Fixer-Upper: Five ways to improve NASCAR

With a seemingly growing number of fans, both longtime and recent, voicing their growing discontent with NASCAR and its way of running America’s top racing series, it’s become apparent that the sanctioning body needs to make some serious changes, and soon, for the overall health of all three top series. Not everything needs fixing, but there are some major fixes that NASCAR needs to seriously consider. Here’s my take on five things that need to happen sooner rather than later.

Lose the Top 35 Rule 
This rule was unnecessary when it was introduced and is now harmful to both teams and fans. Racing should be about racing, and the car you brought to the track, not what you had a week ago or a month ago (or in some cases, last year!). The funny thing is, NASCAR had it right several years ago, when there were two rounds of time trials and only a handful of provisional spots to go around. I don’t recall a top driver going home under that system, yet everyone had an equal chance of making the race. Now, teams are hurting from this rule in a different way.

Teams outside the top 35 in owner points are resorting to bouncing drivers each week just to get in the races. That means there is no seat for the young up-and-comer who could be the future of the team if given time to mature and qualify for races. It becomes a Catch-22 in that the new drivers aren’t given enough time to learn how to race top cars against top drivers and are consequently shuffled out of the series, or even NASCAR altogether.

Between this and the sad state of the Nationwide Series, NASCAR is falling behind in driver development. Which brings us to …

Revamp the Nationwide Series 
If the Cup regulars must compete in this series, make them do so in a car they own, on their own dime, but do not award the driver a single Nationwide Series point. A Cup driver, after his rookie year, has no business running for the Nationwide championship, anyway.

The current climate is akin to a high school baseball player winning the league batting title because he’s playing on a Little League team. Fans should be as outraged as those Little League kids’ parents would be. Sure, it’s a chance for the fans to see the big boys cheap, but it’s at too high a cost for the real Nationwide teams. Those NNS-only outfits make their livelihood on the junior circuit and develop talent for Cup rides a year or two down the road. The Cup owners and drivers are presently doing no less, and no more, than walking in and buying the title from the very teams that the future health of the sport depends on.

While we’re at it, restructuring the prize money so that the top purses go to the series regulars, not to the spoiled rich kids who don’t need it just to race the next week would go a long way. And then …

Restructure the schedule
The Nationwide Series is capable of standing on its own more often than it does, while the Craftsman Truck Series could use the draw of being a companion Cup event. It would also solve the double duty championship-bullying problems in the Nationwide Series.

For whatever reason, the trucks don’t hold the allure to as many Cup drivers — and one or two Cup guys in a truck race would both boost attendance and probably make for a more entertaining race (most likely because the Truck regulars would take them to school). This gives the Truck Series needed exposure, while the Nationwide Series would stand to gain a much-needed identity if its own.

And while we’re on the subject of the schedule, give a nod to tradition, NASCAR, and bring back the Southern 500. Not a Spring race wearing the name, but a Labor Day Weekend show that fans have clamored for since California Speedway appeared on the radar. The move would go further than NASCAR realizes to win back the hearts of some of the long-time fans the sanctioning body has done its best to alienate the last few years. After the schedule is improved …

Scrap an outdated point system 
The Chase was a contrived mechanism to make the current point system look more exciting. Not only does the Chase make a farce of the first 26 races of the season, it also uses — often less than effectively — the same point system that has been in effect for more than 30 years. 

What NASCAR needs to do is create a point system that rewards winning first, then consistency in the form of top-5 and top-10 finishes. A seven- to 10-point spread for second through 10th coupled with a heftier win bonus would go a long way. For positions outside of the top 25, NASCAR needs to either award the same points or none at all.

For those in the middle, a three-point spread seems reasonable. A system such as this, with no artificial playoffs added in an attempt to drum up interest with the bandwagoneers, would erase the stroking that goes on for most of the first 26 races. Teams would be forced to go out and try to win every week, not just bring it home safely in order to “just qualify” for the Chase. Make it an actual season-long championship again. And finally …

Publish the rule book 
Every other major sport’s sanctioning body makes its rule book available to fans in some way. NASCAR’s rule book doesn’t need to be kept a secret.

While a lot of fans probably wouldn’t understand much of the technical rules on car specs, at least it wouldn’t give the glaring impression that NASCAR is trying to hide anything. As it’s written, the rule book is just vague enough that NASCAR can enforce it as it chooses (and that’s another whole story) but certainly contains nothing fans shouldn’t know. Although the rule book does not contain specific punishments, it does make clear certain things that will not be tolerated, and it does specify what parts of the car have to be where.

NASCAR has nothing to gain by being so secretive, but stands everything to lose by keeping fans in the dark. At the very least, not making the rules available will cost NASCAR the respect of many.

And in its current state, NASCAR can’t afford to lose any more of that.

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