News Flash NASCAR is in the entertainment business

$400 versus $18,000,000 +. Seems cheap in that context .

"News Flash NASCAR is in the entertainment business"

Yeah, but did it have to turn into a reality game show?

As we all have said, IT IS ENTERTAINMENT,

DRAMA SELLS

T & A Sell

    Hallie Degan doing Bikini Pictures on Social media

    Danica Partick doing the same

Blood and Gore Sells

     Corey LaJoie on His Top

And so it continues

In reply to RacingComputers :

Both of your 'T & A' examples are out of the series.   Not sure that really holds water here.  

LaJoie flipped and was out of the car and released from the med center in ten minutes.  Not sure that one is hitting the mark either.  

But I agree,  it definitely is in the entertainment business.

In reply to RacingComputers :

Agree that drama sells but there is real drama that gives sustained interest and manufactured E36 M3 which drives short term interest and then fades away. NASCAR seems to specialize in the second one for the past 20 years. They have sparks of doing the right thing and then do things like this which erodes trust from the base. 

As long as you are still talking about it the entertainment machine is still working.

Please carry on. Everything I get paid to do is based on the marketing side of the manufacturer world.

You have a point in the T & A 

However, both of the LADIES want to be considered serious drivers, however they are building their BRAND not  on the race track.

When you see High Lites on the TV, it is about cars flipping, flying through the air, big wrecks and etc..

You don't see Cory walking out of the Infield Care Center.  

Once again, the crashes and wrecks are what is used to SELL the sport.

YRMV

In reply to RacingComputers :

They literally had an interview with Corey walking out of the care center. I don't know anyone watch for wrecks like people keep claiming. 

Maybe we get more exposure to that because we are in Charlotte.

All three broadcast networks and the 2 local Indies have Sports Shows, that often times lead with the BIG ONE at Daytona / Talladega, cars flying through the air (ie Corey), Ryan at Daytona and etc..

Remember, NASCAB got national recognition due to a FIGHT between Cale, Donny and Bobby.  Entertainment at it's best.

YRMV

Daytona this weekend for THE BIG ONE. New rule released last minute so watch for that to be a talking point.

Also trucks and Xfinity at Milwaukee.

I'm interested to see how the rule change affects the racing.  Should hurt the ability to side draft and slow someone down.  

RacingComputers said:

Maybe we get more exposure to that because we are in Charlotte.

All three broadcast networks and the 2 local Indies have Sports Shows, that often times lead with the BIG ONE at Daytona / Talladega, cars flying through the air (ie Corey), Ryan at Daytona and etc..

 

Remember, NASCAB got national recognition due to a FIGHT between Cale, Donny and Bobby.  Entertainment at it's best.

 

YRMV

To be fair, it got recognition because there was a snow storm in the Northeast, with lots of snowed in viewers, and the only sporting event they could watch.  The fight was a bonus.

Autoweek posted an interesting article about 10 NASCAR records unlikely to ever be broken.

One of them was about the fastest race by Mark Martin back in 1997 at 188 mph - mainly because it was a caution-free race.  The last caution-free race was in 1999.  While maybe not as in-your-face exciting as a crash filled race, I still say those races were entertaining in their own way. 

With the changes in concussion protocols, I can't see Jeff Gordon's 797 start streak ever getting broken.   Along those same lines, I'd hazard a guess careers overall will be shorter due to that.  Eventually it will get to a point where after some amount of crashes of a certain severity and knocks to the noggin - you're medically "done."  Let's face it, that's basically what retired DE Jr.  Of course, this works against the whole "people want to see crashes" spectacle... so... remains to be seen what the solution is.

VolvoHeretic said:

"News Flash NASCAR is in the entertainment business"

Yeah, but did it have to turn into a reality game show?

Agreed.  With late "phantom yellows" to "bunch 'em all up!"  NASCAR lost my interest and viewership several decades ago.

"Put it out" comes from the Control tower. Who might be in the control tower during a race?

Go Figure

In reply to RacingComputers :

Yup. "Put it out" always came from the tower. I worked for ISC for some years at Texas and LV before they brought the full time rescue teams on board. We were always told that if the trucks deployed then we needed to put boots on the ground regardless of if there was debris on the track. 

