My Two-Cents on the NASCAR Format

Whether you like it or not, the racing world is changing including NASCAR. The golden days of old are gone, and the modern era is here. Everyone has their theory of what the championship format should be.  Here is my two-cents worth.

When I grew up, there were only 20 channels on cable, only my father worked, the work week was Monday through Friday, and there were only a few kids activities Monday through Thursday. Now people have 70+ channels with a standard cable package plus Internet on demand is now an option, most households now have two bread winners, now work week never ends, and kids activities seem to dominate a family's landscape 24-7-365.

Plus society today is all about 'here-and-now'. Dedicating three to four hours to watch one race is more than most are willing to invest these days. 10 months is also too long to keep people's interest. Add to that, most people multitask when they do watch a race. Facebook/Twitter. Laundry. Phone calls. Etc. Being devote to watching a race is a tall order.

The diehards will devote that much time, but the casual fan will not, and that is who is needed to keep the sport growing. Something needed to change, and we might as well embrace that fact. I applaud NASCAR for trying to keep up with the times, but I'd love to see it tweaked again. Here is my basic suggestions.

IT'S NO LONGER ABOUT A RACE:
The first thing I will offer is that this quit being about a race a long time ago. It's about entertainment. If you do not entertain the fans AND competitors, they will not come back. There needs to be some level of drama to generate excitement. The multitaskers of the world need more than one thing to keep them interested.

SET THE FIELD:
Take a page from Formula 1, let's set the field for the entire season to a fixed number. Whether it is 36, 38, 40 or whatever number, lock the teams in. What about the up-and-comers? Let's be honest for a moment, do a majority of the people watch to see John Doe race? Maybe a few fans, but a majority watch to see Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordan, Jimmie Johnson, the Busch brothers, etc. It's all about the names when it comes to entertainment.

QUALIFYING:
Heat races would be nice, but we all know that NASCAR can not risk hurting one of the team's $400,000 cars for a qualifying event. Single car time trial runs are yawnsville, so you need to find something in between. The current format does a decent job in creating some drama, and once the NASCAR teams continue to study how this works, the drama will only build.

Let's face it, the shootout round is as close to heat races as you are going to get. To be honest, I'd love to see the different dirt racing series that do a group qualifying format would add a shootout round.

THE TWO HOUR RULE:
The races are too long now. 400 and 500 mile races should be shortened. How many of us actually sit and watch for 4 solid hours? I know I don't. I have things to do now.

With the exception of the Daytona 500, shorten the race length to fit into a two hour window. After the green flag is dropped and the race starts, NASCAR should start the clock. If the race is not over after the clock hits two hours, throw the white flag the next time the leader comes to the flagstand.

I'm a big fan of Australia’s V8 Supercar Series. They use that rule. When I first got into their form of racing, I hated that rule. Then I realized that after only two hours of invested time, I knew who won and I moved on. I now love that rule!

30-CAR CHAMPIONSHIP SHOOTOUT:
In my scenario, a 30 car field would battle for a portion of the season-end point fund. The current season consists of 36 point races. Split the season into five separate seven-race mini seasons. The Top 6 from each of those mini seasons get invited to the final event of the year (the current 36th race).

Those 35 races will be used to determine who is that year's champion and the Top 10 that get invited to the year end banquet.  There will be a basic point fund awarded for those Top 10 teams, but half of the money will be awarded during the Championship Shootout.

Diehards will keep focused for all 35 races, but the part-time fan would be willing to invest seven weeks to follow a mini season that fits into their lifestyle.

Now there will more than likely be repeat qualifiers, so the 30-car field will be short some cars. Let the other teams race a Last Chance Qualifier to fill in the remain available spots.

What's the point of this Championship Shootout event? Simply put, entertainment.

CONCLUSION:
Despite the fact that people do not like something, they usually don't like change. No matter what NASCAR does, someone will let the world know they don't like it. Regardless, the world around us is going to constantly change, so we better learn to embrace it.