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Credit Where Credit Is Due

Are you happy, NASCAR fans?

You should be!

Brian France and Mike Helton heard you. Loud and clear.

You wanted more entertaining racing. They gave it to you. Yes, with the help of the drivers and teams.

Oh, sure, maybe it took longer than it should have. Personally, I think it was obvious the unloved wing – which came to symbolize everything fans didn’t like about the “new” NASCAR -- should have taken flight before the start of last season. But that’s not the point here.

For once, let’s give credit where credit is due:

To NASCAR.

And to you.

You – the ticket buyers, sponsor supporters, souvenir collectors and TV watchers – delivered a message heard from Daytona Beach to Charlotte to New York City to Los Angeles. NASCAR’s Fan Council spoke out, especially on earlier and consistent start times. The chat roomers chatted away. Tracks surveyed their customers on everything from seat comfort to food prices to overall quality of the race-day experience.

You voted with your wallets and eyeballs, as demonstrated by turnstile counts and television ratings. More than anything else possibly could have, THAT got the attention of the stock car powers-that-be.

You are more than fans. You are customers. NASCAR, its drivers, teams and tracks, have to provide with you a satisfactory product. That’s no different from any other business. Especially the entertainment business, where today’s options include everything from online games to the X-Games, with enough different choices in-between to fill Lake Lloyd.

You got, therefore: Double-wide restarts, better starting times, spoiler-instead-of-wing, “Boys, have at it” officiating philosophy, three tries at a green-white-checker finish, and now, even rain-forced doubleheaders with Nationwide races after Sprint Cup.

Sure, America’s most infamous pothole, located in turn two at Daytona International Speedway, put a big red stop sign right in front of all the pre-season momentum NASCAR tried to build. But that’s being fixed, too, because the France family couldn’t afford another embarrassment. Delete those two red flags and I bet Sprint Cup’s tube numbers would be north of 2009’s.

If 29 different leaders and 88 lead changes and the first triple overtime and the winning pass in the last few yards at Talladega didn’t do it for you, well, next time, click over to the James Bond marathon on cable.

For all the debate about  “Boys, have at it,” to me, the most significant rules shift came last year – double-wide restarts. It had been used as a gimmick in the All-Star race, but that one single change has changed the course of Daytona, Bristol, Martinsville, Phoenix and ‘Dega.

To pit or not to pit (for new tires, and if so, two or four?) that is the question for crew chiefs.

Then, it’s time for the drivers to make the best of that decision – no whining is acceptable -- and justify those multi-million dollar contracts.

The bottom line here is: You did it. You got what you wanted.

There’s no legitimate argument:  NASCAR is more exciting in 2010.

Sponsorship may be the fuel of the sport, but the fans have put a laser spotlight on an even greater force.

People Power.

Congratulations.

[ Next column:  May 24 ]

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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)