If it ain't broke, fix it anyway: NASCAR 2017 Thread

Danica out at SHR. That's interesting.

 

NASCAR has a serious problem. The best marketing they had has been full-time sponsors and drivers you associated with those sponsors. Dale and Mr. Goodwrench, Jeff Gordon and Dupont, Mark Martin and Valvoline, Petty and STP. Now you're lucky if you've every heard of the driver or the sponsor.

 

I saw her press release mentioning something like she's confident in her abilities. That would make her about the only one.
She had decent results in IndyCar, but that was with top teams. She didn't seem to be the best of teammates at Rahal or Andretti. She won one race, on fuel mileage. She never came close to success in stock cars, despite driving for top teams. But hey, at least she can go to victory lane when Ricky wins.

 

Considering the drivers who are out there without sponsors or teams for next year? Probably. Heck, even winning a few dozen races doesn't guarantee you a ride anymore.
Are the sponsorship dollars waning because NASCAR isn't seen as a great avenue anymore or is the money not going as far as it used to anymore? I don't know if its like college unis and every team wants to have different looks, or what - but there is really something to be said about seeing a car and knowing exactly who is behind the wheel.

 

When a company finds itself evicted as the "primary" sponsor for half the schedule -- in fairness, because they don't want to pony up the insane cash the team demands -- it makes it more difficult for the viewer to connect IMO. People like to see familiar things, like Ironhead driving the Goodwrench 3 or Gordon in the rainbow warriors car.

I don't watch much anymore, but when I last did I felt like there was some form of sponsor whiplash. One week Kyle Busch was driving the M&Ms car, next week it was Interstate on the hood, maybe someone else a week or two down the road.

 

She should be done.

I won't be a bit surprised it she finds another Cup ride and sponsor. And continues to suck.

 

Like Smithfield didn't know that Petty Motorsports has been a joke for decades now.

 

The Danica talk had me wondering, is Sam Hornish still running the Xfinity Series? He maybe could've been the best open wheel driver of his era had he stayed with Indy cars.

 

That's one of the things that has surprised me about the current state of NASCAR. Seems like they were able to keep a lot of the "business" behind closed doors, now its out in the open and kind of ugly.

Seems pretty clear that the sport needs a "re-set" - either caps on teams, money or something to make it more competitive. I think you could sell it to the top teams by telling them that they won't have a sport to dominate without changes.