what you’ve said before. You keep saying that you are (and we agree, but not like you think) different. You keep saying NA$CAR has 75 million fans. Only 37 million watched the Daytona 500, so what happened to the rest? The downs we’ve seen have been self-inflicted. You alienated and chased away a lot of your core fan group. No other sport does that. But then, you keep mentioning “storylines”, which is what soap operas and the WWE have. Another self-inflicted wound has to do with economics. You keep raising ticket prices faster than most fans get pay raises. And that’s like a rocket. So since they have a choice of keeping a roof over their heads and eating versus going to a race, the choice is obvious.
KB: “But we like the way we’re positioned. In the context of all the sports and all the media out there, this sport is in very good shape to get the eyeballs and attention.”
MM: And what position would that be Your Highness? Having the fans bent over and not kissing them? Your poor management has cost you fans by ignoring the folks who put NA$CAR where it is. The legendary drivers of the past WHO YOU HAVE CAST ON THE SCRAP HEAP along with the LONG TIME RACE FANS. And you control the mainstream media so there’s very little criticism from them. The only folks you can’t control are the folks on the web. The sport (if you can call it that now) isn’t in good shape. But because of that, it’s definitely getting media attention. The falling ratings and lack of attendance are getting plenty of coverage from papers that normally don’t cover NA$CAR and from a lot of business and entertainment trade papers and they’re all saying the same thing. NA$CAR has gone downhill since you took over.
Mulhern: However, France laid out a number of issues he’ll be looking at during the offseason for possible tweaking:
MM: Funny, didn’t he say there wouldn’t be any tweaking, then said there would, then wouldn’t. His waffling makes some politicians look good.
Mulhern: France said he is looking at ensuring that NASCAR continues to appeal to its "core fans."
MM: What do you consider to be the core fans Your Majesty? The Short Attention Span Crowd? The LaLaLand Beautiful People? The Gen X/Y/Zero Crowd? It sure isn’t the fans who have been following the sport since its’ inception. And if you plan to appeal to the original core group, you better get back to stock cars, real racing with real drivers, and some real tracks.
Mulhern: He said that qualifying - typically the most boring day of a weekend - would get "a thorough review from us. It's been the same for many years; and we want to look at it with an eye toward making it more exciting and more relevant, though we're not sure just what that might mean.”
MM: So you plan to bring back the two day qualifying format? And while you’re at it, get rid of the Top 35 because this is also killing the sport. We want to see the Top Dogs as well as the Underdogs. When the Underdogs qualify faster than the Top Dogs and have to go home, something is very wrong. Baseball has their Cinderella stories, so why can’t we? We haven’t seen a real Cinderella story since Alan Kulwicki.
Mulhern: He hinted that the Busch-Nationwide series, NASCAR's No. 2 tour, could get an all-star race next year. And he said he wants to get Detroit car makers more involved in that series. “We want to distinguish that series ... and we'll deal with the Nextel Cup drivers there, though I'm not sure if we'll do anything.”
MM: So what? They get an All Star Race. It’ll be made up of Buschwackers and that’s not what the true fans of the series want to see. They want to see the few remaining Busch regulars. And if you really want Detroit involved, then go back to stock cars. Or at least something that looks like a stock car. Not the bastardized COT/POS you’re currently testing for it.
Mulhern: France said he would be looking at TV coverage: “We obviously have a vested concern to ensure our TV partners are presenting the sport the way we think is best. Now that is subjective. They listen to us, and we'll get progress if there is something really, really important.”
MM: Your “vested interest” is that the checks from the nitwits, I mean networks clear the banks. By listening to you, you mean that they can’t say what they want to, can’t report what they want to, and have to do everything possible to present you in the best light possible. The fans want side by side coverage during the commercials so we can still see racing. But no, Your Highness knows better. You said so. The only reason they listen to you is because you have them by the “short and curlies” with Article 4.
