What NASCAR Fans Want Changed Most
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- Опубліковано 28 гру 2024
- NASCAR fans are an opinionated bunch and I decided to get their thoughts on the sport over the past week. I asked on my community tab what the biggest thing they wanted changed would be between the NASCAR Playoffs, the horsepower debate, 43 car fields, or something else altogether. Over 13,000 of you voted and many of you commented so today you will basically write the video with your opinions. This is what NASCAR fans want changed.
Video Credits:
FOX Sports
Motorsports on NBC
NASCAR
NASCAR on FOX
NBC Sports
Voti
UA-cam Audio Library
Thumbnail Credits:
James Gilbert via Getty Images
Outro Song:
Strange Animal (Crowder Remix) by Gowan
Songs:
Cold Funk - Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod uploaded to the UA-cam Audio Library
What do you want most in NASCAR?
Nashville Fairgrounds, Horsepower, and new championship format
More new racetracks
Better officiating
New championship format and AI not involved in it
43 Cars and 800 plus horsepower
Its bad when your sport can't even have a meaningful champion
its even worse when the CEO announced they want to use generative ai.
@@JustaNut-cq6lwI know right it's just stupid why can't we decide for NASCAR like come on you know what you're better off watching F1 and dirt racing next year.
It all comes down to money, I want originally a Supercross fan and F1 fan. Those championships are over most of the time before the last race or even few races ever happen. Meaning nobody cares about those last races really. Phoenix pays a lot of money to have that race there and it be that final championship race. I don’t agree with it but it makes it exciting. In F1 we know who’s gonna win for the next 5 years at least.
@@loganpinner5212 *cough* 2021 *cough*
F1 had a phenomenal battle this year for numerous year long story-line. Hundreds of thousands of fans still showed up and millions still watched on TV even after Max was crowned champion. There was a very tight constructor's standings battle that went to the last race. People tuned in to see how various drivers did in their last drives for their respective teams (Hamilton at Merc, Sainz at Ferrari for example).
It's because, PEOPLE WATCH SPORTS TO SEE THEIR TEAM PLAY/RACE. The title is a bonus to the year.
@@kylethomas2993 I know like can we just go back to the chase for the cup instead please this is ridiculous and stupid.
The problem in NASCAR is mangement's lack of cofidence in its own product. They have they best racing of any racing series. That just gets hidden by all the gimmics--playoffs, stage cautions, multiple GWC attempts etc. Just let them race!
Unfortunately they have the Disney mindset where they play it safe instead of just going for all the marbles.
Multiple GWCs is good. That IS letting them race. Ending under caution sucks. Maybe they could go back to the old rule of limiting it to 3 attempts so we don't have Nashville again, but they definitely shouldn't eliminate GWC attempts and go back to ending upder caution.
Create your own tour and you'll see how difficult it is. I was involved in one and your facile take is so misguided from a commercial perspective. It's ideal from a fan standpoint, but not from reality.
Playoffs gone: or a new format. As we know this makes us realize the original Chase wasn’t that bad.
I'll take the 10 race chase any day over the one race champion.
@@TylnortonAgreed.
Full season Winston Cup format
Unlike some NASCAR fans, I know what I want as an auto racing fans.
Make NASCAR a simple legitimate auto racing series again with BETTER management that knows the business of auto racing
How sad that half at least half the fanbase wants a change to entire way you decide your champion yet management says no we will keep it the way it is.
More Horsepower, 2004-06 format or Winston format I want the most
NASCAR today is (to me) an episode of “Whose Line Is It Anyway”, where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter
No mention of stage racing is crazy
Stage racing in and of itself isn't bad. Stage *breaks* are. Stage racing does incentivize running well throughout the whole race but get rid of the artificial cautions.
Personally I think a Halfway break would be more sufficient
The only two tweaks is the laps between stages do not need to count toward the lap count for the race, and not every race needs to have stages. Charlotte (600 miler) Daytona and Talladega need to no longer have stages. Other than that let's roll with stages at every other race.
NASCAR must remove stage breaks. They are embarrassing!
@@D2RCRyep the breaks and yellows are stupid. I’d be fine with stages and paying out points at the end of them but why the cautions? It ruins strategy of the race and part of the endurance factor. And I hate when they have a yellow then restart for one lap and then yellow again at the end of the stage.
How about this for a change. Top 8 drivers based on wins followed by next 8 drivers based on points qualify for the playoff with stage points as the 1st tiebreaker, wins/points as the 2nd, and total laps led as the 3rd tiebreaker. Puts emphasis on wins, but 1 win doesn't guarantee you a playoff spot. The 1st round is 5 races (drivers still have their bonus points from regular season to start the 1st round) before eliminating 8 drivers. Then the championship round is determined in the last 5 races with the remaining 8 drivers (top 8 by points). Bonus points from 1st round and maybe regular season can be applied to drivers at start of the championship round as well. I tried to make it a blend of The Chase and The Playoff while improving playoff qualifying. Also, get rid of stage breaks/artifical cautions, but no issues with race stages themselves. 43 drivers would be nice too.
