Yes! Remember when Richard was a rookie early 60's. Back when you had to build and sale what you race. All you have now are funny cars, modified high dollar, corp only teams. Bye nascar, have memories.
I’m a fan of the 90’s and what destroyed it for me was the change of the point system. Why take the leader who sometimes had a big point lead and take his points away and make a playoff system this is not football
Completely agree. I started losing interest with the Car of Tomorrow, because the cars (and the rest of NASCAR), lost their personality. The final nail in the coffin for me was The Chase.
Simple nascar was awarding the championship with 3 races to go, and the points leader would never take any risk to win the race. I specifically remember the race leader and points leader giving up the lead for gas to secure the 10th place spot due to the fear of coming in 25th or so if he ran out of gas on the last lap. This happened for a number of years in the late 90s.
I'm a 40 yr old. Let me give it to you as bluntly as I possibly can from the perspective of a kid who found NASCAR in 1988, became a Davey Allison fan, lost his favorite driver, became a Dale Sr. fan, lost his favorite driver again and kept watching for a few more years. You know why people stopped watching? For me, it wasn't the loss of drivers to accidents or retirement. I could ALWAYS find a new favorite driver. It's the loss of the *IDENTITY*. NASCAR had the same identity from the day I watched my first Daytona 500 in 1988, til 2004. It was constant, consistent and was something I and a LOT of people loved. And it had NOTHING to do with a confederate flag, Southern Pride or anything else these meat heads want to spew out on the internet. It had to do with the fact it was a BLUE COLLAR, EVERY MAN'S SPORT. Anyone with a legal car and a NASCAR license could show up to a track on any given Sunday and attempt tp race against the very best. No top 35 rules, no Charters. A guy like Dale Sr. could flunk out of school, get a GED and make $42,000,000 in his career driving better than everyone else because it's what kept his damn light bill paid. The IDENTITY got stripped away. First it was Winston going away, then it was the Chase, then the COT with a goofy ass wing, then stage racing, then charters and playoffs like it's some kind of stick and ball sport and finally some GT3 Daytona 24 Hour car with a spoiler on the back instead of the wing, but it sure as hell is NOT a Stockcar. Tack onto that a bunch of embryos that haven't paid their dues on short tracks and haven't matured into the quality racers and HUMAN BEINGS that Dale Sr., Davey Allison, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace were. There's no CONSTANT, there's no CONSISTENCY. There's not one damn EVERY MAN out there from a blue collar background that made it by scratching and clawing to keep his lights in his single wide trailer turned on for another month. I CAN'T RELATE TO THESE PEOPLE ANYMORE. It's not the same sport that I fell in love with as a child and it has no want to be that sport again. So Screw it. I'll watch Dale Jr's CARS Tour where average men do extraordinary things with a race car, then go work a 9-5 job because they're RELATABLE BLUE COLLAR RACERS who scratch and claw every lap of every race like their future depends on it. BECAUSE IT DOES. Dale Jr, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Justin Marks own what NASCAR USED TO BE. And that's exactly where you'll find my BLUE COLLAR ASS.
@kramnull8962 I don't whatch racing because it's fair....I watch Racing because it's intertaining. Life isn't fair and believing that it is will make it miserable and boring. Like Nascar. I was there for the week to week saga and that is gone. Everybody wasn't suppose to make it.. thats boring.
This is a great post. I'm all geeked out about it. Well thought out and conveyed. For me, the independent racer/underdog story was gone after Robby Gordon left. Davey was my driver as well. He was a great guy and an awesome talent.
Come on Kenny I've been watching for a while. I know there was a lot of changes, different rules. Alot of drivers quick, retired or wasn't offer anything. Then you got maybe this doesn't matter to some. But you got kids I'm saying kids 17 yr olds driving race cars. The last thing I want to say is ticket prices r ridiculous, an average family can't do it especially now that the economy
Kenny, here is my perspective. I'm almost 50. I grew up loving the Wrangler #3, Skoal #33, Folgers #25, Valvoline #6, Texaco #28, and so on. Every week there were 15 to 20 stars that had a chance to win. They were hard nosed, bumper to bumper, door to door, banging into turn four to lead the lap. There weren't stages. There wasn't a woke NASCAR. The stands were packed at every track. Hell I remember having to wait 4 years to get a ticket to see Bristol. The fans had their favorite driver and that driver felt like family. We knew they lived and breathed racing and something inside of us made our favorite driver one of us. NASCAR turned political. NASCAR forgot about who pays the bills .... Us. NASCAR decided to turn it's back against its fan base for a new base. Us older fellas don't get excited for Bristol, Charlotte, Pocono, Altanta....... Those days are long gone. There are no heroes out there behind the wheel. Just a bunch of rich kids that couldn't turn a wrench if their lives depended on it. Of course there are a few still running that are really talented like Busch, Larson, and maybe a few more. I guess to sum it up, NASCAR starting killing itself years ago. They put the nail in the coffin by posterizing Bubba Wallace as if he is a superhero, when he is mediocre at best. More like a male version of Danica Patrick. Middle of the pack and everything is everyone else's fault. NASCAR has declined so much and I don't think they will survive much longer. They've killed the excitement. Gotten rid of the heroes. Races are boring. Cars are trash. That's just my humble opinion
All true but unfortunately Nascar is in a corner with "corporate" sponsors and with very little research you can see that 99% of today's corporations do not care about normal fans/people. It's upside down world right now and it's a shame.
Amen. Restrictor plates underpowered bumper cars circulating in a bunch, which causes massive stupid crashes. The chase, wokeness, Danica, Bubba etc... I would have been glad to root for new drivers, but the whole thing is over pasteurized, synthetic gobbledegook. They killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
NASCAR Didn't forget. They purposely made sure they didn't have to rely on fans to pay the bills anymore. that's why you have 2.4 billion dollar TV deals being inked. Theyre pandering to the ones paying the bills... The TV Networks that want drama and bullshit instead of a legitimate sport...
Watched my first race this year on TV Martinsville. Guess who they were talking to after stage 1? Yep, you guessed it but nope he didn't win the stage. Nope, not 2nd place, either . This is the first year in 35 I've missed a race. Sad thing is I don't miss it much. Do hope Chastain grows his balls back and tries to drive like E again.
I remember the '90s: that's when a 500 mile race was ONE WHOLE 500 mile race, not FOUR SEPERATE 125 mile races. The rules, the membership fees, the gimmicks that turn racing into a game that's more like playing Monopoly than a sport that rewards good driving? That's what breaks racing fans hearts. Maybe it was always like this, and we just didn't know it, but racing has changed from a sport into just another game.
@@michaelwhite7572 Ernest Hemingway said it: the only real sports are bull fighting, mountain climbing, and auto racing, everything else is just a game.
Kenny, I was a 90s fan. The problem with me was when Brian France took over he just ruled the sport to death. Everyone’s car had to be the same, crazy with the templates and so on.
Yep We’re not heart broken. We no longer care. Brian France ruined NASCAR and we enjoy pointing out the dismal attendance because “we told you so” a long time ago but Brian had a disdain for us and blew us off while he was popping pills and driving drunk
That wasn't NASCAR tho, that was the owners. They said they were spending too much and helped NASCAR design a cheaper car, single source parts, low horse power (so you can run more than one race on the engine). Tire limits. I've seen or been to races where 15 sets wasn't enough, the teams were buying them off teams that crashed or fell out of the race. It's NEVER going to be the 90's again. I can't keep track of who's in what car because the sponsor changes every week. Remember when 60 cars would show up at Daytona? That's no longer the case. Racing is how you take a lot of money and turn it into a little bit of money.
@@SteveTheExploiter no team in cup runs the same engine more than once without a completed overhaul these days. Less HP has nothing to do with the engine life and they still use new ones or rebuild them after a race 🥴. A smaller block and smaller cylinders but they’re still running almost as many RPM with them. The only people who used the same engines multiple times were start and parks.
I can't speak for anyone else but me, but my dislike for NASCAR has nothing to do with whether there's a superstar driver or not. It's NASCAR the organization that makes me not watch the sport anymore, and I enjoy its failures because they ruined a sport that I loved. Today's drivers could be superstars IF NASCAR didn't spit on their existing fans in a failed, foolish effort to get mainstream popularity. They shot themselves in the foot, and instead of bandaging the wound, they've spent 20 years making it deeper.
Dam another video on why it’s the older fans fault why nascar is failing and y’all wonder why we don’t care anymore. It’s always the fans fault and never nascar
I have always liked nascar...david pearson ..and such..but when I got older..I fell in love with ernie irvan because he was from my home state ca..I watched his dad race.when igot really old I fell in love with sprint car racing and local sprint car racer..Kyle lsrson made it to nascar..I love nascar .because local drivers became my heros...sincerely..Larry otani From ca 9:08
Cant distinguish who's driving what, not remotely a stock car anymore, the only reason the Bristol became intresting was the strategy with the tires. Can't stand the stage racing, these drivers can't speak their mind, the sponsors control entirely way too much in what can be done and NASCAR as an organization just spits in old fans faces constantly. Not heartbroken just tired of being beat on much like an old modified body.
You’re wrong Wallace, I was one of those 90’s fans, MRN and Eli Gold and all …I’m 53 now. NASCAR forgot its fans that’s the problem. Every vacation I had is a kid was to a NASCAR race. When we went to church on Sunday, my dad learned how to set a VCR clock (the blinking one) so he wouldn’t miss a moment of the race. You and your family have always been in racing. You are right there. You don’t notice the differences that we do/did you’re so deep in trees you can’t see the forest.
This is exactly correct and many of the comments including mine reflect this. Yet, it just goes to show you that just like Kenny doesn’t seem to get it, its the same exact way with nascar.
@@dslake134 do you remember when TV guide had smart codes in it beside the program name and time, that you could program the VCR to record and it would somehow recognize the code, before there was such a thing as TiVo and a DVR. That was some major tech then..lol. And the old man used to start 30 minutes before green flag and recorded whatever show came in after the race, to count for over extended , long races. BASF 8hr Super Long Play VHS tapes
@@NeedsLessWedge I do remember the channel codes. I actually laughed when I read your post. He did the same thing one o’clock race the recording started at 12:30.
A race fan since the 80's, I still watch, but not as much. Heartbroken, nope. I don't like stage racing, the chase, spec cars, one lug nut, low hp, teams that can't innovate, or drivers with no personality. Saying the fans from the 90's are gone forever is nothing more than an excuse for not doing anything to improve the series and bring those fans back. Doing nothing will kill this sport for sure.
They don't want innovation from the teams. They want to control and innovate for themselves. They want the glory, 'look how good we did', made the cars equal, like a basketball uniform. They look a little different but it's the same. Taurus ruined it for me. 4 door, bean counting, sedans? Not me. 4 door sedans were used in the early days when anyone could build a car, everything was budget. To choose a sedan in the heyday of the sport, turn.off.
OK Kenny. You picked a good topic. For context, I am a 72 yo man, who as a kid, worked on cars in the late 60s and through the 70s. My dad was in the auto aftermarket business and we went to NASCAR races and Indy car races. What I miss most were the cars. Recognizable cars. Multi-manufacturers trying to out-build each other. Engines were big and getting bigger. I get it that "Stock Cars" can only go so fast before they get airborne. Horsepower had to be dialed back. I came to terms with that. But, today, if you were to take the decals off the cars and put them side by side, there is nothing exciting about them. They look the same. NASCAR turned regular stock car racing into a perennial IROC style car series. They have the same engine displacement, the same profiles, aerodynamics and now, fewer manufacturers in the sport. So the plan was to make it all about the drivers. Yeah, I miss Cale, Benny, Darrel, Dale, Rusty, Mark, Tony, Kenny S and you, Kenny and the rest of those great personalities. Today's drivers are every bit as good as ever. Races have become like the last few minutes of a basketball game. I turn on the race for the last few minutes or laps and see all I need to see. I feel like I don't have a dog in the fight. No car or personality to root for. It's all plain vanilla. Keep stimulating the conversations, Kenny.
@@snoman003 look more different now than back then, only differences you could see after removing the decals was in the shape of the rear spoiler and window
I loved nascar in 1998 as a 13 year old. Now 38. We are not gone and now we have kids that can become nascar fans. We just see the gimmicks like playoffs and coliseum as major turnoff.
Other than Jeff Gordon winning too much, the late '90s were great to me, but were really kind of the end of the golden era of NASCAR, with the 2000 season ushering in the 'golden goose' era. Even in the '90s, every race was televised on cable at least, and the heart and soul of NASCAR were still pretty much entirely intact. The obnoxious fox coverage, and the needless jettisoning of Winston as the Series Sponsor, were the most prominent nails in the coffin for me. I remember first seeing Winston Cup on TV as a child in the mid 1970s, and thinking, "wow, this is the sport for me!"
NASCAR in the 90's was a cultural phenomenon that will never come back. We should all be thankful that we were here to experience it. Attempts to bring back that magic will not bear fruit, sadly. It was lightning in a bottle.
The chase is awful, but NASCAR lost me with 5 car teams like Hendricks, Rousch and Gibbs money domination. NASCAR has no clue what stock car racing should be. Keep changing the cars guys, I can’t watch the cut down version. Looks like a Compact car awful.
Once the charters got added, I felt the competition in NASCAR went away. I remember when teams actually had to compete to get into races. Big names actually didn't race if their cars weren't fast enough. Now it's just money getting swapped back and forth between NASCAR and the big teams. It's turned into professional wrestling.
I can tell you I've been a life long Rusty Wallace fan and no matter what anyone says the racing itself isn't the same. NASCAR took a winning formula and wouldn't leave it alone until they ruined it. One of the biggest things that hurt NASCAR is the wind tunnel. On face value that sounds ludicrous but up until the 90's the cars were not very aerodynamic, but that's what made racing fun to watch. People liked seeing their favorite driver wrestling their machine around and taming those hard to drive cars. Another big thing is Bristol. Why would anyone in their right mind change a track that was sold out years in advance? All because someone got a hair brained idea that the fans wanted to see side by side racing. No! The fans liked to see their drivers fight for the bottom, it's what made Bristol so fun to watch. No one wants to go see a race where they ride around the top and there's no passing. The proof is in the pudding. You can say what you want about 2006 being NASCARS biggest year. I don't believe it. I do remember fans at Richmond in the 90's camping out hoping to get a ticket from a scalper to a sold out race. Honestly, it's a combination of things or a perfect storm created by executives who know nothing about racing but how to get a dollar out of a fan. This new car is a total disaster and exactly what the fans don't want. Shifting at short tracks? Nah. Hell, they can't even leave the numbers in the right place and the tires are too wide. If you want to bring back fans get the car off the ground so springs can actually work, put a early 90's or similar body back on it, get that transmission out of the car, outlaw the wind tunnel, put 8" tires on them and turn the drivers loose. Let some rivalries flourish and while they're at it, for the love of god fix Bristol! Keep liberal politics out of NASCAR. If you want to know who killed racing, point the finger at the bankers, lawyers, and executives...you know, the money men who pressured NASCAR to become something unnatural all because they wanted to make fans out of people who cared nothing about the sport all the while forgetting the fans they did have.
