Halfway through the race at Dover Sunday, many of the grandstand seats were empty. Fans were leaving in droves……why?
That is the question that NASCAR must ask.
Was it because the race was less than compelling, with only a couple of passes for the lead and two drivers basically dominating?
Or was it because bad boy Kyle Busch took control and halfway through the race it was obvious that he was going to win again?
Or was it because fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was involved in the lap-18 pile-up that knocked 11 drivers out of contention?
Is Busch hated so much that he has that type of impact on fans?
Is Junior so popular that fans want to tune out and leave when he is out of the race?
If either is the case, there’s not much NASCAR can do. It can’t dictate the fate of Junior or Busch.
But if fans left because the race was not compelling and they grew tired of it, then that is a problem NASCAR should be concerned about.
- September 2008 tickets for Dover NASCAR races on sale today
- Dover race falls well short of sellout
- Dover revenues drop from last year
- Dover loses money while paying $11 million in sanction fees to NASCAR
- MWR crew member injured during Dover Cup race-UPDATE
i for one think it had more to do with the fact that 18 laps into the race…2 drivers, whom are terrible, tangle and take out JR, Smoke, Kahne, Harvick and Hamlin…destroyed their chances on winning…thats A LOT of fans between those guys….i hate kyle busch, but i dont think people left cause he was leading…so many times this year hes been leading in the busch race or bout to lead and had problems…so who knows…but i didnt quit watching just cause JR was out of contention..he was still running the race…so thats not an excuse….
Nascar pretty much handed Jimmie Johnson 5-6 wins over last year….with all their BS “debris” cautions with just enough time for Jimmie to catch up and win, without the cuations he would have had zero chance…so yes…they can dictate the races…will they admiit it? no…..
edit…if they showed the debris on the track fine…but they never did…notice they have been this year tho
since DW made a joke about it last year
I have left TMS when Busch was winnig if Tony or Jr are out with no chance to win. Dover can be a very hot track to be at there is no escape from the sun you bake all day long sitting in the grandstands.They should put in some lights and run at night that would help not getting caught up in the beach traffic too. Plus the price of gas doesn’t help and travel plans are changing most people don’t want to drive and the disposable income is drying up very quickly.
Teaxs Grumpy wrote:
If you leave before a race wether it be to hot or cold or because your driver is losing really doesnt make you a NASCAR fan now does it??? NASCAR prided itself on not being like stick and ball sports with a passionate fan base. If your just gonna pack up and leave that seems like a waste of 140 bucks
kyle busch!!
Does it occur to anyone that the races are too doggone long? Even normally exciting stuff can get boring after four to five hours. At least, I know that is why some of wanna be fans don’t go as much anymore.
if you get bored or leave just because your driver is out or a driver you dont like is winning than you are not a true fan. You just like a driver. I dont know about anyone else but I am an avid Tony Stewart fan and if he gets knocked out of a race then yes i am disappointed but i still watch the race to see what happens and whos gonna win and how points are going to be. If a race was 24 hours long i would still sit in the stands afor the entire race. I wish nacar had something like the 24 hours of daytona where all the multicar teams just use one car and all their drivers switch out during the 24 hours.
I personally stopped watching the race after the wreck that took out Tony, Jr and Harvick. I am so tired of hearing the announcers PRAISE Kyle Busch that I can’t stand it anymore!!!!
There are so many talented drivers out there and hearing them go on and on and on about him and how talented he is or how much he has matured over the last year makes me wanna throw up.
Since my guys were out, I figured what the heck, I’ll spend some time with my kids.
I always watch until the bitter end. It’s not over until the checkered flag falls. I don’t think I’ll ever understand fans leaving early. That’s like going to a concert and leaving before the encore.
i was there…and people are pretty much hitting on all the reasons why people were leaving. the race climaxed 20 laps in and anybody who’s been to a race knows that long green flag periods can get boring after a while. 100 laps with seemingly no changes in the top 5 just isn’t very exciting racing. usually dover is good for enough cautions to keep things interesting.
i left when i saw the white flag because i didn’t want to watch busch win…but i agree it’s a waste to leave with even 50 laps to go. a bad day at the racetrack is better than a good day anywhere else.