I think we need to change your the championship format. Add the points the same way now, but without stage points or playoffs. Add bonus points as well. You should get an extra point for leading a lap, leading the most laps, winning the pole, fastest lap during the race, and having the fastest 4 tire pit stop of the race. This way, winning means a little more, but consistency matters as well.
Playoffs more than anything. Playoffs have made me realize the original chase format wasn’t a bad concept at all. It was way more fair than we what we got today.
Disclaimer I also want to see a good Daytona 500 as my girlfriend surprised me today with tickets to the race! 😎
Congrats on the tickets! If it is your first then you'll be in for an experience unlike any other.
You're right and that's awesome!!!
W Girlfriend
That a keeper girlfriend right there
Sounds to me like you need to take her down to the beach and put a ring on her finger.
The playoffs being gone is the #1 priority
Putting Phoenix Raceway in the rear view mirror...The championship race needs to go somewhere else.
The Playoffs Abolished
Me if I saw the playoffs breaking into my house: 🔫
Noon starts.
Should get rid of stage cautions but still give points as it makes it worth being up front the whole race
The stage points don't really do anything to help the racing. It actually causes some teams to run weird strategies that sacrifice their ability to win the race to maximize their stage points. That's how you end up with guys like Buescher, Chastain, and Wallace, who had the 7th, 9th, and 11th best average finishs missing the playoffs while guys like Gibbs and Truex, with the 14th and 15th best average finish make it in, just because their crew chiefs prioritized getting stage points over actually trying to win the race. Winning should be the goal of every driver every race, so any rule that makes it better to not try to win should be eliminated.
I think the intermediates and super-speedways are pretty good racing, we had four wide at dega, and two photo finishes at intermediates as well as multiple down to the wire passes and racing. What should be improved is the horsepower at road courses and short tracks, and the insane amount of overtime. Look at COTA in the trucks, Majeski only won due to Taylor Gray running low on fuel, and Nashville, which we all know what happened there.😢
I want to see all the drivers come together and form a “Drivers Association”. All other sports leagues have a “Players Association” it’s really just a group of people between NASCAR and the drivers to speak on behalf of the drivers. It’s almost like a Union. You bring in former drivers, crew chiefs, people who matter in the sport and those people communicate issues between drivers and NASCAR.
well hate to break it to ya but the drivers already tried that back in 1969, didn't last very long because Bill France HATED unions and thats not likely going to change under this regime.
Nascar does have exactly what you described. The Race Team Alliance has been active for 10 years and was one of the main driving forces in implementing the charter system.
@@benoden5838race team or race drivers?
@@benoden5838The RTA is a "union" for the team owners, NOT the drivers. The drivers have absolutely no say in the RTA.
The thing that makes a drivers association harder than a players association in other sports is that they would have to negotiate with all the different teams. In the NFL, for example, the 32 teams all own the league, so the players association negotiates with an NFL committee that represents the teams. A NASCAR drivers association would have to negotiate with each of the teams and get all the teams to sign on to the same collective bargaining agreement, which just seems unrealistic that a big team like Hendrick and a small team like Rick Ware would agree to the same terms for how to pay drivers. And then they'd have to separately negotiate with NASCAR to have a say in things like rules changes and safety decisions. This sport is just organized in a far more complicated way than other major sports.
I want all three, but I'm willing to concede the 43-car field seeing how hard it is to get just a 40-car field.
Hopefully we can get a better economy in the near future that will encourage bigger fields and more teams to go for the big show.
But for big tracks and crown jewel events, they could easily make more pits stalls and start more cars for those races
@NeedsLessWedge Way back in the day that's basically how it worked. Field size wasn't a uniform 40 or 43 cars every week. Bigger tracks with larger pit roads had larger fields and shorter tracks with small pit roads had less. The 43 car fields were a big challenge for some tracks and they had to shrink pit stalls to somewhat unsafe sizes to fit all of them. But they could totally allow extra cars for the super speedways and most of the road courses as they have plenty of extra space in the pits.
@@ZVPieGuy i grew up down the road from Darlington so I am aware of the challenges. Like back stretch pits on a 1.366 mile super speedway,
or 43 stalls at places like Bristol or Martinsville with teams sharin stalls and dangerous tight stalls like dover had. But I still believe they should let more cars into bigger tracks if they show. It gets more exposure..a chance for more out of series guys and stars that have that kind of money to make the show and make highlights for both sports if desired. And it would just look more phenomenal if a ton of cars were rolling to the start of the Daytona 500
@@nascarfanatic2425 Doubt it but hopeful.
Nothing is gonna change.. anything the fans want.. nascar will do the opposite...they don't care
Exactly. They are like any other corporation these days in the fact that they have zero respect for there own customers
There’s a lot that needs to be changed (racing product, hp, officiating, playoffs, etc), but nothing will until the management/owners are gone as well as the new ones actually caring about racing, teams, fans, etc
This recent report from Adam Stern makes it rather hypocritical of Steve O'Donnell to call fans who hate the playoffs bots and then turn around to use an actual one to determine changes to the playoff format.