Have had many many car customers who were fans. 55-70 years old now. Said when the chase system started they started to lose interest. By 2008-10. They didn’t watch anymore
Nothing but a glorified gimmicky IROC Series with cookie cutter cars and very few "personalities". No more is there "innovation" and win on Sunday sell on Monday.
It's like this, we used to have tough 500 mile races with cars that sometimes failed, or tires that blew. Not only hands on drivers, but also great men in the broadcast booth. 500 miles races (not broken into sections) were what made NASCAR great. Gone. Done.
I wandered what was wrong with me not liking Nascar anymore and I think Kyle called it right. I'm 48 and Kenny is describing my feelings on this perfectly. I also miss the 900 horsepower days, when drivers had to lift off the throttle and use skill to drive their cars.
I am among the group that left, but it was because of the points change, then playoffs, and last segments. There was a reason positions paid more points as you got closer to the front. I preferred the old championship format where consistency for the entire season is what counted. I also preferred when a race ran from start to finish, only interrupted by weather or wreck or track cleanup. Endurance was a factor. I'm old school, and evolved from Saturday nites in the pits at Fonda, to watching NASCAR. When NASCAR made the changes I noted I lost interest. Times change, things change. Yesterday is gone. I'm back to small hometown racing. Good article Kenny thanks.
This is nascar 20 years later getting a dose of reality on the fact that I is easier to retain a customer than attract a new one. Instead of keeping their old core fanbase happy, they pissed them all off while being arrogant thinking new fans would replace them. That never happened, because it's impossible. Why do you think the teams are bitching they make no money? There's no value for corporate America when you appeal to less than half of the people you used to. When you have to take seats out of racetracks because your fan base is shrinking, why would a major corporation drop money on that? It's the bud light effect. Piss people off and they leave.
Kenny, I feel Nascar has left us older fans more than we left Nascar. I wish and hope Nascar goes back to the roots and have a race with out stages. That along with some other changes makes us feel like it is not the racing we are used to. I love watching NHRA and seeing Tony Stewart start with helping Don Schumacher teams to learn more about that type racing. Then he had the opportunity to buy Matt Hagen and Leah Pruitt team's to form his TSR team. Then he got a license in Top Fuel and made some runs and had an opportunity to drive a Top Alcohol. Now he is taking his wife's place to drive her Top Fuel dragster. NHRA has gone through ups and downs and now is going very well. We are familiar with changes that come and go. All you have to do is look at F1 and Indy car series. Nascar has to decide if its future is worth continuing and how if so what road do they want to go down. Keep up with your great videos.
The Chase/Playoffs, ticket prices, and constant changing of the schedule adding races some tracks getting 2 killed it for me. Jeff Gordon would have been a 7 time champ under the old points system. NASCAR strayed from their roots.
I agree whole heartedly. The very sport that made him a household name, destroyed his career. Especially in '07. After Jeff retired, I havent watched since.
That's my problem with NASCAR, the present format where the luckiest driver wins the championship instead of the best driver winning the championship. I KNOW that's too..."simplistic" for some but I'm still here and I've been watching 25 years or so...
Yep. Gave up my tickets for two weekends at a NASCAR track in favor of the Knoxville Nationals, and two years ago, added the High Bank Nationals at Huset's Speedway as well.
Completely disagree. I'm shocked Kenny Wallace could be so tone deaf and clueless. I'm 52, NEVER missed a race in the '80's and '90's, and stopped watching completely when they introduced "The Chase." I switched to F1 because their points system produces a real champion. Also, I started losing interest with "The Car of Tomorrow," because those cookie cutter cars lost their personality, as did the rest of the NASCAR.
Those of us who have watched NASCAR grow over the years can’t relate to the new drivers. Drivers like you and your brothers, Earnhardt Sr and his dad, the Allison Bros, the Wood Bros, the Elliott’s and so on, fought tooth and nail, begged borrowed and stole to get to each race. Any one of us older guys could have put a car together, with a bunch of help from like minded friends, on an open trailer and a pickup truck and tried to qualify for a race. We could relate to guys like you. The drivers now come in already multi-millionaires. A lot of us just can’t relate. The chase format, one lugnut, and the zillion rule changes just make it that much worse. So Thank You for this podcast/UA-cam channel (and JR with his) as it keeps a lot us on the verge of coming back. The 2024 race season is the most excited I’ve been in quite a few years and I credit you and JR with these podcasts for keeping the spark alive. Thanks!!
While I think that should not matter, I do think the drivers being less like the older guys matters a little. They are afraid to be vocal like some of the older drivers who were not afraid to be vocal. Dale Sr was a little hypocritical at times and I loved Dale as a driver. But drivers actually calling out NASCAR made it a better sport. I wonder if NASCAR needed to let drivers unionize to improve the sport.
It seems like new drivers now a days look like little kids like Ty Gibbs not men like Earnhardt, Wallace, Waltrip who were our hero's growing up it's hard to be a fan of a kid.
In part because you have to be in better shape. Being fat or obese at all now is not an option. Though Dale and Darrell were not fat, but they weren’t in the condition today’s drivers are in as more athletes than they used to be.
There’s a difference between making a reasonable return from racing or bleeding it dry and losing the reason for the sport. Sadly, greed never cares about fans or any sport beyond the greed
Ken Squier always summed up NASCAR the best “Common Men with Uncommon Abilities”……That’s how NASCAR became popular. When NASCAR left the “Common Men” part behind and just focused on the “Uncommon Abilities”…..The disconnect between drivers and traditional fans began and continues to this day.
Dale Sr. was the reason I started watching this sport, and I've never seen a fan base like his since. They were the loudest, wildest, and most dedicated fans in NASCAR to be honest. I think Dale Jr. carried on that legacy but in a different light. He was his own man, different driving style.
For me, I spent a bunch of money buying shirts, diecasts, tickets, and hats since the mid 1990s, I became a Harvick fan in 2001, after Dale died. I'm 55 now, I can't identify with today's drivers, and I'm done with spending money on shirts, hats, tickets, etc. There aren't the larger than life personalities like 20 years ago.
I agree 1000%, none of the new drivers even seem to care about marketing themselves to fans. My first race I went to I met Bill Elliott, Steve Park, Johnny Benson, Schrader, Mike Skinner at there haulers for autographs back in '98 at New Hampshire. You can't meet a driver today without having an entry band or something that's limited.
Ross Chastain is a fun guy to root for. He worked his way up, nothing was handed to him. I'm a fan from the 90s and I stopped watching for 10 year's, except Daytona 500, from 2010 to 2020. I started watching again in 21 and Chastain caught my eye. I get it though, it will never be the 90s again. Don't be mad it's over, be happy it happened!
I'm 41, been a fan for as long as I remember. I haven't had a favorite driver for many many years. Here is the difference for me from the "good old days" and today. Its so hard to be a fan of a specific driver now. Back in the day when you turned the race on you knew you were gonna see the Blue Duece, the black #3, the Tide Ride, the Texaco #28, the Skoal Bandit, #88 ford credit, the Dupont #24, the interstate #18, Kelloggs #5, Valvoline #6 etc and etc. Those drivers all had unique personalities and styles. You turn in a race today you have no clue what color your "favorite" driver will be in week to week. Not only that there is zero personalities in the sport outside of Kyle Busch and sometimes Denny Hamlin.
Chastain the watermelon farmer👍 But yes I totally agree with you, the cars are ugly as sin in my opinion. The 90s and early 00s the cars were gorgeous and had character. Hopefully Nascar can figure this stuff out, but I have little faith 😂
@rickmoore2411 And what does a driver's color have to do with anything. In case you didn't know, there is only one black driver in Nascar. I'm sure even you could avoid cheering for him.
@@wysetech2000 stop it and pick up your card. You know darn well "what color your "favorite" driver will be in week to week" refers to the cars changing colors not people. 🤪🤪Thanks for showing what the "new" fans have brought.
I can name every driver on that list off the sponsor and car number. These days I can’t even find a car on the track during a race. Just a bubblegum machine now
I think there are a couple of things at play here. 1. Too many other things that compete for people's attention to watch it on TV. Cell phones, youtube, online video games, streaming video services (Netflix, youtubeTV) etc... 2. Too many other things that make it hard to go to the race. Kids travel sports, mom and dad working on the weekends, etc... 3. The cost of a ticket. The last race I attended in person was in 2010 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We were just married and starting out. Our two tickets towards the top on the backstretch were over $160. That was in 2010. I have no idea what ticket prices are today. 4. People get old. When I was 19 years old, I could look up to a 40 year old NASCAR driver. Now I'm 46 years old and my perspective has changed. 5. The race/season format changes. I know Formula 1 is very different than NASCAR, but they haven't changed anything with their points or put in any playoffs, stage racing etc... They had something that worked in 1990, and it still works today. NASCAR keeps changing their rules and it drives people away. 6. Track selection. I grew up in central Indiana, and I know Kenny you have said that you don't think NASCAR is welcome at Indy Motor Speedway but I assure you when I was a kid in 1994 with a fresh drivers license, my buddies and I drove to IMS to watch Brickyard 400 practice because it was a big deal. No one wants to watch the race on that road course.
My biggest beef with NASCAR is the fact that they turned it into IROC.... Then, whats so stock about it anymore?? Too many stupid rules, etc. Its just not the same anymore.
52 years old and all my guys are gone. Fan since early 90's. So many heros back then. Dale Jarrett was my #1 but so many #2's! All gone. Side note - 1999 Dover Busch race under rain delay. My son who was a die hard Rusty fan made me wait in line at the Miller Lite trailer. I was furious!!! The line was huge and it was going nowhere!!!!! About an hour later I found out why!!! Rusty was inside and he was bonding with his fans!!!! That day may me a Rusty fan as well. That memory will always remain for both myself and my son!!!
I totally get this point! I met some awesome men of racing history the years I went to tracks in the 90s. I met Harry Gant, AJ Foyt, Tony Stewart, got to have a dinner with Ward Burton, and get this..one year my wife and I were in line for Kyle Petty autographs. It was super hot and my wife passed out. An onsite medic sat us down at a nearby picnic table in the shade...what happened next will live with me forever. Kyle Petty STOPPED signing autographs, came over and sat down with us to make sure she was ok. He brought free merch with him and signed it all right there talking to us. I was a a forever Kyle Petty fan from then on. Fans were made to feel important in the 90's. Now I just feel like we're treated as a meal ticket.
I’m 46 years old, been watching since the early 90’s when Kyle petty first started running the Mello Yello car. I was a loyal fan, and I was a fan of bubba Wallace. Until nascar started telling us we are all racist. The last race I watched, was the race at Atlanta in 2020 when they knelt for the national anthem. That’s why I’m done.
I was a B Wallace fan also until he said what he did and then seen a racist door pull ,the topper was him on live broadcast flipping all the fans off into the camera and Nascar not saying a word about it
I have thought a lot about this the last few days, and wanted to put some thought into my comment. I started being a fan in the early 90s when I was in my early 20s (I’m in my early 50s now). Dale , Rusty, Terry, Mark, Jeff……into the early 2000s - Dale Jr, Tony, Carl, Greg, Bobby…etc. Just a few quick points. 1) I agree with the previous comments that people like me didn’t leave NASCAR, NASCAR left us. Rockingham - gone; North Wilkesboro - gone (attempting to make a comeback because of Dale Jr; etc. 2) back in the 90s, the drivers were in their sponsor’s TV commercials and were the face of NASCAR. Not today. You hear Dale Jr and Bill Elliott (for Goodyear), but not the current drivers. 3) I quit going to races in person about 15 years ago because the tracks got too big for their britches and priced the common people out of the market. When I stopped going, you could not take your wife to a race and pay for tickets, concessions, parking, etc. for less than $500 a race. It just got too expensive because of greed. 4) If they want us to come back to the tracks, they have to earn our business now. 5) After NASCAR got too big too fast, they left the die hard fans. Today it is not much more than a circus. Bristol dirt? 1/4 mile inside the LA Coliseum? Now they are talking about a fiasco at Dodger stadium? If they want to waste money on temporary tracks in markets that don’t want them, how about investing that same money in small south east local tracks that need the investment, and would put on a great show and would maybe draw back some of those fans from the 90s. 6) I think you are right, people like me are heartbroken, because NASCAR left us, we didn’t leave NASCAR.
I grew up watching NASCAR since 1982. I was a Cale Yarborough fan, then a Dale Earnhardt fan, then a Dale Junior fan. After Junior retired, I was just a Chevy fan. I pull for anyone wearing a bowtie. I have been watching this sport since I was 5 and always will!
Yep, racing was so good while Dale Squirmfardt was able to make the rules for Ford, prostituting himself to NASCAR.... Remember when Sr and NASCAR butted heads together and said the Tbird was a purpose build race car. Or NASCAR had to hold Chevy's hand at the wind tunnel and show Chevy why their rear back glass was their problems but continued to make ford run taller ground clearance, taller and steeper spoiler angles???
I'm 71 and I remember when you read about Nascar in Hot Rod magazine. wasn't on TV. Toyota coming in with their very deep pockets and bought Nascar ruined it for me. I HATE Toyota being in Nascar.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv Why nascar gave you a torque engine package in 2008 after Kyle Busch whooped Chevy's ass with 8 regular season race wins. I'd cry too if I were you though. That secured the next 5 championships for weak chevy minded people. Like always you want a field of bowties. Sr always wanted only bowties running in racing. So this is now Squirmfardt's dream.
I was a kid watching through the 90s, and I watched every single race through to 2016... what finally broke my spirit when it came to NASCAR wasn't the drivers leaving, it was the fact that stage cautions count towards the total race distance. It's not the Daytona 500 anymore, it's the Daytona 475
@rigel2112 stages force the teams to actually race. Do you remember races where they rode single file for 400 miles on the top then wreck the last 10 laps trying to get to the front
Kenny you and Kyle are half right. i have been watching and following nascar since 1984 and walked away from being a fan in 2016. my son loved Kyle Busch in fact was a Kyle Busch for Halloween 3 years in a row. Nascat has changed along with the drivers. i have met so many drivers over the years including you kenny. In 2014 i was staying at the hilton oceanwalk race weekend for the coke 400 on the beach Denny Hamlin and his pit crew was next to us his pit crew started playing with all the young kids in our group for like hour the kids had a blast. today drivers or pit crews don't interact with fans anymore. The cars are all the same the skills of building a car is gone.
