So, I'm pretty satisfied with how my research/report paper on NASCAR went. While I do not think it is the best paper ever, I feel accomplished to know that I got the maximum number of points available. Had this been an English class, it probably would have been a little lower, but I think I can stop trying to write the 'perfect' NASCAR paper. So, that being said I am going to post what I wrote. Some may not like it or may find problems with it, what ever. I am satisfied enough and no one is going to change my mind. I just hope I did NASCAR and my interviewee, Brian Burns, justice and hope I did not misinterpret any information given to me, I apologize now if I did. And I realize it was a Facebook interview really, not an email interview, but email sounded a little more professional. (And to think I, wrote this in a week.)
NASCAR: A Piece of History
Megan Barker
DeVry University
NASCAR: A Piece of History
There are many pieces of history that strike a person as significant and that can depend on perspective. Not often is the formation of a sporting organization thought of. It is time to point out one of those organizations and show how and why its formation is important, even if it is only important to its fans. This organization is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Latford, 1998) otherwise known as NASCAR. There are few reasons as to why this great organization formed, but there are more reasons as to why it is still around. NASCAR has made many strides in progression from the time it was formed, most for the better. Perspective plays a large role in to viewing whether or not NASCAR is indeed a sport. NASCAR has had many ups from when it was formed to now, however there are negative aspects to this sport that cannot be overlooked. These are the four major topics that will be discussed and presented as the explanation of what makes NASCAR a substantial part of history and the present. While auto racing itself is considered the sport and NASCAR just a sub-category, NASCAR has a lot to offer and improvements are made all the time to make things better and safer, and to make stock car racing more exciting and interactive with the fans.
NASCAR was conceived in the Streamline Hotel located in Daytona Beach (source) in 1947. Its conception stemmed from the ideas of “Big Bill” France deeming that stock car racing had been a part of his life as well as the group that had gathered to discuss the beginning of this league after France’s NCSCC(National Championship Stock Car Circuit) did not bring in desired results (Fielden, 2004). Jerome Vogt, a very well-known mechanic, that came up with the resulting name, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, usually simply referred to as NASCAR (Latford, 1998). The first race on Daytona Beach in 1948 consisted of 50 entries and such resulted in the race starting sending groups of cars out in one-second intervals (Latford, 1998). Adjustments to the number of cars allowed in the race would change over the years. Adjustments and progress are a major part of what keeps this organization going as the times and generations of those watching grows. Some examples of adjustments include the outline of the points system that determines the year’s champion, how the cars (engines, tires, safety devices, et cetera) are designed, which tracks are raced at and the requirements the tracks must pass to be eligible, and many other changes occur and are reviewed each racing season. These adjustments and requirements are all listed within the NASCAR rule book which is distributed to certain members of a team organization and are not available to the public. According to JTG Daugherty Racing crew chief Brain Burns, the most important phrase found in the rule book is “at NASCAR’s sole discretion” and that it is used throughout the book more than 50 times (email interview, April 1, 2013). This opens up the possibility for NASCAR to change and adjust the rules at any time if a particular team is getting too much of an advantage while working in what Burns calls the “grey area.”
This grey area can be what allows the small teams that extra boost over the larger teams and could be what gains the team a few extra positions on the track and in the points. This could also mean an attraction of the important aspect of sponsorship. Marketing has become a central part of NASCAR and racing in general. According to research completed and reported in an article by Mark Dodds and Larry DeGaris (2011), that approximately 73% of the race attendees surveyed found sponsors were responsible for making the attendance of a race more enjoyable. Sponsorships are the major driving force of keeping things moving forward, as well as the fans. Without fans willing to attend races or up-and-coming drivers to take the place of retirees, NASCAR would fall into oblivion. NASCAR has introduced a program, in 2004, aimed at minorities and women to try to pull in new drivers and pit crew members that seem to otherwise have a more difficult time climbing the ranks. This program is known as Drive for Diversity (D4D) according to the article The Process of Organizational Identity: What are the Roles of Social Responsiveness, Organizational Image, and Identification? ([POI], 2011). It is the progression of adding in more drivers and pit crew members, many reaching the higher levels of NASCAR at younger ages than before, that helps to bring in more fans that have watched these younger drivers and members from the start of their careers. This also helps to ensure that NASCAR will go on as more of the original members of NASCAR retire or die. Progress is the key to all of this.
