"What is there to be excited about?": NASCAR Insiders share worrying takes on current state of the sport

NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi have shared their viewpoints on the state of the sport right now from a fan's perspective. During an episode of The Teardown podcast, both Bianchi and Gluck took turns to express their concerns with the present scenario in the sport.

Gluck said that with the way things are at present, it's difficult for him to show excitement and a big appetite for what's to come despite the playoffs being two races away. He put a sarcastic spin on his statement as he wondered which elite driver would get knocked out of the playoffs because of cutting a tire which would then be considered exciting. The show's co-host further extended his point by wondering if a driver who is 12th in points would advance to the final four.

Sharing the same sentiment as Gluck but taking a more direct route to express his thoughts, Jordan Bianchi said:

"If you're a NASCAR fan right now, what excites you right now? What is there to be excited about? It's hard. The racing's just okay. There's really not any juicy sexy storylines right now we're talking about. It just kind of feels like, just kind of shrug your shoulders and it's unfortunate."

"Now, my hope is that come the playoffs when the stakes are raised a little bit maybe this changes a little bit, but right now there just doesn't feel like a whole lot. And as great as we thought Mexico City and Chicago were in terms of events and what it did for the sport, you still have a segment of people are like, 'No, that sucked'. And you're just constantly fighting upstream on things. And that's a challenge as well." [39:20]

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will start on August 31 at the Darlington Raceway.

Jordan Bianchi wonders if NASCAR lacking good racing is the problem

During their conversation on the Teardown, Jordan Bianchi asked Jeff Gluck whether the lack of excitement is influenced by a lack of great racing. He said that if the racing aspect of NASCAR was better on a consistent level, would there be excitement and buzz about Richmond and Daytona or Darlington.

It's worth mentioning that the most recent race at Watkins Glen was won by Shane van Gisbergen with a massive margin of over 10 seconds.

"If we thought there was going to be a bunch of great racing and we thought these guys were going to race it out and have some super compelling stuff coming up, then we wouldn't really be focused on the playoffs anyway," Gluck said. [38:25]

Gluck claimed the focus would shift because of the 'freaking awesome racing' and the great product. Having said that, he pointed out that it goes back to everything converging at the wrong time.