NASCAR implements stage-based race format, playoff-point incentives (1 Viewer)

How the mighty have fallen. I used to be a HUGE NASCAR fan. Went to Dover Downs twice a year. Watched every race. Went to the Daytona 500 in 2002. All of it.

Now? I could care less. I'll watch the Daytona 500 because it's too cold out to do anything else.

I equate NASCAR to the real estate market crisis: it got too big too fast. The sport alienated its true fan base by eliminating Rockingham, Darlington and expanding to California and Vegas. Couple that with raising ticket prices, the now homogeneous engines they all run (loved it in the older days when a driver had a "secret weapon") and ultimately, the death of Dale Earnhardt. When he passed, he took a part of the sport with him. The brash, arrogant Southern man was lost and as a result, so was the sport.

Like I said, I used to go to Dover twice a year, every year. Ticket prices were $55.00 in turn four and it was 500 laps. NASCAR got bigger and they systematically raised the prices to $110.00 ticket for 400 laps. I'm out. I'll take that money and go on a long weekend vacation.

And now these new rules are just killing the sport. They point system that kicked in, "amazingly" the same time football starts, had an adverse affect. Your driver is out of the top 10? Why watch? Now this? Forget it. NASCAR needs to really take a good look in the mirror and figure out what's wrong.

It was very telling to me when Jimmy Johnson won his record tying seventh championship.......and no one cared. It was a by line on ESPN.

Sad.......
 
It should be who ever wins the most races during the season is crowned the champion.

And like some; to me when Edwards retired I will not go out of my way to watch a race.
 

This is kind of shocking. For the first time ever, there will be points awarded during the race based on running order at designated stage distances within the race - effectively creating (two) mini-races within the scheduled race. The race winner still gets the most points but there absolutely will be effort and strategy put into winning those mid-race points.

Who knows- could be cool. They're doing it so might as well give it a chance, but it's a big swing to try to get people back. Big changes are risky though, they might run off the core fans while still failing to bring new ones, but it shows how desperate they are.

I don't think the ratings were too bad last year, but the real problem was with track attendance - and so many empty seats on the broadcast were ominous.
 
The ONLY positive I see coming out of this is watching usual last place cars leading a segment and gaining points by staying out/pitting early in order to be up front at segment end.

Otherwise. Money grab with more commercial breaks.

I don't think it's going to quite be like that, at least not in most places. It looks like there's enough skin in the game (championship points for running order 1-10 and extra point for the segment winner) that the top teams are going go have a strategy that puts them fast for those segment ends and the end of the race.

Short-pitting could be part of it, but there's only two mid-race segments and most races have far more than two pit windows . . . so there will be multiple stops within the segment (the fewer race pit windows you have, the more room there will be for that kind of strategy) and the leaders will have to be there because they're fast. Seems to me.
 

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