Wheeler: Make NASCAR more artificial
Quote selected text Published October 15th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Longtime race promoter Humpy Wheeler says NASCAR officials need to make “bold moves” to improve racing and keep fans interested by manipulating the race, i.e. making it more artificial so the racing is closer. Attendance has been soft at some tracks and TV ratings have down for most Nextel Cup races this season. Some fans also have been vocal about their displeasure about the racing this season.
“Every problem we have could be cured by better racing,” said Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
So, what kind of bold moves would he make?
* Slow the cars 5 mph.
* Award more points for wins.
* Award more points for leading laps.
* Put half the money that goes into the championship fund into the race purses to make the races more meaningful.
* Add a halftime break.
Many of the changes, which he’s advocated for years, would encourage harder racing throughout an event, he said.
“People don’t buy a ticket just to see the last 10 laps of the race, they buy a ticket to see the whole race,” he said. “It’s not the race for ninth.”
Slowing the cars could bunch the field, creating tighter racing, he suggests.
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Slowing cars wont bunch the field as the cars that are allready slow would become slower. Man sometimes I support this idiot 100%, but after these remarks I think its time for him to be taken out back and put down.
NOOOO!!! Don’t manipulate the races. That makes it just that much easier to do it not the best of the best. I say they need to go back to their roots!! Don’t manipulate just let them race!!
I see what he’s thinking on the slowing cars down thing, but it’s wrong. He’s thinking that by slowing the cars down 5mph, the front-runners will fall back with the also-rans. Unfortunately, like Fisha695 said, the slow-pokes will be slow, regardless of how fast the leaders are running. If anything, slowing down the cars would make the races last that much longer… I think everyone can agree that they’re plenty long as it is!
I’m all for the other ideas about making wins mean more and taking money away from the championship fund and distributing that at the individual races. As it is, winning races still means nothing. NASCAR’s 5 extra points for a win was a total joke.
Something has to be done to make racing better, and I still think that a dyno is the answer. They should come up with a HP spec for every race and part of inspection should be to get on the dyno. Then teams would still have their “gray areas” for playing with the bodies and stuff that they do now, but the motors would be more of a standardized thing, which I think is where the major differences on the track are.
if you want to make it more fun go back to the 80’s no pit road speed, race back to the yellows. thoose were good times to watch! i know back in the day there was alot of grey area, but it was fun to see
if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
If nascar gets any more artificial they will have to race plastic cars.
GAH! there’s already too much crap they do to make it feel artificial, they don’t need to MAKE it artificial. they’l lose even more fans than they already have…I agree with the others who have said get back to the roots of racing & let them race!
hmmm….last time i checked…artificial means fake! i watch Nascar because it may border on the absurd at times but it is not quite like pro wrestling…if artificial is what Humpty Dumpty wants he should go into another biz! leave the racing be! work on safety(not at the expense of the racing) and a functional formula to build cars by and mostly a good points system…drop the restrictor plates(use Busch series motors if you must) and stop the green white checker finishes!!! that is what is killing this sport….ohhhh yeah did i mention DROP THE TICKET PRICES!!!! the thought of catching multiple races now requires a second(perhaps third) mortgage!!! nuff said
NASCAR doesn’t need to manipulate any more races. They already contradict some of their rules to support other rules that they’ve made.
Maybe they should look at the big picture and see WHY some fans are turned off. Displeasure has been displayed on so many occassions because of NASCAR rules that were enforced. Maybe with a little consistency and less partiality, people will want to watch a race.
Speaking for myself, I’m tired of those “Caution for debris!” I’ve been to a few races, and there was no debris on the track, but caution came out everytime a certain driver pitted. Fans don’t like that.
They need to take a look at those races that finished under caution. Fans don’t like that either.
No, NASCAR needs no more manipulation. That’s one of the reason fans have turned away.
If you really want fans to watch racing, MAKE IT REAL!!!!
If all else fails, just ask some regular fans, not someone who owns a track, not some NASCAR official….ask the people that buys tickets.
I love Humpy but some of his ideas would probably piss me off more so than everything Mike Helton, Brian France, and NASCAR as a whole has been doing this past year.
The only thing I agree on is giving more points for the win and leading laps! That should have been done long time ago. The person who wins the most races should be the champion…period!!! Give em something to race for, not to just be content in riding along somewhere in the top ten. That is not racing!!! Nascar has become BORING!!!
