Sport hopes new fans join in push for equality
This is NASCAR in 2020: An opening weekend that had a visit from the president and a death-defying crash. A pandemic-forced hiatus that drove the virtual racing popularity boom. Empty grandstands. And suddenly, perhaps surprisingly, a prominent role in the push for racial equality.
All with the second half of this unusual season still to race.
The stock car series was a pleasant diversion when it resumed in May, for a while the only North American sport to broadcast a live product each week on national television. Even without fans in the early going, racing was back.
The past two weeks have been something else entirely: NASCAR has been dominated by matters of race and racism, not unlike the nation as a whole. Those empty stands did more than put a hearty dent in the bottom line as tracks open for business: They have temporarily staved off some difficult challenges when fans return, including any enforcement of the series’ new ban on the Confederate flag.
“That is not something that’s going to be accomplished overnight,” said former NASCAR consultant Ramsey Poston, now president of communications firm Tuckahoe Strategies. “The sport will want to look forward to how they continue to invest in things like the Drive for Diversity program. How do they attract new fans to the sport? How do they continue their effort to diversify their sport from the track to the executive suite?
“I know the sponsors in the sport are eager for this to happen,” Poston said. “They can work together with the partners and their sponsors to make this a reality.”
NASCAR will eventually have to wrestle with whatever headaches are caused by the stubborn Confederate flag holdouts once the gates are again open to all fans. They could get a taste of things next month when 30,000 fans will be allowed at the All-star race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
But at least the cash will flow then in a sport in desperate need of it. At Pocono Raceway this weekend, fans are again barred from attending, putting a severe crimp on the balance sheet without the hard-core base on hand to splurge on tickets, food, drinks and merchandise.
TV money can sustain a track even without fans lining up for $16 beers. Race hosts receive 65% of NASCAR’S $8.2 billion, 10-year television package and that accounts for most of what tracks bring in.