Things that ruined NASCAR for me: 1. The points system change. The chase is terrible and unwatchable. 2. The death of Dale Sr in 2001 3. Brian France 4. The fact that NASCAR seems to fix races with bogus caution flags I'm 35. They also lost a current generation of fans who could have been watching Sunday races with their children as well. If NASCAR survives long-term, it will be stuck in the mud for many many years to come.
Look in the stands at your next dirt race. Those fans are the ones from the 90’s. They haven’t given up racing, they just like the racing that dirt tracks offer.
I grew up in and around racing culture here in Indiana. From IndyCar, to NASCAR, to local Saturday night late model races, to figure 8 tracks, to go kart racing, to motocross, to even GNCC racing. My first memory of NASCAR when I was a small boy and saw Richard Petty flip along the catch fence at Daytona. From then on I always tried to watch those Sunday races when I could. They always seemed to come on around noon time. It was exciting to see all-American good ol boys racing cars that looked like the cars my parents drove. These guys were like superheroes in costumes - all with their own Batmobiles. Dale's Wrangler car, Darrel's Tide Car, Mark's Folgers car, Bill's Coors car, Bobby's Miller High Life car, Richard's STP car, Ricky's Quaker State car, Geoff's Levi Garrett car, and Harry's Skoal Bandit car. I think Rusty and Sterling were just starting out. There was just something about this style of racing that was so different than the popular Indycar racing at the time. These looked like cars u would see on the street covered in advertisements of things u would see in your house. It was so authentic. That authenticity is what made it so popular. But over the years, with the race rule changes, the gear ratio rule changes, the aero-package rules changes, the Car of Tomorrow being pushed down everyone's throats, even went to a wing instead of a spoiler, Goodyear disappointing year in and year out, all cars being shaped exactly the same, then going to cookie cutter race tracks designed for open wheel racecars, trading traditional tracks like North Wilkesboro and North Carolina Speedway for Chicagoland, Kansas, and Miami, added on was the forced political correctness poisoning the sport, and I can still recall NASCAR rejecting Derrick Cope's sponsor from redneckjunk.com. Ridiculous. NASCAR basically ended up alienating their entire core audience, and told them "you aren't the kind of fans we want." When in reality, it was those kinds of fans is why it existed in the first place. Ivy League grads don't watch stock car racing. If u ask someone from Silicon Valley what does it mean to get "2 rounds of wedge in the left rear," they will probably say its when u pull the underwear up on 2 drag queens. Guess NASCAR didn't understand Ivy Leaguers and Silicon Valley wasn't the ones filling up their campgrounds to watch a truck race, a Busch race, and a Cup race all in the same weekend. All the phantom cautions, this ridiculous point structure, and like what Kenny said, there just isn't any drivers from the bloodline drivers from the previous decades except for Chase. I watched my first NASCAR race this past weekend at Bristol in almost 15 years. Goodyear products not holding up, half the sponsors I couldn't even tell u what their company made, half the drivers I couldn't even tell u who they were. The drivers I did know all had microphones in front of them. NASCAR has lost it's authenticity with its forced politically correct culture and bad business decisions. I don't want to say the popularity killed it because full stands are a good thing, but once it got popular, it seemed like it had a lot of powerful eyes on it and those powerful eyes wielded too much power and drowned out what made it popular to begin with. I get it, the cost of racing is high at that level, the racers need corporate sponsors to compete, but corporate money is what ruined it like anything else. Corporations ruin everything. I miss the NASCAR races of old. If there's nothing to watch on Sundays and I have the tv to myself, I will just pull up late 80's - early 90's races on YT and watch those instead. I would rather see the real thing than a watered-down version of it. p.s. God bless Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett, Alan Kulwicki, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Kenny Irwin Jr, Adam Petty, J.D. McDuffie, and "Big Bill."
Herman, it's a ton of things. The Chase, stage racing, spec cars, less HP, vanilla drivers, teams can't innovate, etc. I can watch a bunch of other motorsports that give me all those things that NASCAR used to have. You want a throw back? I miss when the only D.E.I. I knew stood for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Well let's see why fans are laughing at empty NASCAR seats. Seems to have started when The Chase started then: - ticket price increased - had to purchase tickets for all races on race weekend - did away with individual driver merchandise trailers at the tracks - noosegate
- band a certain flag from being flown - practice cut from race weekend - camping reduced at some tracks - LA and Downtown Chicago races added to attract fans taking away races sure I missed some but the fans were saying they were leaving every step of the way, and I'm sure that is why some
Kenny, it is my contention that if someone started a Factory Stock league(yes allow the factories to do what they did in the 1960s), they would eventually bury Nascar in fan support. Stock isn't stock anymore. That's ruined it for me. Modern cars are way stronger and capable than 40 years ago and can still be made safe enough to run at high speeds. Showroom to racetrack is what appealed to fans for decades. There is a total disconnect now between that. Signed: Nascar fan. Class of 1963
I am partially heartbroken for sure. But for me, it's the Car if Tomorrow that did it for me. In particular, the body style. The front bumper is upright and square and lines up squarely with the back bumber of the car in front of it. Not having the tapered noses getting in under the back bumber of the car in front, somehow made it boring. No more bump & run.
I watched my first race in 1986, I was 15yrs old. Was a die hard fan, but once Nascar left tracks like North Wilksboro, Rockingham, took a race from Darlington, then started changing the rules to every year, with the car, with the points, the playoffs, then stages. This was it for me, havn't watched and went to a race in years. My son is still a fan, he loves the sport, but me, not so much.
A peculiar aspect about what is perceived as a downturn with NASCAR events attendance is that there are 44 million more people populating the US in 2023 than it was back in 2005. So American population is rising but NASCAR is shrinking?
Kenny, I was a fan of NASCAR since 1970 at the age of ten. I endured a lot of changes and adapted to them. I’ve heard a lot of people say nascar died with Dale Sr but I don’t agree with that. You said that 2006 was their best year. Think about what happened in June 2007 and I think we will see what really happened to nascar. After the death of Bill France Jr. the new leadership kept changing everything until they completely lost me. I would have to say NASCAR died for me with the death of Bill Jr.
As an older man from Missouri my last straw was when Carl Edwards retired. It killed me! Used too we had the Wallaces, Schrader, McMurray, Edwards. I root for Allgaier close from Illinois. Watching Carls last race where NASCAR took his championship just soured me on NASCAR.
I am not a fan of many drivers but Carl was a class act,. I think he did the right thing, and I STILL expect him to run for office, or something grand. Class act.
I am a LONG time nascar fan. Attended my 1st race in late 80’s. Was a big Bill Elliot fan and a Ford Fan. If Bill dropped out I was pulling for the next Fire driver; Allen, Mark, Davey. Slowly they all retired. I had to find me a new Ford driver to root for but none ever replaced Bill. I would love to root for Chase, only one problem he drives for our mortal enemy…Won’t root against him, but not rooting for him. I am now in the RFK camp as his organization is still part of the Ford legacy team. Just my 2 cents. Oh yea, I still enjoy NASCAR racing.
Kenny Wallace was probably right about Carl Edwards and why he left NASCAR. That was a brilliant video that pointed out something that I hadn't even thought about. If you haven't seen that one and you're a Carl Edwards fan you've really missed something...
Yeah Edward's was a real guy nothing fake about him he really waved to people on his ride around before the race even people on the back stands he took time while going to his car to sign my sons hat even took his sunglasses off no tv camera around
Some of what you said is true in regards to me. I'm 68 and loved Nascar until the early 2000's. I do miss the old drivers and can't find any today to follow but when Nascar ignored the old time fans who had backed them for years and started to cater to the Uber crowd I became less interested every week. I still go to the track but it's a short track on a Saturday night now. I'm am heartbroken because I loved it but Nascar has ruined it for me. Thank God for local tracks.
I DVR every single race...watch about half of them and, of the ones I watch, usually fast forward through the first two stages. It's all just artificial, manufactured "drama" now. It's not racing.
P.C. and the chase killed it for me and yeah it makes me a little happy that the seats aren't full. That's what happens when you abandon your base. You can call it heartbroken. I call it betrayed.
LONG COMMENT WARNING: Kenny, I have a theory about why fans left and your point hits on at least two of them. I never looked at it as "heartbreak" before but your right. My theory is this: There are three reasons why the fans that stopped watching nascar did so. 1: The culture changed. Nascar used to be a sport that catered to the working class American. A bunch of good 'ol boy drivers racing cars sponsored primarily by beer, tobacco and automotive products. Products that demographic was familiar with. If the sponsor didnt fall into those categories it was still a product based company. A sponsor that provided something affordable and readily available, making it easy for the fan to purchase to feel like they are supporting the team. The sport drifted from this culture first by targeting non traditional fans with the dream of being mainstream and competing with the big four (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA). ESPN was a big factor in that and the growth of the popularity of the sport (and all sports) in the 90's along with Rick Hendrick and him introducing Jeff Gordon to the world. Hendrick/Gordon would set the standard of what NASCAR was to become. Corporations would start to move in to sponsor cars. As costs continued to rise to fund a team the smaller product based companies were priced out and more service based sponsors came in. Sponsors that fans were familiar with but harder to engage with in as tangible way. Now with rotating sponsorships fans have a disconnect with the teams and drivers since the car looks different each week so fans loose interest in sponsor support. Also the drivers of today have a groomed corporate presentation because they're not just a driver anymore but a spokesperson. Modern car culture has also changed dramatically and nascar has to reflect that since they are labeled as "stock car" racing. For a lot of young people today the traditional ICE car has been villianized and sudans/coupes don’t sell. Even modern muscle cars are being subdued and tamed down. 2: Manipulation of the race & championship rules/format. Moving away from a points system that awarded consistency in favor of rules and formats designed to keep the field condensed to give the perception of more cars in "contention", not only to keep fans interested but also sponsors. Perceived value helps keep both engaged but to the detriment to what racing was. 3: The specific reason you were a fan is gone. I think this is most fans. When the reason you were a fan disappears rather its a owner, driver, sponsor or car make you come to realize you wern't really a Nascar fan but really a Gordon fan, Earnhardt fan or Dodge fan. This is the case with most sports. Fans aren't really fans of the league/organization but more the franchises. Nascar is different in that its much more fluid. Lacking the stability of franchises that are geographically connected to fans and the "teams" are ever changing. When there's no rooting interest why keep watching.
I've been a racing fan since the 70's. Went through the big car Era, big compression motors, the Front wheel drive introduction,metric chassis,aero wars,V6 Era in Busch series and the death of Dodge and intro of Toyota and loss of corprate sponrship.. This is just another stepping stone. As long as they don't switch to vacuum cleaner motors,NASCAR is stuck with me.
@@gumby3123Electric cars will definitely be the end of me as a fan. Every Sunday when football isn't on, i will be watching an old race on youtube for sure
This is a fair assessment. Respectfully though, NASCAR did themselves a disservice by spitting directly in the faces of their largest fan base in an effort to gain acceptance from folks who were never going to be NASCAR fans anyway. They have to live with that.
Well i like it, but he says it's not racing when they are taking brakes.. He was a David Pearson fan and David seemed to always show up at end. Also he's 87 told me stories when he went to Dayton in the 70's
yes indeed, I was at Bristol 2002 for all 3 days, drove 900 miles to get there, 150K fans, unbelievable atmosphere. Now you could walk up and buy a ticket with 1/3 of the crowd that used to be in its prime.
Agreed! I had season tickets to Texas Motor Speedway from 1997 to 2004. Those races were magic. The campgrounds and packed 250,000 stands were full of fun-loving great people.
1991 through 2001 was the pincacle in my mind. No way post 2003 thats for sure. We dont need The Race For The Chase For The Quest For The Cup For The Thing
I watched every race growing up from about '95 until 2016-ish. The chase for the championship was the beginning of the end for me, when the most deserving driver over the entire season no longer won the championship. The final straw was stage racing, and about the same time they started "resetting" points during certain cut-offs in the chase. It just felt like they were deliberately handicapping the winning driver and I couldn't stand it anymore. I also stopped subscribing to cable/satellite around that time and the races were no longer as easy to watch. Now I see how stupid the cars look with the side numbers moved to the front and I have zero interest in getting back into it.
Nearly 2000 comments here, so this may not even get read. FOR ME: Segmented racing is not enjoyable. Missing half a season and still allowed to be a champion is not enjoyable. NASCAR adapting phrases and buzzwords from EVERY OTHER SPORT into theirs just to "attract" other fans is not enjoyable. {Overtime, playoffs, infield, and outfield all we need now is penalty shot and basket and we cover them all!!!} In short. NASCAR is not enjoyable anymore for the geezer fan who loved endurance in drivers.
yes sir. i wanna watch grown ass men with something to lose. I remember my grandmother saying there's nothing on tv for me to relate to. now im starting to get it.
Kenny, here's the thing.... We ARE heartbroken. There's nothing to relate to. There's nothing about any of these millennial kids I/we can relate to, and there's certainly NOTHING about NA$CAR we can relate to. The format they run is ridiculous, I care nothing about the cool, hip new tracks they go to, the "playoffs", and the cars they drive are unrelatable. There's no STOCK in stock car anymore. And yes, I realize the last resemblance of "stock" in NA$CAR was in the early/mid 90's, but I appreciate and respect the men that built those old cars and the ingenuity that went into them. Now they're kit cars. And to put this into context, I'm a 54 y/o man from the Pacific Northwest that started watching in the 80's once we got TNN on cable. Love your channel, keep it up
Kenny, I'm 33. I was a fan as a kid in the 90s. There was no sport I loved more. But today I see what NASCAR has done to the sport, with stages, charters, and all they have done to kill the independents. I had favorite drivers growing up, but my favorite team was more important, and it was a team your brother drove for, Junie Donlavey. Guys like Junie built the sport over many decades, and now all NASCAR cares about is money and social media. Gone are the days of drivers with real talent and skill getting Cup rides. William Byron, amongst most of the field now days, are there because their parents are billionaires. Gone are the days of drivers helping set up their cars, heck, the Wood Brothers aren't even the Wood Brothers Racing Team anymore, they're just an extra Penske team. Sure, there is a new era, and drivers have left, but, the product is entirely different. There is almost nobody on the track today that the fans can truly relate to and say "I could know or be friends with this guy had he not been a Cup driver." Why? Because they're filthy rich from the time they're a kid to when they get their Cup ride, and if they weren't racing, they'd be living in a gated community elsewhere anyway. That's why fans like me see empty stands and laugh.