No they allready slowed the cars(COT). I agree they need to take it back to the good “ole boy racein’”. Intimadation, rubbin’, bumpin’ and wreckin’. And back when they could have thier own opions without being fined!!!!!!
ummmm how is that any different than what NASCAR currently does, w/ rules violations, cautions, etc?
How about they go back to actual stock cars and stop d__king around with all these mandated parts and near-identical body styles? Yeah the field isn’t even, but that’s the point of, y’know, RACING. The guy with the edge gets the win, the rest of the garage figures out the edge, somebody else discovers something that makes them go faster; it’s the cycle that made the racing of old worth watching. And it costs a whole helluva lot less money, cuz you’re buying normal cars, not paying an entire fab shop.
Course, then the drivers would have to, y’know, know cars and not just how to drive in circles.
I think ol Humpy’s been watchin too much Wrestling
Stop some of this rap and hip hop music (if that
is what you want to call it) before and during
the races. Stop all the open wheelers and
from infiltrating the sport. Give the regular
drivers, without a ride, a chance. The comericals last longer and more often than we
see the actual race. We pay extra, so we can
have Hot Pass, then we can watch, with only
the comericals in the right coner. We have the
choice of listening to the driver and crew, or
regular race “analyst” I use that word loosely.
Show all the drivers, not only the #8, no matter
where, he may be, in the race at that time.
We are not all Jr fans. All the drivers and teams,
should follow the same rules. If one driver,
(Biffle) can drive on the apron, because he is
low on gas, everyone should follow the same
rule. NASCAR didn’t like the idea of JG coming
to the green, down on the apron. These are
some of the reasons, ratings are falling off.
Yes, I’ve related my complaints to NASCAR.
What got under my skin is how the broadcasters made the race like Days of our lives or any of those shows. Does anyone else see how Nascar takes something small and makes it into a big deal. DRAMA
GGrrr…I tell ya, I have kept my mouth shut for almost the whole D**n racing season, but this is too much for me to hold my thoughts in any longer. I will begin where I think the 1st problem started, ok? I will admit that I was not a Dale Sr. fan, but since his untimely death in 2001, Nascar has went all to H*ll. They started by 1st changing the helments, which was fine and helped drivers, then all of a sudden, things started changing weekly and never stopped. Who sits back and makes up htese crazy rules anyway? Things should never have changed such as the points system and I for one hate the fact that a lap car can no longer race the leader back to the line. Who the H*ll came up with the Lucky Dog Sh*t? lol’s…give me a break. You can’t even touch another car without gettin fined and docked 25 to 50 points anymore. You’re not allowed to express how you really feel when you’re upset about another driver..ggeezzz. I remember not to long ago, that Rusty was always cussing on live tv, but when Jr. said sh*t,, he was punished…In my opinion, Nascar has went to H*ll since Winston has been gone! Like it or not, it’s true! Do you see Nextel giving away phones at a race? Uh no! Winston was always giving fans a bag full of things such as Winston Cup posters, key chains, coupons, Cigs. magazines, videos and more. They gave back to the fans. Long live the old days of racing where racin was fun and fans were friendly even when they disagreed. And finally,, the Chase…what a crock!…Whoever heard of letting the top 10 drivers…now 12,, since you know who did’nt make it in the top 10 last year and whinned 6 months about it…all drivers should able to race for the championship like they used too! I rest my case now…Peace out.
I say use the ARCA points system (if your not familar with it its explained on the ARCA site).
Get rid of points for leading 1 lap. You only get bonus points if you lead the most laps. That right there would make the driver race more.
As far as what luv24car said about getting rid of openwheelers. Well I hate to tell them, but Jeffery came from openwheel cars. So by going what that person says their favorite driver would have to go. Hmm.. maybe you should think before you type.
And to 24! The end of racing back to the line was started because Dale Jarret was nearly killed at NHIS.
I say all lap down cars start in the rear, all cars that are not in first start behind the leader. All restarts outside of 10 to go are double file, and when a caution comes out you revert to the places the cars were on the last completed lap.
Calling Tony Stewart and Vince McMahon! WOOOOOOOOOO-Nature Boy!
