Mammoth Blog

NASCAR is facing some serious issues as it begins to think about next year.
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A dismal economy, troubles within the automobile industry, questionable rulings by NASCAR itself and a disinterested fan base have combined to make 2009 an extremely important year for the sport.

"This economy affects everybody," said Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion. "It affects me, it affects you, it affects sponsors, it affects race teams, and it affects everybody."

So here are five major issues NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series faces as it heads into an uncertain future.

1. The Car of Tomorrow. The race car being run at every race this season has been much maligned for its reliability on aerodynamics -- track position is everything -- and its inability to turn in the corners.

NASCAR has already said that it will not make any rules changes for the car in 2009, thinking that it will give race teams less to worry about.

That is absolutely the wrong idea. NASCAR should let teams come to them and present ideas with how to make the race car better. Trust me, there is a lot more knowledge in that garage area than there is at NASCAR's Research and Development Center.

2. Empty grandstands at race tracks. Race tracks, many of which have been overbuilt, have to be fearful of the sudden surge in empty grandstands during Sprint Cup races.

If a TV viewer switches to the race and sees nothing but empty seats, he or she will probably change the channel. If it's not good enough to watch live, why should they watch it on TV?

The answer? Get creative with family package deals, negotiate with area hotels to prevent price gouging and drop the prices of concessions to much more realistic ones.

3. NASCAR itself. This year started off promising, with NASCAR insisting that it was "going back to the basics," before the season-opening Daytona 500.

NASCAR officials said they would let drivers have more personality and they wouldn't micro-manage the sport as they have done over the past several seasons.

Some of the problems are obvious -- the races are starting too late, there are ridiculous rules and there are obvious mystery-debris cautions every time a race enters the "boredom zone."

4. Think domestic. In this troubled economy, NASCAR could probably cure more than half of its troubles by racing strictly American-made cars as it has done for most of its history.

That would bring the patriotic race fan back and might help stimulate car sales for the products coming out of Detroit.

5. Bring back the short tracks. The backbone of NASCAR's schedule used to be the short tracks. Now they only run four short-track races a year.

It is at the Bristols and Martinsvilles where drivers crash and tempers flare. That is what fans want to see, not strung-out single-file racing at California or Michigan. source>>>