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Ah, the wonderful world of NASCAR!
It's a sport that started on the sands of Daytona beach and continues on today with a 36 race season around The United States. Its races are nothing short of a thrill ride and something you have to see to believe. It was also one of the most popular spectator sports at one time, which only helped its popularity and its marketability with that being said, the sport has been in a virtual free fall over the last couple of years and while many of their top drivers retiring have a lot to do with it, NASCAR didn't make the best of decisions during this time period either. Beyond that, they have made decisions that continue to have detrimental effects on the sport today.
Here are five of the biggest problems with modern day NASCAR and how best to tackle them in a way that will be beneficial for all.
#5 Stage racing
Segments are something that NASCAR introduced only a few short years ago and already is one of the top complaints when fans talk about the sport. Not only does it basically force the field to bunch up again for the sake of artificial excitement, but it also creates a situation where drivers will get more and more aggressive.
If nothing else, it's not a good situation from any standpoint and takes away from the lead drivers ability to run away with the race. Of course, that's supposed to be a good thing, especially since it makes it where no race is a foregone conclusion, but it really doesn't look good when the dominant guy doesn't come out the winner at the end of the afternoon.
#4 The fans
Fans are an important part of any sport and the same is true for NASCAR as well. With that being said, NASCAR has made some very questionable decisions over the few years and it has caused even their most diehard fans to leave in droves. Furthermore, the decisions have also left a harsh divide among the remaining fans, which hasn't helped things.
Unfortunately for NASCAR, that divide remains wider than ever and has caused a lot of infighting among the fandom. For example, while younger fans appreciate the round system of the playoffs and the heads up final four during championship weekend, older fans see it as manufactured excitement and disrespectful to the sports original legacy.
Another example is the segment racing, which is also something that has gotten mixed reviews. Of course, NASCAR's probably not going to change that aspect of the racing product, especially since it has been growing on fans for years now, but it's still something that angers the older fan base.
In the end, infighting is a big problem when it comes to NASCAR fans and it's hard to decide where things will go from here. It would be easier if the fans could all just agree on where NASCAR goes next, but since there is such a divide in what each side thinks the sport should be, it may never find solid footing again.
#3 Top drivers retiring
Let's be honest here, the retirement of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart, and Kasey Kahne took a lot of star power out of the sport and it's only going to get worse as time goes on. in fact, if NASCAR doesn't establish any new talent soon, they aren't going to have anyone to sell fans on.
Of course, there will always be second generation drivers like Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney, but the rest of the young guns have struggled to gain any kind of footing. Unfortunately for drivers hoping to make a name for themselves, the new aero package NASCAR unveiled in 2019 isn't helping things either and really makes it harder for a smaller team to get to victory lane.
In the end, NASCAR needs stars and they aren't going to have that if they keep losing drivers to retirement without building others up in the process. With that being said, NASCAR either needs to entice these drivers to stay or change the competition to a point where someone other than Busch, Logano or Brad Keselowski can win.
#2 Cup series drivers in lower tiered series
If nothing else, NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series drivers being able to race in lower tiered series is a bad idea and has really stunted the growth of a quite a few careers in the process. Of course, long-time drivers will say that they have a right to drive their own car and that the competition is good for the younger drivers, but not if they never win.
With that being said and Kyle Busch's propinquity for driving in The Xfinity and Gander Mountain Outdoor Truck Series, it's obvious that NASCAR needs to further limit drivers from pulling double duty. Again, it's not a perfect solution and will rob Cup driver of an opportunity to mix it up with the young guns, but it's not worth ruining the sport over.
In the end, drivers like Christopher Bell, Brett Moffit, Justin Allgaier and everyone else in the lower tiered series deserves time to progress. What they don't need, however, is to get outshined by The Kyle Busch show, which has already happened several times this season
#1 The playoffs
Believe it or not, NASCAR was once one of the only sports that didn't have a playoff system. In fact, for quite a long time, NASCAR just ran 36 races and crowned a winner based on points at the end of the year. Unfortunately for fans of the old way things were done NASCAR introduced a playoff system in 2004 and the sport has never been the same since then.
Things got even worse in 2014 however, when NASCAR announced that they would be going for a round based playoff system and that a certain amount of drivers would be eliminated at the end of each round. NASCAR also announced that the final four drivers would then compete in a heads up battle for the championship in an effort to keep the things interesting till the final race.
While this decision was a popular one for younger fans, it really rubbed traditional fans the wrong way and made a lot of them stop watching... Of course, NASCAR made the right decision to bring the sport into the 21st century and try to make the overall product more watchable, but did they have to do it in a way that angered their older fans?