Fisha695 Dale Jarret was nearly killed at NHIS. bull they never came close to even hitting him, its kinda like what 24 said its all gone down hill (in a way) since the big E passed. just think about it.
ron wrote:
Slowing the cars down would only mean adding more expense to a car. Anytime a rule is imposed to slow or “Manipulate” a car, a ton of money is thrown at it to circumvent that rule. It’s stupid. Teams that want to win will always spend more than anyone else. It’s a fact of life, and racing. As the cost of racing goes up, the cost of tickets go up and the search for cutting costs continue to screw the fans. Part of the answer for lower attendance, as anyone in marketing will attest to is, Return on Investment (ROI). A company is not going to invest in something unless they can see specific gains for their invested money. Now why would an average fan be any different? With all of the various types of entertainment available to Mr and Mrs General Public and their kids, why would they shell out what is expected of them at the gate when they can go to the water park for the afternoon, have dinner for the entire family and then go back to their room or home and watch the race on TV and get close up views of the action instead of squinting to see what happened nearly a mile away, or hoping that the big one might happen in front of them. Hours and hours of sitting in the hot sun vs sitting in your AC, drinking an ice cold beverage of your choosing for a fraction of what you would pay a the track.
Before anyone gets up in arms and tries to form a lynch mob against me for speaking out about TV here, let me say that I am not against TV at all. It’s simply that the entire sport (NASCAR, ARCA, WoO,) all of them are geared to much toward TV. It’s become itself, to important to overlook yet to over bearing at the same time. Making the sport ARTIFICIAL as Mr Wheeler states, simply means making it more attractive to TV and at the same time, keeping it interesting enough to keep fans buying tickets.
Pandora opened this box a long time ago! It’s just not going to happen.
Paul
I loved this comment:
justin4roush
Oct 15th, 2007 at 10:05 am Quote
If nascar gets any more artificial they will have to race plastic cars.
That is hilarious and true! Artificial is not we need.
Hey paul….wait a cotton picken minute! I can’t afford to pay to go see every race in person so please don’t get rid of my TV. Yeah I hate the 1000 commercials and the fact that they always come back from a commercial to an accident that I didn’t see (why? too many commercials!!!) I go to a race or 2 a year but since I live in little ol Indiana and work every other weekend I don’t get the chance to see many in person…plus I can’t possibly afford to since prices have skyrocketed. I am just a blue collar worker making a living and I enjoy watching racing either in person or on TV. If my TV went away I am sure I wouldn’t see any more Nascar racing than I do now and would probabaly lose all interest in Nascar after awhile. I can go to a fantastic race about 10 minutes away from home for alot less money and watch someone that I know!
Paul wrote:
Slowing cars down only adds expense to cars as long as people keep trying to get around those rules. If NASCAR deters people from cheating with severe enough punishment, that will stop and costs will go down. All the teams want to win or they wouldn’t be out there in the first place. I doubt Furniture Row Racing throws a car out there every week and says “gee I hope we don’t win… I want to finish 30th”.
I also doubt that they don’t spend with Roush, HMS, and JGR because they just don’t feel like it. They can’t. That’s why. Small teams don’t win because they can’t spend. They can’t spend because they don’t have the sponsorship dollars to compete. They can’t get the sponsorship dollars because they aren’t competitive. How do they get out of that cycle when they might not make a race, despite the fact that they might have qualified 35th fastest?
By the way, the cost of racing and ticket prices are somewhat tied together, but it’s indirect. Race teams are basically independent contractors, whose costs are paid for by sponsorship, merchandising and other means, including to some small extent, race purses, which come from ticket sales, among other things.
The reason NASCAR is so TV heavy is because that’s what pays the bills. Not the 200,000 or so people at the tracks every week. Lucrative TV contracts, ads, etc, are what pay for the championship purse and race purses. If you want your driver to have the chance to win something like $7mil for winning the championship, that’s because of TV, not because of butts in seats at tracks.
And like Cybill said, for the most part NASCAR fans are local blue-collar folks that work for a living. We might get to go to the two races a year that are in our state, and maybe drive to another race that’s close by… That still leaves 33 races a year that we don’t have the chance to see. 33 races a year that NASCAR wouldn’t have the chance to advertise to us and get us to buy their team’s shirts, etc… TV brings that opportunity into the living rooms of fans all over the globe.