As before mentioned, NASCAR was created in 1947 with the first race running in 1948, but since then nearly nothing is the same. NASCAR was created by a group that enjoyed stock car racing and wanted to give it a platform to stand on and separate it from other forms of racing. For this new auto sport organization to really function, it needed a consistent point system that would dictate over all races and drivers participating with a season (Latford, 1998). The participants in NASCAR were divided into three categories that depended on what adjustments or how advanced an entering car may be (Latford, 1998). These three divisions have now become the NASCAR Sprint Cup series (NSCS), the NASCAR Nationwide series (NNS), and the NASCAR Camping World Truck series (NCWTS). Towards the beginning of the 1949 season, Bill France’s NASCAR divisions were being challenged for number of cars and drivers against the NSCRA (National Stock Car Racing Association) operated by Bruton Smith. Smith is the leader of Speedway Motorsports that controls and owns tracks such at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Atlanta Motor Speedway (Latford, 1998). Many of the drivers, such as Bob Flock and Jim Roper, were from the South (Latford, 1998). This coincides and has been the underlying cause of categorizing NASCAR as a “redneck” sport. NASCAR drivers put in a lot of effort to become good at what they do. A lot of hard work and training goes into making some of the best drivers around. The article by Christine Day (2012), says that NASCAR is an “unstable and unpredictable environment.” Crew members practice continuously to ensure precision and quickness during race time (Day, 2012). Technology has become an important aspect of testing and preparing the cars and team members for the race. Brian Burns says that the technology in statistical information can pull information from past races and information about the engine and create several possible outcomes to help prepare the team for different situations and help them do the best they can in a race (email interview, April 1, 2013). However with more technology and rising costs, fewer engines manufacturers are supplying engines to teams, often as rentals. Burns suggests that there should only be one supplier for each make of car to help even out some of the competition, especially among the same car make (email interview, April 1, 2013). Car makes involved in NASCAR have significantly narrowed down as well. Plymouths, Pontiacs, and now Dodges are no longer a part of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. The NASCAR Sprint Cup series is now up to its 6th generation of race car. Each generation seems to put us back to “square one” (Brian Burns, email interview, April 1, 2013). Burns says that this helps to even out competition as now all teams do not have information about each new car and all have to learn how the new cars drive. In regards to specifically the 6th generation car, Burns believes the car to have a really good balance of mechanical and aerodynamic while giving the car make more recognition to the stock cars found in dealerships (email interview, 2013). Different track setups help determine whether a racecar will be more dependent on aerodynamics.
There are five main types of tracks: super speedways (two and a half miles), mile and a half, speedways (one mile), short tracks (under a mile), and road courses. However, this season (2013), the NASCAR Camping World Truck series has added in a dirt track, Eldora Speedway. This track was bought in 2004 by multi-Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart (Eldora Speedway, 2012). NASCAR’s top three divisions are not regularly run on tracks as small as Eldora, let alone dirt. Brian Burns believes that dirt racing should not be a part of NASCAR’s top three classes. Instead he thinks NASCAR should invest in a dirt racing series that would closely follow the top divisions to bring in more dirt track fans as well as expose dirt tracks to asphalt racing fans (email interview, April 1, 2013). Along those lines, Burns does not think that we need to run the Nationwide road course races in Canada and Mexico. He thinks that NASCAR is trying to go too mainstream before it is ready, that it is selling out to attempt to make it more popular as well as it being a larger expense for the teams (email interview, April 1, 2013). There are tracks in the Sprint Cup series season that currently have two races a year. Some examples are Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Pocono Raceway, Kansas Speedway and a few others. Some believe that some of the tracks with double weekends should be reduced to one to add in other tracks, possibly past fan favorites. Brian Burns for one would like to see Rockingham Speedway return to the Sprint Cup series (email interview, April 1, 2013). Rockingham “The Rock” was no longer on the Cup schedule after the 2004 season, but made a return to NASCAR in 2012 in the Camping World Truck series. One track with multiple races is Charlotte Motor Speedway, as before mention, owned by Bruton Smith (Latford, 1998). However this track is located at the hub of the racing community. A majority of the race teams are located in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. This is largely because from the time NASCAR was formed until the 1970s, many of the top drivers were from the Carolinas and the Southern states (Mitchelson & Alderman, 2011). And though more and more drivers are coming from different locations around the United States, the central location remains Charlotte, NC instead of spreading over the country (Michelson & Alderman, 2011). This makes it very convenient for fans to travel to a central area and be able to see many different teams’ race shops. Even some teams have built their shops geared with specific areas for fans to visit and see how their teams work and see the history of a team. As much as NASCAR was built for the drivers and teams, it is the fans that truly help to keep it going and are quite often the influence in to decisions about car, track, points, et cetera changes.
