 1.5-mile race of the NASCAR Cup Series season happens on Sunday with the Pennzoil 400, which will be the first race of two at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this year. 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The demographics of the sport have not changed. This July, NASCAR comes back to the Windy City for the inaugural Chicago Street Race on Sunday, July 2 (5:30 p.m. Fan reaction was predictable. Adding more NASCAR short tracks would grow the fanbase on both sides of the fence. After all, the NFL no longer plays in Canton, Ohio. You know there are multicultural motorsports fans in this country, but a lot of them havent felt comfortable or welcome in the NASCAR space. A points-based system always held out the possibility of statically engineered competition, of NASCAR officials calibrating incentives to shape driver behavior and maximize entertainment value. This led NASCAR to confirm this particular change for the Next Gen car. It was a pointed example of the no-win position in which NASCAR finds itself today: A moment of outreach to the non-die-hards, immediately turned sour by the bias-confirming incentives of partisan media. NASCAR wanted to expand the class of people it appealed to and also to move beyond its regional market in the Southeast. It was a big wreck. Kamara, who is Black, was at Daytona, this time as someone with a car on the track. Where Petty was always compliant, Earnhardt will stand his ground and say, Im not going to do that. And the people who love him are the people who are told, every day, what to do and what not to do, and theyve got all those rules and regulations to go by. Latest Viewership Setback Paints Gloomy Picture for NASCAR as Recent Deals Threaten to Alienate Fans For Good. Unwilling to save itself by offshoring, Pillowtex filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and caused the largest layoffs in the history of the state of North Carolina. This delighted some fans and infuriated others. The latest sponsors include Monster Energy and Xfinity. A life-long sports enthusiast, Nick shares a passion for sports writing and is proud to represent OutKick. I have no bones about that. No one ever had anything nega, A 37-year-old Buffalo firefighter died while fighting a four-alarm blaze on Main Street downtown that may have been sparked by work being done, A vandal smashed numerous statues overnight at a park honoring veterans and first responders in front ofRussell's Steaks, Chops & More, 6, While Amherst police were on the scene, a number of fights started among groups within the crowd in the mall lot on Alberta and in the Wegmans, "The questions, concerns and issues raised in The Buffalo News' reporting concerning Forest Lawn depict a nonprofit that has serious problems . The NASCAR fans guide to enjoying Chicago. About half of the newest NASCAR fans are nonwhite, including 23% Hispanic, 17% Black and 10% Asian, according to a study by Cincinnati-based Directions Research. NASCAR has made many changes in recent years in an effort to remove itself from past stereotypes, Are we sure this isnt the reason for ratings going down? Many of NASCAR 's fans are older than 35. WebDeclining NASCAR Continues Alienating Their Fan Base NASCAR April 30, 2022 News Bot NASCAR TV ratings have been on a steady decline since 2008. NASCAR has been on the downward hill for some time now and the way to get everybody back I think is by having great, entertaining races and incredible stars to build around, Travis said. Five years later, pushed by the only Black driver during a summer of national unrest, NASCAR took its firmest position in its 73-yearexistence. In October a reporter tried to say chants of "Fuck Joe Biden," were actually "Let's go, Brandon.". Wishing Chase Elliott a speedy recovery & successful surgery. "What's to dislike about these new speedways?" she said. After one crash in 1985 at Richmond International Speedway, where Earnhardt spun out Darrell Waltrip with three laps to go, Waltrip claimed that he had meant to kill me. After another race where Dale sent Al Unser Jr.s car flying out of the racetrack, Rusty Wallace remarked, Now you know why we all hate him., H.A. For those not up to speed with either right-wing slang or the frequently-incomprehensible world of digital stonks, it was easy lets be honest, desirable to roll ones eyes and keep scrolling. A bit of backstory: Lets Go Brandon was born in October 2021, when the aforementioned young driver Brown won his first NASCAR event at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Its just difficult to articulate how critical this is for the growth of the sport.. This discouraged the kind of aggressive tactics that Dale was known for, like spinning out other drivers on the final lap and risking being disqualified himself. The culture war hit NASCAR most dramatically with the rise of Bubba Wallace, an African-American driver, who in June 2020 debuted a Black Lives Matter car with Compassion, Love, and Understanding on the hood. But when it failed to sell out its races, the track was bought up by International Speedway Corporation (ISC), a big conglomerate, and its fate was sealed. Do the COVID shots cause adverse health effects? Because the sport has come so far so fast, people who supported it when it was a southern regional pastime feel alienated. The crash marked the moment when NASCAR undertook a deliberate transformation to make itself more commercially appealing, more scientifically managed, and less distinctively Southernthe opposite of what Earnhardt stood for. I like some of the drivers. They hate the tradition-busting Chase for the Championship. The deal, however, was swiftly swatted down by wary league officials, who banned Brown from featuring the coin and slogan on his car, lighting the outrage cycle anew. Helton said he responded with the phrase the reporter had used in the question and that fans misinterpreted his comments. Gossage said. As a sportswriter for the Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C., he covered all but one Nextel Cup race last season. "I think there's some evidence that there's still a bright shiny apple, but it's rotten at the core," Dutton said. New graphics, helmet