I respectfully disagree. Nascar has changed. The races are not the same as the 80s and 90s. Stage racing and the chase drove many like me, who love RACING, away. I don't see myself ever watching what Nascar has become again. It doesn't feel like it used to. I loved watching you in a street stock on dirt a couple of weeks ago. That is racing.
92 was one of the best years just so happen to be the year that I attended my first race in person. I was also 12 years old and I had been watching on TV for a decade before that my father was a Petty fan I was a Earnhardt fan and then a junior fan and now I pull for the vets my age but once they’re gone, I really won’t have anybody to relate to anymore and will probably lose interest.
What did bubba do? Bubba and his mother created a fake racism accusation becuase they knew Bubba was nearing the end of his trial in nascar. @kylitoshow
Kenny, we've been heartbroken and upset at nascar since 2007 (maybe further back than that)...We're heartbroken because there's so much B.S. All the people want is racing without manipulation and deception...if nascar does that then the fans will come back However, I believe there's been so much damage done to the sport that there is no point of return... Local short-track racing (both pavement and dirt oval racing) and road-racing is where the real racing and the big leagues are at now...and not to mention where I'll be!
Hey Kenny, as a fan from the 70's, I'll be 61 next week, it has nothing to do with the old drivers not there anymore. Nascar themselves is what has screwed up the sport. They have turned the cars into a spec series trying to get everybody to run the same speed. If they would get rid of the chase and go back to the run what you brung rules, I think, the fan base would pick up again. As for nobody in the stands, nobody can afford to go to the races. I looked at Bristle and the local hotels were wanting 300 a night minimum stay 3 days. WTF! Plus the gas prices for the drive to the track.
I wish we could have seen Robbie Allison come up. I say this as a Kyle Bush and Ross Chastain fan, but the drivers were a different breed back then, and you hit on technology too, we used to have a lot more “car guys” than we do now.
You are spot on with the 90s analysis. I'm a seasoned citizen of 72 years and a devoted short track dirt fan in Southern Missouri. Larry Phillips and Moe Miller #44 were my teenage heroes. We'll not likely see those days again.
The product now is better than it has ever been. Every sport has down attendance over the past 2 decades. Nascars attendance is going up at a faster pace than anything else and also has amazing TV ratings.
@Michael-nf1ej the spring bristol race has been dead for years. But keep cherry picking. Daytona, Atlanta, Vegas, Phoenix, all had incredible crowds. Bristol had a better crowd than last year. 2023 saw some tracks have some of their best attendance in 10 years. (Michigan, Daytona Night Race)
Literally the only reason I still watch. People talk trash when I say I'm a Kyle Busch fan but I think they are clueless. He is the only guy trying to keep it interesting left. I wish he wasn't mature and easy going like he is now, talk some smack and add some drama Kyle! 😂
@@fundamentalbear8347I don’t fault people for who they like, I just give them a hard time if I don’t like that driver and boo them if they win or say nothing. I do hate when Busch ages like a child, but he grew up a lot as he should have.
I’m from western New York, lifetime NASCAR fan but I’m only 27 but I’ve seen it. Everything NASCAR has done in the past 20 years at least, with the exception of North Wilkesboro, has told the people who love the sport that they don’t matter. They’ve spent millions if not billions of dollars to move into markets that will never catch on as they literally see nascar as a joke. They leave or tear down beloved race tracks to serve people who might watch one race in their life. The little guy was thrown to the side by the charger system so there’s really no such thing as a talented underdog anymore. The younger drivers aren’t being taught respect in arca because it’s a wild scramble to get to cup by 25 or you won’t make it. There’s so much Kenny and we see it all. Inge they’re trying to expand but what actually happened? It’s nascar Kenny, it’s nascar
A lot of great comments.Get rid of the stage racing if you want to hold the viewers attention.The drivers now don’t know what its like to wheel a car for 500 laps in a Cup race.That one change would keep myself and others in front of the tv and grandstands.Just my two cents.
Today's drivers wouldn't make a hair on the ass of the drivers that made the sport. Those drivers were involved from start to finish on the cars that they drove and knew every inch of it,every nut and bolt. The legends that built the sport and have now left and turned it over to what we have today and with that they took the best of the sport with them! If racing is not on dirt then I don't watch it! The best years of nascar racing is gone!
You can't have it anymore where the drivers are that in tune to the car, knowing every nut & bolt, because the way the cars are engineered and so strictly enforced, you're not allowed to work on the car and you have to be a trained engineer to do any work. The days of a driver rolling up his sleeves and wrenching on a car like AJ Foyt are so far gone they weren't even around in the 90s. You can find drivers who do that, but not at any high level of competition like NASCAR or IndyCar or F1. You'll only find them, at your local short track.
Go back & read/watch when nascar put the Southern 500 back to Labor Day weekend. You had Edwards jump in one of David Pearsons 21 & David jumped into Edwards 99. They went around for about 50 laps & Edwards was complaining about how hard Pearson’s car was to drive. Pearson got out of the 99 & said he could win at his age driving the cars they had at that time! That says a whole lot about how nascar took the cars out of the drivers hands & made them to where anyone can get in & go! That’s been a big problem as well!
I actually don’t care that today’s drivers cannot work on the cars from start to finish really. They are too technical now. The driver should not work on the car, they should be driving it.
You know KW, if you think we are all still happy customers is because you are so immerse in it. Viewership since 2008 is down and is undeniable, crowd is important because it reflects the same decline. This is not about about wounds is about nascar trying to artificially increase competitivity, it works for a while then everybody catches, is like getting drunk last night, it was amazing when you were at it, not so much this morning. Please ask Kyle what he thinks about car restrictions, pack racing and all the nascar gimmicks to make it look more "competitive".
I’m 73 and heartbroken. I had a #3 wardrobe that I could barely look at. And I could not wear again. Herman, you hit the nail on the head. A month or so ago, my wife said exactly what you said. My wife had continued to watch all of the races after Sr. died but then she watched fewer and fewer each year. The connection to the legacy drivers is gone.
Nascar has changed so much around with cars, rules, points. They completely ruined the sport. Resetting top 10? What a joke. Its partly the drivers are new, its mainly the changes nascar made. They ruined it.
Good one Kenny. I haven't given it much thought until I watched this. I am 74yo and have been a fan since I was 12yo. My Dad was a fan and we watched the "Wide World Of Sports" on a black and white tube TV, when they only showed parts of the Daytona 500. When I was younger I built racing engines for dirt and pavement short tracks, and I loved all kinds of racing. I seldom miss a Nascar race on TV, even today. I have been to Daytona and Michigan several times, before i became an old fart. When I saw the grandstands, I was shocked at how few people were there. I thought to myself "is this Bristol"? I believe that some people just can't afford to take their families to a Nascar event at this time. I get it! The drivers are just robots these days. The cars are like large go karts, that sound like crap and don't look much better. It's true the real personalities are gone but nobody promotes the drivers any longer. I admit I wasn't a Dale fan even though I respected him. I just didn't like his driving style. Mark Martin was my hero since his ASA days, until the end. Years ago we had people in the booth the likes of Chris Economaki and others that got the fans fired up by the lineup to the green flag. Those people in the booth knew how to get the fans excited. I fell off to sleep a few times last Sunday and woke up just in time to see another tire explode. That wasn't racing it was survival of the part throttle bunch. Anyone who is a casual viewer would have turned the cartoons on that their kids watch as they are likely more exciting. I'm afraid my enthusiasm has been going away since the beginning of this season, after more than 60 years of enjoyment and excitement. Pull the damn mufflers off and allow them more HP. Fans want to feel the ground shake when the cars go bye.
Hey Herm, I'm in my 70's and still watch when I can. I can't afford cable because I'm on SSI and don't have the funds for that but I follow when I can. It's just different. That's all. Times change. Drivers come and go. Cars are updated. It's just different. I'd watch every race if I could. I just love NASCAR. Always have, always will.
NASCAR started catering to people who weren't fans of the sport in an attempt to get new fans. They pissed off their old fans and failed to get more new ones to replace them. Old fans look at the grandstands to check to make sure they aren't wrong in their dislike of the current racing product. And when they are empty, it reinforces their sniff test.
I am heartbroken, my pops passed last summer. It’s hard to watch racing without him. But you did nail it. He was an Elliot fan because of the bloodline. But I’m right there with him. I miss the good ol days. On behalf of myself and my father thank you for the memories your family and others have given us.
Back in the day, newcomers didn't know the drivers but the attraction was "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday". We could identify make and model on the track without need of emblems and innovation was the key to success which transferred to improvements for public use. Getting rid of the Winston and Bush series brand was the beginning of the end then adding template rules was the fatal blow for me.
@@Takingyoutojail Well aware but caving to "family friendly" just took the purity out of it. How many watched for the wrecks and pit fights? That was like MMA in Vegas, just add the barbecue grill... it was raw and real.
@@Takingyoutojail I think you're missing the point, there's a difference between an organic change and forced ideology which is why I'll watch a college football game over a pro game any day.
The problem isn't who we've lost it's who they've been replaced with. Cookie cutter tracks, cookie cutter cars and cookie cutter drivers. When someone with a little personality comes along NASCAR, the media and the cookie cutters crucify them. Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace could never make it in NASCAR today because they don't fit the corporate mold and neither do us older fans. They've pulled the plug on their own boat.
What did it for me was young rich kid drivers, no respect for veteran drivers, the football like playoffs, segmented races, the cars all look alike, the fact that you can’t even talk to the drivers today, the sponsors change through the year. You used to pick a driver and you were loyal to him , his team and his sponsor. Now everything changes too much. How can you be loyal to something that constantly changes. College football is going to have the same thing when a star player goes to the highest paying college from year to year. Why be loyal to anything that is not steady and will change tomorrow as if you don’t matter. It’s the continuous change in the sport that loses everyone’s interest.
We didn't leave NASCAR. NASCAR left the fans.
Yes! Remember when Richard was a rookie early 60's. Back when you had to build and sale what you race. All you have now are funny cars, modified high dollar, corp only teams. Bye nascar, have memories.
I’m a fan of the 90’s and what destroyed it for me was the change of the point system. Why take the leader who sometimes had a big point lead and take his points away and make a playoff system this is not football
Completely agree. I started losing interest with the Car of Tomorrow, because the cars (and the rest of NASCAR), lost their personality. The final nail in the coffin for me was The Chase.
I agree totally. The playoff system ruined NASCAR.
Simple nascar was awarding the championship with 3 races to go, and the points leader would never take any risk to win the race. I specifically remember the race leader and points leader giving up the lead for gas to secure the 10th place spot due to the fear of coming in 25th or so if he ran out of gas on the last lap. This happened for a number of years in the late 90s.
@@davidpate6095Bing! Me too. The CoT killed it for me. I appreciate Kenny's perspective, but I disagree.
@@scotthix2926 well what’s wrong with that if he has a big enough lead then there you have it why take away his lead
I'm a 40 yr old. Let me give it to you as bluntly as I possibly can from the perspective of a kid who found NASCAR in 1988, became a Davey Allison fan, lost his favorite driver, became a Dale Sr. fan, lost his favorite driver again and kept watching for a few more years. You know why people stopped watching? For me, it wasn't the loss of drivers to accidents or retirement. I could ALWAYS find a new favorite driver.
It's the loss of the *IDENTITY*. NASCAR had the same identity from the day I watched my first Daytona 500 in 1988, til 2004. It was constant, consistent and was something I and a LOT of people loved. And it had NOTHING to do with a confederate flag, Southern Pride or anything else these meat heads want to spew out on the internet. It had to do with the fact it was a BLUE COLLAR, EVERY MAN'S SPORT.
Anyone with a legal car and a NASCAR license could show up to a track on any given Sunday and attempt tp race against the very best. No top 35 rules, no Charters. A guy like Dale Sr. could flunk out of school, get a GED and make $42,000,000 in his career driving better than everyone else because it's what kept his damn light bill paid. The IDENTITY got stripped away. First it was Winston going away, then it was the Chase, then the COT with a goofy ass wing, then stage racing, then charters and playoffs like it's some kind of stick and ball sport and finally some GT3 Daytona 24 Hour car with a spoiler on the back instead of the wing, but it sure as hell is NOT a Stockcar. Tack onto that a bunch of embryos that haven't paid their dues on short tracks and haven't matured into the quality racers and HUMAN BEINGS that Dale Sr., Davey Allison, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace were.
There's no CONSTANT, there's no CONSISTENCY. There's not one damn EVERY MAN out there from a blue collar background that made it by scratching and clawing to keep his lights in his single wide trailer turned on for another month. I CAN'T RELATE TO THESE PEOPLE ANYMORE. It's not the same sport that I fell in love with as a child and it has no want to be that sport again. So Screw it. I'll watch Dale Jr's CARS Tour where average men do extraordinary things with a race car, then go work a 9-5 job because they're RELATABLE BLUE COLLAR RACERS who scratch and claw every lap of every race like their future depends on it. BECAUSE IT DOES.
Dale Jr, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Justin Marks own what NASCAR USED TO BE. And that's exactly where you'll find my BLUE COLLAR ASS.
Guess you didn't know all those years you speak off the Fords had different rules than the Chevies. Yeah that's fair.....
@kramnull8962 I don't whatch racing because it's fair....I watch Racing because it's intertaining. Life isn't fair and believing that it is will make it miserable and boring. Like Nascar. I was there for the week to week saga and that is gone. Everybody wasn't suppose to make it.. thats boring.
This is a great post. I'm all geeked out about it. Well thought out and conveyed. For me, the independent racer/underdog story was gone after Robby Gordon left. Davey was my driver as well. He was a great guy and an awesome talent.
@@johnpryor3254 Gotcha. Sr offed himself, and Jr. ran from his wife and child trapped in a burning plane. Have your fair hero. Chevy man.
