NASCAR - Martinsville - TV Ratings

Main topic of discussion about NASCAR today is "What's happening to NASCAR's TV ratings?" No one really asked me, but as we all know, a blog is a place to voice your personal opinion about what's happening. In the case of NASCAR TV ratings, this is my take on it.

NASCAR itself has killed a large portion of the product. Somewhere along the way NASCAR forgot what got 'em the good ratings to begin with. NASCAR won fans with exciting, close racing that featured rubbin' and racin' on tight tracks that naturally breed excitement. The exciting racing produced each week on those tight tracks lured fans that naturally love to get high on action. They kept coming back race after race and watched on TV when they couldn't attend.

NASCAR's business plan today seems to be to award races to venues featuring BIG, WIDE, little or no contact race tracks. I've noticed that you can tell if you're going to have an exciting race by driver interviews before the race.You may get a Mark Martin description of the track such as, "I love racing at Michigan...the track has multiple grooves and there's plenty of room to race."

Basically, the driver's alluding to the fact that he's going to have a relatively easy day driving, he likely won't be involved in any altercations on the track and he can depend on his equipment to bring him home with a good finish. The driver will be able to display his ability at maneuvering a race car with little or no interference from other drivers.

What this tells me is that as a NASCAR fan I will see little/no action on the track today. I may as well record the race and skip to the end for the final result.

Sunday's race at Martinsville brought pre-race descriptions of the track mentioning that it's a short, narrow track with tight turns and track position is important. That tells me that I am going to have a fun day watching this race on TV. It tells me the drivers will be working their ass off all day just to gain/maintain position at the finish.

Places like Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond always provide exciting racing. There is action on the track with rubbin' and racin' for the full race. At the end of the race, drivers will be worn out from working so hard. Road racing venues are typically similar because drivers have to really work to finish well. In all cases there is constant action on the track and always a calamitous altercation brewing. Tempers flare and drivers are pissed at each other at the end of the race.

Yesterday's race at Martinsville is an excellent example of NASCAR's heritage, it displayed the type action that brought fans to the track and to their TVs every Sunday afternoon just after noon. That's the type action that NASCAR needs every weekend, not the drivel that's produced by Michigan, California, and all the new, wide medium length tracks.

If NASCAR produced racing like Martinsville on a weekly basis instead of the boring productions that are featured at over half their venues today, their fan base would grow as would their TV ratings.

As a fan of NASCAR racin' since the late '50s, I know racin' when I see it and Martinsville on Sunday October 24, 2010 was real racin'.

Ponder it,
JD

PS - Did you notice that ESPN didn't have time for fill-in, fluff pieces during the broadcast of the 500 lapper at Martinsville yesterday. There was so much action on the track they had no time. They knew beforehand that there would be no need for fluff...the ACTION was on the track.