Mulhern: France, in response to complaints that NASCAR has been too heavy-handed in penalties, particularly against drivers, perhaps making them gun-shy about letting their personalities be too revealed, said he wanted to lighten up: “We're going to be very careful not to stymie the personalities ... to keep the guys from being worried about penalties.“This is an emotional sport, and we have to make sure that their personalities and emotions aren't missed ... because that's something people like to see about NASCAR.”
MM: You’ll continue to hand out unfair and/or uneven penalties, depending on which teams are your Chosen Ones. Anyone who offers fair criticism will be unfairly penalized. That’s a France Family Tradition. You’ve already stymied the opinions of the ones who aren’t the vanilla flavored clones. The key word here is people. Fans want to see another Cale-Allison Brothers Fist Fest. Fans want to hear what the drivers really think instead of the “politically correct” crap we keep hearing. True and honest opinion has lost out to being “politically correct” and keeping your butt covered. The emotions are being missed by the teams, the owners, the drivers, and the fans. As one of my buddies still inside the garage said, “The fun isn’t there anymore”.
KB: “I'm committed to my job for the foreseeable future, and that's years, not months,” France said firmly. "And the company has absolutely no interest in selling NASCAR or International Speedway. Let's put that to be."
MM: You should be committed, but that’s beside the point. And it’s not our job to commit you. And if you’re supposed to be running NA$CAR for years to come, why is your sister telling folks you’re “out of here” because of the revenues that are being lost? Obviously somebody isn’t talking to you, Your Highness.
KB: “And our management team is the deepest and best it's ever been, from (NASCAR president) Mike Helton on down. And we're committed for the long run.”
MM: Don’t you mean mismanagement team? You’re surrounded by “Yes Men” who are as ignorant of what the fans want as you are. The “best it’s ever been”? Then why is everything on the decline? If they were the best, revenues would be still going up, track attendance would still be going up, and TV ratings would still be going up. If they’re the best, I’d hate to see the worst.
KB: But has NASCAR heard from suitors? “All the time we have inquiries," France said. "But we do not take meetings with private-equity groups. We're just not for sale.”
MM: If you were for sale, you’d lose your magic little kingdom that you have and all of your rights as Grand and Exalted Emperor of All Things NA$CAR because they wouldn’t put up with your incontinence, I mean incompetence. I can believe that there are inquiries. Maybe some of them are from folks who want a return to real racing and not what is being served up as a “dietary substitute”. And Lord knows we need a return to real racing. The sponsors wouldn’t be happy. We can’t have genuine excitement. We have to settle for hype and artificially generated excitement over a system that doesn’t work.
KB: “The family is committed. My uncle, my sister, myself. NASCAR is not for sale.Family businesses, across the board, not just in sports, are usually able to take a longer view of things. Between my uncle, myself and my sister, we have 60 or 80 years of experience in this sport. And I like our management team, I like Mike Helton, I like the way we're structured.”
MM: The family should be committed for letting you ruin, I mean run things. We know you’re for sale Your Highness. Anyone with enough money (or car dealerships) can buy you. If the family was taking a longer view of things, why do you only view things for 5 years? I can believe your uncle has 60 years of experience since he was working with your grandpa. But you and your sister? Well, that doesn’t say much. Selling tickets in a ticket booth doesn’t count as experience in running things. Of course you like the way things are structured. Nobody is going to go against you since they value their paychecks and power too much.
KB: “But if we're not getting the results one day, we might consider anything.”
MM: You’re not getting results, so you better start considering what the fans, drivers, owners, and teams want. A return to real racing and not this “WWE on Wheels” stuff you’ve been blatantly serving up since you took over. Folks want racing, not soap operas or sports entertainment.
KB: “But we are very comfortable with our current team.”
MM: Of course you’re comfortable with your current team. They tell you everything you want to hear, not the reality of what’s going on outside of the Ivory Towers of Daytona. The only time you step out of there is to make yourself look good or for a photo op. Your dad and granddad weren’t afraid to mingle with the owners, drivers, and race fans. They talked with them and embraced them because they were the folks who kept your family business going because your dad and granddad knew who “buttered their bread”. You need to do the same.
KB: “We started the year with a couple of goals. One of them was to roll out the car of tomorrow successfully, and we've done that. As a matter of fact we've done it so well, we've accelerated the time frame.”
