GET RID OF THE TOP 35 RULE - One race last year the 10th fastest qualifier had to go home! This is just not right. The fastest 35 drivers make the race no matter what. No matter whom they are. Then we will have a seven spots for the guys who didn't qualify so well but are up there in points. The last spot would be for a championship provisional, which can only be used 5 times in a year. I understand about needing to keep sponsors happy but you know what? They need to go to a different team if the team they are with aren't giving them the best bang for their buck. This sport is supposed to be about running fast. And if Joe Blow from Idaho comes to Daytona and qualifies tenth then so be it. The top 35 rule is keeping out drivers it shouldn't.
You know come to think about it, there was nothing wrong with the old system of TWO SEPARATE QUALIFYING SESSIONS. Let's make this the next decree from the Queen of NASCAR. It gave the guys who didn't run so well during the first qualifying session a chance to work on their cars and get them right for the second one. Since the reason it was eliminated was to save the teams money and it doesn't save them any money on hotel rooms, meals etc. let's do away with it and go back to two qualifying sessions. I think the crew chiefs will like this. Besides, it gives the fans at the track something to do on Saturday morning. And as Queen of NASCAR, I need to think about making money so here is another 2 hours that I could sell TV commercial ads to sponsors. It's a win for the teams, a win for the fans and a win for NASCAR's pocketbook.
DUMP THE IMPOUND RACES - For the life of me I can not understand what purpose this served other than to get cup drivers to run the Busch race so they could get more time on the track....and NASCAR could sell more tickets to the Busch race. Once again this saves no one any money since the teams are already at the track so let's allow them to work on the cars. It is what they want to do anyway. So no more impounding the cars after qualifying.
This brings me to my next change - LIMITING HOW MANY BUSCH RACES A CUP DRIVER RUNS. This single item is killing the Busch series. The Busch teams can not compete against the big dollar Cup teams. When they can't compete then where are the new drivers for Cup gonna come from? And another thing.....It is NOT a level playing field if a Cup driver has his Cup pit crew pit his car during the Busch race. That will be outlawed totally. Not only is it an unfair advantage, where will new pit crews come from? The only reason we have seen such a big amount of Cup guys running Busch is due to the limits on testing and the impound races. They are doing it to get more track time. I feel like this was done to sell more Busch tickets. We need to weight the cost of what this is doing to this second tier series and how it is costing the sport new talent to make a few extra bucks off selling a few more tickets. As a long time fan, I went to the Busch race no matter who was running in it...I liked not knowing who was driving what car. That way if some one made a good save or move I just enjoyed it.
We need a COMMITTEE MADE UP OF FANS, DRIVERS, CAR AND TRACK OWNERS TO START BATTING AROUND IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO "GROW THE SPORT". Since these are the people involved in the growing, I think we need to listen to their ideas.
The next item will take some time to correct...IT IS ABOUT THE RACING AND LACK THERE OF. Now I do not profess to be some kind of car techno girl who knows why it has happened. I think there are multiple reasons to why it has happened. But we need to fix it. Cars going round and round in a fast, single-file, parade lap is not racing.
A big pet peeve of mine (and many others) is the way our national anthem is performed before the race. Not always. When some one from the military sings it, they sing it right. And not that I am big on country music BUT I have yet to hear a country singer do a bad version of our anthem. You can usually tell how well some one is singing our anthem by how many fans in the grandstands are singing along. One of the best versions last year was by the country group, Whiskey Falls before the Charlotte October race. Anyway, SOME ONE NEEDS TO AUDITION THESE SINGERS BEFORE THEY SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AND MAKE THEM ALL DO IT RIGHT.
Mike McLaughlin wrote a two part series on winning back the long time fan that I enjoyed, since I am a disillusioned long time fan just like he is and this ties into Brian France's State of the Sport Speech. Which goes to the most important item I will address if I were Queen of NASCAR; WINNING BACK THE LONG TIME FANS....AND IN THE PROCESS IMPRESSING THE NEW ONES. Below are some comments from Brian France with a few of my comments below them in red.