Fans are the very essence of making racing a spectator sport. Steve Burns in the NASCAR Thrills edition of NASCAR’s Ultimate DVD Collection says that thousands of fans crowd in the grandstands all season and that millions more watch from home (Abraham, Jorden, Wheeler, Keith, Stevens, McGee, & Byrnes, 2005). He goes on to say that one main reason fans want to watch is because they never know when they are going to witness a special moment (Abraham et al., 2005). The main concern as to why it is believed that NASCAR or racing is not a sport is that the drivers are not athletes. However, as before mentioned, all crew members go through training and that includes the drivers. Drives race cars at high speeds, inches apart, over a large variety of tracks with different degree turns and mileage for around 250 miles for the Truck series, around 300 miles for the Nationwide, and usually between 400 to 500 miles for the Sprint Cup. The only breaks they get would be during cautions, though they are still driving, or during a red flag when the cars (or trucks) are stopped and sometimes shut off depending on the situation. This bumper to bumper action can lead to wrecks, some more severe than others. One example of a wreck presented in NASCAR Thrills, was Elliott Sadler’s wreck at Talladega where he his car flipped over several times. “Ground, sky, ground, sky,” is how he remembers it (Abraham et al., 2005). NASCAR and racing fans in general find that racing becomes a large part of their lives and in such have a hard time giving it up. Watching from home is not the same as going to the track. Being at the track and experiencing it live, makes a big difference in how racing is perceived. Television can only show so much at a time and often not what the viewer wants to see; whether that is a particular spot on the track or a particular driver they have deemed their favorite. Along those lines, the NASCAR fan base is highly diverse and will likely become even more so in the future (Hugenberg, L.W. & Hugenburg, B.S. [Hugenberg], 2008). Also in Hugenbergs’ (2008) article, the fan base differs from other sports in many ways, but the simplest to observe is the geography difference. A fan can root for any driver they choose and does not really rely on where the driver grew up or has come from. This differs from sports like baseball or football where the state or university does the majority of the choosing of which team to cheer for where the fan lives or lived (Hugenberg, 2008). Another difference according to the Hugenbergs’ article is sponsor loyalty (2008). While the NFL (National Football League) or MLB (Major League Baseball) may have sponsor for promotions, NASCAR uses the sponsorships to truly promote a company or affiliation as much as possible and the fans will tend to follow what their favorite driver or team’s sponsors are (Hugenberg, 2008). Fans will go out of their way to either purchase a driver or team’s sponsor(s) or to stop using (or not buy) a competitor’s sponsor(s). Over a quarter of a billion dollars from around 250 companies which includes about 70 Fortune 500 companies that sponsor into NASCAR and its divisions (Hugenberg, 2008). What the fans love most of all is the close action and the growing social media with drivers and team members, but the close racing and interaction do not always go as well as hoped.
There are lots of positive aspects to racing, but sometimes it is the negative outcomes that can determine what direction NASCAR will go next. One of the biggest known things about NASCAR and racing is the wrecks. Nowadays, it is rare for a driver to come away from a wreck badly injured, although it does happen. This is mainly due to the research of previous wrecks to create new devices or better ways to build the cars to protect the drivers, crew members, and fans. There have been deaths resulting from horrific crashes on the race track. Perhaps the most widely known was the death of Dale Earnhardt on the last lap on the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt earned 7 Cup championships over his career and 76 wins (Street and Smith’s Sports Publications [Sports Publications], 2003). Dale Earnhardt was a major part of NASCAR and to lose him was like losing a family member. Kyle Petty, son of “The King” Richard Petty, had this to say: “No matter where it happens or how it happens or even how prepared you think you might be for it, losing somebody close to you hurts” (Sports Publications, 2003). Earnhardt’s passing may not have been the direct cause of safety innovation and research it did spark the research in to moving more quickly to find more ways to increase safety. One safety rule NASCAR has recently put in to place was a ban on cell phones in the race car during any on-track practice, testing, racing, et cetera. It was however the use of a cell phone during a red flag in the 2012 Daytona 500 that truly lit a social media fire between drivers, crew members, teams, and fans.
