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Changing times As it grows, NASCAR is forgetting its roots
It isn't true what they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyone who has spent any amount of time at a Winston Cup race in recent years will tell you that. Sure, they still turn left a lot, and, yes, there's still some stock in the cars and no doubt, the sport still exercises an almost unreal hold on a large segment of the population, but stay the same? Not a chance. In fact, there's a solid argument to be made that what little room there is in today's NASCAR for the "traditional" fan is shrinking and will continue to do so. Indeed, the days of the Skynyrd-loving, beer-guzzling, Confederate-flag waving good old boy as part and parcel of the NASCAR scene are, for better and worse, numbered. Those who are so inclined will, with a wave of an annoyed hand, chirp about NASCAR's new, eight-year, $2.4 billion television contract with Fox, NBC and Turner, citing it as proof positive that the sport has never been stronger. Those same people will point a defiant finger at current TV ratings and further wonder how it is that two plus two suddenly equals five. No, the laws of the universe haven't been reversed and neither is NASCAR in any imminent danger of collapse. But, as NASCAR looks to make further inroads into the American consciousness, as the sport weighs the possibility of eliminating races at some of its more storied tracks, it is playing a very dangerous game. Yes, it might continue its unbroken streak of expansion into the foreseeable future; but if, in its rush to ever greater riches, it loses sight of its history and it loses touch with its people and the values that made it the phenomenon it is, isn't possible that it will all come crashing down?
"[Those races] are a part of our heritage," says Larry McClure, owner of the car driven by Kevin Lepage. "We've always had the short tracks, always had the Darlington's, the Rockingham's, they were always exciting races and still are exciting races, so I hate to see them go. But I know as far as marketing and reaching more of the population is concerned, they want to have races in bigger market areas, but ... the more the sport grows, the more I'm going to grow, but, I am concerned." But even McClure, who has been involved with the sport for almost 20 years, admits there's really not a lot he or anyone else could do to alter the course of things, even if he were so inclined. "As much as we would all probably like to see it be the way it used to be, it's not and it never will be again," says Travis Carter, who, with Carl Haas, owns cars driven by Jimmy Spencer and Todd Bodine. "I've been in it 30 years, and yeah, I'd love to see it be the way it was 15 years ago, but there are more people involved, there's more money. It's easy for me to say I wish it was that way, but it's not going to be again. I think what we have to do as an industry is adapt with the times and continue to move forward." And therein lies the rub: if NASCAR continues to move forward as it has, it runs the very real risk of leaving behind a sizable chunk of its history, not just in the form of another bygone track, but by eliminating the "traditional" fans, many of whom are already desperately close to being priced out of the game, no longer able to afford tickets to the multiple races they've attended every year for the last 20 years, fortunate instead to scrape together enough to go to one. Ultimately, however, NASCAR doesn't appear to be terribly concerned by the needs of those who helped it become what it is. "It does hurt the sport, there's no question," Jimmy Spencer says about the possibility of eliminating races at historic tracks. "But they need to lose a race at Rockingham and Darlington, without a question. They could afford to lose one at New Hampshire and Pocono. We need to be in Texas, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Chicago, California -- we are a national sport, yes, we have to hurt some feelings, break some traditions, but on the other side of it, we have sponsors to answer to. We have to touch new fans. I think you're going to take a certain amount of people and you're going to lose them. I think that you are going to lose, definitely, some fans that have watched the sport grow to the mega-draw that it is. So, yeah, it bothers me, because those fans are what made us. But on the other side of it, we have to stay up with our sponsors." Maybe Spencer is right and maybe in 10 years' time, none of this will matter. Maybe there will be an entirely new breed of NASCAR fan, a new generation willing to flood the coffers and keep the sport humming. But even if the rosiest forecast becomes reality, won't the sport have lost something unrecoverable by turning its back on its core constituents? "I think we done lived the past," says the King himself. "I think we got to live in the future now." More's the pity. Stephen Thomas covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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