Brian France - Step Aside!!!!

Brian France needs to step aside before he does any more damage. Although he continues to make money for NASCAR and the race tracks, he is in danger of losing too many fans.

I attended the Nationwide Series race at Richmond last Friday night. I have been to that race 10 of the last 11 years. There were less than half as many fans there as there were 5 years ago. Attendance, even compared to last year, was down at least 25%. The track did not open nearly as many sections as they used to.

I watched Saturday’s Cup race on television and could easily see at least 25% of the seats were not sold. That race was a sellout just a few years ago. And, there are fewer seats than there were then because they widened each seat! Television ratings for the race were down more than 10% from last year. Justifiably, ESPN doesn’t mention the attendance and ratings numbers. I don’t think enough is being said about it.

Brian France and his cohorts need to rethink some things. His bodacious attempt to steal football fans in the fall with the Chase has fallen flat on its face. The scary thing is he is about to tweak that format again, still thinking that it is a winner.

And now they are talking about messing with the Nationwide Series to somehow limit how Cup regulars participate in it. There was a time when that seemed like a good idea to me. Now it seems like it might kill the series.

I know Brian France and company will not change their thinking until money is being lost. That is probably a ways off. But, if things continue downward as they have been, it’s hard to say how far off that is.

The two things that need most to be done to the Cup series to begin righting the ship:
1 – Eliminate about 6 races. There are just too many to keep fan interest. A correlation can be seen between when they increased the number of races and when fan interest starting dropping.
2 – Eliminate the Chase and replace the points system with one that favors the top 5 finishers very heavily. The fans will love it. The drivers will no longer settle for top fifteen finishes.

It’s not surprising that NASCAR fan interest peaked like it did about 8 years ago. It’s not surprising that it went downhill from its peak. What is surprising is how far and how fast fan interest has fallen. The blame for that falls squarely on Brian France and the rest of NASCAR management.