Changes bring uncertainty to season
NASCAR hopes new race format, sponsor help reverse decline.
NASCAR has a new sponsor, a new format and welcomes back its most popular driver, providing optimism for a series eager to halt a steady decline in attendance, TV ratings and sponsorship.
Money is down, and everyone is doing more with less to try to save a buck.
The on-track product officially reports for work Friday at Daytona International Speedway, which hosts the Feb. 26 season-opening Daytona 500. It will kick off a season of efforts by NASCAR, the TV networks, tracks, teams and drivers to turn things around.
Monster Energy is the new title sponsor of NASCAR’s top series amid promised marketing to millennials and the opportunity to lure new fans to a sport with an aging audience. Part of the new razzle-dazzle approach is a wholesale redesign of the definition of a race.
Remember how NASCAR just ran in circles for 400 or 500 miles for hours on end? Well, this year it’s about “enhanced competition” in segments broken up over three periods. The quick first two segments will award points as the appetizer to the longer main event. The television networks promise to use the breaks between segments to run most of the commercials.
Among the drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is cleared for competition after missing the second half of last season with a concussion. Jeff Gordon is back in the TV booth after driving as Earnhardt’s replacement late last season. Tony Stewart is retired.
How important is Earnhardt? Chicagoland Speedway, site of the Sept. 17 playoff opener, has promised a full refund to anyone who buys a single-day ticket to that event between now and the Daytona 500 if Earnhardt wins the 500 for a third time.
NASCAR, though, must prepare for life after Junior, because Jimmie Johnson — who just won his record-tying seventh championship — and former champions Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch aren’t getting any younger.
NASCAR hopes it’s off to a good start with Daniel Suarez, 25, the only non-American in the Monster Energy Cup Series. He has become a sensation in his native Mexico. Except he didn’t get a promotion for becoming the first foreign-born series champion, with an Xfinity title last November. No, Suarez was promoted when Carl Edwards abruptly retired.
It took NASCAR until Thursday to introduce a new penalty structure and the rules for the upcoming season. Now we wait to see what this season brings, while NASCAR holds its breath.