As the NASCAR season faded into the Miami sunset last week, a bunch of strange thoughts started banging around in the echo chamber that is my head.
First, with the departure of Busch, Old NASCAR has now been completely replaced by New NASCAR (NASCAR Lite may be substituted here). Winston left four years ago, and Busch followed this year. Nextel came on in 2004, only to be replaced by Sprint in 2008. Busch, the only sponsor the Grand National Series has ever had, is gone as of now, to be replaced by Nationwide.
What’s next, Goodyear leaving in favor of Pirelli?

The feeling that NASCAR is more than a money-making scheme whose rising tide floats an ever-dwindling number of luxury yachts, that’s what is slipping away.

Having been a NASCAR fan since birth, practically, it’s kind of hard to swallow all the changes. Sure, there’s a financial aspect to this; you can’t race 38 times a year and not have people there to pay for it, now can you? And the Nextel-to-Sprint change isn’t really a change; it’s the same people, just with a different logo.
But the feeling is leaving faster than a Carolina Panthers’s home crowd at halftime, and that’s what the bummer is. The feeling that NASCAR is more than a money-making scheme whose rising tide floats an ever-dwindling number of luxury yachts, that’s what is slipping away.
As much as NASCAR is the 900-pound gorilla (it’s too big to be an 800-pounder any more) in American motorsports, there’s evidence to suggest that the corporate entity is eating too much. TV ratings are down, so is attendance, and the interest that has been the hallmark of the series for the past 15 years seems to be waning.
There are reasons for this, chief among them are energy costs and the ever-increasing number of other things to do, but I sense there’s more. Race fans are getting tired of higher ticket and hotel prices, diminished access to the cars and stars, insane traffic jams, $7 cheeseburgers, seat licenses and all the other “improvements” that have come down the pike of late.
Shoot, reading that last sentence makes one wonder why more folks don’t just go to NFL games; a $7 cheeseburger represents a price cut.
The Chase this year, even though expanded to 12 drivers from 10 in an effort to give two more drivers a chance at the title, turned into a Rick Hendrick benefit, as Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon just kept putting up low numbers and the rest of the field kept stepping on its collective crank shaft.
When the top two are separated by 77 points and third place is better than 200 points behind, it’s a runaway. Compare that to the point battles in IndyCar, Formula One and the National Hot Rod Ass’n, and it’s even worse than it sounds. All three of those battles came down to the final race, with razor-thin margins of victory and more than two drivers in the mix.
Maybe it’s the fatigue talking; NASCAR’s schedule begins at Valentine’s Day and ends just in time to cut the turkey on Thanksgiving. But something ain’t right these days, and the tea leaves say it’s likely to get a little worse before it can start getting better.
You can’t fault Johnson and Gordon. They had everyone covered all year long, and that’s what the goal is, isn’t it, to obliterate one’s opposition? Gordon finished in the top 10 in 30 of 36 races, and Johnson won 10 of the 36.
As we enter what might be the most important off-season in NASCAR history, let me leave you with a thought or two to ponder. The 2008 season is 11 weeks away, and right now, there’s a new car to break in, a serious TV problem and, potentially, an attendance problem to fix. The teams have to come up with a way to derail Hendrick, and NASCAR has to come up with a way to make everyone care again, as much as they used to. That’s a tall order for a little more than two months, don’t you think?