Most importantly, HOORAY! Your cancer update is fantastic. Your positive attitude is everything/

This morning in Ox I am enjoying relaxing to your writing, then reading the many responses ‘in defense’ of the lapsed fan. Remember that I am completely removed from the entire motorsports scene on a national front so I have yet to see the latest coverage or media updates.

Reading your words and then those of these ‘fans’, I am wondering: is the common thread through all of this a ‘maturity’ issue? Specifically, have the life-long motorsports fans matured with the sport, the technology and their lives and discovered that the “more” that they want isn’t being addressed by the media that deliver it partially because they no longer know what they want?

Reminiscent to our glory days, we all want what we used to have. And, we know that it’s no longer possible and we’re no longer who we were. Therefore, the television media have yet to hit the target? I must concur that (being from Alabama) I could not imagine listening to the Waltrip drivel for hours on end would do it for me. I would much rather sit beside Buddy Parrot for a Nascar race and hear his insights. Get where I’m going?

Anyway…I am thinking that your nay-sayers may have a point alongside your ‘cheat death, enjoy the ride’ strategy. Having a solid source ‘inside’, doing some great investigative reporting while being entertaining is really where the lifelong Nascar fan deserves to be fed. Like Dennis Miller, That’s Just My Opinion, I could be Wrong. Just a bit of perspective from DownUnder.
Cheers, Mate!
NH

Congratulations in your fight against cancer. Tremendous news!

Best wishes on your non-profit organization. May it touch, encourage and change many lives.

Enjoyed your article, but I have to ask do you really think the “lapsed” fans not returning to the “sport” is BS or are you using the same ploy you described in your Danica Patrick article to draw readers?

Yes, I’m a fan who no longer watches the tv broadcasts because as you pointed out I get better information from online resources – like Raceview (even though it could also be better for the price that I am paying), twitter & the radio feed. I’ve gone back to the radio feed to follow the race because they call the race w/o the bias and unprofessionalism shown on Fox. Would I like to be able to watch the race on TV? Sure, but so long as this is the Waltrip Brothers show and whoever is driving the cameras refuses to actually show the entire field and race, I am not interested. We’ve also cut down on the number of races we personally attend.

I am also not interested in the constant shuffling of concepts that Brian France feels is necessary to try and gain the interest of, well, whoever it is he is trying to interest now. NASCAR was on fire with everyone BEFORE all of the “great” changes that the Brian France era implemented and now it’s not. That would tell most people something – Coca Cola realized they made a major mistake with New Coke and did the smart thing – they reinstated the product that everyone liked. That’s not the Brian France way – he’ll keep fiddling until NASCAR no longer exists. So long as the money from the TV contracts and the “official” Nascar sponsors keeps coming in, that will work, but with many fans, all of these changes created the tipping point that has made them step away from the sport.

So many of the changes have been made in order to make it “more exciting” but in my opinion also allows for a lot of manipulation by NASCAR. The double-file restarts, green white checker, which often results in a bunch of wrecked race cars and ruins the finish for the driver who was leading BEFORE someone waved the caution flag for what quite often appears to be ONLY to have it be a wild finish.

I am not a completely lapse fan, but I certainly have become a far more casual fan than I have been. I think this current iteration of the chase is going to wind up being a crapshoot/demolition derby at Homestead and I don’t feel that it is a way to define a genuine champion for the sport, any more than I have been a fan of the 10 race championships. I fully expect that there will be a lot more of the sort of thing that went on at Richmond among the teams – they will just be smarter about it than MWR was.

I have voted with my wallet and by reducing the time I am willing spend watching as I don’t agree with the direction of the sport.

Bob, you can make fun of people for their decisions if you like, but that won’t change my mind, no more than Kenny Wallace’s constant harping with his “listen up race fans” and trying to tell me what I should think. All that did was make me stop watching all of the pre-race shows. You don’t keep customers by insulting them.

As you also pointed out, life is short, so I am going to spend my time and money doing things I enjoy. It’s a shame that NASCAR is one of those things that has fallen way down on that list.

First I’ll say that I am not a lapsed fan, I watch every race from beginning to end. However I am a disgruntled fan.

Personally I respect people that have stopped following the sport because they disagree with the direction it has taken. That is called putting your money where your mouth is. If NASCAR is more interested in the casual fan and younger demographic and they turn a deaf ear to the long-time fan that doesn’t fall in that demographic, then there should be fallout. Their is a price to pay or reward to reap for every decision we make. In my opinion NASCAR has made decision after decision that increases the crapshoot factor at the expense of the sport/competion side of the equation.

As an example, let’s look at the GWC rule. Yes, it does create exciting endings but is it fair to the competitors? You have a guy with a 3 second lead and 2 laps to go and he’s been in the lead for 50 laps. Then a caution comes out, some pit, some don’t, some get two tires some get four. Now you end up with a crapshoot. This is akin to a team in another sport having an insurmountable lead going into the last two minutes of the game and having their score adjusted to make it close at the end of the game.

I could serve up more examples of this in NASCAR. Double file restarts, fake debris cautions, wave arounds, lucky dog, the chase itself, etc.. Each of these rules has increased the crapshoot factor in the outcome of a race. What happens during the first half of the race has become less of a factor than ever, going down a lap early is no longer as big a deal as it was before the wave around and LD rules. Being the leader on a restart has never meant less. You watch a 5 second lead go down to less than a car length on the restart and the guy that was 5 seconds behind now is even with you.

You see, some of us want a sport, not a reality television show and almost every rule change in the last decade has tipped the scale more and more toward creating entertainment than legitimacy to the competition itself.

So if you want to say it’s bullshit that’s your opinion but what you are implying is that fans should accept whatever tripe they’re served and enjoy it with a smile. I couldn’t agree less with that opinion.