I want those in the sanctioning body to be replaced by whatever means are available, including doxxing. But with any kind of power must also come responsibility. And without a moral code, I'm no better than them.
Might as well let Disney buy the sport. 🤷♂
they hate bad bots that criticize their sports, so they want bots that tell everyone their sport is good... hmm yea smells like major bs. why is the outrage not bigger?
@@AnthonyLeach Fuck no. I guarantee you whatever we have no will only get worse with Disney…
Yes both of the sloppy Steve's.
Whatever it takes to put the focus on each individual race being great and less focus on an "empty cup".
The Playoffs is what holding nascar back from gaining more popularity.
Here's what I would suggest to change as well as the 3 mentioned in the post:
1. Let them race to the scheduled distance, meaning no stage points or cautions and if a caution is thrown with 3 or 2 laps to go, the race ends under caution.
2. More unique track by having less tracks with 2 dates. I'm looking at you, Vegas and Phoenix.
3. Get rid of win and you're in but increase points for wins.
4. A Better Schedule. Get rid of Phoenix Spring and Vegas Fall in favor of Rockingham and North Wilkesboro.
Change? Turn the clock back 25 years or....not
When is Doc Brown inventing his Time Machine? We really need that right now.
Bro if the playoffs was based on consistency bowman would win the championship every year
I just watched the 1992 hooters 500 for the first time, bring back a full season points format
In regards to having 43 car fields again, I still wholeheartedly believe that it's possible to get more entries than available starting positions again if the charter system got a proper overhaul. Two tier system, 20 cars with the current style "locked into every race" charter, and somewhere between 25-30 with a charter that allows the team to attempt to qualify for the race. If a Tier 1 charter car finishes 25th or worse in owners points for 2 or more seasons, that charter is essentially swapped to the highest of tier 2 charter cars. It would force every team regardless of where they are on track to always push to be better no matter what, and allow newer teams to get started or allow existing smaller teams to expand.
NASCAR isn’t football, there shouldn’t be a playoffs
This.
Let's be real... people want what they don't have. People cried 20 years ago "Winning needs to matter". People crying today that consistency doesn't matter. Consistency still matters, people are just generally never happy. My take may be unpopular, but I think it's on-point given it's objectively proven by these and every other comments section.
It is hard to discuss this with NASCAR Fan's of today because all they know about is from 2004 on - they have never seen or known anything else. There are 3 Eras in NASCAR Racing History: the pre Winston Cup Era; the Winston Cup Era; and the post Winston Cup Era.
Before NASCAR, people raced cars. If you won a race - you were the Champion until the next race. It was like boxing, you were only the champion so long as you kept winning the next fight. Big BIll France was a race promoter, and his Championship meant nothing more than anyone else's; want mattered was the purse for winning the race - the more a race paid, the more it mattered. When NASCAR was formed, it could not get away from this simple concept - winning a race is the only thing that pays. The big name racers only showed up at races with large purses.
Along comes Winston and their idea of a National Cup Series Championship; at first it still didn't work. The big names were still only showing up for the races with large purses. Winston stood up and paid more at every race an adopted the Latford point system; and it worked for 30 years. Growth beyond imagination. It also changed the entire Auto Racing Industry world wide by making a Championship meaningful. It was like Apple Pie - it was American only thing, this "Stock Car" racing thing!
During those 30+ years NASCAR was under Winston's money there was one thing that NASCAR could not stand - the Championship could be won before the last race. Winston wanted it that way; fair and equitable, something NASCAR had never been able to grasp before. The Latford point system was their by Winston's insistence for 30 good years; Big Bill and his Son understood the stability Winston brought to both the Sport and their Brands (Winston and NASCAR).
Pre Winston Cup Era the NASCAR point systems were a total Shit-show; do you now see a pattern developing here? Today we should call it, the "FAMILY." It is all business and no Sport - there is no NASCAR anymore: no Stock Cars; no Racing; and no National Association about any of it. All they are doing today is Playing silly Games in Auto's - it has turned into another giant Shot-show to solely enrich the FAMILY brand.
2004 to 2006 we see a Champion get Crowned without having won a single race in the regular season... Oops! Who didn't see that coming after what we had been doing under the Latford system for 30 years? NASCAR had to fix that with another bad decision, and the avalanche into the Shit-show we have today was begotten.
As fan's, what do you want to see next? This business brand or racing. I walked away after 2003 with Winston and the Latford point system. I didn't break it - you fix it.
That feeling when your hat suggestion got top comment and wasn’t even mentioned 😔
Here's an idea: get rid of STAGE RACING. Work your way to a better product from there.