Come on Kenny I've been watching for a while. I know there was a lot of changes, different rules. Alot of drivers quick, retired or wasn't offer anything. Then you got maybe this doesn't matter to some. But you got kids I'm saying kids 17 yr olds driving race cars. The last thing I want to say is ticket prices r ridiculous, an average family can't do it especially now that the economy
Kenny, here is my perspective. I'm almost 50. I grew up loving the Wrangler #3, Skoal #33, Folgers #25, Valvoline #6, Texaco #28, and so on. Every week there were 15 to 20 stars that had a chance to win. They were hard nosed, bumper to bumper, door to door, banging into turn four to lead the lap. There weren't stages. There wasn't a woke NASCAR. The stands were packed at every track. Hell I remember having to wait 4 years to get a ticket to see Bristol. The fans had their favorite driver and that driver felt like family. We knew they lived and breathed racing and something inside of us made our favorite driver one of us. NASCAR turned political. NASCAR forgot about who pays the bills .... Us. NASCAR decided to turn it's back against its fan base for a new base. Us older fellas don't get excited for Bristol, Charlotte, Pocono, Altanta....... Those days are long gone. There are no heroes out there behind the wheel. Just a bunch of rich kids that couldn't turn a wrench if their lives depended on it. Of course there are a few still running that are really talented like Busch, Larson, and maybe a few more. I guess to sum it up, NASCAR starting killing itself years ago. They put the nail in the coffin by posterizing Bubba Wallace as if he is a superhero, when he is mediocre at best. More like a male version of Danica Patrick. Middle of the pack and everything is everyone else's fault. NASCAR has declined so much and I don't think they will survive much longer. They've killed the excitement. Gotten rid of the heroes. Races are boring. Cars are trash. That's just my humble opinion
All true but unfortunately Nascar is in a corner with "corporate" sponsors and with very little research you can see that 99% of today's corporations do not care about normal fans/people. It's upside down world right now and it's a shame.
Woke is when stage racing??
(I dislike stages and artificial cautions too)
Amen. Restrictor plates underpowered bumper cars circulating in a bunch, which causes massive stupid crashes. The chase, wokeness, Danica, Bubba etc... I would have been glad to root for new drivers, but the whole thing is over pasteurized, synthetic gobbledegook. They killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
NASCAR Didn't forget. They purposely made sure they didn't have to rely on fans to pay the bills anymore. that's why you have 2.4 billion dollar TV deals being inked. Theyre pandering to the ones paying the bills... The TV Networks that want drama and bullshit instead of a legitimate sport...
Watched my first race this year on TV Martinsville. Guess who they were talking to after stage 1? Yep, you guessed it but nope he didn't win the stage. Nope, not 2nd place, either . This is the first year in 35 I've missed a race. Sad thing is I don't miss it much. Do hope Chastain grows his balls back and tries to drive like E again.
I remember the '90s: that's when a 500 mile race was ONE WHOLE 500 mile race, not FOUR SEPERATE 125 mile races. The rules, the membership fees, the gimmicks that turn racing into a game that's more like playing Monopoly than a sport that rewards good driving? That's what breaks racing fans hearts. Maybe it was always like this, and we just didn't know it, but racing has changed from a sport into just another game.
Funny that the slogan for years was 'Everything else is just a game'!
@@michaelwhite7572 Ernest Hemingway said it: the only real sports are bull fighting, mountain climbing, and auto racing, everything else is just a game.
Kenny, I was a 90s fan. The problem with me was when Brian France took over he just ruled the sport to death. Everyone’s car had to be the same, crazy with the templates and so on.
Yep We’re not heart broken. We no longer care. Brian France ruined NASCAR and we enjoy pointing out the dismal attendance because “we told you so” a long time ago but Brian had a disdain for us and blew us off while he was popping pills and driving drunk
That wasn't NASCAR tho, that was the owners. They said they were spending too much and helped NASCAR design a cheaper car, single source parts, low horse power (so you can run more than one race on the engine). Tire limits. I've seen or been to races where 15 sets wasn't enough, the teams were buying them off teams that crashed or fell out of the race. It's NEVER going to be the 90's again. I can't keep track of who's in what car because the sponsor changes every week. Remember when 60 cars would show up at Daytona? That's no longer the case. Racing is how you take a lot of money and turn it into a little bit of money.
@@SteveTheExploiter no team in cup runs the same engine more than once without a completed overhaul these days. Less HP has nothing to do with the engine life and they still use new ones or rebuild them after a race 🥴. A smaller block and smaller cylinders but they’re still running almost as many RPM with them. The only people who used the same engines multiple times were start and parks.
@@tritontransportDisplacement never changed, so it is the spacer limiting HP.
Brian France KILLED NASCAR.
I can't speak for anyone else but me, but my dislike for NASCAR has nothing to do with whether there's a superstar driver or not. It's NASCAR the organization that makes me not watch the sport anymore, and I enjoy its failures because they ruined a sport that I loved. Today's drivers could be superstars IF NASCAR didn't spit on their existing fans in a failed, foolish effort to get mainstream popularity. They shot themselves in the foot, and instead of bandaging the wound, they've spent 20 years making it deeper.
Speak it. They need to hear it..
Bingo! Us fans from the 90's didn't leave .... They ran us off 🤬
Dam another video on why it’s the older fans fault why nascar is failing and y’all wonder why we don’t care anymore. It’s always the fans fault and never nascar
YES!! NASCAR tried to fix what wasn't broke and they didn't just break it, they ruined it. Has nothing to do with the drivers.
I have always liked nascar...david pearson ..and such..but when I got older..I fell in love with ernie irvan because he was from my home state ca..I watched his dad race.when igot really old I fell in love with sprint car racing and local sprint car racer..Kyle lsrson made it to nascar..I love nascar
.because local drivers became my heros...sincerely..Larry otani
From ca 9:08
I am not heartbroken. NASCAR turned on the southern fans who built the sport. NASCAR left us we did not leave nascar.
They turned on ALL country folk all over the country, not just the southern fans.
You're absolutely right!
Cant distinguish who's driving what, not remotely a stock car anymore, the only reason the Bristol became intresting was the strategy with the tires.
Can't stand the stage racing, these drivers can't speak their mind, the sponsors control entirely way too much in what can be done and NASCAR as an organization just spits in old fans faces constantly. Not heartbroken just tired of being beat on much like an old modified body.
There's DEFINITELY an element of that for sure
Woke ain't gonna work when it comes to the rank and file -
I don't like to be called a bad person by others who don't know me
You’re wrong Wallace, I was one of those 90’s fans, MRN and Eli Gold and all …I’m 53 now. NASCAR forgot its fans that’s the problem. Every vacation I had is a kid was to a NASCAR race. When we went to church on Sunday, my dad learned how to set a VCR clock (the blinking one) so he wouldn’t miss a moment of the race. You and your family have always been in racing. You are right there. You don’t notice the differences that we do/did you’re so deep in trees you can’t see the forest.
This is exactly correct and many of the comments including mine reflect this. Yet, it just goes to show you that just like Kenny doesn’t seem to get it, its the same exact way with nascar.
@@dslake134 do you remember when TV guide had smart codes in it beside the program name and time, that you could program the VCR to record and it would somehow recognize the code, before there was such a thing as TiVo and a DVR.
That was some major tech then..lol.
And the old man used to start 30 minutes before green flag and recorded whatever show came in after the race, to count for over extended , long races. BASF 8hr Super Long Play VHS tapes
@@NeedsLessWedge I do remember the channel codes. I actually laughed when I read your post. He did the same thing one o’clock race the recording started at 12:30.
A race fan since the 80's, I still watch, but not as much. Heartbroken, nope. I don't like stage racing, the chase, spec cars, one lug nut, low hp, teams that can't innovate, or drivers with no personality. Saying the fans from the 90's are gone forever is nothing more than an excuse for not doing anything to improve the series and bring those fans back. Doing nothing will kill this sport for sure.
They don't want innovation from the teams. They want to control and innovate for themselves. They want the glory, 'look how good we did', made the cars equal, like a basketball uniform. They look a little different but it's the same. Taurus ruined it for me. 4 door, bean counting, sedans? Not me. 4 door sedans were used in the early days when anyone could build a car, everything was budget. To choose a sedan in the heyday of the sport, turn.off.
OK Kenny. You picked a good topic. For context, I am a 72 yo man, who as a kid, worked on cars in the late 60s and through the 70s. My dad was in the auto aftermarket business and we went to NASCAR races and Indy car races. What I miss most were the cars. Recognizable cars. Multi-manufacturers trying to out-build each other. Engines were big and getting bigger. I get it that "Stock Cars" can only go so fast before they get airborne. Horsepower had to be dialed back. I came to terms with that. But, today, if you were to take the decals off the cars and put them side by side, there is nothing exciting about them. They look the same. NASCAR turned regular stock car racing into a perennial IROC style car series. They have the same engine displacement, the same profiles, aerodynamics and now, fewer manufacturers in the sport. So the plan was to make it all about the drivers. Yeah, I miss Cale, Benny, Darrel, Dale, Rusty, Mark, Tony, Kenny S and you, Kenny and the rest of those great personalities. Today's drivers are every bit as good as ever. Races have become like the last few minutes of a basketball game. I turn on the race for the last few minutes or laps and see all I need to see. I feel like I don't have a dog in the fight. No car or personality to root for. It's all plain vanilla. Keep stimulating the conversations, Kenny.
Exactly 💯 💯 💯
"They look the same. NASCAR turned regular stock car racing into a perennial IROC style car series."
Nail meet hammer head!
@@snoman003 look more different now than back then, only differences you could see after removing the decals was in the shape of the rear spoiler and window
I loved nascar in 1998 as a 13 year old. Now 38. We are not gone and now we have kids that can become nascar fans. We just see the gimmicks like playoffs and coliseum as major turnoff.
Other than Jeff Gordon winning too much, the late '90s were great to me, but were really kind of the end of the golden era of NASCAR, with the 2000 season ushering in the 'golden goose' era. Even in the '90s, every race was televised on cable at least, and the heart and soul of NASCAR were still pretty much entirely intact.
The obnoxious fox coverage, and the needless jettisoning of Winston as the Series Sponsor, were the most prominent nails in the coffin for me.
I remember first seeing Winston Cup on TV as a child in the mid 1970s, and thinking, "wow, this is the sport for me!"
Why?
NASCAR in the 90's was a cultural phenomenon that will never come back. We should all be thankful that we were here to experience it. Attempts to bring back that magic will not bear fruit, sadly. It was lightning in a bottle.
Well said.
The entire Winston Cup era actually kind of fits that description.
The chase is awful, but NASCAR lost me with 5 car teams like Hendricks, Rousch and Gibbs money domination. NASCAR has no clue what stock car racing should be. Keep changing the cars guys, I can’t watch the cut down version. Looks like a Compact car awful.
Once the charters got added, I felt the competition in NASCAR went away. I remember when teams actually had to compete to get into races. Big names actually didn't race if their cars weren't fast enough. Now it's just money getting swapped back and forth between NASCAR and the big teams. It's turned into professional wrestling.
I can tell you I've been a life long Rusty Wallace fan and no matter what anyone says the racing itself isn't the same. NASCAR took a winning formula and wouldn't leave it alone until they ruined it. One of the biggest things that hurt NASCAR is the wind tunnel. On face value that sounds ludicrous but up until the 90's the cars were not very aerodynamic, but that's what made racing fun to watch. People liked seeing their favorite driver wrestling their machine around and taming those hard to drive cars. Another big thing is Bristol. Why would anyone in their right mind change a track that was sold out years in advance? All because someone got a hair brained idea that the fans wanted to see side by side racing. No! The fans liked to see their drivers fight for the bottom, it's what made Bristol so fun to watch. No one wants to go see a race where they ride around the top and there's no passing. The proof is in the pudding. You can say what you want about 2006 being NASCARS biggest year. I don't believe it. I do remember fans at Richmond in the 90's camping out hoping to get a ticket from a scalper to a sold out race. Honestly, it's a combination of things or a perfect storm created by executives who know nothing about racing but how to get a dollar out of a fan. This new car is a total disaster and exactly what the fans don't want. Shifting at short tracks? Nah. Hell, they can't even leave the numbers in the right place and the tires are too wide. If you want to bring back fans get the car off the ground so springs can actually work, put a early 90's or similar body back on it, get that transmission out of the car, outlaw the wind tunnel, put 8" tires on them and turn the drivers loose. Let some rivalries flourish and while they're at it, for the love of god fix Bristol! Keep liberal politics out of NASCAR. If you want to know who killed racing, point the finger at the bankers, lawyers, and executives...you know, the money men who pressured NASCAR to become something unnatural all because they wanted to make fans out of people who cared nothing about the sport all the while forgetting the fans they did have.
Have had many many car customers who were fans. 55-70 years old now. Said when the chase system started they started to lose interest. By 2008-10. They didn’t watch anymore
yep! Nothing to do with driver transitioning imho
Nothing but a glorified gimmicky IROC Series with cookie cutter cars and very few "personalities". No more is there "innovation" and win on Sunday sell on Monday.
Fact. 100%
The chase and segments is exactly why I stopped watching. A champion is someone who’s runs up front all year. Not a win in the last race.
The Chase system does truly suck...!
It's like this, we used to have tough 500 mile races with cars that sometimes failed, or tires that blew. Not only hands on drivers, but also great men in the broadcast booth. 500 miles races (not broken into sections) were what made NASCAR great. Gone. Done.
Only one left is Indycar in May
No booth could ever touch Ned and Benny and Bob Jenkins, in my mind. I stopped liking DW as much when they put him in the booth.
Nah, that never played a role. Nobody turned the race on until 50 to go. No use.
@@kramnull8962 that's who Nascar was chasing.
I wandered what was wrong with me not liking Nascar anymore and I think Kyle called it right. I'm 48 and Kenny is describing my feelings on this perfectly. I also miss the 900 horsepower days, when drivers had to lift off the throttle and use skill to drive their cars.
Now they always stay on the gas then whine about how the car won't turn.
I am among the group that left, but it was because of the points change, then playoffs, and last segments. There was a reason positions paid more points as you got closer to the front. I preferred the old championship format where consistency for the entire season is what counted. I also preferred when a race ran from start to finish, only interrupted by weather or wreck or track cleanup. Endurance was a factor. I'm old school, and evolved from Saturday nites in the pits at Fonda, to watching NASCAR. When NASCAR made the changes I noted I lost interest. Times change, things change. Yesterday is gone. I'm back to small hometown racing. Good article Kenny thanks.
This is nascar 20 years later getting a dose of reality on the fact that I is easier to retain a customer than attract a new one. Instead of keeping their old core fanbase happy, they pissed them all off while being arrogant thinking new fans would replace them. That never happened, because it's impossible. Why do you think the teams are bitching they make no money? There's no value for corporate America when you appeal to less than half of the people you used to. When you have to take seats out of racetracks because your fan base is shrinking, why would a major corporation drop money on that? It's the bud light effect. Piss people off and they leave.
Kenny, I feel Nascar has left us older fans more than we left Nascar. I wish and hope Nascar goes back to the roots and have a race with out stages. That along with some other changes makes us feel like it is not the racing we are used to. I love watching NHRA and seeing Tony Stewart start with helping Don Schumacher teams to learn more about that type racing. Then he had the opportunity to buy Matt Hagen and Leah Pruitt team's to form his TSR team. Then he got a license in Top Fuel and made some runs and had an opportunity to drive a Top Alcohol. Now he is taking his wife's place to drive her Top Fuel dragster. NHRA has gone through ups and downs and now is going very well. We are familiar with changes that come and go. All you have to do is look at F1 and Indy car series. Nascar has to decide if its future is worth continuing and how if so what road do they want to go down. Keep up with your great videos.
