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        NASCAR Officials Missing Point

        BY MONTE DUTTON,
        AOL
        Posted: 2008-04-09 18:50:17
        Filed Under: NASCAR
        Sports Commentary

        While its courageous performers continue to race the tracks, NASCAR is racing the U.S. economy and not doing a whole lot better than George W. Bush.

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        Streeter Lecka, Getty Images

        Cost to Attend
        NASCAR Event

        1 of 7    

        Single Ticket $40 to $150
        Going to a NASCAR event isn't cheap. A family of four can spend well over $1,000 to experience a race weekend. See where the money goes.



        Imagine a sport where people travel from halfway across the country to watch. Suppose the price of gasoline increases, oh, just about every single week. Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that most of the fans come from working-class backgrounds and have working-class sensibilities. Put the price of a decent ticket at about 80 bucks a pop. Make it impossible for the competitors to make it through the year without about $10 million or so in sponsorships. Cave in the Dow. Smack the NASDAQ.

        Guess what? Fear and loathing. Gnashing of teeth. It's enough to make a man vote for the Democrats.

        Only it hasn't happened yet. All the Titanic had on NASCAR was a band still playing as the bow started to slide into the depths.

        NASCAR television ratings are up. All is well!

        Attendance is down. Once all things are considered, this makes perfect sense. More people are watching on television because not as many of them can afford to go the track. Rising costs are affecting the ability of families to attend races. It's costing more and more, and the ticket prices -- in most cases, Sprint Cup tickets run from $40 to $150 each -- are the least of it. For a decade now, NASCAR officials have paid lip service to the fans while otherwise paying no attention to their plight.

        As the economy plummets, fans encounter hotels charging three times their normal rates -- $225 a night, but the scurrying-insect show is on the house! -- with three- and four-night minimums. Held over! The Roaches! Don't want a motel? Camping sites start at $100 a night, but electricity is extra.

        At the actual track, fans can depend on $4 hot dogs and $40 T-shirts.


        So far, this has been a pretty good year. All four manufacturers have won races. Competition is keen. The only race NASCAR is losing is the one involving the market value of its product. The fans love it, but there's only so far one can travel with a wallet full of maxed-out credit cards and an SUV that guzzles high-test.

        Unfortunately, NASCAR still is in denial. With thousands of empty seats clearly visible, a post-race report claims the Martinsville Speedway crowd on March 30 is 63,000. The official capacity of the track is 65,000. Do the funny math.

        Rather than coolly analyzing the economic prospects, NASCAR is in the denial stage from top to bottom. The drivers, accustomed to unconditional adoration, sound as if there's no one out there who doesn't actually make a hundred grand a year. They treat their fan base as if it were a treasure trove. At the top, Brian France, the high-falutin' CEO, is doing his best Herbert Hoover imitation.


        Listen to the optimistic naivete of drivers, most of whom seem bewildered at why anyone would do anything so drastic as staying home.

        Three-fifty for a gallon of gas? "I'm thankful we get it for free from Sunoco," said four-time champion Jeff Gordon.

        "There's no doubt it has everyone nervous," said reigning champion Jimmie Johnson.

        Meanwhile, Fox television anchor Mike Joy keeps thumping the "all is well" tub. Over and over, he talked about a sellout crowd at Texas Motor Speedway, where eight sections on the back straight had been festooned with sponsorship banners in order to hide the fact that there weren't any people in those seats.

        NASCAR officials concentrate on competing against other sporting events, but for a family of four that used to attend six races a year, the cost can easily be a thousand bucks a pop, once all the price gouging is considered. Do we go to the race, or do we have a vacation this year? The little woman has a soft spot for racing, but not when it means no vacation in Myrtle Beach or week-long cruise to Cozumel.

        As these sober conversations are taking place in middle-class homes, track owners scream to legislators about ticket scalping. They don't raise a finger to discourage motel-room scalping. They don't fret about the $40 T-shirts.

        The fans still love racing, but they simply can't afford to attend as many of them. They watch TV. Ratings go up. Small consolation, to borrow the fashionable cliche, at the end of the day.

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        Kyle Busch
        #18 M&M's Toyota
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        MEANWHILE, ON THE ACTUAL TRACK ...

        -- Isn't it about time to cool it just a bit on Kyle Busch -- who, after all, has won only one Sprint Cup race this year -- and sing the praises of Carl Edwards, who's won three times as many races as any other driver?

        -- Fourteen of the 36 races, almost 40 percent, are contested on intermediate ovals (1.5-2.0 miles). Last year, en route to the championship, Jimmie Johnson won five of those races. So far, there have been four. Edwards has won three and probably would've won all four had it not been for a late breakdown at Atlanta. In the Chase, five of the 10 races are on intermediate tracks. Is Edwards a championship frontrunner? Oh, yeah.

        -- Hendrick Motorsports' Nos. 24 (Gordon) and 48 (Johnson) are housed in the same building. All data and analysis are interchangeable and available. Given this, how is it possible for one team (Johnson) to be highly competitive and the other (Gordon) to be completely irrelevant on the same track?

        Darrell Waltrip said it was the difference in driving styles. What? They both can drive a stick, right?

        -- Think Edwards felt humiliated when his Las Vegas victory was marred by the celebrated oil-tank cover that had "worked its way loose?" As soon as he got out of his car in Victory Lane at Texas, Edwards made a point of looking inside the car, pointing out that the oil-tank cover was secure and telling the television audience, "The reason we won is all the hard work, not the oil-tank lid."

        -- There weren't any Horatio Alger stories in Texas. It was an upscale procession that roared across the finish line: in order, Edwards, Johnson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not a commoner in the bunch. All royalty.