It's absolutely an entertainment series. All pro sports is. If the product isn't interesting then there is no one watching. With no one watching, there is no money for the circus to feed off of. 

In reply to stafford1500 :

Xfinity is at Daytona tonight.

FWIW

I don't find motorsports (professional) entertaining anymore. Too many cautions in NASCAR that go on for lap after lap. Driver gets sideways and they immediately go caution. With a few laps to go these guys can't drive without wrecking. Dillon should have been disqualified for blatantly taking out Logano. In F1 DRS takes the joy out of watching. You're ahead of some one and become a sitting duck. That's not racing in my book. All the drivers whine about every other guy not giving enough space. Wheel to wheel racing is very rare. No matter the reason it's just no fun. Maybe I'm just old and miss the days of Donahue, Jones, Foyt, Andretti, Clark, Stewart, Gurney etc. The old Can-Am, Trans-Am. Not to mention how ugly Indy cars and prototype cars are. I'd rather watch the SCCA Runoffs. 

JimS said:

I don't find motorsports (professional) entertaining anymore. Too many cautions in NASCAR that go on for lap after lap. Driver gets sideways and they immediately go caution. With a few laps to go these guys can't drive without wrecking. Dillon should have been disqualified for blatantly taking out Logano. In F1 DRS takes the joy out of watching. You're ahead of some one and become a sitting duck. That's not racing in my book. All the drivers whine about every other guy not giving enough space. Wheel to wheel racing is very rare. No matter the reason it's just no fun. Maybe I'm just old and miss the days of Donahue, Jones, Foyt, Andretti, Clark, Stewart, Gurney etc. The old Can-Am, Trans-Am. Not to mention how ugly Indy cars and prototype cars are. I'd rather watch the SCCA Runoffs. 

Guess you missed Indy where a car was parked on the apron of 2 in plain sight and they DIDN'T throw the caution.  Race control can get trigger happy with the cautions but they generally err on the side of caution (no pun intended).  

JimS said:

I don't find motorsports (professional) entertaining anymore. Too many cautions in NASCAR that go on for lap after lap. Driver gets sideways and they immediately go caution. With a few laps to go these guys can't drive without wrecking. Dillon should have been disqualified for blatantly taking out Logano. In F1 DRS takes the joy out of watching. You're ahead of some one and become a sitting duck. That's not racing in my book. All the drivers whine about every other guy not giving enough space. Wheel to wheel racing is very rare. No matter the reason it's just no fun. Maybe I'm just old and miss the days of Donahue, Jones, Foyt, Andretti, Clark, Stewart, Gurney etc. The old Can-Am, Trans-Am. Not to mention how ugly Indy cars and prototype cars are. I'd rather watch the SCCA Runoffs. 

Well then I'm old.

Old enough to remember that a lot of those series and drivers you mentioned had a lot of snooze-fest races, too.  

Can-Am was a great series but do you recall how many times McLaren (the man) and Hulme simply ran away from the competition in their McLaren's?  Or how about when Porsche provided Donohue with an absolute sledgehammer to crush the competition, effectively ending the whole series?

For what it's worth, DRS was introduced specifically because fans and drivers were complaining loudly for years about a near-complete absence of passing.  It may be contrived, but they all have access to the technology and it has offered opportunities for re-passes that largely didn't exist before.  As an aside, I'd like the effect to be lessened, or maybe make the cars a bit more "slippery" via less downforce overall, but I don't think F1 would agree to that.  So it goes.
 

Nostalgia is real, though.  I get that.  I catch myself saying things equivalent to "back in my day..." a little too often.  
 

edit to add:  while it doesn't fit in this topic, the best series I've come across for real racing is the Mazda MX-5 Cup series.  There's almost nothing else like it and a lot of it from this season and years past is available to view on YouTube.

NASCAB got their "FEEL GOOD STORY" Sat night at Daytona

Wrecks, Cars flipping and a NEW WINNER that does not have a ride for next year.

OH THE DRAMA of it all

We're still ragging on this?

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :you like me enjoy strategy in racing!

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) : the "keep the win" was because of the massive betting that pays almost instantly.

In reply to RacingComputers :and the Wood Brothers now have 100 wins!

I was screaming at the TV!

Burton would still have a drive if he didn't have 98 starts with 0 wins.