Go back to getting points for leading a lap and leading the most laps
I think the best things NASCAR can do are simple. First, flip the playoffs on the head. Have the bottom 8 seeds race for the final 4 spots in the playoffs on one race. Then 3-race rounds. Lastly, in order to get into the Championship Round, you have to be in the top 4 consistent drivers in the playoffs. This way, it eliminates those that lucked their way in AND also rewards consistency. There are more that I would change but these two things would be the start
I do agree somewhat on your point that we realistically won't go back to a full season points format despite the largest portion of NASCAR fans wanting that. At least, not right away. It's definitely not something that you can just change instantly. It would at least take some time to produce a good product, and show more modern fans than you don't have to shove a gimmick down people's throats to have a good, entertaining sport. It's also important to understand that no form of racing is a stick and ball sport like baseball or football. The more people understand that, the better.
I don't see 43-car fields happening, and I'll sum up why with just a single word: *CHARTERS* . With the previous charter system (and to a degree this carter system), NASCAR could barely manage getting a single open car to race every week (and most of the time they can't get ANY to show up). What makes people think they can get *seven* of them on a consistent basis by the end of 2031? The cars and their equipment are unfeasibly expensive for that and that is why the charters exist - to guarantee at least 36 races a week. Now, they could make it so that the cars are less expensive to but and maintain and take measures to reduce the cost of equipment, but if they do that, what would be the point of the charter system? You would have to get rid of that too to maintain an equal playing field for everyone (and we all know who would be against that by now...) In the end, there's no good solution for this, and I think both NASCAR AND the teams are to blame for that.
I don't think it's entirely fair to blame the charters. When the charters were introduced, we did go from 43 to 37 full time teams (the Wood Bros ran without a charter at first). So what 6 teams were lost? Michael Waltrip shut down because they lost their sponsors during the cheating scandal. Front Row, BK, and Premium all downsized and Circle Sport and LFR merged together. Those are all backmarker teams. So you lost 2 competitive cars to something that had nothing to do with the charters and 4 backmarker teams downsized their operations, which in the case of Front Row and LFR eventually made them more competitive. The current roster of teams is on the whole much more competitive than they were 10 years ago. You have teams like Spire, who finish in the 20s or 30s most weeks, that can compete for top 5s sometimes. You did see that kind of performance from low tier teams back then. We basically have quality over quantity now, but for some reason many fans just can't appreciate that.
I personally like the Playoffs. But yes, I would make changes. I wouldn't go back to the Chase era. In fact, I rather like Eric's idea of flipping the rounds: Have a 1-race wildcard round that eliminates the pretenders from the contenders. Then have the three-race rounds until a champion is crowned. One thing that I would change, though, is that I would do away with win-and-you're-in. Top -20 is the ideal threshold. For a winning driver to make the Playoffs, they need to be in the top--20 in points by the end of the regular season.
Get rid of the segments! Award a point for leading a lap. Award points leading most laps
More horsepower like in 2014 and going back to the chase for the cup like in 2004.😊
Both.
@Jose-Gomez exactly 😊.
It starts at the top. I want Jordan to win the lawsuit
It's crazy that the people in charge of NASCAR still haven't realized that the 2003 season was a point system faillure and not a format faillure. Give the winner 15/20 points more than second place and you pretty much guarantee that one of the drivers with the most wins in the season takes home the championship.
What I want:
- stage break out
- more cars in field
-BRING BACK CANADIAN TIRE
- playoff out
- horsepower
Regular season actually worth something
Why can’t we get back to a full season points format? There’s literally no reason. Outside of maybe some TV contracts forcing NASCAR to weight later season races higher for the championship
Well you answered your question. NASCAR is basically nothing without TV partners and they want playoffs
Take Fox off the broadcast schedule, and maybe ratings will start going up
Personally, I think Amazon should get 1st half, NBC second half
@@karlcalvert812love the idea man 👍
@@karlcalvert812yeah not that stupid “perfect plan” we’re supposed to have that looks like the Myanmar civil war’s current borders
@@karlcalvert812Let's wait to see how Amazon's 5 races go before we give them half the season.
I would institute a points system that has a greater base split among the top five and then points are reduced by one per position going down the order.
1st - 60 points
2nd - 50 points
3rd - 46 points
4th - 42 points
5th - 38 points
6th - 35 points
7th - 34 points so on and so forth.
The situation with having a 43 car field:
Are there enough dependable sponsors out there that could adequately fund those additional teams to make a 43 car field?
No. There absolutely are not. Especially with NASCAR gobbling up so many big sponsors to be official sponsors of the series, taking them away from potentially sponsoring cars. That a big part of the 23XI/FRM lawsuit is that NASCAR keeps making it harder for the teams to make money while also making it more expensive to compete. NASCAR continues to make skyrocketing profits every year while not even paying the teams enough to cover their costs. NASCAR could easily have 40 or 43 cars show up every week if they were willing to share enough of their profits to cover the costs of those teams, but they're too greedy to do that.
