2012 IndyCar Season Will Impact NASCAR?
Honda appears to still be interested as being a power plant provider but they’ll have to contend with GM, Lotus, Fiat/Chrysler, Ford and possibly some others. The power plant manufacturers plan to field engines which incorporate current state of the art turbo-charged V-6 engines, some based on their street counterparts, which is what the auto manufacturers are looking for. Meanwhile, NA$CAR continues to drag its heels on going to an antiquated form of fuel injection, purpose-built engines, and barely returning some form of bodylines, outside of some new decals and a couple of new plastic noses, to the much maligned and heavily fan despised Car of Travesty. NA$CAR won’t be introducing a really major change until 2013, which gives IndyCar a full season to build up even more momentum in picking up new fans (possibly some disgruntled former NA$CAR fans among them), maybe fans that were lost due to the IRL-ChampCar split, and more than likely new sponsors because of the embracing of new technology by IndyCar.
And while some of the lamestream media types (who are biased towards Focks and BSPN‘s “wonderful" commercial-filled coverage) have blasted the network coverage that IndyCar has had in the past on Versus , things will improve for Versus since NBC has bought about 51% of Versus. Their coverage should improve and expand into the open airwaves on NBC, which is something that is missing from about half of the Cup Series season because it's on cable thus excluding some segments of the TV viewing market. Plus IndyCar isn’t locked into any long term contracts that are set in cement like NA$CAR so there is some flexibility with their coverage. No changes have been announced about dumping the split-screen coverage which every NA$CAR fan at home has been screaming for since the return of BSPN but was nixed by His Royal Highness saying that NASCAR’s sponsors, not the team sponsors, wanted their particular type of "branding" to be done so we get stuck watching the cursed plethora of commercials weekend after weekend during racing season. By keeping the split-screen coverage, IndyCar increases their odds of viewership and expanding their fan base. By staying with the status quo that is driving fans away, NASCAR’s ratings will continue to suffer and go downhill.
So just how far has NA$CAR sunk? Based on some market research, on the last survey that was conducted by a shopping survey company, folks were asked what sports do you enjoy watching? And the results were Football 59%, Baseball 35%, Basketball 33%, NA$CAR 23%, and Golf 19%. So this is very telling about these results. Two years ago, according to this same company's surveys, NA$CAR was the most watched sport on TV. Now they are barely ahead of golf. I’d like to use the late George Carlin’s analogy about golf but I’m trying to keep this at least PG rated. To put it politely, George Carlin found golf to be about as exciting as flies engaged in the act of reproduction.
By dumping the I$C tracks, IndyCar is also improving the odds of pulling in more fans from the ranks of F1 and sports car racing. More road courses and tracks which aren’t cookie-cutters tend to keep fan interest up. Plus they put money into the coffers of I$C rival Bruton Smith, which you know has got to hurt at least on an ego-damaging level. NA$CAR on the other hand continues to have a schedule heavily dominated by the cookie-cutter 1.5 miles tracks which have turned fans off instead of going to some other venues like Road Atlanta, VIR, or maybe even returning to places like Rockingham, North Wilkesboro, or giving a second date back to Darlington. Tracks that have some flare, uniqueness, and history to them. And while only the Busch Series looks to be racing outside the US borders in Canada for one race, the IndyCar folks are looking at going at going to various parts around the globe like Canada, Brazil, and Japan thus increasing their fan base and market. And by cutting out the I$C tracks, IndyCar finds themselves saving some money and being properly promoted by Bruton and the other track owners in their racing efforts instead of being a poor cousin to the Truck Series which hardly gets any promotion by I$C despite it being the best racing NA$CAR currently has. It seems that IndyCar was lucky to be promoted at all by the I$C tracks they raced at, especially on weekends when any of NASCAR’s 3 major series were racing at the same track.
So while NA$CAR basically sits stagnant with the exception of some new nose pieces, new decals that are supposed to give some brand identity, and the introduction of an obsolete fuel injection system around the middle of next Cup season, the Indy Car folks are busy putting together they’re launching of the new cars, aero packages, and engines packages to really send them back into orbit in 2012 in hopes of recapturing their former glory. And it’s really amazing that while all of this is happening, NA$CAR seems to think they can rest on their collective backsides because they believe their own propaganda. Even with the possibilities of a lockout next season in the NFL, NA$CAR shows no interest in trying to improve themselves or their “product".
We’ll see how that works out next season after the e-mails I got from a large number of fans within 30 minutes of the finish of the race at Homestead who are heading for greener pastures on Saturday nights and Sundays between February and November 2011. Mad Mike's