NASCAR Stole The Wrong Idea
In May NASCAR announced the creation of the an in-season, 32-car elimination-style bracket tournament. What a colossal mistake. NASCAR makes mistakes like this all the time anyone remember The Gillette Young Guns? I get it 5,000 hours of racing (this is how long the NASCAR season is, right?) is a long time to expect the average American to pay attention to something, so they have tried many things over the years to boost interest during the middle part of the season.
The biggest problem is in the format. Normally, in a bracket tournament the losers are gone. That’s it. Lose and we never hear from you again. Of course NASCAR would never have the guts to just end a team’s season just because they lost a single race. If they did, they would be doing it now in the season ending “playoffs”. That’s how playoffs are supposed to work; you lose and you’re done.
NASCAR stole the wrong idea. If they’re going to steal from another sport why not steal something that suits NASCAR? NASCAR should steal the idea of the “People’s Champion” from the WWE. The way it works would be this: the driver that wins the first race of the season gets “The People’s Champion” belt. The next time they lose a race the winner of that race gets to take it from them and so on until the winner of the last race gets the belt and is crowned “The People’s Champion” for that year.
The possibilities are great, a driver could go on a winning streak and keep the belt for three or four races only to have to give it up to a driver who fluked into a win. Maybe one week the current belt holder gets wrecked and believes the winner did it to them on purpose. When the new belt holder comes to get the belt a fight ensues. This gives NASCAR the opportunity to promote the fight AND fine the drivers (something they stole from the NHL).
The People’s Champion belt makes more sense in NASCAR than a non-elimination bracket tournament in the middle of the season. Trying to graft things that were made for team sports onto what is at its heart an individual sport just doesn’t work in the long run.
Fan engagement isn’t a problem NASCAR has and this in-season tournament is not going to bring new fans. If NASCAR wants to make racing more interesting for new fans and better TV they need to come to the realization that distance is hurting them, but that is a story for a different time.