Even if they allow 43 cars you would barely see more than 38 turning up
I think you could easily see more than 38 turn up if the Next Gen cars were't so expensive. They're something like 3 times as expensive to run as the Gen 6 car.
Combine that with getting rid of charters and you could easily see more cars start competing on a semi-regular basis.
@JohnSmith-mk5jt The fact that you wont get anything close to the prize money as chartered cars probably keeps a few teams away. Jr. Motorsports could easily make the field but without the extra money it's not worth it
If you had 40 charters instead of 36 then there would be races with 43 cars
1 - No stage cautions, stages are the least of the problems, but let's not stop the race
2 - Playoff format needs a tweak, consistency should matter more, but I'm not against elimination races either. But if you're 80 points back, you shouldn't be immeaditely eligible to advance to the next round. Or get an automatic lock into the playoffs (ahem Harrison Burton). In either regard, how we determine a champion definitely needs a tweak. Maybe getting a DNF hurting a lot more, rather than salvaging something and finishing 20th. More points should be awarded for wins as well, the winner should get the most points.
3 - Management needs to provide CONSISTENT officiating. Like Iceberg says, everyone hates their management. The Blaney Watkins Glen thing vs the field at Talladega sort of decisions need to be one way or the other. Not a 'judgement call'. The rule is written, no matter how written, should be enforced.
4 - Cars should be harder to drive. Maybe not necessarily more power, but if thats the solution, then so be it. For short tracks you have to move someone to make a pass. That's kind of a bummer.
High horsepower is fine but it won't change much with the transmission and gear ratios being ran on short tracks. I would say, 4 gear H pattern for all round tracks and save the sequential 5 gear for road courses
Get rid of the 3 stages of racing, and the driver with the most points wins the cup. I fixed NASCAR
Too bad nascar doesnt care about what the fans want. They'll just add another stage to all races. And triple down on stages.
Here’s what I think, we can keep the playoffs, but a win doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot or an automatic advance to the next round, get rid of the win and your in, get it to were you have to have consistency, but also with the playoffs
I’m okay with 30something car field as long as they are all mostly competitive. I don’t want to see start and parking. If we can get to 43 competitive cars I’m all for it.
We don't even have 36 competitive cars currently. Ware, Kaulig, and Legacy are all complete jokes. There are, to be very generous, 30 competitive cars each week. We are a LONG way from 40 or 43 competitive entries.
@@ZVPieGuyin all fairness: has there ever be a field of 35, 40 or 43 truly competitive cars? It's still much better than F1 when sometimes we have 4 competitive cars lol
I think the racing was really good, but NASCAR choosing 'entertainment' over a real ending with a large number of green-white-checkers finishing during the back end of the regular season and beginning of the playoffs. But, NASCAR be NASCAR... I still don't think NASCAR will do anything for 2025 with the stuff they are already planning on doing, like the regular season playoff 1 vs 1 thing.
In my opinion if you sweep the stages but finish 2nd you should get the same exact amount of points a close points battle coming down would be cool like that (but if they fix the damn playoff system)
Another thing I NEVER hear people talking about it how is it cool that every driver and team can see each other's throttle braking and steering inputs and layer them onto their own to figure out what they are doing wrong can the driver just figure out their own driving style
Race for the season!
I want 90s rear bumpers to come back, thats pretty much it!
100% agree remove win and in and award 50 bonus points to the winner.
I've noticed NASCAR focuses too much on the drivers title..... thats why they want the playoff format; they never care or dare to mention anything about the teams championship, the owners, heck even i don't myself because NASCAR barrely focuses on it.
F1 had their drivers title locked up a couple races early, guess what, F1 went and marketed the constructors battle between Ferrari and Mclaren, that kept a good amount of people still watching; it went down to the wire, and while of course the stands werent as packed as they woulda been had the title been decided on the last race, it still had wayy better attendance for a series having their main title locked up.
NASCAR doesnt, or didnt even attempt to try anything
Kenseth, locks up title, try and get me some news of people saying "this is important for the teams championship!, the owners champ!"
Barely any, nobody cared, because it wasn't marketed.
F1 marketed it, SOME people cared, most stuck around.
The issue is that in F1, every team has exactly 2 cars and the constructors points are the points of both cars added together. In NASCAR, teams can have between 1 and 4 cars, including part-time entries and the owners ppints belong to each individual car. There is not championship that adds points from different cars together. So the owners points championship almost always just goes to the owner of whoever wins the drivers championship. The only exception would be if you had a highly competitive full-time car that was shared between multiple drivers, which is never the case in Cup but does happen occasionally in Xfinity and Trucks.
Keep the horsepower as is at superspeedways and intermediates, but increase to 800 HP at short tracks and road courses.