To long,Ruby are you crazy?The longer the better,if you can’t sit (stand)through a NASCAR race can you really be considered a true fan?James & Tony-a got it right,Long Live the 500 mile race!!!!
i was at dover and i don’t know how it look on tv but i can tell you form sitting in the stands it was such a boring race there was hardly and lead changes or exciting battles. once the big wreck happened on lap 16 a ton of people sitting around me got up and left. and a ton of people were so drunk the passed out or went back to their campers to pass out. either way this race was pretty boring but it shouldn’t matter you still don’t leave a race until its over
THE FANS DID NOT LEAVE ELDORA LAST NITE.THATS BECAUSE THERE WAS SOME REAL RACING. MAYBE BRAIN SHOULD TALK TO TONY TO SEE HOW TO PROMOTE A RACE,AND GET AWAY FROM THOSE SLUGS THAT ARE OUT THERE SUPPOSEDLY RACING.THE NAPCAR DRIVERS THAT WERE THERE HAD A BALL.
oildealer
Jun 5th, 2008 at 6:01 pm Quote
THE FANS DID NOT LEAVE ELDORA LAST NITE.THATS BECAUSE THERE WAS SOME REAL RACING. MAYBE BRAIN SHOULD TALK TO TONY TO SEE HOW TO PROMOTE A RACE,AND GET AWAY FROM THOSE SLUGS THAT ARE OUT THERE SUPPOSEDLY RACING.THE NAPCAR DRIVERS THAT WERE THERE HAD A BALL.
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very well put…I have never been to Eldora but would love to go I’m a Jr and Tony fan!!! I saw my first modified race 2 weeks ago on dirt it was freakin awesome my cosuins cousin (by marriage) got 5th in his first race took 3rd in the tarnsistion races or heat races!!!
We go to Chgo land every year and I would never leave either I wanna see what is going to happen if Kyle were to win I would just give him a one finger salute LOL.
BORING. Watch out for IRL…..not yet, but maybe soon. As for me, I watched AMA Superbike, World Superbike, And MotoGP over the weekend and tuned into Dover during the breaks. The Car Of Naptime needs work.
Sports are about competition. If you take 11 drivers out of the equation, most in which are the top competitors, the results are going to equal boredom.
So, Dover was a dud. It happens.
I personally wouldn’t walk out of a race I paid to see, but apparently it appears others must have money to burn.
I will tell you I did dose off in front of the TV. Yes I know, shame on me. But I’m putting the blame on Carl this time. None of this would have happened if he had only let that monkey drive!!!
maybe they should go back to blacktop, progressive banking or concrete progressive banking, but back to the old days with black top
i love dover the way it is though, i just was saying if they wanted to make it perfect, thatd be the way to go, i always love dover no matter what happens, i always love a race, but some are more exciting than others, its like any other sport or fight.
I didn’t watch the entire Cup race, but thats because I was flipping around between a few other races at the same time…. l0l
six of the top twelve crashed out or were so damaged that they could not compete. nascar is letting toyota have an advantage this year and it is not sitting well with fans.
when i went to Atlanta Motor speedway i watch about 1000 miles and 800 laps that a Nascar FAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KYLE BUSCH HAS SOME TALENT just because you though that he wreck a legend
i think its because the c.o.t. has got them all so close together that it has taken a lot of the competition out of the racing. it does get boring when they are single lap for lap after lap after lap. kind of like watching a fast line of ants after a piece of bread at a picnic. i think nascar needs to make some new adjustments on the car and get the competition back or they may be filling up less and less seats. if the crowd didn’t boo kyle bush i just might not wake up!
jr and busch jr had no chance of winning and busch had no chance of losing i’m gone!!!
hello, i don’t know the real reason for fans to leave dover,,i go every september for my hubby’s b-day and it is so exciting to be there,,yes even watching it on tv,, the race was boring after that big crash,,but if i was in the stands,,,my but would of been there till the end…
not a kyle buschface fan either,,,,,,what he did to jr,, really upset me and i believe he did on purpose just s jr would not get his first win,,,,
it is because they have taken the raceing out of nascar we need to go back to the good old days when if you got bumped you bumped them back not all this you cant bump them or you will get blacked flaged and get ride of this chase it is pointless at the end of the season to watch if your driver is not in it so we need to go back to the good old days of nascar
People left early so they could go to Aaron’s and Dominos.
Races AND season are each too long. Simply put. If the cars went 220 like an IRL car, then 500 miles wouldn’t be so bad…
I am a racing fan and a driver’s fan. When there is not racing, just follow the leader and my driver is wrecked, I turn off the TV. I do not consider it racing when that follow the leader stuff happens over and over and over. Toyotas should not be allowed to have more HP. Nascar is not always true racing.
What difference does it make if people leave 18 laps or 100 laps into a race? They’ve spent their money by then- all that’s left is to leave and beat a little bit of the traffic.