The Chase/Playoffs, ticket prices, and constant changing of the schedule adding races some tracks getting 2 killed it for me. Jeff Gordon would have been a 7 time champ under the old points system. NASCAR strayed from their roots.
Facts
I’m a Gordon fan as well ,Amen to that
I agree whole heartedly. The very sport that made him a household name, destroyed his career. Especially in '07. After Jeff retired, I havent watched since.
U r right. Soo Much Tru
That's my problem with NASCAR, the present format where the luckiest driver wins the championship instead of the best driver winning the championship. I KNOW that's too..."simplistic" for some but I'm still here and I've been watching 25 years or so...
we aren't heartbroken anymore. we moved on long ago. We are now watching sprint car racing.
Or drag racing, Hydroplane racing. Not as woke.
and Straight Line Racing....1/4 Mile at a Time!! If National TV showed Local Circle Track Racing...I'd be in!!♥️🇺🇲 The Top Tier Became Crap!! 🤬
@@kenwilcox5418 lololol thats why I said "Straight Line" racing ...a quarter mile at a time 🤪
Yep. Gave up my tickets for two weekends at a NASCAR track in favor of the Knoxville Nationals, and two years ago, added the High Bank Nationals at Huset's Speedway as well.
Spring car real racing
Completely disagree. I'm shocked Kenny Wallace could be so tone deaf and clueless. I'm 52, NEVER missed a race in the '80's and '90's, and stopped watching completely when they introduced "The Chase." I switched to F1 because their points system produces a real champion. Also, I started losing interest with "The Car of Tomorrow," because those cookie cutter cars lost their personality, as did the rest of the NASCAR.
If NASCAR wanted us to come back they’d go back to a points championship, and ditch segment racing. We could find someone to root for.
Those of us who have watched NASCAR grow over the years can’t relate to the new drivers. Drivers like you and your brothers, Earnhardt Sr and his dad, the Allison Bros, the Wood Bros, the Elliott’s and so on, fought tooth and nail, begged borrowed and stole to get to each race. Any one of us older guys could have put a car together, with a bunch of help from like minded friends, on an open trailer and a pickup truck and tried to qualify for a race. We could relate to guys like you. The drivers now come in already multi-millionaires. A lot of us just can’t relate. The chase format, one lugnut, and the zillion rule changes just make it that much worse.
So Thank You for this podcast/UA-cam channel (and JR with his) as it keeps a lot us on the verge of coming back. The 2024 race season is the most excited I’ve been in quite a few years and I credit you and JR with these podcasts for keeping the spark alive. Thanks!!
While I think that should not matter, I do think the drivers being less like the older guys matters a little. They are afraid to be vocal like some of the older drivers who were not afraid to be vocal. Dale Sr was a little hypocritical at times and I loved Dale as a driver. But drivers actually calling out NASCAR made it a better sport. I wonder if NASCAR needed to let drivers unionize to improve the sport.
@jimmerlo5931 Yeah, I hate 2024 as well. I miss the model T and the horse shit on the roads.
It seems like new drivers now a days look like little kids like Ty Gibbs not men like Earnhardt, Wallace, Waltrip who were our hero's growing up it's hard to be a fan of a kid.
Great point.
Yes agree with you there not men" or good old boys like backin day" little kids and don't give a" shit your right kenny"!
In part because you have to be in better shape. Being fat or obese at all now is not an option. Though Dale and Darrell were not fat, but they weren’t in the condition today’s drivers are in as more athletes than they used to be.
Racing is very expensive. All the driver now are awkward rich kids whose parents' checkbook got them to the top level Nascar fans can't relate to that
@ethanweeter2732 that's a terrible take
What about us fans from the seventies and eighties! You're the same age as me Herman! Big money and greed ruined NASCAR like everything else
But everything is run by money. If nascar didn’t figure out a way then they would go away.
@@brandonmurphy4840. If they got the fans back, they’d make money
@@nickwilliams4120 that’s on the fan to go to the track and watch instead of in their house. I go to several a year because I love being there.
There’s a difference between making a reasonable return from racing or bleeding it dry and losing the reason for the sport. Sadly, greed never cares about fans or any sport beyond the greed
@@brandonmurphy4840 Fans don’t like the ridiculous point system, and segment racing. So, they quit paying attention
Ken Squier always summed up NASCAR the best “Common Men with Uncommon Abilities”……That’s how NASCAR became popular. When NASCAR left the “Common Men” part behind and just focused on the “Uncommon Abilities”…..The disconnect between drivers and traditional fans began and continues to this day.
The CoT in 2007 is when the sport started going downhill fast.
Dale Sr. was the reason I started watching this sport, and I've never seen a fan base like his since. They were the loudest, wildest, and most dedicated fans in NASCAR to be honest. I think Dale Jr. carried on that legacy but in a different light. He was his own man, different driving style.
and as someone else mentioned when JR left due to "her"...... Dale must be rolling over in his grave.
Story goes , not only was senior a champion driver , he was first in marketing bringing T shirts to the track to sell. The rest is history
He is NOTHING Like His Dad On the Track! He Did Not Have That "Eye of the Tiger" Kind of Heart!
There were way better drivers than Earnhardt. He wrecked people to win. The GREATS Passed you clean to win. Earnhardt was mediocre at best
@@godisgood1359 okkkkkk, That is Why Those "Clean Drivers Had 7 Championships" ..... NOT!
For me, I spent a bunch of money buying shirts, diecasts, tickets, and hats since the mid 1990s, I became a Harvick fan in 2001, after Dale died. I'm 55 now, I can't identify with today's drivers, and I'm done with spending money on shirts, hats, tickets, etc. There aren't the larger than life personalities like 20 years ago.
I agree 1000%, none of the new drivers even seem to care about marketing themselves to fans. My first race I went to I met Bill Elliott, Steve Park, Johnny Benson, Schrader, Mike Skinner at there haulers for autographs back in '98 at New Hampshire. You can't meet a driver today without having an entry band or something that's limited.
Ross Chastain is a fun guy to root for. He worked his way up, nothing was handed to him. I'm a fan from the 90s and I stopped watching for 10 year's, except Daytona 500, from 2010 to 2020. I started watching again in 21 and Chastain caught my eye. I get it though, it will never be the 90s again. Don't be mad it's over, be happy it happened!
@@rebelsoul5980 is he the guy that gunned the wall? The last fun moment. They probably outlawed that move.
@@awilliams5007 yes and yes🤣
I'm 41, been a fan for as long as I remember. I haven't had a favorite driver for many many years. Here is the difference for me from the "good old days" and today. Its so hard to be a fan of a specific driver now.
Back in the day when you turned the race on you knew you were gonna see the Blue Duece, the black #3, the Tide Ride, the Texaco #28, the Skoal Bandit, #88 ford credit, the Dupont #24, the interstate #18, Kelloggs #5, Valvoline #6 etc and etc.
Those drivers all had unique personalities and styles.
You turn in a race today you have no clue what color your "favorite" driver will be in week to week. Not only that there is zero personalities in the sport outside of Kyle Busch and sometimes Denny Hamlin.
Chastain the watermelon farmer👍 But yes I totally agree with you, the cars are ugly as sin in my opinion. The 90s and early 00s the cars were gorgeous and had character. Hopefully Nascar can figure this stuff out, but I have little faith 😂
@rickmoore2411 And what does a driver's color have to do with anything. In case you didn't know, there is only one black driver in Nascar. I'm sure even you could avoid cheering for him.
@@wysetech2000 stop it and pick up your card. You know darn well "what color your "favorite" driver will be in week to week" refers to the cars changing colors not people. 🤪🤪Thanks for showing what the "new" fans have brought.
I can name every driver on that list off the sponsor and car number. These days I can’t even find a car on the track during a race. Just a bubblegum machine now
I think there are a couple of things at play here.
1. Too many other things that compete for people's attention to watch it on TV. Cell phones, youtube, online video games, streaming video services (Netflix, youtubeTV) etc...
2. Too many other things that make it hard to go to the race. Kids travel sports, mom and dad working on the weekends, etc...
3. The cost of a ticket. The last race I attended in person was in 2010 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We were just married and starting out. Our two tickets towards the top on the backstretch were over $160. That was in 2010. I have no idea what ticket prices are today.
4. People get old. When I was 19 years old, I could look up to a 40 year old NASCAR driver. Now I'm 46 years old and my perspective has changed.
5. The race/season format changes. I know Formula 1 is very different than NASCAR, but they haven't changed anything with their points or put in any playoffs, stage racing etc... They had something that worked in 1990, and it still works today. NASCAR keeps changing their rules and it drives people away.
6. Track selection. I grew up in central Indiana, and I know Kenny you have said that you don't think NASCAR is welcome at Indy Motor Speedway but I assure you when I was a kid in 1994 with a fresh drivers license, my buddies and I drove to IMS to watch Brickyard 400 practice because it was a big deal. No one wants to watch the race on that road course.
My biggest beef with NASCAR is the fact that they turned it into IROC.... Then, whats so stock about it anymore?? Too many stupid rules, etc. Its just not the same anymore.
The cars have one lug nut. Nuff said
Lol F1 style... Like the football playoffs and cheerleader breaks
And no power
good call out.
Yep
yup...😬
52 years old and all my guys are gone. Fan since early 90's. So many heros back then. Dale Jarrett was my #1 but so many #2's! All gone.
Side note - 1999 Dover Busch race under rain delay. My son who was a die hard Rusty fan made me wait in line at the Miller Lite trailer. I was furious!!! The line was huge and it was going nowhere!!!!! About an hour later I found out why!!! Rusty was inside and he was bonding with his fans!!!! That day may me a Rusty fan as well. That memory will always remain for both myself and my son!!!
Sat in the stands behind pit road and watched him walk from turn 1 back to the pit at Daytona
I totally get this point! I met some awesome men of racing history the years I went to tracks in the 90s. I met Harry Gant, AJ Foyt, Tony Stewart, got to have a dinner with Ward Burton, and get this..one year my wife and I were in line for Kyle Petty autographs. It was super hot and my wife passed out. An onsite medic sat us down at a nearby picnic table in the shade...what happened next will live with me forever. Kyle Petty STOPPED signing autographs, came over and sat down with us to make sure she was ok. He brought free merch with him and signed it all right there talking to us. I was a a forever Kyle Petty fan from then on. Fans were made to feel important in the 90's. Now I just feel like we're treated as a meal ticket.
I’m 46 years old, been watching since the early 90’s when Kyle petty first started running the Mello Yello car. I was a loyal fan, and I was a fan of bubba Wallace. Until nascar started telling us we are all racist. The last race I watched, was the race at Atlanta in 2020 when they knelt for the national anthem. That’s why I’m done.
I was a B Wallace fan also until he said what he did and then seen a racist door pull ,the topper was him on live broadcast flipping all the fans off into the camera and Nascar not saying a word about it
I have thought a lot about this the last few days, and wanted to put some thought into my comment. I started being a fan in the early 90s when I was in my early 20s (I’m in my early 50s now). Dale , Rusty, Terry, Mark, Jeff……into the early 2000s - Dale Jr, Tony, Carl, Greg, Bobby…etc. Just a few quick points. 1) I agree with the previous comments that people like me didn’t leave NASCAR, NASCAR left us. Rockingham - gone; North Wilkesboro - gone (attempting to make a comeback because of Dale Jr; etc. 2) back in the 90s, the drivers were in their sponsor’s TV commercials and were the face of NASCAR. Not today. You hear Dale Jr and Bill Elliott (for Goodyear), but not the current drivers. 3) I quit going to races in person about 15 years ago because the tracks got too big for their britches and priced the common people out of the market. When I stopped going, you could not take your wife to a race and pay for tickets, concessions, parking, etc. for less than $500 a race. It just got too expensive because of greed. 4) If they want us to come back to the tracks, they have to earn our business now. 5) After NASCAR got too big too fast, they left the die hard fans. Today it is not much more than a circus. Bristol dirt? 1/4 mile inside the LA Coliseum? Now they are talking about a fiasco at Dodger stadium? If they want to waste money on temporary tracks in markets that don’t want them, how about investing that same money in small south east local tracks that need the investment, and would put on a great show and would maybe draw back some of those fans from the 90s. 6) I think you are right, people like me are heartbroken, because NASCAR left us, we didn’t leave NASCAR.
Never seen a sport implode and ruin itself more than NASCAR.
I grew up watching NASCAR since 1982. I was a Cale Yarborough fan, then a Dale Earnhardt fan, then a Dale Junior fan. After Junior retired, I was just a Chevy fan. I pull for anyone wearing a bowtie. I have been watching this sport since I was 5 and always will!
Hell Yeah, Cale Yarborough in my opinion was one of the best...
Yep, racing was so good while Dale Squirmfardt was able to make the rules for Ford, prostituting himself to NASCAR.... Remember when Sr and NASCAR butted heads together and said the Tbird was a purpose build race car. Or NASCAR had to hold Chevy's hand at the wind tunnel and show Chevy why their rear back glass was their problems but continued to make ford run taller ground clearance, taller and steeper spoiler angles???
I'm 79 and have bee a fan of Nascar since the 60's. Things change but it's still racing.
I'm 71 and I remember when you read about Nascar in Hot Rod magazine. wasn't on TV. Toyota coming in with their very deep pockets and bought Nascar ruined it for me. I HATE Toyota being in Nascar.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv Why nascar gave you a torque engine package in 2008 after Kyle Busch whooped Chevy's ass with 8 regular season race wins.
I'd cry too if I were you though. That secured the next 5 championships for weak chevy minded people.
Like always you want a field of bowties. Sr always wanted only bowties running in racing. So this is now Squirmfardt's dream.
I was a kid watching through the 90s, and I watched every single race through to 2016... what finally broke my spirit when it came to NASCAR wasn't the drivers leaving, it was the fact that stage cautions count towards the total race distance. It's not the Daytona 500 anymore, it's the Daytona 475
@rigel2112 stages force the teams to actually race. Do you remember races where they rode single file for 400 miles on the top then wreck the last 10 laps trying to get to the front
@@chafeeracin611That would be called a race.
@@Lenny_Hondo no that's a parade. Just like the fall truck race at Bristol with those hockey puck tires
Yes, too many gimmicks. I just want an honest car race.