Give north wilkesboro an actual race
I honestly would like to see a rotation of tracks host the last race. That's nowhere near the most important of course but was just trying to say something that wasn't said
I've got a pretty simple full-season system. It awards the most points to the winner. As in F1, the top spots have heavier weights to them, so the difference from 1st to 6th is the same as 21st to 31st
1 200
2 190
3 181
4 173
5 166
6 160
7 155
8 150
9 145
10 140
11 136
12 132
13 128
14 124
15 120
16 116
17 112
18 108
19 104
20 100
21 97
22 94
23 91
24 88
25 85
26 82
27 79
28 76
29 73
30 70
31 67
32 64
33 61
34 58
35 55
36 52
37 49
38 46
39 43
40 40
Bring back bonus points for leading a lap and leading most laps.
And if you want to lessen the blow for wrecks, make 30th to 40th 2 point drops, I dont care.
What i want back in Nascar is Chicagoland speedway
Definitely we need it back.
AMEN
Short term:
The four Crown Jewels need to be tangibly different from the rest of the schedule. Award double points and give a $1,000,000
bonus to the winner.
Reduce the playoffs to 10 drivers over 9 races. One lucky fluke win should never override 25 weeks of futility. Eliminate three drivers every three races. Championship round includes a road course, short track, and intermediate rotating annually.
At least two wins required to be the Champion.
Eliminate the green-white-checker rule. Good races turning into clown-show wreckfests because the 30th place guy bumped the wall happens way too often.
Long term:
Start TV broadcasts one hour after the green flag. Skip through caution laps and boring parts in stages 1 and 2. Catch up to live action early in stage 3. This would make races much better to watch and add real value to buying a ticket and going in person.
Alter the car design to create more in-race adjustability. Then reinstate a "Happy Hour" practice on Saturday.
For Pete's sake, make it possible for a car to drive with flat tires.
At this point I just want a well publicized test of a high horsepower package. NASCAR and some drivers say it wont make a difference, but at this point just do one single test to shut the fan base up if your confident that it wont make a difference. It's starting to look more like it would help the on track product and again NASCAR does not want to admit they made a poor decision on the horsepower. Really at this point I am of the mindset they need to rush the Gen 8 car because every band aid they have stuck to this car has not really worked.
As far as the format Ive been against the move from the Winston Cup format since day one, but at this point I would take a chase format as a compromise. The win and in format and 16 driver field has at this point shown to be a mess with the best teams being screwed because they are just off one race and your first (and second round) are wasted with cars for the most part that lucked in by a freak win.
I get and agree winning should matter, but NASCAR used to put a bigger emphasis on being a crown jewel winner. I dont think they ever mention the Daytona 500 winner after a few weeks and the 600 winner is forgotten about almost instantly. I think you could balance out a more consistent champion while also maybe making certain races more prestigious and meaningful to win, like double points for Daytona 500 and Coke 600.
No more playoffs (consistency based format with one point increments for every position)
No more stage racing (just no)
No more charters (almost as much of a failure as the playoffs)
43 car field
1000 horsepower Gen 8 that resembles Gen 4
NBC Covering The ENTIRE NASCAR Cup Series Than FOX, As Well As TNT Covering The ENTIRE NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rather Than FS1.
Get Rid Of The Next-Gen Car For The Gen-6 Car Back With The Unrestricted High Horsepower Engine Package As Well As The 2014 Package, Along With The Rounded Rear Bumper As Well As The Quaterpanels With Less Sideforce From The Next-Gen Car.
The 43 Car Field.
Flag-To-Flag Racing Over Stage Racing.
Cadillac Back To NASCAR, But With The CT5-V Blackwing In The NASCAR Cup Series, The CT4 In The NASCAR Xfinity Series, And Lastly, GMC (General Motors Truck Company) In NASCAR With The GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate In The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Replacing Both Chevrolet Along With The Silverado.
The Original Chase Format With The 2004-2006 10 Driver/2004-2013 10 Race Format With Chase Points And No Points Resets ONLY For The NASCAR Cup Series, And The Winston Cup Series Full-Season Latford Points System For Both The NASCAR Xfinity Series And The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
New Manufacturers Coming To NASCAR Like With Toyota From 2007.
Here’s an updated NASCAR points system that rewards wins, finishing position, and stage points, with no playoffs or consistency bonuses:
NASCAR Points System (No Playoffs, No Consistency Bonus)
Race Points Breakdown
1. Finishing Position Points:
• 1st: 50 points
• 2nd: 45 points
• 3rd: 42 points
• 4th: 40 points
• 5th: 38 points
• 6th-40th: Decrease by 1 point per position (e.g., 6th = 37, 7th = 36, etc.).
• Last place: 1 point.
2. Bonus Points for Wins:
• 10 bonus points for a race win, added to the season total.
Stage Points Without Stage Cautions
1. Top 10 Drivers Earn Points at Each Stage:
• 1st: 10 points
• 2nd: 9 points
• 3rd: 8 points (and so on, down to 10th = 1 point).
• Points are awarded as the field crosses the stage marker during green-flag racing.
Season Champion Determination
• The driver with the most points at the end of the season is crowned champion.
• This rewards season-long performance while maintaining simplicity.
