To answer Kevin's question specifically of "Like or dislike? Care or don't care?", my answer is dislike. I am no longer in Nascar's crosshairs. I rode their train for 4 decades, was a long time Daytona attended... Dover too... but now I am a DVR/Fast Forward fan only, and honestly, there's probably nothing that Nascar can do to get me back, and it's been that way for quite a few years. They wanted an "event", with the racing second to it being an event, and I think they got exactly what they wanted. Most of the passing that I saw was similar to what you would see at a no rules amusement park go kart track where you're trying to set the person up in front of you to make a pass, and the guy behind both of you slams into you, taking both you and the guy in front of you out, with the result him moving up, and the two guys who were in front getting the short end of the stick. Hey, there's no rules against it, Nascar doesn't want there to be a rule against it... And it became quite obvious that it wasn't for that, the announcers would of had very little to talk about. That's not racing to me. There's going to be contact, but at least send the car that caused it to the rear to discourage constant repeat performances. I am also extremely suspect of that the late arriving crowd... I would think that most racefans would have wanted to go to the heat races, the consi's and the feature... And I think the real racefans did. I think a large part of the others that filled in just prior to the main event, looked like a bunch of college kids, looking for a party interupted for brief moments of racing. Did you see the crowd shots during "Halftime?" Did you see how few fans there were with racing attire on? I saw a lot of USC shirts, a Kings of Leon shirt, a few football and baseball jerseys... even a Titties Bear shirt.... but almost no Nascar apparel at all. Pure speculation on my part (not saying this happened), but if I was in charge of making it look ike a success, and a big part of that was to make sure the place wasn't 1/2 empty, I'd air drop free tickets to USC and any other area schools/places of businesses that would have the demographic that I wanted those halftime camera's to be able to zoom in on to show what Nascar wants the world to think their product is all about now. I saw very few racefans, and I wonder what % of those in attendance, who paid full admission to be there yesterday, are busy ordering tickets for next year's event? Speaking of halftime, I thought it was horrible, but it wasn't aimed at me, so I'm ok with that. (Ironically, I own both "One Nation Under a Groove" by Funkadelic and "The Message" by Grand Master Flash from around 1980 that Icecube talked/rapped, shook his right hand to) but I found whatever it was that he was doing over top of the music track, totally uninteresting in that it was boring to listen to.. boring to watch... and I'm not real sure how well it really went over with anyone there. It seemed like the FOX camera's were struggling to find just the right shot to show how hip, how young, and how engaged everyone was... It felt insincere.... But I guess I could say the same thing for most halftime superbowl shows. Seems to me that Nascar could find a way to attract new fans without thumbing their nose at the core that either hasn't died yet, or hasn't totally given up on them yet, although after yesterday, I think that core number is even smaller. Yesterday was a clear message that Nascar is saying, we're moving on, and in many ways, I don't blame them. Many of us were looking for a way off the boat and Nascar has made it that much easier. They have pushed out the old and all that is left is for them to welcome in the new. Yesterday was a solid reveal of what Nascar feels is their future. They are betting on it. They have to.
|