Kenny you and Kyle are half right. i have been watching and following nascar since 1984 and walked away from being a fan in 2016. my son loved Kyle Busch in fact was a Kyle Busch for Halloween 3 years in a row. Nascat has changed along with the drivers. i have met so many drivers over the years including you kenny. In 2014 i was staying at the hilton oceanwalk race weekend for the coke 400 on the beach Denny Hamlin and his pit crew was next to us his pit crew started playing with all the young kids in our group for like hour the kids had a blast. today drivers or pit crews don't interact with fans anymore. The cars are all the same the skills of building a car is gone.
Things that ruined NASCAR for me:
1. The points system change. The chase is terrible and unwatchable.
2. The death of Dale Sr in 2001
3. Brian France
4. The fact that NASCAR seems to fix races with bogus caution flags
I'm 35. They also lost a current generation of fans who could have been watching Sunday races with their children as well. If NASCAR survives long-term, it will be stuck in the mud for many many years to come.
Look in the stands at your next dirt race. Those fans are the ones from the 90’s. They haven’t given up racing, they just like the racing that dirt tracks offer.
I grew up in and around racing culture here in Indiana. From IndyCar, to NASCAR, to local Saturday night late model races, to figure 8 tracks, to go kart racing, to motocross, to even GNCC racing. My first memory of NASCAR when I was a small boy and saw Richard Petty flip along the catch fence at Daytona. From then on I always tried to watch those Sunday races when I could. They always seemed to come on around noon time. It was exciting to see all-American good ol boys racing cars that looked like the cars my parents drove. These guys were like superheroes in costumes - all with their own Batmobiles. Dale's Wrangler car, Darrel's Tide Car, Mark's Folgers car, Bill's Coors car, Bobby's Miller High Life car, Richard's STP car, Ricky's Quaker State car, Geoff's Levi Garrett car, and Harry's Skoal Bandit car. I think Rusty and Sterling were just starting out. There was just something about this style of racing that was so different than the popular Indycar racing at the time. These looked like cars u would see on the street covered in advertisements of things u would see in your house. It was so authentic. That authenticity is what made it so popular. But over the years, with the race rule changes, the gear ratio rule changes, the aero-package rules changes, the Car of Tomorrow being pushed down everyone's throats, even went to a wing instead of a spoiler, Goodyear disappointing year in and year out, all cars being shaped exactly the same, then going to cookie cutter race tracks designed for open wheel racecars, trading traditional tracks like North Wilkesboro and North Carolina Speedway for Chicagoland, Kansas, and Miami, added on was the forced political correctness poisoning the sport, and I can still recall NASCAR rejecting Derrick Cope's sponsor from redneckjunk.com. Ridiculous. NASCAR basically ended up alienating their entire core audience, and told them "you aren't the kind of fans we want." When in reality, it was those kinds of fans is why it existed in the first place. Ivy League grads don't watch stock car racing. If u ask someone from Silicon Valley what does it mean to get "2 rounds of wedge in the left rear," they will probably say its when u pull the underwear up on 2 drag queens. Guess NASCAR didn't understand Ivy Leaguers and Silicon Valley wasn't the ones filling up their campgrounds to watch a truck race, a Busch race, and a Cup race all in the same weekend. All the phantom cautions, this ridiculous point structure, and like what Kenny said, there just isn't any drivers from the bloodline drivers from the previous decades except for Chase. I watched my first NASCAR race this past weekend at Bristol in almost 15 years. Goodyear products not holding up, half the sponsors I couldn't even tell u what their company made, half the drivers I couldn't even tell u who they were. The drivers I did know all had microphones in front of them. NASCAR has lost it's authenticity with its forced politically correct culture and bad business decisions. I don't want to say the popularity killed it because full stands are a good thing, but once it got popular, it seemed like it had a lot of powerful eyes on it and those powerful eyes wielded too much power and drowned out what made it popular to begin with. I get it, the cost of racing is high at that level, the racers need corporate sponsors to compete, but corporate money is what ruined it like anything else. Corporations ruin everything. I miss the NASCAR races of old. If there's nothing to watch on Sundays and I have the tv to myself, I will just pull up late 80's - early 90's races on YT and watch those instead. I would rather see the real thing than a watered-down version of it.
p.s. God bless Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett, Alan Kulwicki, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Kenny Irwin Jr, Adam Petty, J.D. McDuffie, and "Big Bill."
Herman, it's a ton of things. The Chase, stage racing, spec cars, less HP, vanilla drivers, teams can't innovate, etc. I can watch a bunch of other motorsports that give me all those things that NASCAR used to have.
You want a throw back? I miss when the only D.E.I. I knew stood for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
blame Teresa Earnhardt for that.
Well let's see why fans are laughing at empty NASCAR seats. Seems to have started when The Chase started then:
- ticket price increased
- had to purchase tickets for
all races on race weekend
- did away with individual
driver merchandise trailers
at the tracks
- noosegate
- band a certain flag from
being flown
- practice cut from race
weekend
- camping reduced at some
tracks
- LA and Downtown Chicago
races added to attract fans
taking away races
sure I missed some but the
fans were saying they were
leaving every step of the way,
and I'm sure that is why some
are laughing at the empty seats.
Myself, I still enjoy my Sunday or Saturday night NASCAR!
Kenny, it is my contention that if someone started a Factory Stock league(yes allow the factories to do what they did in the 1960s), they would eventually bury Nascar in fan support. Stock isn't stock anymore. That's ruined it for me. Modern cars are way stronger and capable than 40 years ago and can still be made safe enough to run at high speeds. Showroom to racetrack is what appealed to fans for decades. There is a total disconnect now between that.
Signed: Nascar fan. Class of 1963
I am partially heartbroken for sure.
But for me, it's the Car if Tomorrow that did it for me. In particular, the body style. The front bumper is upright and square and lines up squarely with the back bumber of the car in front of it. Not having the tapered noses getting in under the back bumber of the car in front, somehow made it boring. No more bump & run.
I agree.. Today's NASCAR is like watching an IROC car race every weekend. They are all the same basic race cars.
I think the fact they made the cars too similar was a bigger problem. The cars need to be a little unique.
@@mikeimimWhich I liked IROC, but can see why fans don’t like cars being the same basically.
I completely agree. The cars lost their personality with the Car of Tomorrow.
No older fans watched when drivers where more hands on now its more promotional type drivers now and that's a fact
I watched my first race in 1986, I was 15yrs old. Was a die hard fan, but once Nascar left tracks like North Wilksboro, Rockingham, took a race from Darlington, then started changing the rules to every year, with the car, with the points, the playoffs, then stages. This was it for me, havn't watched and went to a race in years. My son is still a fan, he loves the sport, but me, not so much.
Oh yeah. I remember those races. Leader and maybe 2 other cars on the lead lap year after year.
A peculiar aspect about what is perceived as a downturn with NASCAR events attendance is that there are 44 million more people populating the US in 2023 than it was back in 2005.
So American population is rising but NASCAR is shrinking?
Kenny, I was a fan of NASCAR since 1970 at the age of ten. I endured a lot of changes and adapted to them. I’ve heard a lot of people say nascar died with Dale Sr but I don’t agree with that. You said that 2006 was their best year. Think about what happened in June 2007 and I think we will see what really happened to nascar. After the death of Bill France Jr. the new leadership kept changing everything until they completely lost me. I would have to say NASCAR died for me with the death of Bill Jr.
As an older man from Missouri my last straw was when Carl Edwards retired. It killed me! Used too we had the Wallaces, Schrader, McMurray, Edwards. I root for Allgaier close from Illinois. Watching Carls last race where NASCAR took his championship just soured me on NASCAR.
I am not a fan of many drivers but Carl was a class act,. I think he did the right thing, and I STILL expect him to run for office, or something grand. Class act.
I am a LONG time nascar fan. Attended my 1st race in late 80’s. Was a big Bill Elliot fan and a Ford Fan. If Bill dropped out I was pulling for the next Fire driver; Allen, Mark, Davey. Slowly they all retired. I had to find me a new Ford driver to root for but none ever replaced Bill. I would love to root for Chase, only one problem he drives for our mortal enemy…Won’t root against him, but not rooting for him. I am now in the RFK camp as his organization is still part of the Ford legacy team. Just my 2 cents. Oh yea, I still enjoy NASCAR racing.
@@smarternu Yes Carl is a very intelligent Man! He would do good in politics. He is still young, and has so much time to move up!
Kenny Wallace was probably right about Carl Edwards and why he left NASCAR. That was a brilliant video that pointed out something that I hadn't even thought about. If you haven't seen that one and you're a Carl Edwards fan you've really missed something...
Yeah Edward's was a real guy nothing fake about him he really waved to people on his ride around before the race even people on the back stands he took time while going to his car to sign my sons hat even took his sunglasses off no tv camera around
Some of what you said is true in regards to me. I'm 68 and loved Nascar until the early 2000's. I do miss the old drivers and can't find any today to follow but when Nascar ignored the old time fans who had backed them for years and started to cater to the Uber crowd I became less interested every week. I still go to the track but it's a short track on a Saturday night now. I'm am heartbroken because I loved it but Nascar has ruined it for me. Thank God for local tracks.
Agree. Who the drivers were has nothing to do with why nascar is suffering. Nascar itself ruined nascar. "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL DIRT TRACK"
I’m a 90s fan and believe me the changes throughout the years had me scratching my head. But I’m still here.
Same here
I DVR every single race...watch about half of them and, of the ones I watch, usually fast forward through the first two stages. It's all just artificial, manufactured "drama" now. It's not racing.
I loved the late 70’s through the 80’s racing.
P.C. and the chase killed it for me and yeah it makes me a little happy that the seats aren't full. That's what happens when you abandon your base. You can call it heartbroken. I call it betrayed.
LONG COMMENT WARNING: Kenny, I have a theory about why fans left and your point hits on at least two of them. I never looked at it as "heartbreak" before but your right. My theory is this: There are three reasons why the fans that stopped watching nascar did so. 1: The culture changed. Nascar used to be a sport that catered to the working class American. A bunch of good 'ol boy drivers racing cars sponsored primarily by beer, tobacco and automotive products. Products that demographic was familiar with. If the sponsor didnt fall into those categories it was still a product based company. A sponsor that provided something affordable and readily available, making it easy for the fan to purchase to feel like they are supporting the team. The sport drifted from this culture first by targeting non traditional fans with the dream of being mainstream and competing with the big four (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA). ESPN was a big factor in that and the growth of the popularity of the sport (and all sports) in the 90's along with Rick Hendrick and him introducing Jeff Gordon to the world. Hendrick/Gordon would set the standard of what NASCAR was to become. Corporations would start to move in to sponsor cars. As costs continued to rise to fund a team the smaller product based companies were priced out and more service based sponsors came in. Sponsors that fans were familiar with but harder to engage with in as tangible way. Now with rotating sponsorships fans have a disconnect with the teams and drivers since the car looks different each week so fans loose interest in sponsor support. Also the drivers of today have a groomed corporate presentation because they're not just a driver anymore but a spokesperson. Modern car culture has also changed dramatically and nascar has to reflect that since they are labeled as "stock car" racing. For a lot of young people today the traditional ICE car has been villianized and sudans/coupes don’t sell. Even modern muscle cars are being subdued and tamed down. 2: Manipulation of the race & championship rules/format. Moving away from a points system that awarded consistency in favor of rules and formats designed to keep the field condensed to give the perception of more cars in "contention", not only to keep fans interested but also sponsors. Perceived value helps keep both engaged but to the detriment to what racing was. 3: The specific reason you were a fan is gone. I think this is most fans. When the reason you were a fan disappears rather its a owner, driver, sponsor or car make you come to realize you wern't really a Nascar fan but really a Gordon fan, Earnhardt fan or Dodge fan. This is the case with most sports. Fans aren't really fans of the league/organization but more the franchises. Nascar is different in that its much more fluid. Lacking the stability of franchises that are geographically connected to fans and the "teams" are ever changing. When there's no rooting interest why keep watching.
I've been a racing fan since the 70's. Went through the big car Era, big compression motors, the Front wheel drive introduction,metric chassis,aero wars,V6 Era in Busch series and the death of Dodge and intro of Toyota and loss of corprate sponrship.. This is just another stepping stone. As long as they don't switch to vacuum cleaner motors,NASCAR is stuck with me.
Electric cars are coming lol" the fans will have to yell vroom , vroom when the cars go by lol"!
@@gumby3123Electric cars will definitely be the end of me as a fan. Every Sunday when football isn't on, i will be watching an old race on youtube for sure
I wish honda was in NASCAR in the 80s and 90s to show out some of their B, and H series Motors
This is a fair assessment. Respectfully though, NASCAR did themselves a disservice by spitting directly in the faces of their largest fan base in an effort to gain acceptance from folks who were never going to be NASCAR fans anyway. They have to live with that.
When we lost Earnhardt the fabs stayed. What caused the loss of fans started with the playoffs…and went downhill from there.
my dad quit watching when Nascar put in stage racing..he was a fan since the 60's
He's missing out. Stage racing is better. Exciting. Like three finishes. They no longer race hard ONLY at the end
Well i like it, but he says it's not racing when they are taking brakes..
He was a David Pearson fan and David seemed to always show up at end.
Also he's 87 told me stories when he went to Dayton in the 70's
@@ajt51508that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve read before. 3 finishes doesn’t make it better.
It’s because these new fans NASCAR wants have the attention span of a squirrel
The next thing that the millennials and NASCAR come up with is Uber and Lyft and the drivers in the back seat with an automated car!!!!!!
I was a huge Fan from the late 70's-2000, I totaly gave up on NASCRAP in 2002.
2001-2006 was the pinnacle of NASCAR I don’t even know if they could replicate it if they tried. Experiencing a race weekend back then was incredible.
yes indeed, I was at Bristol 2002 for all 3 days, drove 900 miles to get there, 150K fans, unbelievable atmosphere. Now you could walk up and buy a ticket with 1/3 of the crowd that used to be in its prime.
Agreed! I had season tickets to Texas Motor Speedway from 1997 to 2004. Those races were magic. The campgrounds and packed 250,000 stands were full of fun-loving great people.
I would say otherwise. Cookie cutter tracks were killing the sport.
My golden age was 1990-2012. I actually dug the 10 Horse Chase. When Brian bought Kyle Busch a title, that was my breaking point.
1991 through 2001 was the pincacle in my mind. No way post 2003 thats for sure. We dont need The Race For The Chase For The Quest For The Cup For The Thing
I watched every race growing up from about '95 until 2016-ish. The chase for the championship was the beginning of the end for me, when the most deserving driver over the entire season no longer won the championship. The final straw was stage racing, and about the same time they started "resetting" points during certain cut-offs in the chase. It just felt like they were deliberately handicapping the winning driver and I couldn't stand it anymore. I also stopped subscribing to cable/satellite around that time and the races were no longer as easy to watch. Now I see how stupid the cars look with the side numbers moved to the front and I have zero interest in getting back into it.
