NASCAR's election year

I had the pleasure of talking to Doug Rice and Ricky Craven last night (Feb. 4) on the PRN program, “Fast Talk.” And we were kicking around ideas about where NASCAR is headed. The thought I blurted out, with dubious clarity, was that it’s a bit unclear, adding that I viewed 2008 as an election year, of sorts, for the sport.

So today, as millions of voters in key states go to the polls on what’s billed as Super Tuesday, I’ll try to flesh out that thought a little better.

What I was trying to suggest is that NASCAR goes before the voters this season in much the same way that John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been for some time.

Voters have been poking, prodding, quizzing and analyzing their respective party’s potential nominees for the president for months, trying to figure out just what they stand for.

Republicans, in essence, are asking who is the more authentic conservative: McCain or Romney?

Democrats are largely grappling with who is the more authentic agent of change: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

I’d argue that NASCAR Nation enters the 2008 season with a fundamental question of its own. In short: Is NASCAR still the sport I fell in love with years ago?

NASCAR fans will cast their vote in the coming months through their television sets and presence (or absence) in the grandstands. And the result will be tracked by the sport’s insiders with the same degree of scrutiny and instant analysis that pollsters bring to the political process, for better or worse.

Will ratings for the 2008 Daytona 500 be higher or lower than last year’s? What about TV ratings for the Fox broadcasts overall? Will ESPN do any better in the second half of the season? What about the Chase? And from track to track, are there more empty seats in grandstands or fewer?

NASCAR has gone through two years of declining TV ratings. The 2008 season is a referendum on whether Brian France can halt the erosion and, ideally, turn the troubling trend around.

If I were his campaign strategist, I’d advise him to spell out a clear platform and stick to it without flip-flopping. That platform would include a promise to:

1. Deliver close, side-by-side racing. And if the Car of Tomorrow fails to deliver it, tweak the design, without compromising the gains in driver safety, so that it does.

2. Celebrate drivers with authentic personalities. Joy, anger and frustration are part of racing. And NASCAR has been watering down its product by muzzling expressions of raw emotion to the point that it sucks life out of the sport.

3. Put the interest of fans above short-term profit margin, to the extent possible. There are numerous ways to honor fans and remind them that they count. For starters: Set consistent starting times for races and stick to them; let the outcome of races be decided on the track rather than through rule-making in the control tower; limiting commercial interruptions of the race broadcast. I know that money has to be made to keep the sport healthy. But without fans, there is no sport.