NASCAR: Fixing what's not broken since 2004

GRID REPORT 2: NASCAR, Fixing what's not broken since 2004

By now, you've probably heard the news that Brian France, CEO of NASCAR has sent out a exploratory balloon of sorts via the Charlotte Observer on new changes to the "Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. These changes include a 16 driver cutoff, with winners getting automatic bids, and a rolling elimination system where the top four drivers would race for the cup in a winner-take all championship race in Homestead. The reaction from fans was less than enthusiastic. In fact NASCAR fans were despondent on social media that Brian France was destroying the sport by fixing what wasn't broken: The NASCAR points system. The disconnect from fans and NASCAR management comes from Brian France's need to make the sport like the NFL instead of helping he sport stand on its own merits.

Since Jimmie Johnson won his fifth straight championship in 2010, NASCAR has been struggling with sagging TV ratings and empty seats as an unappealing car combined with an equally unwanted champion sapped fan interest. Even epic points wins by Tony Stewart, who won a championship via the NASCAR Tiebreaker rules for the first time in the Sport's history, and Brad Keselowski, who took the fight to Jimmie Johnson and ran the future all of famer hard to win his first career championship, did little to spark the fans interest as Jimmie Johnson lurked in the shadows each time. 

NASCAR alleviated one of its problems last season with the creation of the "Gen 6" race car, that gave the machines more street-car like look. The fans were intrigued, until lackluster racing pushed even more fans away. Coupled with Jimmie Johnson winning yet another Sprint Cup title, and NASCAR found itself with a crisis in its hands. Worse, the consolidation of open wheel and sports car racing series in the country, NASCAR finds itself in a battle for ratings.

But instead of opening up its stringent rulebook and shaking up the schedule, NASCAR has decided to attempt to fix what isn't broken. Embracing mediocrity by adding 16 cars to the championship chase, and including an NFL-like playoff system to try and boost ratings has turned off fans that believe that NASCAR is becoming closer to the WWE than an actual sport. These fans could be lost to other racing series, where stability and action during NASCAR's chaotic period have seen there fortunes rise in terms of audience and TV ratings. 

To be clear, none of these  changes have been confirmed, and it will be the end of the month until we find out what NASCAR will do, if anything. But Brian France must take the fans' vehement opposition into the proposed chase plans, and explore other options to shake up the sport for the future. If not, then Brian could go down in history as the France that destroyed Big Bills' motorsports empire.  

Grid Report #1:

Grid report #1 The winter of our discontent is over! Well, unless you’re an open wheel fan, then you’ve got another two months to sit and wait. But for the rest of us, the green flag has dropped over the 2014 racing year. Today we take a look at the wrap up of three days of sports car testing in Daytona, and the surprising results from the Tudor United Sports Car Championship test in Daytona.


 Tudor United Sports Car Championship: Ex Daytona Prototypes pace the field after three days of testing.

 The announcement that the American LeMans Series presented by Tequila Patron, and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Championship would merge at the end of last year was not as celebrated as you might think. Many fans, who felt that Grand-Am was “NASCAR-fying” endurance racing and hence ruining the sport, lamented the move, calling it the death of American sports car Racing. The target of their aggression was the Daytona Prototype (pictured here). Developed for competition parity, the Daytona Prototypes were made to keep racing close and operating costs down. With their lack of aesthetic features and performance, the cars drew more comparisons to NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow than the European-style prototypes seen on the American LeMans Series grid. With both types of cars merging to form one class of Prototype in the United Sports Car Championship, fans of the European Prototypes (pictured here) were quick to call out the “ugly, slow” Daytona Prototypes.

 After one weekend in January, however, the Daytona Prototypes proved themselves to be worthy race cars indeed. With a series of upgrades to the aerodynamics and engine to bring the cars more in line with ACO (the international sanctioning body for Sports Car racing), Daytona Prototypes paced the field during the three day “Roar before the 24” test at the Daytona International Speedway. Cars representing the former Rolex Grand-Am series lead at the end of each of the tests eight one hour forty five minute sessions. Cars that used to make up the American LeMans Series' Prototype 2 category, cracked the top three only twice in eight sessions.

But before we go off and celebrate the triumph of American ingenuity, let's examine where the test was taking place. The Series was at the Daytona International Speedway, where the Rolex Grand-Am Series kicked off their season every year for the last decade. On the other hand, teams from the American LeMans Series have never raced at Daytona before this year.For them the three day test was more about dialing in their cars to the track than going for all out speed, unlike the ex Grand-Am teams, who have a notebook full of data to rely on from previous competitions. Naturally, you can go faster when you actually know  the circuit than when you're trying to learn the correct line.

When the teams return in two weeks time, the two types of Prototype will compete for the first time under the same rules package, forming the centerpiece of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship's mission statement to bring a diverse field of cars to America's finest road courses and street circuits. No matter what which side of the European Prototype vs. American Prototype feud, the final assessment will play out on the track, and that's something fans all across the world can't wait to see.