I figure it was probably the “Schrub”! But even though I dislike him…I wouldn’t leave the track early. I have never, ever in 26 years left a race early whether it was about to break lose raining like cats and dogs or one driver led from beginning to end. That is just dumb. I don’t even stop watching on TV! All it takes is that one driver to lose a lugnut and the whole picture changes. I may be stomping around the house cussing like a sailor but I don’t stop watching! I wasn’t watching Sunday(first race I have missed this year)…either at the track or at home…I was at a cookout eating fantastic food and enjoying the sun…but my daughter was texting me everything…and I knew the “schrub” was winning and I was stomping around the cookout! LOL!
Rockey wrote:
Just so you know the racing that people say was the best (of the 70s/80s), was more Follow the leader then it is now.
According to Dyno Numbers Chevy has the most HP, followed by Toyota, Dodge and Ford.
Thats right Dodge has more HP then Ford, yet Ford has more wins, thats because it takes more then HP to win a NASCAR race. You could take a Funny Car and enter in it a NASCAR race and it’d have more HP by a longshot and it would not win the race, heck probaly wouldn’t even finish the race.
Fisha695 wrote:
well said. Toyota doesnt have more horsepower than the other manufacturers. Its just that Joe Gibbs Racing has found the set up that the C.O.T likes this year
I have to admit, I found it hard to stay interested after Jr. was knocked out of contention. Although I was eagerly awaiting a problem with Busch’s car… but it never happened. The track itself is made for drama in the pits and strategy on the track. Not so much side by side racing to the end. Mistakes will dictate the end of the race most of the time. But the fact of the matter is that while it might be exciting for fans at home to watch the pit stops and see who comes out on top, it’s just another boring 15 minutes for the fans at the race to endure (during a caution). I’d definitely have to say that it was a combination of Stewart, Hamlin, Jr. and others being knocked out of the race… not Kyle Busch winning it. If that were the case, the fans would have waited until the last 15 laps or so. Or they would have stayed to boo him like everyone should! But NASCAR can’t do anything about a “drivers” track. And what I mean by that is simple. Certain tracks take a certain amount of skill to overcome the obstacles and win. Dover, Darlington, Watkins Glen, among others come to mind here. They’re simply tracks that you can make every car absolutely equal and it’s the driver that dictates the outcome. Races like Talledega, Daytona, Michigan, California, etc. all take a strong car to win. Especially at the plate tracks. Your car can be as fast as lightning in the draft, but if it can’t lead other cars, you’re just not going to win…
Here is just a thought, but I figured the fans where leaving the stands
because of Kyle. I think everybody is just tired of his cocky attitude, I think
his whole season has went directly to his big head, and I’m surprised he can
still get his helmet on.
He has been quoted as saying he didn’t care that the fans where booing him,
It just adds fuel to his fire, and makes him want to win, and that as long as
he can still hear the booing, he would do what ever he had to do to win. So
people are just not sticking around to give him the satisfaction. I personally,
am a Jr fan, I watched the whole BORING race! I would walk a 100 miles to get
Jr’s autograph, but wouldn’t take a step to get Kyle’s.
busch - Waltrip - Dover, in that order. I actually watched some lawnmower racing (IRL) where at least I didn’t have to listen to the fox boyz get all lathered up about scrub. Heck, DW should be 2nd in points he’s had his nose buried so deep this season.
You said it Bdeholl!!!! LOL!
This is not your father’s NASCAR where people regularly sat thru a race with only 6 cars finishing on the lead lap. There is way more to do these days and when you have a race that loses a fair number of Chase contenders early on and is less than compelling, well, fans will get up and find something that will keep their attention.
Let’s face it — the new car has still not passed muster on providing more competitive racing which is one of the main reasons it was created. A few good races here and there will not cut the mustard.
I did not watch the entire race, I have better things to do with my time then listen to Fox announcers give praise to a snot nosed brat that has no respect to anyone on the track, His words. I was glad to see Hamlin out and his comment about who to aim for was entirely uncalled for, someone could have gotten hurt.. I hate the new car, the chase and lately NASCAR for not listening to the drivers, maybe empty stand,no sponsers on the cars will wake them up. I do not intend to watch the race this week, it is always BORING.
the bar in the nascar suite was dry. as for the big ear brat in the 18 car getting praise from the booth of idiots, remember that dw and hammond are in the pocket of toyota, dw with mikeys cup teams as part owner and hammond as part owner of red horse truck team. they suck up so well! got to go my designated driver mike helton is ready to go.
i don’t want to hear nascar races being too long. 36 races? look at an mlb schedule. 162 games at anywhere from 2-5 hours. plus 30 spring training games and a couple weeks of opening camp. that’s a long season, however nobody seems to complain about that.