Tiebreakers
1. Most wins.
2. Most stage points.
3. Best average finish.
Key Features
• No Playoffs or Extra Bonuses: A straightforward system that rewards drivers purely on performance in each race and stage.
• Focus on Wins and Stages: Winning races and performing well in stages provide clear advantages.
• Uninterrupted Racing: Stage points awarded without stage-ending cautions keeps race flow intact.
This structure creates a fair balance between rewarding wins and recognizing consistent performance across the season.
Thank you, ChatGPT
While I do feel like a champion should be higher than 15th in points, I don’t want a driver locking up the championship early as well. This is why I feel the old chase format is the best option. Add more starting points at the start of the chase and bump it up to 16 races with 16 drivers just so that sticks. And simply points Get you to the chase. Drop race wins to 1 start point for the chase, and completely remove the ability to gain points for your chase during stages in both the chase and regular season
Joey Logano didn't deserve his most recent title plain and simple but blame nascar,not Logano for this issue.
Everything about today's product needs to go away. Season long points, no stages, 900 hp and get the packs broken up. No real race fan wants luck to determine success.
A smaller playoff field would be good. 16 is too many. Cut it in half. If you’re not in the top 8 for the first 26 races, you don’t deserve to be there. Eliminates the win and you’re in rule too. You can’t just win a race early in the season and automatically qualify even if you suck most of the season or also be far behind in points and leapfrog into the chase with a win. Winning should still be celebrated but overall points should take precedence.
If you look at F1 this past year, there is no doubt that Max Verstappen won the championship. Yes, he pulled away with a huge lead early in the season, and McLaren made some questionable decisions, but with Max’s drive in Brazil, and him absolutely maximizing the potential out of probably the 4th best car, he still won with consistency.
I bring this up because of a few things. In a “playoff format”, Max probably wouldn’t have won, but that wouldn’t have been fair as they crown drivers and constructors for being the best over an entire season. Sure, Matt Kenseth and Terry Labonte ruined the old WC format by being consistent more than winning, but there is no doubt they were champions because of how good they were over an entire 30+ race schedule.
I also want to crossover sports here. The Hockey Guy posted a video about commentary during hockey games, and how some are really good, and some aren’t. I honestly think Fox, NBC, Prime, TNT… whatever they are going to be on this year, really need to study how commentary in other sports work, particularly F1, which is one reason why I believe fans continue to tune in and stay hooked, even when the race is a snoozer. Sometimes, I think there is too much involvement from the color commentators, and the broadcast becomes muddled.
nascar needs to get their fundamentals in order before any of those topics. A top elite level organization should have consistency, transparency and capacity for decision making in a timely manner.
There are far too many missed yellow flags, suspiciously timed yellow flags, yellows for very minor debris which create gwc finishes, selective enforcement of damaged vehicle policy, selective enforcement of pit road violations, penalizing drivers for speaking about problems etc.
This is where nascar loses all credibility well before even discussing the popular topics of championship, playoffs, stages, horsepower etc.
2014 package, 2003 and prior points system. Make the crown jewel race wins extra points. NO MORE PLAYOFFS and Stage Racing.
Let’s start with the Playoffs:; once Homestead and Texas get whatever their gonna do…. if a track is playoff worthy then it can hold the Finale ( Dega Roval Texas New Hampshire I’m down for the chaos ) ( ISC SMI don’t want to hear that nonsense). We don’t want the 3:3:3:1 ok 3:3:4., the Elite 8 in the last 4 races. Engine package:; some of the engine builders said it wouldn’t be too hard to add around a 100 horsepower…. Isn’t the engine package “ up for renewal “ after 2025??? Pull the tapered spacers at all tracks even Daytona & Dega…. Not sure if we have 43 cars that are willing to run the 38 races…. Keep the stage points but keep the race green….
2004-06 Chase format and higher horsepower on the shorter tracks at the very least.
I'm not fully convinced you could bring a new OEM in without increasing the field size by about 3-6 anyway. Some small teams like LMC might jump at the opportunity. But you really need a breadth of sources for data to be competitive and a new OEM would have literally no competition data, just simulation.
But I said in the poll: Other--Improve the racing. I didn't say more HP because there are other ways that NASCAR refuses to back down from, such as taking width out of the wheel. It's not cheap sure, but too much grip is making it hard to overtake in the middle of the corner at some tracks. Removing the damned spacer... it's a silly little spacer that all you have to do is omit and you get a little jump in HP is another easy improvement.
Supposedly, NASCAR has the right under the charter agreement to award up to 4 new charters to a new manufacturer. I haven't read the enormous charter agreement so idk if that's 100% true. In any case, I honestly think it would be pretty easy for a new OEM to get teams to leave their current manufacturer. Any team that isn't a key partner (so basically Spire, Kaulig, Ware, or Legacy) would quickly jump ship to a new manufacturer that would give them "key partner" status, which typically comes with a big paycheck and tons of technology and data help.
