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NASCAR's Popularity
Sunday, September 17, 2006
By Heather Pohlabel
There are three dominant factors that drive NASCAR's success year after year. Despite a recent surge in sponsorship and new viewers, fans have been flocking to races, tuning in on their sets, and gearing up for the longest season in sports for decades. What keeps people hooked and draws new fan base to NASCAR year after year are the men of NASCAR, the competition, and the danger involved in the sport.
Men of NASCAR
The men of NASCAR can be broken down into three basic categories: the very popular drivers, their hard working pit crews and crew chiefs and the multi million dollar car and team owners.
Drivers
Who doesn't love to see Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s red number 8 Budweiser Chevrolet racing its wheels off on any kind of race track? Who doesn't love to see interview after interview of NASCAR's most famous red head and most publicized driver? Is there anyone out there who doesn't like Jr? If so, I'd like to meet him. I don't think he exists.
People are drawn to Junior because of the tragedy of the death of his father. They want to see Junior overcome the grief of his loss and pay tribute to his father through his racing. When Junior wins, Senior wins. He is still with NASCAR in spirit through his son. But Junior has earned his own fan base without the help of his father. People like to see Junior because he portrays the image of an everyday, ordinary guy. Junior could be your next door neighbor, your cousin, or even your brother. The ladies like him because he's not bad to look at and he is seemingly always available. He's talented, rich, and handsome. His playful smirk makes women want to get a piece of him, and keeps his competition coming after him because he's usually smirking about something he pulled off on the racetrack, like for example, a spin out during the last lap to someone, oh, like maybe Carl Edwards.
Carl Edwards is another likeable NASCAR stud. He was recently featured bare chested on the cover of two very popular magazines. His six pack abs and cut bod are definitely an attractive sight to women. Carl also has a great personality, and seems like a good old mamma's boy. Carl's mom is track side at every race, cheering him on. When he takes the checkered flag for a win, he entertains the crowd with a backflip from the door of his winning car. Carl is enthusiastic and a talented driver. He is another reason people tune into the race every week.
Older more experienced drivers have held their fan bases for years, and established NASCAR fans as well as newcomers like to watch their racing. Kyle Petty, Bobby Labonte, and Mark Martin are all well worn drivers who command respect on and off the field by not only the fans but other drivers as well.
The new guys are nothing to shake your fist at, either. Rookies Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. have had pretty good years coming up from the Busch series, and Reed Sorenson found himself in the well sponsored number 41 Target Dodge of Evernham Motorsports. Plenty of people watch the rookies to see how well or how badly they do their first full time year as NASCAR Cup drivers. Denny Hamlin has fared better than his other rookie counterparts, making it in to the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and possibly earning Rookie of the Year.
Of course there are the ill-tempered men like Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart who people tune in to see not only in the race, but pre race and post race as well. You can find their shenanigans all over ESPN, the SPEED channel, and on XM radio specials. They usually have to tune it down for Fox and TNT interviews, but sometimes their tempers can't discern good timing from bad, and they let their frustrations get the best of them. Even Jeff Gordon was placed on probation this season for going shoving and going after Matt Kenseth after Kenseth spun him out late in a race. Just like in hockey, football, and baseball, NASCAR fans can occasionally catch a good fight during or after a race.
Pit Crews and Crew Chiefs
The pit crews and crew chiefs are also another reason to tune into NASCAR. These men are becoming as well-known as their drivers. Who doesn't know that Tony Eury Jr. is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s cousin and crew chief. Who doesn't know Chad Knaus or Robby Reiser by now? These guys get as much air time as Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth and are often given credit for winning the race for their drivers with their pit strategies.