Social media has become a large part of getting the fans involved with racing and interacting with other fans to share stories, pictures, et cetera as well as interact with a majority of the drivers and other team members. While social media can make it easier for negative fans to complain and whine, Brian Burns thinks that the positives of social media outweigh the negative. He says that we all enjoy a little gossip and drama from time to time (email interview, April 1, 2013). Social media has opened up a whole new way for fans to watch and be involved from home or at the track. Before, fans could really only get close to the drivers at set up meeting places for autographs or camping inside the track would get you closer to the NASCAR garages (Wincer, Goldberg, Bechtel, & Sutherland [NASCAR IMAX], 2004).
NASCAR has progressed in becoming a larger spectator sport and competes with the NFL and MLB for television ratings and has become one of America’s biggest sports. The race cars have come through several generations and have become safer for the drivers. Improvements on and off the track have helped to make everyone safe including team members and fans. Several of these safety improvements have resulted from studying wrecks of all sizes, but especially ones that resulted in serious injuries or death. NASCAR does whatever it can to bring fans in to enjoy the races where they may see the next spectacular moment and make racing more enjoyable for the fans as well as the drivers and teams. Team members and drivers spend a lot of time away from home, so NASCAR does what it can to be desirable to spend that time away for all involved. So NASCAR may have started as an organized way for drivers and teams to more easily race and since has become a way of life for drivers, teams, and fans.
References
Abraham, J. (Executive Producer), Jorden, J. (Executive Producer), Wheeler, P. (Executive Producer), Keith, S. (Producer), Stevens, C. (Creative Director), McGee, R. (Writer), & Byrnes, S. (Host) (2005). NASCAR Ultimate DVD Collection: NASCAR Thrills [DVD]. United States: NASCAR Images, LLC.
Day, C. R. (2012). NASCAR: You're FAST or You FAIL Learning at 200 mph. Insights To A Changing World Journal, 2012(4), 5-17.
Dodds, M., & DeGaris, L. (2011). Using Mobile Marketing to Engage NASCAR Fans and Increase Sales. Choregia, 7(1), 63-75.
Eldora Speedway. (2012). Track Facts. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from http://www.eldoraspeedway.com/visitor-info/track-facts/
Fielden, G. (2004). NASCAR Chronicle. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd.
Hugenberg, L. W., & Hugenberg, B. S. (2008). If It Ain't Rubbin', It Ain't Racin': NASCAR, American Values, and Fandom. Journal Of Popular Culture, 41(4), 635-657. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00540.x
Latford, B. (1998). 50 Years of NASCAR. London: Carlton Books Ltd.
Mitchelson, R. L., & Alderman, D. H. (2011). Mapping NASCAR Valley Charlotte as a Knowledge Community. Southeastern Geographer, 51(1), 31-48.
Street and Smith’s Sports Publications. (2003). The Earnhardt Collection: Because Winning Matters. Chicago, IL: Triumph Books.
The Process of Organizational Identity: What are the Roles of Social Responsiveness, Organizational Image, and Identification?. (2011). Journal of Sport Management, 25(5), 489-505.
Wincer, S. (Director), Goldberg, N. (Executive Producer), Bechtel, M. (Writer), & Sutherland, K. (Narrator) (2004). NASCAR: The IMAX Experience [DVD]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures, Canada: IMAX Corporation.
Megan Barker
DeVry University
NASCAR: A Piece of History
There are many pieces of history that strike a person as significant and that can depend on perspective. Not often is the formation of a sporting organization thought of. It is time to point out one of those organizations and show how and why its formation is important, even if it is only important to its fans. This organization is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Latford, 1998) otherwise known as NASCAR. There are few reasons as to why this great organization formed, but there are more reasons as to why it is still around. NASCAR has made many strides in progression from the time it was formed, most for the better. Perspective plays a large role in to viewing whether or not NASCAR is indeed a sport. NASCAR has had many ups from when it was formed to now, however there are negative aspects to this sport that cannot be overlooked. These are the four major topics that will be discussed and presented as the explanation of what makes NASCAR a substantial part of history and the present. While auto racing itself is considered the sport and NASCAR just a sub-category, NASCAR has a lot to offer and improvements are made all the time to make things better and safer, and to make stock car racing more exciting and interactive with the fans.
