There’s been a lot of chatter this season about what NASCAR should do to boost the Nationwide Series in the coming year. Here’s a suggestion. Dump these silly races in foreign countries. That’s right. Ditch the trip to Mexico City and say farewell to the trip to Canada.
Gone, goodbye.
There’s no need for often struggling and financially strapped Nationwide teams to have to pack up and leave the country for a race that ultimately doesn’t benefit the teams or the drivers.
Focus on the racing right here at home.
No more racing at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
It costs a lot for teams to participate in these out-of-country events. It’s also a challenge for everyone involved in pulling these events off from the teams to ESPN.
In two weeks, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series has an off week, which just happens to coincide with the race in Mexico City. Doing so makes it possible for big Sprint Cup names to make the trek south and support the race.
They shouldn’t. No one should.
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This guy is the most idiotic person I have ever read something from. Here is a Quote from the full article.
“Racing in Mexico City was described as an experiment to see if Mexican fans would be interested in NASCAR. What happens, though, is the field also includes some Mexican drivers, who don’t normally race in the series, making any fan reaction useless.”
So he is basically saying that when NASCAR races in Mexico they should not allow Mexican drivers to race because it “pads” the grandstands….?
Ummmm OK then from now on lets go with his theory, oh and BTW this means No US Born drivers are allowed to race in the races held in the US because it gives an unfair measure of the popularity of the sport…… lma0
I think they should ditch them. I think NASCAR is overreaching here in an attempt to bring in new fans. The appeal of NASCAR is not goint to be apparent to race fans who follow F1. I also think that these trips place unnecessary pressure on the smaller, underfunded teams that have enough trouble with the trips out west. These races exist solely out of greed and do not serve the interests of either the race teams or the fans.
So when NASCAR was racing in Canada and Mexico 30-40 years ago… was that because of Greed too…?
Stock car racing is no longer just a US sport, they are raced in Canada, Mexico, Europe/Asia, South America. NASCAR Style Race cars are growing rapidly in popularity across the world, and with that comes changes to all of the series that run that style of cars. It happened with Open wheel racing, and now many many many years later it is happening with Stock Cars.
Soon enough ARCA will be the Cup series, and the Current Cup series will be the Stock Car version of F1. But you can’t blame a company for expanding anymore then you can blame yourself for winning the $270 Million powerball.
I think the race in Mexico is cool! I like that they pair it with the Rolex series.
I wish they paired the Canada event with the F1 event in Montreal that would make that weekend awesome!
I am fan of anything from dirt, circle and circuit racing. I love F1 and NASCAR. I am happy they run the same track that F1 runs once a year.
It doesn’t serve the interests of the sport if they alienate their traditional fan base while chasing a new audience. And you can’t compare the NASCAR of today with the sport of a generation ago; its no longer a matter of survival, as it was then. I watch F1, too, and enjoy it a lot, but I sure as hell don not want to see NASCAR turn into that circus. Hell, I don’t even think that road courses have a place in NASCAR, but I guess that’s a whole separate argument.
From a fan stand point it’s cool to see the cars run in a different area and track. As far as PADING the driver/fan base well DAU of course they are going to put in drivers for the locals to root for, just good business and they are good drivers as well…
From a owners point of view it’s a losing proposition, Very High cost for little or no return on expenses.
If nascar wants to build a larger fan base let them foot 1/2 the costs as they are the only winner in this scheme..
Fisha your wrong on this.. The only teams that go through out the world to race are F1 and I know that you will say=(wrong) that several series race in several countries. Yes but not to the extent of F1 because F1 is set up to acquire the Mega$$$ needed to race in a different country every race date and those dates are spread out NOT every weekend like NASCAR.
NASCAR is a USA type of racing and should stay that way or franchise it out to other countries in a European race series for stock cars.
That doesn’t even take into account the manufacturers that put sooo much support into the teams. Why would they want to sponsor a race in areas of the world that they do not ever have a market base or cars to sell there that look like our race cars ??
Fisha695 wrote:
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I GUESS YOU HAVEN’T READ SOME OF YOUR OWN STUFF LATELY, LOL
Keep the races. The fans don’t care who’s racing, we just want
to see a good race. And these foreign race tracks sure as hell
provide that.
If it makes money for everyone involved then keep the races. IF it is a loser then lose them.
That doesn't even take into account the manufacturers that put sooo much support into the teams. Why would they want to sponsor a race in areas of the world that they do not ever have a market base or cars to sell there that look like our race cars ??[/quote>
Gone, what I was saying is true. NASCAR style stock cars are raced in many different parts of the world, and its now taking off like Open-Wheel and then Sportscar racing did. All those places I listed have Stock Car racing based off of NASCAR style cars, and NASCAR is even involved with some of the.
As far as the manufacture thing, Not really as big an issue as you might think. Chevy and Ford both sell most of their models across the world under the same branding, and if they don’t then they sell it under one of their foreign branding.
Also on that topic, have a look at this chart and you’ll see that GM, Ford, Dodge, and Toyota are pretty much involved with every other auto manufacturer in the world.
http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/images/gallery/12/2008/03/thumb1280×1280_2364177540_0e30819365_o.jpg
I wouldn’t mind a race or two in Canada or Mexico. We already saw the Busch series do well at those locales. Slowly phase them in. When they quit filling the seats, take away that date. And pay them in the national currency (pesos,et.).
I agree with what ron f said,with the way the economy is now and such I say drop them,it might be nice for the fans but but if I were a owner I wouldnt want it.
The costs don’t increase much. Montreal isn’t more than a couple hundred miles beyond Watkins Glen. Mexico City also isn’t very far from California. If SCCA World Challenge teams can race at Mosport, in Canada, then crossing the border can’t be very difficult. Also, plenty of Canadian teams run the entire Koni Challenge series (all but two races are in the US), and the border/travel issue doesn’t seem to bother them… and there is NO way that anyone here can argue that the average World Challenge or Koni Challenge team is better funded than any NASCAR team. That whole argument doesn’t make much sense, to be honest.
Also, to whoever said that they are alienating the fan-base and trying to find a new audience… Canada has a very strong fan-base for all motorsports, including stock-car races. Montreal regularly draws 100,000+ fans for both the F1 and NASCAR weekends. There are very few, if any, empty seats at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Also, didn’t anyone see the stands in Mexico? PACKED.
I think in the next few years you’ll see NASCAR using the Nationwide series as a pilot program for new venues… the unsuccessful ones will be dropped, and the successful ones will become Cup races. If Montreal and Mexico continue to do well, I would expect to see Stewart, Gordon, Johnson, et al, rubbing fenders way up north and way down south.
malcolm wrote:
It’s not the distance that increases costs but getting through customs and getting from there to the race track. they cant go one at a time all the haulers have to go at the same time escorted all the way to the track atleast in Mexico.
To Hell with NAFTA/NASCAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bring the trucks/nationwide/or cup series to the Great Northwest for racing!!!!!!!