The problem with the sport isn’t Jimmie Johnson being the dominant driver of his time, it’s Nascar itself. They’ve sucked the life out of racing by making a bland car (all in–allegedly–the interest of safety. I would disagree, but hey, that’s me), blander drivers (it serves the corporate image soooo much better), and even blander races–why watch when in three plus hours the race still won’t be over and the same handful of drivers (though this isn’t really new) are following each other around until one of them decides it’s his turn to “win”.

Nascar needs to do a couple of things to draw fans back:

1. If you don’t see it in the dealer’s showroom then it don’t belong on the track. No more cookie cutter cars. Puhleeze. Take a few cues from the Truck Series and make sure that people know what make they’re looking at with or without decals.

2. Enough with the competition cautions, the phantom cautions, the cautions to tighten the field to make the race “interesting.” Beating, banging, and personality that’s what the Truck Series has and it = racing. Think about it. Puhleeze.

3. Shorten the races by track raced on, e.g: Superspeedways = 500 + laps/miles. Intermediate tracks = 300 or 400 miles or laps max. Short tracks = no more than 200 laps max. Oh sure, some of the classic or “special” tracks should keep to traditions…

4. Which leads to this (speaking of tradition): feed your base. You’re a Southern sport that’s gone on steroids into markets that could care less (take a look at football, baseball, and basketball), look at other sports who’ve realized that some markets just don’t care about their product, but there are multiple teams in certain geographical areas that flourish. Why? Because interest is high for the sport in those markets. Think about it. Learn. Act.

5. And now “The Chase:” a good idea not carried out very well. Here’s why it isn’t: the spread between finishers in the Chase is the same as the regular season points. Dump that idea, it’s bad. Tighten up the points (say something along the lines of a 15 – 12- 10 – 8 – 6 – 5 – 4- 3 – 2 – 1 awarded to the Chasers if they finish in the top ten of the race-you win you get 15 points, you finish fifth you get 5 points, if you finish out of the top ten, you get zippo points, better luck next time). Have a regular season Champ and a Chase Champ.

AND

Do away with that idiotic “guaranteed” place in the field thing. It’s stupid. If you can’t race your way in, why are you there? And if you “have” to automatic qualifiers, let it be the Chase drivers for the following year.

I’m sure there’s other stuff (and there is, Nascar has all but ruined the sport), but that’s it for now.