The pit crews are amazing to watch. These guys jump over a wall with heavy machinery and tires, hoist a car, remove the lug nuts and tires from one side of the car and replace them with new tires and lug nuts and then run to the other side of the car and do the same while two guys fill the tank up with gas and make any adjustments they can to the rear of the car while one guy in front rips off windshield plastic, clears the grill, gives the driver a drink of water, and does anything else necessary to the front of the car all in twelve to fifteen seconds. It's ruthless. I've timed myself. I can't really do much in twelve to fifteen seconds except stand there and watch that time slip by. These men are in excellent physical shape and move like lightening in their fire suits. They must get extremely hot down there on pit road. They also face getting run over or hit, as they do from time to time by a careless driver. The pit guys are some of the manliest men in the world, and therefore, amazing to watch.
Car / Team Owners
Then there are the NASCAR team owners. They make the news all the time. Most recently, Ray Evernham was in the spotlight concerning a court case with his now former driver, Jeremy Mayfield. Mayfield contended that Evernham had let him down in some way by "not being around" in the garage or during races, and for putting too much time and effort in to a relationship with Evernham's truck series driver, Eric Crocker. The rumors started to fly, and while Evernham did not admit to having a personal relationship with Crocker, he did not deny it. He simply stated that his personal life did not affect his ability to lead a team. To prove it, he took on Elliot Sadler, who left Robert Yates Racing, and started to earn points back with the vacated 19 car. His other star, Kasey Kahne, went on to make the Chase.
Robert Yates was having a terrible year, and was about to give up . He signed Busch series new comer David Gilliand to finish out the year in Sadler's vacated 38 car, and spent the rest of his time lamenting the upcoming vacancy of the 88 car, driven by long time Yates driver Dale Jarret. People keep tuning in to see if Yates can even keep a motorsports company running.
Then there's Michael Waltrip, the fading driver turned owner. He will debut a Toyota team next year in the Nextel Cup series under the name Michael Waltrip Racing after having an unsuccessful year in 2005 with DEI (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated) and another unsuccessful year in 2006 with Bill Davis racing, who will also host a Toyota team next year. Waltrip keeps people tuning in to see his next stunt or failure. He has failed to qualify in at least two races this year, and actually bought someone out of his car to be able to run a race that he did not qualify for. Yes, it's true, people tune into NASCAR not only for the victories, but for the defeats as well.
The Competition
It just doesn't get any better than NASCAR racing when it comes to competition. Like most sports, NASCAR has teams. But these are no regular teams. Unlike most sports, where the motto is "there is no I in team", NASCAR drivers and spell team teim!
From the largest team at Roush racing to the smaller two car teams, to individually owned cars, each and every driver is out for himself and the win.
Roush racers will cooperate with each other to help earn five bonus points for leading a lap, but they expect that the next lap, they get their lead back, and if not, then all hell breaks loose. Drivers will orally spar with each other through their crew chiefs - passing messages back and forth to "get out of the way", "let me by", or "I'm going for the win, don't mess this up for me". Very rarely do they pass on messages of encouragement or satisfaction for help on the track because no one really helps each other out. In interviews, they will flat out state that they support their teammates and are proud of their success and wish them the best, and in that same breath state that they are going for the win!
The only team driver I've seen this year is Brian Vickers, who drives the 25 car of Hendrick Motorsports. He is the only driver courteous of his teammates, blocking when needed or drafting when possible. What does he get for it? Fired! Vickers is the only Hendrick's racer to NOT make the Chase, and the only one who was not renewed for a racing contract next season. Being a team player does not pay off in NASCAR racing!
Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch are notorious for getting in the way of their teammates to stifle a win. Gordon is part owner of Jimmie Johnson's number 48 car, and he would wreck his own car in a heartbeat if it meant he would get the win rather than Johnson. Hendrick's boys do not play well together.
The competition on the race track is exciting and dangerous.
The Danger
Of course there is danger involved in any sport, but in NASCAR, you have the added element of speed and steel. Together, they can make a deadly combination, as seen with the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Dayton in 1999. Wrecks occur in every race, and every time each and every driver gets behind the wheel of his car, he faces the chance of severe injury or even death. Yeah, that keeps us watching.
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