MM: The Car of Tomorrow is a success? Not from what I’ve seen. And accelerating things wasn’t the teams first choice either. Saying you’ve done it well is like saying Fontana has sold-out it’s races last year. The COT/POS killed the traditional action at Bristol. It’s been boring at other tracks as well. So if this is success, I’d hate to see failure.
KB: "The other thing was to elevate winning, and I think we've got that … with what Jimmie Johnson did at Texas, and what Jeff Gordon did throughout the year.”
MM: Elevated winning? What? Did you raise the altitude of Victory Lane? 10 points is nothing. And if it wasn’t for your silly a$$ Chase for the Chumps, we’d have a different Chump this year instead of who we got. Nothing against either driver, but this is an artificial system that plain and simply doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. But that's what happens when you "borrow" only part of a play-off system used by another racing series.
KB: “So we've had a very good year, and we have momentum going into '08.”
MM: If this was a very good year, I’d hate to see a very bad one. And yes, you do have momentum Your Highness. Downward momentum. Ratings are down, attendance is down, vendor and concession sales are down. It’s all downhill from here.
Mulhern: However, TV broadcasters say that NASCAR has been losing viewers 55 and over and women 35 and over, two trends they say are worrisome.
KB: “They're not leaving the sport,” France said. “They're just getting their NASCAR fix, and information, in different ways.”
MM: They are leaving the sport, contrary to what you may think Your Majesty. This isn’t the racing they’re used to. Real men in real cars driving a real race. Not vanilla flavored clones driving on cookie cutter race tracks in something that’s little more than a glorified IROC car. And making those fans sound like junkies needing a fix isn’t exactly the smartest thing in the world either Your Highness. They’re getting their information from places that don’t carry the party line. They want opinions that are honest and not controlled by you and Article 4. They want insight that isn’t tainted by the threat of the loss of contracts or credentials. And you and your “partners” aren’t delivering it.
KB: “That obviously has some impact on your ratings - with more places to go. So they may be watching the actual race broadcast a little less.”
MM: What has an impact on the ratings is the artificiality that the races have taken on. We keep hearing about storylines. Tony Stewart called you on the Ms Terry DeBris Cautions which is used to manipulate the races. Quick cautions to help out your Chosen Ones. Failed inspections to punish those who go against the party line and speak their minds. Add to this the races which have been pretty much a bore with single file racing except for the restarts and the last 25-50 laps of a race. And the COT/POS races have killed off the racing action it was supposed to generate. And with the poor coverage the TV networks are giving the races during the season, folks are either getting totally turned off or listening to the races on radio.
KB: “But you have to put ratings into context: we're still the number two sport on television. And everyone has had ratings erosion.... That's what happens with all the rich content. It's clearly more difficult to build an audience.”
MM: Yeah, you’re Number 2 alright. If the race coverage was decent, with decent commentary, and a split screen to show the racing as well as the commercials, you might get more fans watching at home. But as long as “you know what’s best for the sport”, the ratings and attendance will continue to drop.
KB: “But we like our position, where we're at.”
MM: I’m sure you do like your position. Too bad the fans are the ones getting it. And unless you change things around pretty soon, you’ll be heading back to LaLaLand to ruin a football team there because there won’t be any racing left. Won’t that make for a real nice family legacy? The Emperor Who Destroyed Stock Car Racing, a modernized version of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
Mulhern: The big picture, France said, is good, though there may be some negative buzz.
MM: Negative buzz? When Wall Street, the networks, and the folks in the sport are all giving things a thumbs down when it comes to your leadership, or lack thereof, and how boring the sport has become, that should tell you a little something since it’s obvious the fans’ opinions don’t count.
KB: “We know where we're at, and where we can improve,” France said. “We try to keep it all in context. What's important to me is to have a general understanding of what's going in all sports and in entertainment.”
