NASCAR Joins Domino's Pizza: Admits Their Past Product Was Poor

by M Roberts

When I heard about all the changes NASCAR was making to better the sport for it’s fans and drivers, all I could think about was how this giant in the business world must have hit rock bottom, or at least the depths close to the bottom that NASCAR has never seen.


The announcements made by the NASCAR suits in Charlotte this past week were highlighted by NASCAR saying they would be “more relaxed” and encourage drivers to show more emotions. They also said changes would be made to increase the hole in the restrictor plates and go back to the spoiler instead of the rear wing.

Many companies in the current economic climate have had to regroup, change strategies and come up with new game plans to be able to realistically forecast growth, but seldom do they admit their faults to the public or financial analysts.

NASCAR’s new plan is to basically go back to the old plan, which is admitting their faults in past changes. It is commendable that they can admit their past failures in decision making, but it would have appeared more earnest if no so desperate.

The NASCAR State of the Union address had me thinking of another company who recently rolled out with an ad campaign that basically admitted their past product was garbage. Domino’s Pizza, once a thriving up and coming company, built a huge following becoming a mega-giant in the pizza delivery business with little national competition.

Once some of the others came along with advertising campaigns just as big, like “Papa John’s“, and revenues were way down making their year over year charts look like the “diver down” flag, they shared all their recipe changes in a last ditch effort to get their slice of the business pie. In doing so, they shared comments from customers about how bad the pizza used to be, “It tasted like cardboard” and “the sauce is like ketchup”.

So now this big business pizza joint, who I thought was just fine but still never ordered much from, is admitting to me how bad the pizza used to be. They’re taking a 50-50 shot that they’ll maybe get some old clientele back, but they’re also alienating those who liked the old stuff. It’s business suicide, but it was a measure they were willing to take before the nose dive went off the charts.

In NASCAR’s case, we don’t have a Papa John’s circuit to run to for alternative stock car racing. It’s the only game in town, but why couldn’t they have come clean with their faults, which everyone had cried aloud about, when everything was rolling well with NASCAR’s bank account and future?

Last season saw television ratings increase slightly in only seven of the 40 NASCAR Sprint Cup events compared to 2008. The economy was bad, but most folks had TV sets before things went sour. The writing was on the wall and they needed some momentum for the next big TV contract in 2014, plain and simple.

The double-file restarts -- in the middle of the down 2009 season -- was a sign that NASCAR would be willing to do just about anything to garner more recognition and impress the sponsors and networks

So NASCAR announces it has a rodeo again, but the best broncos have already been broken. Is it possible to think you can break a wild horse and then tell it to buck again like it used to?

How do you tell the likes of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch to go ahead and be that colorful personality with a style that the fans love and hate equally at the same time when it was NASCAR who made them stay after school writing “I will not misbehave again or else” a thousand times on the chalk board.

In a way, it’s refreshing to see a sport react so swiftly and make the subtle changes. On the other hand, NASCAR is also showing that it’s business is being run like a Korean liquor store where the prices fluctuate on a daily basis with never an ounce of consistency.

Could you imagine Major League Baseball, the NFL, or NBA drastically changing it’s rules year after year, or even worse in the middle of a season? No, because part of what makes those sports so good is that the core rules basically stay the same. It’s not hard to follow for someone that took a few years off, whether in jail, in a cave, or even worse, got married.

Can you picture the NASCAR fan that took a 10-year hiatus from the sport and he’s being told about all the “new” things going on in stock car racing. The first response might be, “why the hell did they make a change to a rule that was already there.”

And I don’t even want to attempt explaining all the add-on changes throughout the Chase for the Championship format, along with why Labor Day weekend doesn‘t have a race at Darlington anymore.

In the long run, the changes will be good for NASCAR and I’m looking forward to this season more than ever. But I have to believe that some of things that have gone on with this family operated business over the last decade could have been handled much better by real business minds who think things out with long term effect rather than knee-jerk.

Again, it’s the only game in town.

NASCAR TV Ratings Continue to Slip

by Micah Roberts

Last weeks Pocono race marked the seventeenth consecutive week of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing on television that saw a major decrease from the sports coverage of 2008. The final FOX figures for their fifteen races of coverage this season were down from a 5.7 share to 5.1 in 2009. The average viewers for each race during FOX telecasts dropped from 10 million in 2008 to 8.5 million in 2008.

Track attendance has fallen at tracks all across the country, but those figures are much easier explained by the country’s national unemployment rate of 9.4%. It costs money to go to the track, lots of money. After buying two tickets, taking a stroll through the haulers to buy some gear, and then buy a few beers and hot dogs for two, you’re looking at $300 easy and that’s if you don’t drink that much.

Not many are willing to part with their cash right now and are in a freeze mode with all frivolous activities until things start to get better, and quite understandably wise for all of them.

However, the television ratings are what is really puzzling. All the races on TV are free. It’s not like the other sports where there are pay-per-view packages to watch your teams. Any man and woman can sit on their couch and watch the weekly NASCAR race at their own pace. With the unemployment rate being so high, it might even be possible to expect a rise in viewership with so many sitting at home right now.

So NASCAR can blame the economy for attendance, but what do they have to say to the big Networks that paid big cash to televise a sport that was continually on the rise about why things are so down in 2009? The Networks are losing expected money because now they can’t sell an expected rating time slot to advertisers as promised.

It’s obvious that the recent big change in NASCAR with the advent of a double file restart has something to do with creating an answer to the steep declines for the Networks. Really, who makes major changes in the middle of a season, or rather a third of the way through a season, for a high profile sport on a knee jerk reaction?

Nobody, except NASCAR. They have stated they want to do it for the fans, but it’s in a roundabout way through Network pressure to get the ratings up higher. It’s not like they got a ton of fan e-mails, letters, and voice mails and were enlightened. This process went through several channels of NASCAR brass and the competition committee with the goal of gaining more viewers and helping set themselves up for the next for the next Network deal which expires in 2013.

Not surprisingly the discussions all came soon about after the spectacular crash-finish at Talladega and ratings dipped less than any track this season. So NASCAR and the Networks said, “Yes, we need more than that!”

The only facts I have of any of the above are the ratings, attendance, and unemployment rate. Everything else is speculative, but it does make some sense.

As for NASCAR fans not watching? Maybe there is a little bit of the Junior factor not doing well that has alienated a small portion. He is a big part of the sport, but I know their all still out there because I hear them complain about Kyle Busch every day.

Maybe the Car of Tomorrow and some of the mandated changes in 2005 like the single gear ratio for all cars have had something to do with the quality of racing? Pocono’s race last week was another snoozer despite Tony Stewart becoming victorious for the first time as a car owner, thanks in part because of the single gear ratio rule.

Another casualty of the change is on the two road courses, one of which is at Sonoma next week. No down-shifting on a road circuit? Blasphemous for any motor sports fan!

Or quite possibly maybe it's the coverage of NASCAR by the Network themselves. Who doesn't get tired of seeing the replay of a pass or wreck after coming back from another break. "While we were away" does get irritating when it happens after every break. The IRL could help NASCAR and the Networks out with their coverage.

Only time will how NASCAR and the ratings game unfolds. One thing I know for sure is that TNT’s coverage and rating results from Pocono has already shown us that we can’t blame the FOX mascot “Digger” for the ratings decline.

NASCAR has claimed that they are listening to the fans, yet it only seems to have responded to their wallets. The fans and NASCAR go hand and hand, but in order for the fan to feel their getting a fair shake, NASCAR may actually have to listen, and not just say it.