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Amanda / videos / photos / blog

Nov 24

Where have all the NASCAR fans gone?posted in NASCAR on Nov 24th 2010 at 8:08am.

It’s been no secret that NASCAR race attendance and television ratings have been down the last couple of seasons or so. As attendance and ratings have declined, speculation as to why seems to have bounced all over the radar. One school of thought for the drop in attendance at the track is the health, or lack thereof, of the economy. That could be a contributor. The economy has also been blamed for the lackluster TV ratings. Maybe so. After all, it seems like more races were on cable/satellite TV this season than in seasons past. Sure FOX continues to broadcast the first big chunk of the Sprint Cup schedule, but after its portion of the schedule, most races are on cable/satellite networks, like TNT and the ESPN family of networks. Last year, the fall Richmond race (the last race heading into the Chase) and all 10 Chase races were on ABC. In 2010, though, only one of those races aired on ABC, with the rest finding a home on ESPN.

Some, especially fans, have blamed NASCAR’s perceived decline in popularity on NASCAR, itself. Perhaps for several seasons, NASCAR ruled itself into poor favor among a certain set of fans. Fans who pointed to the sanctioning body, itself, said that NASCAR was just too involved in the racing, that those in the front office, so to speak, should just step back and let ‘em race. Shouldn’t NASCAR’s recent “boys have at it stance” have taken care of that problem?

Then there’s the conspiracy theorists. You know, the people who think races are fixed, that NASCAR decides beforehand who’s going to win on a given race weekend, or maybe even who’s going to win the championship in Novemember when the competition heads to Daytona to start the preceding season in February. NASCAR has been accused, even by some of its competitors, of creating phantom cautions, or throwing out the yellow flag to bunch the field back up and make more of a race of it. Maybe so. But if that does happen, does it happen often, and wouldn’t that make for better entertainment? At least drivers don’t win races by margins of multiple laps anymore, or even a single lap, for that matter.

Then there are others who simply say that the racing just isn’t any good anymore. Really? According to stats released by NASCAR on Tuesday, the 2010 season was one of the most competitive seasons in Cup Series history. Of course, one could say that the stats could be biased, and after all, statistics can be construed and dissected to say pretty much anything you want them to say. But they’re still worth a look.

To read more, visit Auto Racing Daily.
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1 Comments

fullspeedgirl +Delete - on Nov 24th 2010 at 1:13pm

Could it also be something about the top drivers being no longer relateable to the typical fan, but instead are viewed as "celebrities"? I've personally heard this complaint.

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