A few seasons ago when Bill France Jr. stepped
down as leader of NASCAR and turned his duties over to his son, Brian, nobody
could have guessed how much the sport would change in just a few short years.
Brian France, NASCAR’s new leader, has all but tried to kill the sport, a sport
that his grandfather, the great “Big” Bill France Sr. built single handedly and
made into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Pretty soon after Brian France took over as the
new leader of NASCAR, the sports longtime sponsor Winston stepped aside and the
sponsor that seemed so perfect for an auto racing organization that started in
the Deep South and was brought to the forefront by wild, southern good ol’ boys
was replaced by the cell phone company, Nextel. As soon as Nextel stepped in as
sponsor for NASCAR’s biggest series NASCAR decided to make yet another change.
The points standings that had been the same
for over fifty years of NASCAR existence was to be revamped to include a playoff
type system for the Nextel Cup series. The new points system rewards the guy who
can score the most points within the final ten races in the top ten, rather then
complete season consistency. Many rules have been changed within the past few
seasons in NASCAR.
For years in the sport when a caution came
out it was customary to race back to the caution flag therefore drivers could
make a last second jockey for position or attempt to get a lap back. That was
thought to be a big safety issue and has been changed to a new rule referred to
as the “lucky dog.” When a caution comes out now in NASCAR the field is
automatically frozen in the position that they were at the exact moment of the
caution and the first car who is one lap down is awarded a free pass to get back
on the lead lap.
In the past few season some of NASCAR’s
most historic tracks and traditions have been completely thrown out the window.
Rockingham, a track in North Carolina, which brought great racing to the sport
for many years, has been done away with.
The Southern 500 which was essentially the
second biggest race of the season, after the Daytona 500, was first moved from
its annual Labor Day weekend date, then it was done away with altogether the
following year. Darlington Raceway, were the Southern 500 was once held, may not
have a race date come next season on the Nextel Cup. This has led many fans to
wonder which tracks will go next, Martinsville or Richmond maybe.
If NASCAR gets there way all the tracks on
the NASCAR circuit will probably look identical one day in the future. Older
veterans that everybody loves are constantly getting sick with all of the
changes in NASCAR.
Guys like Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte
have already left the sport full time and others like Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace are on there way out. The other veterans who are still hanging on like
Dale Jarrett and Sterling Marlin continue to grow increasingly disgruntled with
a sport that they once dominated.
While NASCAR is seemingly pushing out the
veterans of the sport it seems to be encouraging the young punks who are taking
over the sport. Guys like Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers and
many more are making their way into the sport acting like they own the circuit
and show their bad boy attitudes every change they get.
Sure, there are younger drivers who are
hard workers and keep their nose to the grindstone and race the way NASCAR
should be raced like Kasey Kahne, but NASCAR is quickly being overcome with
younger drivers who really have no business being behind the wheel in a stock
car race.
NASCAR is continuing its many efforts to
gain new fans to the sport, but many of these new fans are just like the sports
new drivers. While NASCAR is gaining new fans at a rapid rate, they are also
losing fans at a rate just a rapid.
The fans who once were very loyal to the sport of
NASCAR are now looking for other series of racing that continue the kind of
racing that NASCAR once offered, like the Hooters Pro Cup Series or the ARCA
Remax series. Unless some drastic changes make there way into NASCAR in the very
near future the sport as we know it will be dead. Something happened recently to
a truly great sport, and now that sport is neither great nor true anymore.
By: Julian Spivey