cams among F1 broadcast updates. But NASCAR fans, as Bowyer alluded to, would prefer the broadcasters stick to the subject of NASCAR and real racing. Interestingly, the driver who set numerous marks for women in American motorsports admitted after her work at Las Vegas that she went online to see what the fans were saying about her performance. The main drag is Dale Earnhardt Blvd. Perhaps viewers just didnt come back when the race resumed. This year, fans get to pick from jackets, hats, koozies, baby bibs, key chains and so much more. Viewership for the Daytona 500 fell 34% percent from last year, and Sundays road course race was on one hand the most-watched sports event of the weekend and NASCARs most-watched road course race since 2014. Humpy Wheeler, a legendary race promoter and track owner in the Carolinas, summed up Dales appeal: Earnhardt is the resurrected Confederate soldier. Indigestion over politics has always been a feature of the sports world, with recent, high-profile examples like the NFLs national anthem protests or the NBAs ongoing China controversy. But NASCAR made a deliberate choice to discourage these types of sponsorships. Fans saw it for what it was. Big Tech minions could compromise Americas Intelligence community, Nation annihilator: Biden finds partisan comedy in deaths of innocent Americans, A sign at the entrance to Daytona International Speedway warned spectators the Confederate flag was not welcome on property. NASCAR: Eating Its Young and Confusing Its Fans. Earnhardts appeal was not just his humble background but the gruff persona that it formed. 3.) Now Gossage presides over a venue that gets the biggest crowd this side of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was safer and also cheaper, and it led to more competitive, tightly packed racing because it was slower. The scene would have been totally inscrutable to Wallaces gubernatorial counterpart of the same name; after the race, the driver told media confidently that this sport is changing.. The invisible sponsorship, the lingering resentment of fans toward the flag ban and even the concealment of the vulgar original chant itself all reflect the fracturing of the public square that led NASCAR to this moment in the first place: If Americas most extreme partisans are still stuck living together in this painful moment of change, the only apparent solution might be keeping them from having to look at each other. Statements from NASCAR made clear that this was its business strategy. If they take much more, were not going to have nothing.. Points from the final ten races determined the seasons champion. WebHendrick Motorsports suffered a big blow Friday morning when it was announced 2020 NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott was reportedly hurt in a snowboarding accident in It is no coincidence these NASCAR newcomers followed the banning of the Confederate flag. Nevertheless, fans and drivers grumbled that it handled worse, looked terrible, and completely changed the way drivers had to approach their races in terms of strategy. Most of the true Nascar fans are the blue collar types who have been affected most by the economy. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Skip to navigation. America was a great idea, I hope someone tries it again one day. If any had been smuggled in, they werent displayed to be easily spotted over two weeks of racing at Daytona as the stock car series kicked off its season. Several drivers were spun out of the race at the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday night. In the last 10 years, weekend attendance has increased 23 percent, with TV households climbing 86 percent. Toyota, for example, competes at every level of NASCAR and has long championed its diversity and inclusion programs alongside a respect for people company pillar. Its so bad that NASCAR has an entire FAQ page on their website devoted to their convoluted championship system. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider NASCAR had long wanted to enter the American mainstream and distance itself from Southern stereotypes and its Talladega Nights reputation. The mens nicknames indicate their divergent personalities. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, City mourns Buffalo firefighter Jason Arno as investigation into fatal fire launches, Buffalo firefighter makes 'ultimate sacrifice' in blaze that may have sparked backdraft, Paula's Donuts to move Clarence store that faced backlash for tax breaks to Amherst, Vandal damages 'brokenhearted' Russell Salvatore's tribute park in Lancaster, Chad Hall's departure from Buffalo Bills to Jaguars remains a bit of a mystery. And Im sure F1s ownership group, Liberty Media, thinks the same way. NASCAR driver goes from first to last in the playoffs, had been rumored for 2022 for several weeks, NASCAR: Chase Elliott out indefinitely, more details revealed, NASCAR: 5 drivers who could fall out of the playoffs, NASCAR: Best sportsbook promo codes for the Pennzoil 400, NASCAR: 3 drivers who should already start to panic, NASCAR driver loses full-time ride, then gets it back, NASCAR: Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and 'wasting playoff spots', Ed Orgeron to UCLA Fan: 'Bring Your Ass On In Your Little Sissy Blue Shirt', NASCAR: Tony Stewart reveals one of his biggest regrets. As Missouri fan Lanette Williams told USA Today in 2016, The constant changes NASCAR does, it doesnt have the same good feeling it used to have. "There is acknowledgment among the drivers, the teams, the sponsors and the fan base that in order to continue to grow, there will be some realignment in the race schedule," Giangola said. Dale was deliberately antagonistic toward reporters, known for literally stepping on their toes when they interviewed him. New tracks were built in Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and Las Vegas. While it remains to be seen if fans will actually quit watching the sport over a number placement change, one thing is for sure: the new number placement is real and will be effective regardless of opinion. Hes now a super fan and just 36 hours after attending his first Daytona 500, Kamara agreed to sponsor a young Hispanic driver in last Saturdays Xfinity Series race. Cup veteran Jeff Burton likened the difference to his high school and his father's high school. These personality differences were reflected in their driving. Gambling related content is not intended for anyone under the age of 21. Which may be true, but NASCAR has long been entwined with conservative politics. I feel for the die hard fans. Martinsville Speedway will apparently keep its two Nextel Cup events for a while longer. SUBSCRIBE NOW. