By adding mandatory cautions or breaks in races. So reports ESPN’s Terry Blount. The money quote:
Someone once said we’re in show business. Well, if we’re in show business, let’s deliver that show. Right now we’re not delivering it. Other sports have mandatory timeouts and TV timeouts. All that stuff creates things in those sports. We need to be creative in this sport.
Translation: Our fans have the attention span of a gnat and their intelligence level isn’t much higher. To entertain them, we need to dumb down our sport some more by adding more restarts. Why? Because they create drama. And crashes. And crashes are good for ratings.
If this doesn’t play into all of the worst stereotypes of racing in general and NASCAR in particular, I don’t know what does.
Bonus observation: If NASCAR wants to improve its product, it could start by making races shorter. Sometimes less is more.
01
2012 At 10:07 am, FKA_Cato Said:
A few suggestions:
1. Shorten the races.
2. Shorten the season. And consider re-timing it so that the Chase doesn’t coincide with football season (I have no idea how to do this in a practical way).
3. Put a premium on passing. If this means making cars slower so that aerodynamics are less important, so be it.
4. Limit owners to no more than 2 cars per series with enforceable ownership attribution rules.
5. Put a greater premium on winning. The late David Poole’s suggestion that a driver get a boatload of bonus points for his first win of the season (and another for first win in the Chase) makes sense.
6. Prior to green-white-checker finishes, every car not on the lead lap leaves the track and finishes with their current place in the running order. Cars left on the track should be allowed to go to pit road for gas only and still retain their spot.