        Photo Gallery

        Rusty Jarrett, Getty Images for NASCAR

        Relive
        The Season

        1 of 10    

        Dan Lowry 400: Make that a 72-race winless drought for Dale Earnhardt Jr. After Junior spins out in the final laps, it's Clint Bowyer, pictured, who surges to the lead and wins the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond.



        2008 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
        2008-04-07 13:22:56


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        Recent Comments

        1 - 10 of 1909
        1909 comments

        playa0fthegame7 12:20:56 PM Apr 24 2008

        Maybe we'd have to not spend so much on gas if it wasn't for the democrats not letting us drill in Alaska.

        mchfoun 04:08:42 PM Apr 23 2008

        NASCAR, HAS A GREAAAT OPERATION AND SYSTEM GOING BUT AS TED TURNER, USE TO SAY, IF YOU STANDSTILL FOR ONE DAY, YOU'VE LOST A GOOD DEAL OF GROUND AND IT'S HARDER THAN HELL TO EVER, EVER GAIN "THAT" BACK. THE OLD MAN (R*I*P) FRANCE, WAS MORE THAN AWARE OF THAT AND THATS WHY UP UNTIL THIS YEAR NASCAR HAS DONE A GREAT JOB STAYING AHEAD OF OR AT LEAST "EVEN" WITH IT'S SO-CALLED COMPETITION BUT NOW EVEN, IS BEHIND AND SOON THAT BECOMES THE OLD "HIND TIT, " ISN'T IT? FIRST OFF, CHILDREN UNDER 10, 12 OR 13 SHOULD BE FREE --IF ACCOMPANIED BY PARENTS. OR GUARDIANS, WHY? HELL, THEY'LL SPEND MORE ON CONCESSIONS AND A DECADE LATER THEY'LL BE BRINGIN THEIR RUG RATS. NEXT, SERVE NOTICE ON THE MOTEL AND HOTELS AND CAMP SITES THAT UNLESS THEY STOP PRICE GOUGING THEY WILL BE BOYCOTTED AND TOTALLY SHUT-OUT FROM ASSOCIATION WITH NASCAR AND SO ON AND SO FORTH AND DOBEE DOBEE DOOWAH.....HEY NASCAR CAN SELL PARKING/CAMPING SPACE AT NIGHT ON THE TRACK, AND JUST HAVE AN EARLY CHECKOUT TIME (regardless of yo

        mchfoun 07:01:11 PM Apr 20 2008

        HEY NASCAR....WHY IS YOUR SITE SO PUNITIVE AND NOSEY? ARE YOU TRYING TO GET THE DEMO AND PYSCHO GRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF EVERYONE THAT VISITS THE SITE? ARE YOU SEEING YOUR SPONSORS PULLING BACK AND CUTTING BUDGETS IN HALF, ONLY TO FIND THE NETWORKS WHERE YOU "RUN" THE RACES HAVE BEEN SIPHONING OFF YOUR SPONSORS AND THEIR AFFILIATES? OR, HAS IT EVEN OCCURRED TO YOU, THERE IN THE OFFICE? GO AHEAD ON AND GAIN ANOTHER 100 POUNDS BRIAN OUT OF "NUTTIN TO DO ALL DAY...." DUH?

        mchfoun 06:53:00 PM Apr 20 2008

        Can't Boy-France, listen to how those clowns call his race? Yea, Baby Bri, listen to what they are putting out over the tv and radio waves. In case you don't know it that IS THE PRODUCT FOR MILLIONS.... BUT When you have inferior announcing and outright lies going out about this and that in racing and (especially ) e-s-pee-n voices can't even follow the cameras to the action and then when the voices get there they can't even get the names right..... France, that is the beginning of the MELTDOWN OF WHAT YOUR DADDY WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD....Shame on you! And, you don't deserve to be involved in it and take funny-ass=wipe Doc, DW and his sissy boy brother with you when you go. No, don't worry about the lights we got somebody that knows the correct switch to flip......

        j948bu 01:54:23 PM Apr 17 2008

        I am done watching Nascar due to all the jabber from the has-beens, drivers, crew chiefs, etc. on the TV screen., Between them and all of the commercials that most always has a wreck, or the old familiar DEBRIS ON THE RACETRACK gimmick, and caution runs for at least 6 laps. Used tp be a fan but no more. JF

        wordthethird 01:14:24 PM Apr 14 2008

        I;m glad to see someone is giving the voiceless fans a voice. NASCAR is going downhill fast. While the cost of going to a race is steep, I think more people would be willing to go if the product on the track wasn't so inferior . Do ya'll think NASCAR should care when a national poll on AOL shows of almost 60,000 votes 90% think that they take us for granted? That is a PR nightmare. NASCAR and lil' France need to wake up and get with it. He is ruining what so many of us (especially here in the South) have loved for years. I am also sick of Waltrip, Hammond, McReynols, and Joy doing their est Kevin Bacon/Animal House impression every week. "All is well, remain calm, all is well." I am watching "Dega and then am outta there.

        aspiratior 04:54:52 PM Apr 13 2008

        Everyone complains about the race. Try going to a football or baseball game and brining your own food and beer in, not going to happen.

        wcastiglia 12:29:39 PM Apr 13 2008

        Nascar racing is going to the dogs. Way too many break aways.

        wcastiglia 12:27:54 PM Apr 13 2008

        Nascar is more interrested in selling s*#@t because it seems as though you watch 10 lapes of racing and then you miss 10 laps so that they can break away. VERY BORING. I am finding myself getting up out of the chair more and more and not being interested in the race. It's way worse then last year.

        haft2 09:36:08 PM Apr 11 2008

        get toyota out of nascar the world would be a better place

        1 - 10 of 1909
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