NASCAR was conceived in the Streamline Hotel located in Daytona Beach (source) in 1947. Its conception stemmed from the ideas of “Big Bill” France deeming that stock car racing had been a part of his life as well as the group that had gathered to discuss the beginning of this league after France’s NCSCC(National Championship Stock Car Circuit) did not bring in desired results (Fielden, 2004). Jerome Vogt, a very well-known mechanic, that came up with the resulting name, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, usually simply referred to as NASCAR (Latford, 1998). The first race on Daytona Beach in 1948 consisted of 50 entries and such resulted in the race starting sending groups of cars out in one-second intervals (Latford, 1998). Adjustments to the number of cars allowed in the race would change over the years. Adjustments and progress are a major part of what keeps this organization going as the times and generations of those watching grows. Some examples of adjustments include the outline of the points system that determines the year’s champion, how the cars (engines, tires, safety devices, et cetera) are designed, which tracks are raced at and the requirements the tracks must pass to be eligible, and many other changes occur and are reviewed each racing season. These adjustments and requirements are all listed within the NASCAR rule book which is distributed to certain members of a team organization and are not available to the public. According to JTG Daugherty Racing crew chief Brain Burns, the most important phrase found in the rule book is “at NASCAR’s sole discretion” and that it is used throughout the book more than 50 times (email interview, April 1, 2013). This opens up the possibility for NASCAR to change and adjust the rules at any time if a particular team is getting too much of an advantage while working in what Burns calls the “grey area.”
This grey area can be what allows the small teams that extra boost over the larger teams and could be what gains the team a few extra positions on the track and in the points. This could also mean an attraction of the important aspect of sponsorship. Marketing has become a central part of NASCAR and racing in general. According to research completed and reported in an article by Mark Dodds and Larry DeGaris (2011), that approximately 73% of the race attendees surveyed found sponsors were responsible for making the attendance of a race more enjoyable. Sponsorships are the major driving force of keeping things moving forward, as well as the fans. Without fans willing to attend races or up-and-coming drivers to take the place of retirees, NASCAR would fall into oblivion. NASCAR has introduced a program, in 2004, aimed at minorities and women to try to pull in new drivers and pit crew members that seem to otherwise have a more difficult time climbing the ranks. This program is known as Drive for Diversity (D4D) according to the article The Process of Organizational Identity: What are the Roles of Social Responsiveness, Organizational Image, and Identification? ([POI], 2011). It is the progression of adding in more drivers and pit crew members, many reaching the higher levels of NASCAR at younger ages than before, that helps to bring in more fans that have watched these younger drivers and members from the start of their careers. This also helps to ensure that NASCAR will go on as more of the original members of NASCAR retire or die. Progress is the key to all of this.
As before mentioned, NASCAR was created in 1947 with the first race running in 1948, but since then nearly nothing is the same. NASCAR was created by a group that enjoyed stock car racing and wanted to give it a platform to stand on and separate it from other forms of racing. For this new auto sport organization to really function, it needed a consistent point system that would dictate over all races and drivers participating with a season (Latford, 1998). The participants in NASCAR were divided into three categories that depended on what adjustments or how advanced an entering car may be (Latford, 1998). These three divisions have now become the NASCAR Sprint Cup series (NSCS), the NASCAR Nationwide series (NNS), and the NASCAR Camping World Truck series (NCWTS). Towards the beginning of the 1949 season, Bill France’s NASCAR divisions were being challenged for number of cars and drivers against the NSCRA (National Stock Car Racing Association) operated by Bruton Smith. Smith is the leader of Speedway Motorsports that controls and owns tracks such at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Atlanta Motor Speedway (Latford, 1998). Many of the drivers, such as Bob Flock and Jim Roper, were from the South (Latford, 1998). This coincides and has been the underlying cause of categorizing NASCAR as a “redneck” sport. NASCAR drivers put in a lot of effort to become good at what they do. A lot of hard work and training goes into making some of the best drivers around. The article by Christine Day (2012), says that NASCAR is an “unstable and unpredictable environment.” Crew members practice continuously to ensure precision and quickness during race time (Day, 2012). Technology has become an important aspect of testing and preparing the cars and team members for the race. Brian Burns says that the technology in statistical information can pull information from past races and information about the engine and create several possible outcomes to help prepare the team for different situations and help them do the best they can in a race (email interview, April 1, 2013). However with more technology and rising costs, fewer engines manufacturers are supplying engines to teams, often as rentals. Burns suggests that there should only be one supplier for each make of car to help even out some of the competition, especially among the same car make (email interview, April 1, 2013). Car makes involved in NASCAR have significantly narrowed down as well. Plymouths, Pontiacs, and now Dodges are no longer a part of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. The NASCAR Sprint Cup series is now up to its 6th generation of race car. Each generation seems to put us back to “square one” (Brian Burns, email interview, April 1, 2013). Burns says that this helps to even out competition as now all teams do not have information about each new car and all have to learn how the new cars drive. In regards to specifically the 6th generation car, Burns believes the car to have a really good balance of mechanical and aerodynamic while giving the car make more recognition to the stock cars found in dealerships (email interview, 2013). Different track setups help determine whether a racecar will be more dependent on aerodynamics.
