You know that racing series that uses silhouette cars, for the most part races counter-clockwise in circles and is best remembered for big time crashes and the glory days when the cars were straight off of the showroom floor? Yeah, a rumor mill the size of a strong hurricane just whipped up around it. Reportedly NASCAR’s ownership group is starting to “explore options” that potentially include a sale of a majority stake of the sanctioning body, according to a Reuters report. It is believed that the France family, the dynasty that has controlled NASCAR since the beginning back in the late 1940s when moonshine runners agreed to some basic terms at the Ebony Bar, has opted for Goldman Sachs to assist on a potential deal that is currently in an “exploratory stage”.
Naturally, there hasn’t been a peep from anyone at Goldman Sachs and NASCAR isn’t saying squat.
It’s no secret that the racing series is well past it’s early 2000s cash tidal wave. Monster Energy, the current title sponsor of the series, is probably going to walk away after the 2019 season and isn’t paying anywhere near the kind of money that Sprint was putting up back when it was the name on the bill. The causes? Well, there’s no doubt that NASCAR’s aging fan base isn’t helping matters, attendance is awful, and television ratings are down. What’s the line of thinking from the NASCAR camp that is supposed to be helping matters? Quoting NASCAR Chief Operations Officer Steve Phelps:
“It’s very difficult to isolate one particular thing versus another in terms of it being the cause of something. There are other things that this industry has done over the past couple of years to increase the millennial audience of NASCAR. That’s a journey we’re going to continue on. We have to continue to make sure our content is as strong as it can be that we’re pushing through the digital and social channels. We need to make sure that we continue to cater to kids and to make sure that our millennial audience is happy. We have to continue the gains we’ve made with our Hispanic fans, which has been significant over the last three years. That journey doesn’t end. And, by the way, we have to make sure that we’re nurturing the existing fan base that we’ve had for many, many years. They’re incredibly important.”
Notice: nothing about cars, teams, drivers, the green-checkered deal with the competition cautions, the points system that requires at least a Bachelor’s degree to come to terms with, or the fact that forty-odd teams are driving brutally fast go-karts stickered up to represent a produced street car are playing in a “stock car” arena. It’s not as bad as the days of the Lumina and Thunderbird, or Monte Carlo and Taurus, when every car actually did look the same, but shaping the nose to look like a Camaro doesn’t make it a Camaro, it makes it a Camaro-shaped NASCAR racer.
Does this mean NASCAR death-watch, or will some other sponsor keep the life support plugged in?
I hope it’s a death watch, it what they (and NHRA) deserve. It’s a damned shame that corporate pencil pushers with fancy degrees now run these organizations. They don’t know what made them great to begin with. All they know is “demographics” and corporate bottom lines.
Until they make the cars mimic production vehicles, NASCAR will continue to decline which is a shame because I’m still a fan. I remember an announcer saying it’s the drivers not the cars people care about. WRONG! The drivers are just as vanilla as the cars today.
NASCAR just purchased the ARCA series. All racing series are hurting in attendance right now. Maybe they should think about getting back to what made them popular back in the day. Think Prostock cars with 12.5 tires and real 4 speeds that need to actually be shifted by the drivers?
I lost interest years ago when they stopped racing “stock” cars.
The NHRA has become no more than a traveling road show with the same 14 to 16 cars per class showing up and racing each other every week.
You go to the race knowing only a select few have the capabilities of winning.
Same old thing week in and week out. Same handful of names, same handful cars, same results over an over and over and over………………………….
NASCAR has become the same thing.
lol… the death gasps of NASCAR/NHRA clown-car racing.
NASCAR AND NHRA HAVE LOTS IN COMMON
BOTH ARE IN THEIR SWAN SONG YEARS EXCEPT
GOLDMAN CAN’T SEE ANY VALUE IN NHRA TO SELL TO INVESTORS
TIME TO LIST NHRA IN THE JUNK BOND FUNDS
NASCAR needs to go back to it’s roots and stop the BS that you can not draft another car. Stop the sessions of starting a race just for points. Drivers crew and fans love to see a race go 200 or 500 miles. If they are true drivers as they were years ago should be no problem. NASCAR is dying MR France wake up and see the light.
I’m a life long race fan. I’ll watch them race anything with a motor, but I’m very turned off by the France family and what they’ve done to NASCAR
The cars are not stock cars, but eho cares, as long ad yhe “chosen few” get their multi million dollar budgets and keep their cars no more than .O76 of a mile per hour apart, but not too fast, they will find reckless young smart asses to drive them.
Ad long as there are those who love v8 engines someone will race them. Us gear heads will survive with out NASCAR. NHRA, THIS GOES FOR YOU TOO!
Drivers are all boring–can’t fight–no personality–are not allowed to be real
Young drivers are kids who have wealthy parents that could afford to “groom” the kid then buy a way in
It is not real–it is all corporate BS anymore
Closing old tracks to open new dates for bigger markets was stupid move for long term
cars are more expensive now than ever yet are cookie cutters that NOBODY cares about
Letting Toyota take over was Dumb
$10 beer is greedy and stupid $2 beer and $2 hot dog would be move in right direction
and they FIRED all the real “good ole boys ” that still know more about porting a head than the new “engineers ” they pay obscene amounts will EVER know
Shop full of politics and no real guys–all imported engineers from as far away and paid as much as possible to achieve TOTALLY BORING results
NASCAR IS DOOMED! NHRA has been dead a long time now
I ask–who really gives a S#%&
Oh just wait until the wall street boys buy it and hire a “guru” to fix it–LOL now that will be some headlines for a season then we will see homes built on race track sites
Homes built on track sides and tracks then closed because “it too LOUD”. Seriously though I could care less there are much more entertaining racing circuits to watch.
Just because Brian France won the sperm lottery doesn’t make him qualified to run a multi billion dollar business. I’d rather see Roger Penske or Chip Ganassi run it than Fredo France.
The Australian V8 Super Car series is pretty awesome.
Brian France has made a complete mess. We have an aero-push spec series. NASCAR needs to fix the cars and change up some of tracks. But, they won’t. He won’t let them.
I’ m a car guy. I personally care more about the cars, how they are modified, the fabulous parts they use, etc. etc. than I care about the clone, clown drivers. I want to learn something. But NASCAR and NHRA both see it differently, got to focus on the dopey personalities. They tried for years to prop up Danica Patrick just as a novelty. And it used to be so bad in NASCAR that announcers would only refer to a car as “the 2 car” or the “10 car” regardless of the make – would not even mention the names of the car manufacturers that were spending tens of millions of dollars on Chevrolets, Fords, Pontiacs, Olds, Buicks, Dodges, etal. No wonder Detroit got fed up with the good old boys. And it sounds like the fans and sponsors are fed up as well.
The death of NASCAR happened when they let Toyota in. NASCAR was Ford vs. GM vs. Chrysler. Good old American Joes racing good old American cars. Toyota will never be an American car company. I’ll walk before I’ll own a freakin Toyota or Subaru or Mitsubishi. My Grandpa shot down Mitsubishi Zeros in WW2. All France cares about is his bank account.
Since NASCAR is headed that way, maybe they could partner with Draino!
Race on sunday….sell cars on monday…..you changed the cars and rules so Toyota could race..remember when they let the 4 door ford race because they didn’t make a two door?..money hores.they don’t care about the fans just $$$$$..nascar is dead