Nearly 2000 comments here, so this may not even get read. FOR ME: Segmented racing is not enjoyable. Missing half a season and still allowed to be a champion is not enjoyable. NASCAR adapting phrases and buzzwords from EVERY OTHER SPORT into theirs just to "attract" other fans is not enjoyable. {Overtime, playoffs, infield, and outfield all we need now is penalty shot and basket and we cover them all!!!}
In short. NASCAR is not enjoyable anymore for the geezer fan who loved endurance in drivers.
NASCAR drivers from the 60's-90's were characters, most of the drivers today are overpaid punks.
yes sir. i wanna watch grown ass men with something to lose. I remember my grandmother saying there's nothing on tv for me to relate to. now im starting to get it.
The irony in that statement. They were "overpaid" even back in the day.
Kenny, here's the thing.... We ARE heartbroken. There's nothing to relate to. There's nothing about any of these millennial kids I/we can relate to, and there's certainly NOTHING about NA$CAR we can relate to. The format they run is ridiculous, I care nothing about the cool, hip new tracks they go to, the "playoffs", and the cars they drive are unrelatable. There's no STOCK in stock car anymore. And yes, I realize the last resemblance of "stock" in NA$CAR was in the early/mid 90's, but I appreciate and respect the men that built those old cars and the ingenuity that went into them. Now they're kit cars. And to put this into context, I'm a 54 y/o man from the Pacific Northwest that started watching in the 80's once we got TNN on cable. Love your channel, keep it up
Not sure if i'm heart broken Kenny, but it sure is different. Kyle hit the nail on the head.
Kenny, I'm 33. I was a fan as a kid in the 90s. There was no sport I loved more. But today I see what NASCAR has done to the sport, with stages, charters, and all they have done to kill the independents. I had favorite drivers growing up, but my favorite team was more important, and it was a team your brother drove for, Junie Donlavey. Guys like Junie built the sport over many decades, and now all NASCAR cares about is money and social media. Gone are the days of drivers with real talent and skill getting Cup rides. William Byron, amongst most of the field now days, are there because their parents are billionaires. Gone are the days of drivers helping set up their cars, heck, the Wood Brothers aren't even the Wood Brothers Racing Team anymore, they're just an extra Penske team. Sure, there is a new era, and drivers have left, but, the product is entirely different. There is almost nobody on the track today that the fans can truly relate to and say "I could know or be friends with this guy had he not been a Cup driver." Why? Because they're filthy rich from the time they're a kid to when they get their Cup ride, and if they weren't racing, they'd be living in a gated community elsewhere anyway. That's why fans like me see empty stands and laugh.
@benscovil I really have NO idea why people think it's funny. It's little wonder why America is so screwed up.
@@wysetech2000 it's called "you reep what you sow"
I respectfully disagree. Nascar has changed. The races are not the same as the 80s and 90s. Stage racing and the chase drove many like me, who love RACING, away. I don't see myself ever watching what Nascar has become again. It doesn't feel like it used to. I loved watching you in a street stock on dirt a couple of weeks ago. That is racing.
A Fan since I was 12 years old, yes it's Changed, 92 was one of the best Years , Richard Petty said it Best it's evolved from generation to Generation
92 was one of the best years just so happen to be the year that I attended my first race in person. I was also 12 years old and I had been watching on TV for a decade before that my father was a Petty fan I was a Earnhardt fan and then a junior fan and now I pull for the vets my age but once they’re gone, I really won’t have anybody to relate to anymore and will probably lose interest.
The Bubba Wallace BS & Stage Racing Made Me Stop Going To Races, And Watch Very Little On TV. Kenny Did You See The Stands At Bristol ?
1. what did bubba do?
2. compare the attendance of the recent bristol race compared to 2019 spring race, huge improvement
What did bubba do? Bubba and his mother created a fake racism accusation becuase they knew Bubba was nearing the end of his trial in nascar. @kylitoshow
Yup
@VanquishedAgain that is not how things happened. Not even close.
Alot of empty seats at Bristol.
Kenny, we've been heartbroken and upset at nascar since 2007 (maybe further back than that)...We're heartbroken because there's so much B.S.
All the people want is racing without manipulation and deception...if nascar does that then the fans will come back
However, I believe there's been so much damage done to the sport that there is no point of return...
Local short-track racing (both pavement and dirt oval racing) and road-racing is where the real racing and the big leagues are at now...and not to mention where I'll be!
Sorry man. Maybe one day Nascar will listen to it's fans and not just corporate
Hey Kenny, as a fan from the 70's, I'll be 61 next week, it has nothing to do with the old drivers not there anymore. Nascar themselves is what has screwed up the sport. They have turned the cars into a spec series trying to get everybody to run the same speed. If they would get rid of the chase and go back to the run what you brung rules, I think, the fan base would pick up again.
As for nobody in the stands, nobody can afford to go to the races. I looked at Bristle and the local hotels were wanting 300 a night minimum stay 3 days. WTF! Plus the gas prices for the drive to the track.
I wish we could have seen Robbie Allison come up.
I say this as a Kyle Bush and Ross Chastain fan, but the drivers were a different breed back then, and you hit on technology too, we used to have a lot more “car guys” than we do now.
You are spot on with the 90s analysis. I'm a seasoned citizen of 72 years and a devoted short track dirt fan in Southern Missouri. Larry Phillips and Moe Miller #44 were my teenage heroes. We'll not likely see those days again.
The lack of fans in the seats shows NASCAR this product isn’t working.
The product now is better than it has ever been. Every sport has down attendance over the past 2 decades. Nascars attendance is going up at a faster pace than anything else and also has amazing TV ratings.
@@brandonthompson8413 you are so wrong. Did you see Bristol? You used to have to get tix to this race one year ahead!
@Michael-nf1ej the spring bristol race has been dead for years. But keep cherry picking. Daytona, Atlanta, Vegas, Phoenix, all had incredible crowds. Bristol had a better crowd than last year. 2023 saw some tracks have some of their best attendance in 10 years. (Michigan, Daytona Night Race)
Brandon if you think this is the best racing ever then either you’re extremely young or fairly new to the sport.
@@andycofield7281Been watching for over 30 years. I'm just not a moron and understand the sport unlike you.
NASCAR is lucky they have Kyle bush !
Yeah and to me it seems they forced Kurt out of the Car...
Literally the only reason I still watch. People talk trash when I say I'm a Kyle Busch fan but I think they are clueless. He is the only guy trying to keep it interesting left. I wish he wasn't mature and easy going like he is now, talk some smack and add some drama Kyle! 😂
@@joeyd3324No, the lack of safety on the Next Gen is what did that.
@@fundamentalbear8347I don’t fault people for who they like, I just give them a hard time if I don’t like that driver and boo them if they win or say nothing. I do hate when Busch ages like a child, but he grew up a lot as he should have.
I’m from western New York, lifetime NASCAR fan but I’m only 27 but I’ve seen it. Everything NASCAR has done in the past 20 years at least, with the exception of North Wilkesboro, has told the people who love the sport that they don’t matter. They’ve spent millions if not billions of dollars to move into markets that will never catch on as they literally see nascar as a joke. They leave or tear down beloved race tracks to serve people who might watch one race in their life. The little guy was thrown to the side by the charger system so there’s really no such thing as a talented underdog anymore. The younger drivers aren’t being taught respect in arca because it’s a wild scramble to get to cup by 25 or you won’t make it. There’s so much Kenny and we see it all. Inge they’re trying to expand but what actually happened? It’s nascar Kenny, it’s nascar
A lot of great comments.Get rid of the stage racing if you want to hold the viewers attention.The drivers now don’t know what its like to wheel a car for 500 laps in a Cup race.That one change would keep myself and others in front of the tv and grandstands.Just my two cents.
Today's drivers wouldn't make a hair on the ass of the drivers that made the sport. Those drivers were involved from start to finish on the cars that they drove and knew every inch of it,every nut and bolt. The legends that built the sport and have now left and turned it over to what we have today and with that they took the best of the sport with them! If racing is not on dirt then I don't watch it! The best years of nascar racing is gone!
You can't have it anymore where the drivers are that in tune to the car, knowing every nut & bolt, because the way the cars are engineered and so strictly enforced, you're not allowed to work on the car and you have to be a trained engineer to do any work. The days of a driver rolling up his sleeves and wrenching on a car like AJ Foyt are so far gone they weren't even around in the 90s. You can find drivers who do that, but not at any high level of competition like NASCAR or IndyCar or F1. You'll only find them, at your local short track.
nailed it.
Spot On.
Go back & read/watch when nascar put the Southern 500 back to Labor Day weekend. You had Edwards jump in one of David Pearsons 21 & David jumped into Edwards 99. They went around for about 50 laps & Edwards was complaining about how hard Pearson’s car was to drive. Pearson got out of the 99 & said he could win at his age driving the cars they had at that time! That says a whole lot about how nascar took the cars out of the drivers hands & made them to where anyone can get in & go! That’s been a big problem as well!
I actually don’t care that today’s drivers cannot work on the cars from start to finish really. They are too technical now. The driver should not work on the car, they should be driving it.
You know KW, if you think we are all still happy customers is because you are so immerse in it. Viewership since 2008 is down and is undeniable, crowd is important because it reflects the same decline. This is not about about wounds is about nascar trying to artificially increase competitivity, it works for a while then everybody catches, is like getting drunk last night, it was amazing when you were at it, not so much this morning. Please ask Kyle what he thinks about car restrictions, pack racing and all the nascar gimmicks to make it look more "competitive".
I’m 73 and heartbroken.
I had a #3 wardrobe that I could barely look at. And I could not wear again.
Herman, you hit the nail on the head.
A month or so ago, my wife said exactly what you said. My wife had continued to watch all of the races after Sr. died but then she watched fewer and fewer each year.
The connection to the legacy drivers is gone.
Nascar has changed so much around with cars, rules, points. They completely ruined the sport. Resetting top 10? What a joke. Its partly the drivers are new, its mainly the changes nascar made. They ruined it.
Good one Kenny. I haven't given it much thought until I watched this. I am 74yo and have been a fan since I was 12yo. My Dad was a fan and we watched the "Wide World Of Sports" on a black and white tube TV, when they only showed parts of the Daytona 500. When I was younger I built racing engines for dirt and pavement short tracks, and I loved all kinds of racing. I seldom miss a Nascar race on TV, even today. I have been to Daytona and Michigan several times, before i became an old fart.
When I saw the grandstands, I was shocked at how few people were there. I thought to myself "is this Bristol"? I believe that some people just can't afford to take their families to a Nascar event at this time. I get it!
The drivers are just robots these days. The cars are like large go karts, that sound like crap and don't look much better. It's true the real personalities are gone but nobody promotes the drivers any longer. I admit I wasn't a Dale fan even though I respected him. I just didn't like his driving style. Mark Martin was my hero since his ASA days, until the end.
Years ago we had people in the booth the likes of Chris Economaki and others that got the fans fired up by the lineup to the green flag. Those people in the booth knew how to get the fans excited.
I fell off to sleep a few times last Sunday and woke up just in time to see another tire explode. That wasn't racing it was survival of the part throttle bunch. Anyone who is a casual viewer would have turned the cartoons on that their kids watch as they are likely more exciting.
I'm afraid my enthusiasm has been going away since the beginning of this season, after more than 60 years of enjoyment and excitement. Pull the damn mufflers off and allow them more HP. Fans want to feel the ground shake when the cars go bye.
Hey Herm, I'm in my 70's and still watch when I can. I can't afford cable because I'm on SSI and don't have the funds for that but I follow when I can. It's just different. That's all. Times change. Drivers come and go. Cars are updated. It's just different. I'd watch every race if I could. I just love NASCAR. Always have, always will.
NASCAR started catering to people who weren't fans of the sport in an attempt to get new fans. They pissed off their old fans and failed to get more new ones to replace them.
Old fans look at the grandstands to check to make sure they aren't wrong in their dislike of the current racing product. And when they are empty, it reinforces their sniff test.
Yup. Ben Kennedy gets all his ideas from Fast & Furious movies.
I stopped watching after the chase go back to the old point system but at about 51 I still love playing iracing nascar
I am heartbroken, my pops passed last summer. It’s hard to watch racing without him. But you did nail it. He was an Elliot fan because of the bloodline. But I’m right there with him. I miss the good ol days. On behalf of myself and my father thank you for the memories your family and others have given us.
I’m a ninety fan and a Earnhardt follower. I’m gone but enjoy watching your Utube updates, thanks Kenny Wallace from the Square D Chevy! 😅
So true Kenny. Yes our guys are gone. But I still try to watch the race.
Back in the day, newcomers didn't know the drivers but the attraction was "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday". We could identify make and model on the track without need of emblems and innovation was the key to success which transferred to improvements for public use. Getting rid of the Winston and Bush series brand was the beginning of the end then adding template rules was the fatal blow for me.
The Winston thing wasn’t a NASCAR thing, that came from Congress
They banned any cigarette advertising.
@@Takingyoutojail Well aware but caving to "family friendly" just took the purity out of it. How many watched for the wrecks and pit fights? That was like MMA in Vegas, just add the barbecue grill... it was raw and real.
@@andya492 idk I’m kinda fine with removing the Winston Sponsorship
Nextel and Sprint were better for the new era
@@Takingyoutojail I think you're missing the point, there's a difference between an organic change and forced ideology which is why I'll watch a college football game over a pro game any day.
@@andya492 you can probably relate more to a college team vs a pro team
I am 65 and still watch, i hope to go to a race soon. There are things I miss about the old days but it is what it is.
The problem isn't who we've lost it's who they've been replaced with. Cookie cutter tracks, cookie cutter cars and cookie cutter drivers. When someone with a little personality comes along NASCAR, the media and the cookie cutters crucify them. Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace could never make it in NASCAR today because they don't fit the corporate mold and neither do us older fans. They've pulled the plug on their own boat.
What did it for me was young rich kid drivers, no respect for veteran drivers, the football like playoffs, segmented races, the cars all look alike, the fact that you can’t even talk to the drivers today, the sponsors change through the year.
You used to pick a driver and you were loyal to him , his team and his sponsor. Now everything changes too much. How can you be loyal to something that constantly changes.
College football is going to have the same thing when a star player goes to the highest paying college from year to year.
Why be loyal to anything that is not steady and will change tomorrow as if you don’t matter.
It’s the continuous change in the sport that loses everyone’s interest.
Hey Kenny, What year did they change the point system from where the one with the most points wins the championship?