NASCAR Television Ratings

I imagine the champagne is flowing at NASCAR headquarters. I bet the genius trio of France, Helton and Darby have a spring in their step not seen in recent years. Their contented sighs must, by now, be annoying all those around them. The reason? Why, those television ratings from the first two races! They are right out of sight!

Let’s be clear on what helped those ratings. For the Daytona 500 three things were in play. First, the weather was terrible in most of the country – except Florida. People were forced inside to spend the weekend with the television remote in hand. Second, there wasn’t a heck of a lot on television. No Olympics, no Tiger Woods, no crucial NCAA basketball contests. Thirdly, viewers surfing through their channels probably caught a glimpse of the unique two by two racing and stopped to ponder what this new spectacle was. A perfect storm led many to find the FOX telecast the only interesting event.

Then, for the Phoenix race, some of the same things happened. A fierce line of storms was moving across mid America forcing outdoor activities to be cancelled. Again, there was no significant television competition from other sporting events. And then there was Trevor Bayne. Even people who did not watch the Daytona 500 heard about the 20 year old and had to get in on the next big thing.

I hate to throw a wet blanket on all the celebrating, but most of these things are going away real soon. Spring will arrive and we will all come out of hibernation from in front of the television set. Other events: March Madness, the Masters, baseball start-up, pro basketball and hockey play-offs will all divide our attention when we do pick up the remote. That unique two by two racing at Daytona and, probably, at Talladega, will get old to fans real quick. And Trevor Bayne will not win any more Nextel Cup races for a while (but will do very well in the Nationwide series).

I predicted last year that we had reached the bottom of the television ratings and would stay there. It had gotten down to us hard core fans. I still believe that. NASCAR, along with FOX, ESPN and TNT better not kick back and start gloating. We will see temporary ups and downs, but the ratings for the overall season will be pretty close to last year.

Points System

So NASCAR has finally bought into the idea that the points system needs an overhaul. Duh! How many of us hard core fans have been saying that for years. The current system was designed to keep the car fields full. Teams had to be encouraged to keep coming back every week even if they were not running well.

That was then, this is now. Every week at least 35 real good teams show up to compete. And, there has not been a field of less than 43 cars since NASCAR went to that car count for every race. So NASCAR has decided to change the point structure to award the winner 43 points, and then drop down a point for each position so the 43^rd place driver receives one point. Bonus points, apparently, have not been decided on.

I’m having trouble seeing the difference from the current system. Rumor has it that the winner will get a few extra points. But, the proposed system is the same as it is now, other than us mathematically challenged people will have a little easier time of it. Someone ran last year’s finishes thru the new formula and came out with the same results for the first seven positions, then minor changes in eight thru ten.

There are two things wrong with both the current and the proposed point structures:

1 – Finishing at the front is not rewarded enough. I like the idea I’ve heard of putting the top three finishers on a podium. That will be good for the drivers, teams and sponsors. And reward those top three finishers point-wise. Make it really worthwhile to finish third rather than fourth, second rather than third, and first rather than second. Give each one of those positions 20% more than the next position. The racing will become really exciting!!

2 – Field trailers and “start and parkers” get rewarded with points. Since the top 35 in points are currently guaranteed starters that might be a good number to cut the points off after. If you finish 36^th thru 43^rd you get no points. No more just hanging around. Finish in the top 35 or get nothing. An added benefit of this will be to eliminate some of the back markers from getting in the way late in the race.

I’m afraid nothing will be accomplished by the rumored point changes. That seems to be the way of NASCAR. There is not enough brainpower at the top to make real good changes.