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Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008

Minor tweaks nice, but not enough

During the past six years, NASCAR has sought to cut ties with some of its Southern roots under the cloudy cover of growing the sport.

So it was surprising last week to hear that NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France noted that instead of making major changes this year, the sport's sanctioning body instead plans to try to reconnect with its traditional fan base in a few subtle ways.

That's right. Instead of changes like yanking races from Darlington, S.C. and Rockingham, N.C., or artificially creating a close points race through the Chase for the championship, the plan for the 2008 season, starting with the 50th Daytona 500, is to make things simpler and for the sport not to bend over backwards to make non-fans watch racing.

"We're getting back to the basics. We're going to try to minimize the change going forward as best we can and focus on what we've always focused on, which is the best product in the world," France said during last week's news conference. "But we'll also continue to embrace the past and the rich heritage beginning with the biggest event, the Daytona 500."

Did it take the crowd in Daytona six years to figure out that it had been alienating the very people that helped it reach its apex in the late 1990s?

Sure, it is nice to see NASCAR giving some thought to its longtime fans of the sport by making things simpler and easier to keep up with.

But if it thinks that those same fans will let bygones be bygones and come rushing back to the ticket booth with their wallets, their thinking is more off the pace than the Toyotas were during much of last season.

Changes like starting most Sunday afternoon races no later than 2 p.m. and bringing in more country music artists than top 40 also-rans is a nice start. After all, country music and NASCAR's Southern roots are closely linked to one another.

If NASCAR is serious about rebuilding burned bridges with fans who perhaps have been turned off during the past few years, it has to do more than throw a few cosmetic changes out into the wind and hope fans are satisfied.

If it really wants to reach out to the fan who used to take the family on vacation each year to the Southern 500 or the Coca-Cola 600, then it needs to admit that moving the Labor Day date to California Speedway was a mistake. It needs to find a place for racing at Rockingham, even if it is only a Truck of Nationwide series event.

Darlington has proven that it can be a good sell given a favorable date since having its race during Mother's Day weekend. Why not have a Saturday night race in case it does rain, as it usually does during hurricane season in that part of the country?

Minor jabs at reaching out to longtime fans of racing are nice to talk about and offer a warm and fuzzy feeling.

But in the big picture, changes making the sport easier to follow don't add up to much for fans who have been turned off by NASCAR and need a reason to watch again.