There are five main types of tracks: super speedways (two and a half miles), mile and a half, speedways (one mile), short tracks (under a mile), and road courses. However, this season (2013), the NASCAR Camping World Truck series has added in a dirt track, Eldora Speedway. This track was bought in 2004 by multi-Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart (Eldora Speedway, 2012). NASCAR’s top three divisions are not regularly run on tracks as small as Eldora, let alone dirt. Brian Burns believes that dirt racing should not be a part of NASCAR’s top three classes. Instead he thinks NASCAR should invest in a dirt racing series that would closely follow the top divisions to bring in more dirt track fans as well as expose dirt tracks to asphalt racing fans (email interview, April 1, 2013). Along those lines, Burns does not think that we need to run the Nationwide road course races in Canada and Mexico. He thinks that NASCAR is trying to go too mainstream before it is ready, that it is selling out to attempt to make it more popular as well as it being a larger expense for the teams (email interview, April 1, 2013). There are tracks in the Sprint Cup series season that currently have two races a year. Some examples are Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Pocono Raceway, Kansas Speedway and a few others. Some believe that some of the tracks with double weekends should be reduced to one to add in other tracks, possibly past fan favorites. Brian Burns for one would like to see Rockingham Speedway return to the Sprint Cup series (email interview, April 1, 2013). Rockingham “The Rock” was no longer on the Cup schedule after the 2004 season, but made a return to NASCAR in 2012 in the Camping World Truck series. One track with multiple races is Charlotte Motor Speedway, as before mention, owned by Bruton Smith (Latford, 1998). However this track is located at the hub of the racing community. A majority of the race teams are located in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. This is largely because from the time NASCAR was formed until the 1970s, many of the top drivers were from the Carolinas and the Southern states (Mitchelson & Alderman, 2011). And though more and more drivers are coming from different locations around the United States, the central location remains Charlotte, NC instead of spreading over the country (Michelson & Alderman, 2011). This makes it very convenient for fans to travel to a central area and be able to see many different teams’ race shops. Even some teams have built their shops geared with specific areas for fans to visit and see how their teams work and see the history of a team. As much as NASCAR was built for the drivers and teams, it is the fans that truly help to keep it going and are quite often the influence in to decisions about car, track, points, et cetera changes.