@@ZVPieGuy I guess my skepticism comes from that you would need more than 4 cars to 'catch up' with the other OEMs. So you would have to get two 3-4 car teams to do that. Spire seems to have gotten better because of Chevy. Kaulig maybe. But Ware seems to be more interested in Charter money and being filler still; even when their drivers 'ignore' that model. IDK. You aren't wrong that some teams would take the money. But I think an expansion with team built by the OEM (sort of like Ray Evernham Motorsports) might be a good idea. And it sounds like if what you read about the charter agreement is true, NASCAR is of the same thought.
Delaware double file restarts instead of the regular double file restarts
NASCAR shouldn't have changed anything about the Chase Format when they adopted it.
Racing is not stick and ball, they changed it to appeal to a wider, mostly fickle audience, and losing the hardcore race fans in the process. I haven't watched a nascar race in 15yrs. I've been saying for a long time that during the summer months, evening races only, who wants to sit inside on a summer day and shorten most of the races, it would pick up the action.
I am likely in the vast minority, but 43 car fields do not matter to me. I would rather see 25 competitive cars duke it out, versus 43 cars where 20 of them end up off the lead lap. I have been to plenty of races where back filler cars are not even close to the front, and are simply taking up space and are in the way. I would rather see change with the car, leadership, and officiating
Horsepower horsepower horsepower its sad as a life long race fan that my Saturday night superlate models have more power then the “ top echelon of motorsports”
As you climb the racing ladder, the car should not be getting less power and easier to drive 😢
The only thing we want changed is the clash back at Daytona
Remember what the people in the nascar leadership said. Apparently, all those people who make comments like that are just bots 😂
Stop with stage racing. No need to stop the field with a caution. Just keep racing. Award the points but don’t stop the race.
Remember the 90’s? Go back to that
The playoff format definitely needs major changes. It’s a Joke. The car definitely needs extra horsepower and numerous changes to improve the racing.
This may be an unpopular opinion but get rid of stages. I miss just having a race from start to finish where the only times the race stops is for cautions or red flags.
I think you keep stage points, but award them to the entire field (still running) every lap. 1st 40 ,2nd 39, etc. Down to 1 for 40th. Must be running to recieve points. It would make each race way more interesting and some races would rightly pay out more points than others. Eliminate points for finishing position. It would make the racing super intense, since the better you run the more points you accumulate. No chase, playoffs etc. Just a season long system of points being awarded according to running position every lap of every race. Lead all 500 laps at Bristol or Martinsville and you'd have 20,000 points LOL.
For real though, I'd rather go back to the old way. Bring back the Latford system, bring back the gen 4 cars, 1997 engine package (900+ horsepower) re-pave Atlanta back to a non-restrictor plate track, bring back single file restarts with the lap cars to the inside, no wave around for the cars on the tail end of the Lead lap, no "lucky dog", earn your lap(s) back, racing back to the caution , and lastly id get rid of the damaged vehicle clock. Allow teams to go back to making repairs and come back to finish the race like back in the day. Nascar was so much better in the late 90s - 2003. It's sad to see what it has become due to Brian France.
for the playoffs get rid of the win and advance...and flip the format...16 teams 1 race cuts it to 12...those last 4 teams were lucky to be there anyway...then 3 3 race brackets...so the final 4 have 3 races to determine the winner of the season...1 race to determine the season champ should never have been allowed...and make the last 3 races daytona, Richmond, charlotte roval...something like that...
The intermediates and super-speedways don’t need more horsepower there perfect right now short tracks and road courses need either more horsepower or unlimited horsepower
While I'd like to see higher hp in the cars just like everyone else, I don't think it would help with these spec cars. The best racing was when they was high hp an drove like crap in the older cars. These cars just simply drive to good for them to put on good racing outside of the mile and a half tracks.
No playoff formats. Points accumulation works best, just make wins count 5 points more than second. I would even be okay with stages if a stage win only counted as one point and they eliminated stage cautions. For a real giggle, get rid of overtime but stop counting all yellow flag laps.
If there’s something that I would change first before any of the changes mentioned in the video is marketing. I think NASCAR trying to appeal to every demographic, which although sounds good in theory, has done more harm than good to the sport. I think NASCAR should try to market itself to Gen Z men because NASCAR is a masculine sport and although there are many female fans, most women will never become diehard NASCAR fans. NASCAR should also market itself as an anti-NFL/NBA instead of trying to mimic them. NASCAR needs to allow their drivers to show their personality and urge them to promote themselves instead of fining them, suspending them, sending them to sensitivity training because they said or did something edgy that a sponsor got offended over. The US is about to enter a new era so NASCAR needs to evolve for 2025 instead of being stuck in 2020.
The only thing NASCAR needed to change in the Latford system was the amount of points the winner received, if we had bumped it from 175 to 190 before bonus points, everyone would be happy.
Make it 250. Gives all sides what they want!
@ 250 might be a bit too many. 210 before bonus points would be the max