“We’re getting back to basics,” France said at the NASCAR research facility. “We’re going to try to minimize the change going forward as best we can.” France said the emphasis on heritage and competition was to remind longtime fans "this was the NASCAR they fell in love with." (Nate Ryan's NASCAR's France: 'We're getting back to basics' )
Well, well, well how about that? He finally gets that he changed way to many things way to fast! It will take more than lip service for any long time fan to believe him. And it will be quite awhile before the sport will be "the NASCAR we fell in love with."
“Back to basics.”
“Minimize change.”
“Emphasize history, emphasize tradition.”
Back to basics...minimize change....emphasize history and tradition....well Mr. France here's a great place to start. Return the Southern 500 to Labor Day Weekend in Darlington SC. It gets no more basic than that. It gets back to history and tradition no more than that. It also will go pretty far in showing long time fans that history, tradition and they, the long time fans, matter. It would also show the newer fans that NASCAR, indeeds, cares about history and tradition.
France, NASCAR’s CEO, said he wants to “re-energize the bonds with our core fans.” “Change is good to a point,” he said, “and we think we’ve had all the change this sport can handle for a while.”
So, now he wants the core fans? These same fans that for the past ten years he has been running away from at a fast pace and taking the sport with him? The same core fans that he thought could be replaced with newer, wealthier fans? Well I guess this is as close to him admitting that he was just plain wrong.
So on what I would do as Queen of NASCAR in winning back the long time fans and impressing the new ones. Obviously the very first thing I would do is BRING BACK THE SOUTHERN 500 TO DARLINGTON ON LABOR DAY WEEKEND. This is one change that almost all fans agree was a bad one. So I will just make it right.
Next on my agenda, is ALL TRACK OWNERS & PRESIDENTS GO TO THE BRUTON SMITH/ HUMPY WHEELER SCHOOL OF RACETRACK OWNERSHIP AND PROMOTING. No one treats race fans better than these two guys. ALL other owners and presidents needs to understand about the terms "fan friendly" and "showcase facility". It is absolutely ridicules and unacceptable that all tracks on the NASCAR schedule are not as nice as Bruton’s tracks. It is also unacceptable that some tracks are still using what happened on 9/11 as a reason to stop us from bringing a cooler larger than 6x6x12 into the track. Now I do not want it to go back to the times when fans brought everything they owned to the track BUT I do want to at least fit a few bottles of water, a bag of boiled peanuts and a sandwich or two in my cooler.
Another thing that Bruton does at Atlanta and
Charlotte is offer a great military discount. We
owe that to our military. And while we are talking
about ticket prices, let's get a grip on these for
the regular folks too. Once again, Charlotte and
Atlanta have great ticket prices/ticket packages.
Many of the "core fans" can't afford the high
ticket prices at some of the tracks.
Now I already mentioned above about RACING
AND THE LACK THERE OF. But this is a BIG
issue with long time fans so it needs to be here
to woo them back.
Next is something small but it will go along way
with the fans. 30 MINUTES BEFORE DRIVER INTROS WE WILL HAVE A RANDOM DRAWING. We will draw out the name of a grandstand, a section, a row and a seat number. Whoever is sitting in that seat gets to give the command to fire the engines. How cool would that be? Maybe have a second drawing for waving the green flag?
Ok race fans. I am slap wore out from my first day as Queen of NASCAR. Trying to right the ship is time consuming and exhausting! I am sure there are many issues I have forgotten, so if you have any suggestions for day two, email me and let me know!
Go visit our home page, called appropriately The Pits & check out our photos & pages.
Our most popular page;Race Recon is where you get all the info you need to go to the
races including local camping, hotels, bars, restaurants, tracks, golf & other important
& recipes, stories, trivia, quotes & more! While you are surfing see if you are a
adventures with the tailgating race fan at NASCAR tracks.