Fans are the very essence of making racing a spectator sport. Steve Burns in the NASCAR Thrills edition of NASCAR’s Ultimate DVD Collection says that thousands of fans crowd in the grandstands all season and that millions more watch from home (Abraham, Jorden, Wheeler, Keith, Stevens, McGee, & Byrnes, 2005). He goes on to say that one main reason fans want to watch is because they never know when they are going to witness a special moment (Abraham et al., 2005). The main concern as to why it is believed that NASCAR or racing is not a sport is that the drivers are not athletes. However, as before mentioned, all crew members go through training and that includes the drivers. Drives race cars at high speeds, inches apart, over a large variety of tracks with different degree turns and mileage for around 250 miles for the Truck series, around 300 miles for the Nationwide, and usually between 400 to 500 miles for the Sprint Cup. The only breaks they get would be during cautions, though they are still driving, or during a red flag when the cars (or trucks) are stopped and sometimes shut off depending on the situation. This bumper to bumper action can lead to wrecks, some more severe than others. One example of a wreck presented in NASCAR Thrills, was Elliott Sadler’s wreck at Talladega where he his car flipped over several times. “Ground, sky, ground, sky,” is how he remembers it (Abraham et al., 2005). NASCAR and racing fans in general find that racing becomes a large part of their lives and in such have a hard time giving it up. Watching from home is not the same as going to the track. Being at the track and experiencing it live, makes a big difference in how racing is perceived. Television can only show so much at a time and often not what the viewer wants to see; whether that is a particular spot on the track or a particular driver they have deemed their favorite. Along those lines, the NASCAR fan base is highly diverse and will likely become even more so in the future (Hugenberg, L.W. & Hugenburg, B.S. [Hugenberg], 2008). Also in Hugenbergs’ (2008) article, the fan base differs from other sports in many ways, but the simplest to observe is the geography difference. A fan can root for any driver they choose and does not really rely on where the driver grew up or has come from. This differs from sports like baseball or football where the state or university does the majority of the choosing of which team to cheer for where the fan lives or lived (Hugenberg, 2008). Another difference according to the Hugenbergs’ article is sponsor loyalty (2008). While the NFL (National Football League) or MLB (Major League Baseball) may have sponsor for promotions, NASCAR uses the sponsorships to truly promote a company or affiliation as much as possible and the fans will tend to follow what their favorite driver or team’s sponsors are (Hugenberg, 2008). Fans will go out of their way to either purchase a driver or team’s sponsor(s) or to stop using (or not buy) a competitor’s sponsor(s). Over a quarter of a billion dollars from around 250 companies which includes about 70 Fortune 500 companies that sponsor into NASCAR and its divisions (Hugenberg, 2008). What the fans love most of all is the close action and the growing social media with drivers and team members, but the close racing and interaction do not always go as well as hoped.
There are lots of positive aspects to racing, but sometimes it is the negative outcomes that can determine what direction NASCAR will go next. One of the biggest known things about NASCAR and racing is the wrecks. Nowadays, it is rare for a driver to come away from a wreck badly injured, although it does happen. This is mainly due to the research of previous wrecks to create new devices or better ways to build the cars to protect the drivers, crew members, and fans. There have been deaths resulting from horrific crashes on the race track. Perhaps the most widely known was the death of Dale Earnhardt on the last lap on the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt earned 7 Cup championships over his career and 76 wins (Street and Smith’s Sports Publications [Sports Publications], 2003). Dale Earnhardt was a major part of NASCAR and to lose him was like losing a family member. Kyle Petty, son of “The King” Richard Petty, had this to say: “No matter where it happens or how it happens or even how prepared you think you might be for it, losing somebody close to you hurts” (Sports Publications, 2003). Earnhardt’s passing may not have been the direct cause of safety innovation and research it did spark the research in to moving more quickly to find more ways to increase safety. One safety rule NASCAR has recently put in to place was a ban on cell phones in the race car during any on-track practice, testing, racing, et cetera. It was however the use of a cell phone during a red flag in the 2012 Daytona 500 that truly lit a social media fire between drivers, crew members, teams, and fans.
Social media has become a large part of getting the fans involved with racing and interacting with other fans to share stories, pictures, et cetera as well as interact with a majority of the drivers and other team members. While social media can make it easier for negative fans to complain and whine, Brian Burns thinks that the positives of social media outweigh the negative. He says that we all enjoy a little gossip and drama from time to time (email interview, April 1, 2013). Social media has opened up a whole new way for fans to watch and be involved from home or at the track. Before, fans could really only get close to the drivers at set up meeting places for autographs or camping inside the track would get you closer to the NASCAR garages (Wincer, Goldberg, Bechtel, & Sutherland [NASCAR IMAX], 2004).
NASCAR has progressed in becoming a larger spectator sport and competes with the NFL and MLB for television ratings and has become one of America’s biggest sports. The race cars have come through several generations and have become safer for the drivers. Improvements on and off the track have helped to make everyone safe including team members and fans. Several of these safety improvements have resulted from studying wrecks of all sizes, but especially ones that resulted in serious injuries or death. NASCAR does whatever it can to bring fans in to enjoy the races where they may see the next spectacular moment and make racing more enjoyable for the fans as well as the drivers and teams. Team members and drivers spend a lot of time away from home, so NASCAR does what it can to be desirable to spend that time away for all involved. So NASCAR may have started as an organized way for drivers and teams to more easily race and since has become a way of life for drivers, teams, and fans.
References
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