Here’s my one cent on this deal-
The NASCAR that I grew up watching and loved- I mean loved- is as different now as is whatever that techno rap **** on the radio is they call country music.
What’s the difference? Music row doesn’t care what I think - they produce whatever sells. Apparantly, if you sound like Waylon and Merle, you ain’t selling too well. But guess what? They are selling plenty of records despite having completely changed their product due to customer favor- They didn’t try to radically change their product to grow it faster - it naturally evolved.
NASCAR could have too. But instead, they have become a real life lesson in Econ 101 classes for exactly what not to do.
When I was younger, I’d go to work on Monday and you couldn’t get anything done because the race from the day before was all anybody wanted to talk about. And if there was a Monday race because of rain on Sunday, just forget it. Everyone is stopping to listen to MRN all day, and by the last fifty laps the place is closed down and someone is heading to the store to grab a cooler of beer.
Refrigerator in the shop breaks? It gets a big Ford sticker put on it. Microwave quits working ? Somebody gonna put a Ford sticker on it.
You get the idea - it was wildly popular. The old guys and the young punks like me. We loved it- we had a special bond over it. The Ford guys and the Chevy guys good ganged up on each other.
Man I miss those days.
Now I’m one of the old guys and we have a pile of young guys that are just like me thirty years ago.
Difference is nobody at work ever talks about NASCAR except to occasionally make a comment about how it sucks and will be dead soon. It’s not like they don’t watch it, they don’t, but it’s almost like they hate it. And I am with them.
Why? They ruined something I dearly loved and I resent it.
Eff NASCAR.
It wasn’t Dale dying either.
They tried to take something that is inherently a regional good ole boy event (it ain’t a sport) and expand their audience - to an audience that wasn’t asking to be expanded into.
Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg...
Just typing this has my blood pressure boiling.
I hope it burns to the ground.