Monday Morning Crew Chief
Written by Jonathan Ingram · October 29, 2007
“The King” lost his crown in Atlanta and the bleachers looked a little bare as well.
Fifteen years ago, the ticket sales were brisk at the Atlanta Motor Speedway prior to the season finale of what was then known as the Winston Cup. In addition to the closest championship in NASCAR history, “The King,” Richard Petty, was running his last race and local hero Bill Elliott was among the title contenders.
According to Francis Goss, the ticket manager, demand for tickets in 1992 so far exceeded capacity that “We could have sold every blade of grass in the track if we had tried.”
This year, Petty waved the green flag as the honorary starter for the Atlanta race. His cap blew off in the process as the field roared past. In other words, “The King” lost his crown. Given all the empty seats around one of the South’s oldest superspeedways — and arguably its finest racing venue — the question was begged once again on the subject of whether NASCAR’s crown status among professional sports has become tarnished.
For the first time since that 1992 race — other than events postponed by rain — the track held less than 100,000 fans.
I’ll skip through the usual explanations for this current phenomenon, due to laboring under the quite possibly false assumption that readers expect to find something unusual, different and perhaps even enlightening in this cyberspace.
The usual explanations — in no particular order — are as follows. Atlanta has historically been a tough sell and this track was overbuilt following the success of 1992. Atlanta always draws more Earnhardt fans than any other track and the following of the “heir apparent” is down considerably after a year and a half of lackluster results as well as the squabbling at Dale Earnhardt Inc. The sad bloom and boom in interest that came in the wake of the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. is finally off. Local hero Bill Elliott, meanwhile, is making no waves with the Wood Brothers.
In the past, Atlanta has hosted three races on this weekend. This year, NASCAR elected to have the Busch race in Memphis, which definitely hurt the value of a weekend ticket.
As for the more general explanations, Atlanta seems to suffer from the same problem as Charlotte and Talladega. These tracks comprise six race dates within close physical proximity on similar type facilities with huge grandstands. Interestingly, the short track races at Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond are within a close radius of one another, but continue to sell out in part due to lower seating capacity and an ongoing fondness for bullrings.
A slow economy, a slower Championship Chase between two teammates who occasionally raise their voices toward one another — but never their fists — are also familiar explanations. New on the horizon are questions about ESPN’s feckless coverage. Finally, NASCAR’s administration directed by an often absent Chairman and CEO Brian France is being held responsible for everything from the drab Car of Tomorrow to the wrong driver given a race victory in Kansas.
Here’s some of the reasons you won’t hear as often, for what they’re worth.
First, NASCAR is a sport that has long represented not just a lifestyle among its fans, but a way of life. Long associated with Anglo-Saxon and Scots Irish southerners, the sport has historically, in fact, belonged to the working class stretching far beyond the borders of the Old South. But it appears the biggest problem in both TV viewing and attendance have occurred south of the Mason-Dixon line. This is an important consideration, because the working class fans elsewhere seem to have less problem with the ongoing changes in NASCAR.
The southern fans may have often disagreed with NASCAR in the past, but they kept coming in support of drivers they closely identified with. Indeed, when a tornado struck the Atlanta track in 1974, fans from all over the Southeast showed up to help re-build it. For one reason or another, that kind of support has ebbed. Beyond ticket prices, the most likely reason has been a conscious effort by NASCAR to expand the appeal of stock car racing beyond its white working class fan base in the Southeast.
The dropping of dates at traditional tracks and events such as the Southern 500 at Darlington on the Labor Day weekend in favor of a race in California — to mention but one glaring example — is chief among the alienation factors. The invitation to participate extended to Toyota is another. (The parking lot in Atlanta, home to Ford and GM factories that have recently been slated for closing, had aproximately 1/124th of a Tundra for each Ford or Chevy pick-up.)
The Drive for Diversity may be the American way, but has not been the traditional route to the top for NASCAR heroes. Nor has an Indy 500 victory such as those scored by current crossovers Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve. In other words, some traditonal southern fans no longer believe the sport belongs to them and their kind. Even worse, more than a few fully believe that NASCAR doesn’t want them.
As one longtime observer said on Saturday, in anticipation of Sunday’s blank bleachers, “NASCAR has made it clear they don’t want the rednecks. So the rednecks aren’t showing up.”
The biggest change in the whole enchilada may well be the change in the lifestyles of the working class from one generation to the next. Instead of saving their vacation time and money to drive motor homes to four races in the Southeast, perhaps they now fly to Las Vegas for one NASCAR weekend. Eventually, track owner Bruton Smith, whose promotion efforts have always been far weaker in Atlanta than Charlotte, may decide to move one of his Atlanta weekends to Las Vegas to cash in on the getaway mecca’s appeal.
There’s also changes in TV viewing habits. The “whatever” generation is not parked in front of the TV every weekend. On the plus side, this same generation is more likely to embrace changes that encourage drivers from non-traditional sources and ethnic groups than older fans who can remember the good ol’ days of Petty vs. Pearson. And that trade-off, when all is said and done, is more than likely better for NASCAR growth in the long run.
In a supreme irony, it appears that Brian France, the third generation of the France family to run NASCAR, is less enthusiastic than his father, Bill France Jr, and grandfather, “Big Bill” France. His past interest in buying an NFL team and current talk of his interest in moving from Daytona to Los Angeles not long after his father’s death confirm that the grandstands are not the only indication of changing times.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.
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Don’t forget where you are. Nascar is big in the South, but this is college football country. Georgia plays Florida in Jacksonville, Tennessee play South Carolina in Knoxville. Aubrun plays Ole Miss. You can bet they would have sold a bunch more seats the week before but that is a pretty big draw away from the Atlanta market.
Atlanta was a great track with a unique, appealing configuration–almost all turns, yet unbelievably fast. Changing it to match Charlotte, etc. was a huge mistake, although it would be difficult to determine how much this has affected attendance.
“…the wrong driver given a race victory in Kansas…”
…and at the Daytona 500.