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. There are the folks that come back to the events year after year, and then we cant ignore the attempt to funnel in new fans. They've got backs on the seats, and you're not sitting on wooden plank boards. WebAll this does is further confuse and alienate race fans. 06 Feb 2023 04:14:55 They fret that more drivers come from California than the Carolinas. "I'm proud of that. They took racing out of the hands of the drivers and the crews. And theyve dove in head long into the culture wars. NASCAR: Another change coming to the Next Gen car? Brandon Brown, the NASCAR driver whose name inspired the anti-Joe Biden chant sweeping the US, says he fears it is putting off fans and sponsors. Garth Brooks and Jeff Gordon mark the death of 2 strongly Southern traditions another step in destroying the USA. Pick-up trucks still sport #3 spray-painted crudely on the door. NASCARs streaming partner. The exercise returned such dismal results that NASCAR was forced to shut it down prematurely before unveiling The Chase the following season. Travis appeared on FOX News The Ingraham Angle Monday to discuss why NASCAR is failing at gaining new viewers. By far the biggest change Nelson spearheaded was the so-called Car of Tomorrow. The product of five years of development, the car was four inches wider and two inches taller than the previous standard. Next came woman driver Danica Patrick, who never won a race but graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and was consistently spotlighted in NASCAR coverage. In a nimble act of rhetorical license, presumably for the benefit of the gentle viewers at home, Stavast suggested they were, in fact, chanting Lets go, Brandon, and an enduring piece of reactionary sloganeering was born. Keep your racist rantings to things you know something about. The driver with the most points at the end of the season won the championship. Ron DeSantis. By 2001, such northern disdain was already out of date. Get the Daily OutKick and get smarter every day. Compare him to fellow NASCAR legend Richard Petty, who is tied with Earnhardt for the most championships of all time (7). But NASCAR fans, as Bowyer alluded to, would prefer the broadcasters stick to the subject of NASCAR and real racing. Interestingly, the driver Pitbull was all over Daytona ahead of the Daytona 500, posing for fans and celebrating with Suarez. The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400, the third race of the 2023 season and the second leg of its West Coast swing. "It's a little bit changed since they've move a lot of stuff out of North Carolina," Hill said. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. He just published his latest book "Haul A** and Turn Left: The Wit and Wisdom of NASCAR.". Wells King is research director of American Compass. Earnhardt was aggressive. "In doing that, we've become a national sport over the years. "Being from Pittsburgh, I've seen it happen with the Steelers and the Penguins, where the fans were steelworkers and blue-collar guys," Leech said. The previous points system, the product of decades of trial and error, had been in place for 35 years. https://twitter.com/23XIRacing/status/1431422557668925440. He lamented the closure of tracks in the region. Otherwise the war on NASCARs fan base will only continue. These modernizing forces accelerated after Earnhardts death, and partly because of it. WebBrandon Brown, the NASCAR driver whose name inspired the anti-Joe Biden chant sweeping the US, says he fears it is putting off fans and sponsors. Races to long with little ability to pass. NASCAR has now aligned its core values with the corporate culture of one of its top stakeholders. The points system meant that the seasons champion could be a foregone conclusion long before the final race. They havent been able to do that. This having apparently not made enough of an impact, NASCAR turned the request into an imperative during the summer of 2020, amid protests over the death of George Floyd and an explicit call to do so from Bubba Wallace, the sports lone Black driver at the national level. With just seven laps to go and Earnhardt in the lead, Elliott made a move inside, his #9 Coors car bumping Earnhardts #3 Wrangler off course and into the infield grasssurely spelling the end of his chances. Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Manage Newsletters, - Amy is an 18-year veteran NASCAR writer and a five-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. In fact, the very incident that earned him his lasting nickname, The Intimidator, alienated as much as it endeared. The (unfairly-trolled) women-centric Ghostbusters reboot that briefly became a culture-war flashpoint? But the car rated highly on all the metrics that the suits cared about. It was deliberately designed to be slower, with a thicker, more box-like bumper and a more upright windshield to increase drag. Industry sources put NASCAR's corporate revenue at $1.5 billion, more than the NFL or Major League Baseball. Kamara saw Wallace, NASCARs only Black fulltime driver, race with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme and wear a shirt that read, I Cant Breathe.. After a diversity announcement in Washington, NASCAR President Mike Helton told the Associated Press: "We believe strongly that the old Southeastern redneck heritage that we had is no longer in existence. Nearly 190,000 fans squeezed into Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday to see Kasey Kahne capture the latest stop on the Nextel Cup circuit. Helton said NASCAR remains true to its roots even as it holds races in Chicago, Texas and Southern California.
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