For those who do not know what happened, yesterday was the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, which was one of the most blatantly corrupt races I've ever seen, but to give a TL;DR of the situation:
Chevrolet told several of the teams that drive its cars to make a blockade in order to guarantee that at least one of its drivers, this time William Byron, would be able to make the Championship 4 race happening this Sunday. This blatant collusion was recorded on several drivers' radios being communicated by their spotters and crew chiefs, which is bringing into question the validity of the current 'playoff' format.
It sucks, and god I wish we went back to the full season format, or at max, the 10 race Chase, because the 'playoffs' don't even boost ratings, which I'd imagine is NASCAR's goal.
NASCAR needs to follow the same rules as the food industry. It’s not racing it’s Automotive Entertainment Product. Look at some of this year’s highlights. A fist fight in the pits at your all star race that NASCAR posted all order social media then penalized people. The #3 just driving like a 12 year old playing Gran Turismo and just spinning and right hooking other cars for the win. Then I would also add the Chicago street race. I have always argued that NASCAR drivers were just as talented as F1 or Indy. But watching most of the field drive like kids playing GT and just driving into corners full speed and taking out someone like SVG who was showing what those cars can actually do. I don’t think they are among the world’s best drivers. They are a fair ground attraction that for a brief period were at the top of American sports. Now the stands are mostly empty… well the stands they didn’t rip out.
I made the switch this year to F1 and have enjoyed that a lot more. I will get up early to watch the Grand Prix live. I’ll turn on NASCAR… if I remember.
The last time NASCAR was interesting was 2022 when Chastain said "hold my beer," and tried the IRL wall ride. It wasn't smart and it deserved to get banned, but damn if that wasn't at least newsworthy.
Haven't heard a peep since then.
I know. When NASCAR tries to promote events tied to their emphasis on promoting it as entertainment rather than a sport, it gets talked about for a bit then quickly disappears from the public eye. It doesn't translate into real growth for the sport.
I thought the Hail Melon was cool too, but you really can't force Game 7 moments like that with a convoluted points format or rules. They're special BECAUSE they rarely happen. NASCAR is better off being run as just another motorsport rather than a direct competitor to stick and ball sports or as an entertainment entity, in my opinion.
The problem is NASCAR used to be bigger than the NFL before the 2008 recession and they’re constantly trying to chase the ghost of that, but don’t understand why they keep losing viewers, or they do understand and are being super stubborn about it