The NASCAR Drivers are Quitting Sooner

[pdub]

This is a pretty good story, whoever put it together. I "get" it. I do. They go twice as fast as I ever did, and a day on a track even going really slow will drain you no matter how old you are. Plus, at the track day level, there is no pressure from owners, sponsors, fans, etc.....I can't even imagine. This is a pretty good look at it. NASCAR from a marketing standpoint sucks. But those who are left in it, they are real people trying to do a real thing. At least they believe it. And they still love going fast. REAL fast.

There are two ways to look at it. I'm so rich now, I'm done, plus I may get killed the next time out. Or, I have to remain a slave to the failing business model.This is really interesting, at least it is to me.

[RockJustRock]

This is a pretty good story, whoever put it together. I "get" it. I do. They go twice as fast as I ever did, and a day on a track even going really slow will drain you no matter how old you are. Plus, at the track day level, there is no pressure from owners, sponsors, fans, etc.....I can't even imagine. This is a pretty good look at it. NASCAR from a marketing standpoint sucks. But those who are left in it, they are real people trying to do a real thing. At least they believe it. And they still love going fast. REAL fast.

There are two ways to look at it. I'm so rich now, I'm done, plus I may get killed the next time out. Or, I have to remain a slave to the failing business model.This is really interesting, at least it is to me.

The MONEY is there now. Media personality, team owner. Plus racing identical bumper cars IS harder work. When technology is cheating IT is harder work.

[Big Dave]

It's also a factor that drivers arn't getting the BIG Money contracts to drive anymore. There's less sponsorship money, less ticket sales, less TV money. You hear it's a grind but back in the 60's they ran 60 races a year. I remember going to a NASCAR race on a Wednesday night in Birmingham Alabama. It's no longer a hobby for drivers but a business which demands all your time and effort and winning is of the upmost importance. And NASCAR is a dying business because it's no longer a sport but and industry and times are a changing with what younger people see as entertainment. Went NASCAR ran off their base in favor of the wine and cheese crowd is when the end started. If some groups does buy NASCAR they will have to rebuild it and I believe to do so will require it to become the southern sport it once was. Anyway my two cents worth.

[studemax]

NASCAR hasn't been racing for a long time. Now it's just motorized entertainment. NASCAR markets the personality of the driver, not the talent. That's how Danica got in there (she knows her way to the checkers, yes - but NASCAR wooed her to get women to watch). NASCAR didn't give a crap if she won.

[RockJustRock]

The race teams are big money. The Series and the Media are BIGGER money and FAME for NASCAR, NOT the teams. All is good in the eyes of the France family. All that topped with booze and blow. And the teams aren't exactly suffering. The drivers aren't AT their peak racing anymore, it is just a way they MIGHT get to their peak. We are just left to watch, buy stuff, pay extra if we choose.

[cstmwgn]

... All that topped with booze and blow...

Whats wrong with booze and blow if it is in the budget?

As long as the kids have shoes and aren't working the corners - life is good!

[Gateclyve Photographic]

NASCAR hasn't been racing for a long time. Now it's just motorized entertainment. NASCAR markets the personality of the driver, not the talent. That's how Danica got in there (she knows her way to the checkers, yes - but NASCAR wooed her to get women to watch). NASCAR didn't give a crap if she won.

Of course NASCAR is racing. Its huge departure from its roots has certainly turned off some fans. And aero factors have damaged the racing at some intermediate tracks. But it's still racing. And it's still better racing than F1.

That NASCAR has manipulated the entries to broaden the fan base is nothing new. For example promoters often paid appearance money back on the old days to lure name drivers back when running all the races and running for the season "cup' wasn't as lucrative. Charlotte Motor Speedway promoter Richard Howard paid Junior Johnson to field a Chevrolet in 1971, and NASCAR altered its rules to allow dimensional changes in Johnson's Monte Carlo . . . all because they wanted to increase the take at the gate.

When the factories pulled out in the '70s, NASCAR shifted to emphasizing the "stars" of the sport, ,paying "Winners' Circle Plan" bonuses and marketing personalities over any manufacturer battles. The 1981 downsizing plan essentially standardized all components under the skin except for engines, accelerating a trend that had begun more than a decade earlier.

While some millionaire drivers are quitting -- likely because the money's not there to pay them what they believe they're entitled to, Cup salaries are still high enough that a top or even middling driver does not have to run through his (or her) forties and early fifties to be set for life.

And quitting early isn't new either. See e.g. Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett . . .

[pdub]

And quitting early isn't new either. See e.g. Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett . . .

I guess it's a bit of resentment on my part. When I was a kid I wished I was a race car driver, and that didn't happen because my daddy wasn't interested in it and he didn't have enough money to pay for it to start with.

So in later life I had to make it happen on my own. I'm still not a race car driver but I can at least make myself feel like one. It's all payback, and it's taken 50 years.

The kids who are driving NASCAR right now, they have no idea. They are just lucky, that's all. Not gifted, just lucky.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

I dunno Dub. When I see some elementary school kid strapped into a junior dragster or a kart by a helicopter parent vicariously "living their dream" through their kids, I'm not sure all of these kids are "lucky." Some are. But some would probably rather just be kids and not "Michael Schumacher" or "John force" in training.

We should probably note that many of these retiring drivers have been competing in some form of motorsports for more than twenty years, beginning as young children. That's got to be tiring.

Frankly, I wish there were more opportunities for older drivers (maybe a senior tour) and less pressure to "discover" the next big thing before age 20. But the money goes where the market takes it.

Paul Newman is my inspiration. He raced into his eighties and didn't start until he was (by racing standards) an old man. Even after he was too sick to drive and near death, he still rode hot laps in his hot-rodded V8-powered Volvo.

[pdub]

I just wasn't handed anything. But going fast is the deal. Not the glory. I don't even want that, the glory. Fast is the deal. And so many years later, deprived of it, I got it.

[Gateclyve Photographic]

You have a good point. It's hard to get into big-time racing without a big name and a family racing heritage. It's even somewhat challenging to get into small-time racing without a lot of family and/or friend support. All of it tends to cost a lot more than the average person can scrape together. There are lots of barriers to entry and few who help "lone wolf" petrolheads overcome them. That's part of the reason why millions watch and read and dream but never even try to turn a tire on any race track. But you did!