Thinking Bigger

Brett McMillan

First, it was Juan Pablo Montoya at the Brickyard…then, Marcos Ambrose at Infineon…two foreign-born drivers on the verge of winning races…penalized by NASCAR…one for going too fast…the other too slow.

Those two penalties led to a chorus of conspiracy theorists claiming that they’re just further examples of how NASCAR doesn’t want foreign drivers winning races.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is a lot of opportunity for growth out there…especially overseas.  And, growth means more interest and more money. 

Recently, I spent a week and a half in Europe…and my trip underscored how much room for growth remains.  I have been blessed to get to travel to a lot of different places and this is the first trip I can remember taking in the last 20 years during which I didn’t see a single stitch of NASCAR-related clothing.  Not one.

And, when I would tell the natives that I did work in NASCAR, I got blank stares in return. 

Oh, they watch racing…I saw touring cars and motorcycles racing on TV.  But, Europe doesn’t know anything about NASCAR.

Believe me, the folks in Daytona see Europe as a huge untapped market…and know that nothing will get their attention faster than a non-American driver winning races.

Did the World Cup get any of your attention while the United States was in it?  How much did that change once they were out?

We all tend to be provincial…those with a world view know that’s what they need to tap into

Closing Daytona?

Brett McMillan

I’m not a big fan of hype.  I understand it, and agree with the need to, occasionally, enhance promotion.  Part of our jobs as live broadcasters is to build interest and excitement during the course of an event.  But, to me, hype is creating interest where none exists…or, over-selling excitement that is already there.

A perfect example of hype is what we saw from Daytona over the 4^th of July weekend.  If you didn’t know better, you’d have thought Daytona International Speedway was closing…not just being repaved.

I heard enough, “what a great way to bookend the history” and “what great memories we’ve seen” to make me nauseous.

IT’S JUST PAVEMENT!

It was reminiscent of the kind of things you heard when they closed Yankee Stadium.  The difference is, the building is the star...not the field.  No one was going on and on about what had happened since the last time they re-sodded.

The same applies to Daytona.  The facility is the star…not the pavement.  The only time the track surface should elicit any emotion is when there’s a total change…like, if Eldora went from dirt to asphalt.

At Daytona, of all places, the action speaks for itself…no one should ever try to get us to shed a tear over torn up pavement.

A Different Road

Brett McMillan

What a difference a year makes.  At our visit to Infineon Raceway a year ago, the whole double-file re-start thing was relatively new.  Drivers spent a lot of time leading up to the race worried about how tough the side-by-side racing would be climbing the hill to turn one.

During the race…they tread very lightly.

Fast forward to Father’s Day 2010.  “Have at it, boys” was treated more like an order than a suggestion.  There was no tip-toeing.  Instead, we saw drivers go three-wide where there was only room for two cars. 

Drivers now understand that the double-file re-starts give them better opportunities to make up positions…and they spent the day at Infineon trying to take advantage of that fact.

If you like short-track racing, you should have loved this years’ first road course race.  The sheet-metal damage I saw after the race looked more like Bristol than what we’ve come to expect from Infineon.

And, maybe even best of all, you know some guys spent their whole trip back across the country just stewing over this incident or that.  How often have we had guys leaving a road course race vowing revenge?

Take It On The Road, Baby

Brett McMillan

I like the road course races. 

I like the change of pace.  I like the fact it tests different skills in the drivers.  I’d like to see one or two more during the season.  Heck, I’d like to see one in the Chase.

Truth be known, I have a much easier time seeing myself racing on road courses than ovals.  

I find it kind of intriguing…the way 25 or 30 guys show up at road courses saying they’d be more than happy with a top-15.  Yes, the list of potential winners at a road course race is much shorter than usual…because the rest of the guys have talked themselves out of contention before they walked in the gate.

But, the list of those potential winners is growing.  In the past couple of years we’ve seen Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch stun the experts by making the trip to Victory Lane.  Jimmie Johnson has made it well-known that winning on a road course is currently near the top of his bucket list.

There was a time that guys who weren’t good at the road courses just wrote them off ahead of time.  But, with the 26-race schedule leading to the Chase, drivers can’t afford to do that anymore.  So, they’ve had to improve.

Imagine how much more importance they’d put on improving if a road course were one of the Chase races!  Its’ presence would certainly validate the regular season dates they currently occupy.

Welcome to My World

Brett McMillan

It’s all about perspective.  And, sometimes perception is not reality.

That point hit home the other day for me when someone said that they had a horrible crowd in Bristol this year.  Yes, the long sellout string at Thunder Valley is over…yes, there were a bunch of empty seats.  
But, let’s put that in perspective.  There were roughly 125,000 fans at Bristol this March. Here’s the list of other sporting events in this country, outside of racing, that can claim a crowd of 125,000:

1.

2.

3.

That’s right…there isn’t one.  125,000 is a lot of people…especially as far away from a major metropolitan area as Bristol is.  It’s not what we’ve come to expect in Bristol…but, the economy doesn’t allow what we have come to expect either.

Attendance is down at most NASCAR tracks this year.  Fans are being more selective with how they spend their, now shrunken, entertainment funds.  Believe me, most promoters are trying like crazy to find ways to give fans their money’s worth when they come to events.

Truth be known, most tracks overbuilt when the sport was in a huge growth mode.  But, let’s keep it in perspective, even if there were venues in other sports that could hold the size crowds that still come to NASCAR tracks, most would have a really hard time filling them.

Attendance may be down…but there are still a ton of people coming to races.

Museum Pieces

Brett McMillan

Did you notice that there weren’t many “specialty” paint schemes for the All-Star race this year?  That’s a good thing.

When Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress unveiled the silver #3 to commemorate Winston’s 25 years in NASCAR, it was something cool and unique.  It was also designed to sell a bunch of die cast silver #3s.

But then, as happens with fresh, new ideas, the copycats came swarming out of the woodwork.  Pretty soon, more than half the cars in the All-Star field were sporting “special” paint schemes.  The market was flooded…folks quit paying attention…and, (even more importantly) they quit buying the All-Star Special die casts.

Then, the world changed…and that booted the idea of special paint schemes into the “idea whose time has passed” bucket.  Think about it…how many Cup cars carry the same paint scheme…or even the same sponsor…for the 36 points races?

So, you change a paint scheme just for the All-Star race.  Who’ll notice?

It’s good to see this is one old idea that folks aren’t fighting to keep alive.