NASCAR needs Dale Jr. to save them from themselves.
Every time I get some hope that NASCAR leadership is finally listening to fans and moving back in the right direction, it seems like they step on their own feet and end up falling flat on their face.
The sport has faced quite a few problems with their Gen 7 (or Next Gen) Cup Series car since it debuted back in 2022. The car was meant to save teams money by requiring them to use parts sourced from a single source and standardizing many of the parts of the car – think buying a model car from Walmart and just putting it together.
The problem, though, has been that the car has been generally terrible at short tracks and road courses, putting on some pretty boring races at what used to be some of the sport’s most exciting tracks.
As a result, NASCAR made some changes following last season by decreasing the downforce and increasing the horsepower at tracks less than a mile and a half, which has undoubtedly helped – though it definitely hasn’t solved the problem altogether.
The result has been NASCAR facing declining ratings for its top series: Last week at Bristol, the Cup Series drew under 2 million viewers for the first time since Fox Sports began broadcasting races. In fact, there have only been two Cup Series races this season that haven’t seen a viewership decrease compared to last year’s ratings.
Despite the decline for the Cup Series, NASCAR has had a consistent ratings winner in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The sport’s second-highest series has seen double-digit percentage increases in viewership, no doubt in part due to being broadcast on cable thanks to a deal with The CW but also thanks in no small part to the incredible racing we see in the O’Reilly Series week after week.
The former Xfinity Series (and for older NASCAR fans, the Busch Series) consistently puts on the best shows of the top three series, and it’s not particularly close. In fact, many NASCAR fans would love to see the sport run the O’Reilly Series cars in the Cup Series because it puts on such great racing.
So of course NASCAR wants to ruin that in the dumbest possible way.
Yesterday, NASCAR Executive Vice President John Probst says the sport is exploring changing the O’Reilly Series cars to run the Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV) body that NASCAR has developed for its electric vehicle prototype.
For reference, here’s what those cars look like:
Yeah, I hate it.
Probst confirmed that NASCAR was exploring the use of an electric vehicle or a hydrogen combustion engine in the O’Reilly Series, but specifically mentioned the car’s body as a way to separate the lower series from the Cup cars:
“Long term, you see it as, we do have that CUV body that we developed for our electric vehicle. I’m not sitting here saying today we’re breaking news it’s going to CUV, but these are the things that are on the roadmap to consider, so you’d have a Truck, a CUV and a Cup, that’s three very different bodies that are relevant for our OEMs today to create that brand identity for each series.”
You know what else creates a brand identity for the O’Reilly Series? Putting on such good racing that it’s the only series that’s increasing in viewership.
But apparently NASCAR leadership thinks the series “struggles” with its identity:
“If you look at the brand identity of those three, the O’Reilly Series struggles a little bit just from the car perspective and you see it a lot because we refer to it often as whoever the entitlement sponsor is.”
Absolutely terrible idea, and one that makes me nervous about how in-touch NASCAR leadership really is. And it’s not just me (and the rest of NASCAR fans) who hate the idea: Dale Earnhardt Jr. chimed in and made perfectly clear where he stands on the issue.
A voice of reason.
Honestly, there are many times where Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems way more in touch with fans, and with the sport, than NASCAR leadership does. Why they haven’t given him a leading role in making decisions for the sport is beyond me, because I can almost guarantee that NASCAR would be way better shape right now with Dale Jr. in charge than with whoever is making these awful decisions.
Hopefully this one was just NASCAR throwing out a trial balloon to see what the reaction would be, because the response has been overwhelmingly negative. But if history is any indication, that doesn’t really mean much to the sport’s leadership.
Maybe Dale Jr. can talk some sense into them before they throw away their best series.