MM: If you know where you’re at, then you’d better improve before it’s too late. As long as the context is “if you don’t like me I’ll take my ball and go home”, things are only going to get worse. It’s been pretty obvious that so far you don’t have a general understanding of the sport or its’ fans. It use to be a sport until you took over and now it’s like the WWE. Sports Entertainment. And the fans and teams could care less if you have all the “B List” LaLaLand celebs and Beautiful People at the races. They could give a hoot if Chutney Beers, BareAss Stilton, or Gorge C-loony are at a race. The fans want to see racing.
KB:“You may see a headline here or there, but this is a very, very strong sport with a very strong fan base.”
MM: It use to be a very strong sport you mean. You’ve chopped away the foundations of what made this sport strong. You try to bury the history of the sport, you try to bury the roots of the sport, you alienate the long time fans, you turn it from a sport into sports entertainment. You’ve seriously eroded the fans base, even affecting the new fans. So to say its’ very, very strong isn’t exactly the truth.
KB: “We've had more commercial interest in this sport than ever. If you look at the quality of sponsors here…”
MM: Isn’t it funny how the major sponsors are all companies that have to continuously find new customers because they have some of the worst customer satisfaction around. So to say they’re “quality sponsors”, you left one word out. Worst.
KB: “And you've got to keep things in context in terms of the economy. Despite that, we were up in crowds at Texas and Phoenix."
MM: Texas was up? The backstraight holds 30,000 fans and they were lucky to have maybe 1,000 fans there. Then add in all the empty seats in Turns 1 & 4, plus scattered along the front straight. It sure didn’t look like it was up to me or any race fan who was there. Phoenix had a good crowd, but as boring as the race was, they started leaving around Lap 250. Oh yeah, a “real quality product”. But then I guess in your context, everything’s coming up roses despite the drop in ratings, revenue losses, and dropping attendance.
Mulhern: The Chase for the Nextel Cup, designed four years ago to boost interest in the final three months of the season, has had its dry moments, France conceded.
KB: “Our preferable outcome is for all 12 guys to be within 20 points. I'm sure in the Super Bowl you'd want a 34-31 finish, a lot of drama.”
MM: Uh, the Super Bowl is football. We want racing, not drama. If I wanted drama I’d watch TNT because they know drama. Or at least that’s what they say. You haven’t had all 12 guys within 20 points and you never will. That’s a fact of life. Or at least until you have a thoroughly spec car series, which is the direction you seem to be going anyway. In the Super Bowl, we want to see a 34-33 finish. 1 point difference. In overtime.That’s exciting. If we had 12 drivers within 100 points at the end of the season, even that would almost be exciting. But as it is, we’re lucky to have 2 guys within 100 points of each other.
KB: “But we're in sports, and when somebody puts together a dominant performance…. Look, Jimmie Johnson is having a run in the modern era that's maybe unmatched. That deserves the focus, not the format.”
MM: Not the format? Kind if like “Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtains”? The format needs to be the focus. It’s a failure. It’s turned the last 14 races of the year into a bore. There’s only 13 drivers who we hear about even though there are 43 drivers who are out there every week. Between the format and NA$CAR’s “Don’t Race Against the Chase for the Chumps Contenders” directives, the end of the season has become a bore because there’s no real racing going on around the track during the play-offs and the races leading up to it. 43 drivers racing their hearts out is what it’s supposed to be about. Not just 13. And since the Top 12 didn’t work, why not a Top 15 next year? Better yet, how about a Top 43 with a 36 race play-off season? The points are reset each February and run through the final race in November. Whoever finishes first in the points at the conclusion of the final November race is the season’s winner. That’s pretty simple and easy to keep track of.
KB: “The format is fine, it's great. But Jimmie
...is just at a different level and hat's off to him.”
MM: The format isn’t fine. In plain and simple
terms, it sucks. See the above suggestion for
the format. And just what were you doing
hugging Rick Hendrick up on the stage at
Homestead? Is there something going on that
we don’t know about? We know about the
France family’s obsession with certain auto
makes and team owners. So come on, let all of
us know so we’re all “playing” on a level playing
field here. Even Vince McMahon slipped up
once and admitted who his son-in-law was.
So come on Your Highness, spill the beans.
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