NASCAR & NHL Following Same Path

[Guest Jeremy88]

I used to be a nascar fan, but now it's boring as hell. Everything in that article is true, it's boring.

[Spongewingredpants 75]

Nascar = Yawn

[CrazyWings 0]

I used to be a nascar fan, but now it's boring as hell. Everything in that article is true, it's boring.

Did you see Gordon and Johnson going at it in Martinsville. How can you call that boring. These guys are exstreamly talented and its interesting to see how far they can push those cars. But i do think hockey is better.

[Booster313 138]

This is BS....Sounds like ESPN talking about the NHL, all they do is slam hockey. I'm a Nascar fan and know many more and we enjoy the sport more than ever. Like a previous poster stated Nascar is the number 1 spectator sport in America. Someone has it out for the NHL and Nascar, but as we fans know, they will never get us to stop watching.

I'm not trying to knock anyones favorite sport but NASCAR is the number one spectator sport in America because all the tracks hold 100k plus people and they pretty much race year round.

[Sting 11 0]

When I grew up the only sport in the house was NASCAR. Mind you we're talking mid-80s, when NASCAR was just starting to get full flag-to-flag coverage on cable. So, I was a NASCAR fan before I discovered the stick-and-ball sports.

I've had a front row seat to the rise and fall of NASCAR...and I can tell you, racing in the mid-80s through the mid-90s was fantastic. Then, just as NASCAR started to try to go national, it began to suffer. It abandoned some of it's classic, unique tracks for 1.5 mile "cookie-cutter" high capacity facilities. The big network TV deal, common templates, and now finally the "car of tomorrow" are the final nails in the coffin for the traditional fan. I still watch NASCAR, but I don't follow it as closely as football or hockey.

I see the NHL to be a far different situation from NASCAR. I don't think there is a hard ceiling to hockey's popularity. With NASCAR, you have something that pushes the definition of sports and athletics. With hockey you still have two teams, timekeeping, and a score...not unfamiliar to fans of other stick-and-ball sports.

Hockey needs only a few things to be nationally successful, in my opinion. It obviously needs positive national media coverage. It needs to emphasize the speed, skill, and unpredictability of the game. It needs to control, but not eliminate, fighting...so it loses the "Slapshot" image but doesn't alienate the fight fans. And it needs to heavily promote a low-cost, no-ice version of the game that can be played by anyone...like street hockey.

Did you see Gordon and Johnson going at it in Martinsville. How can you call that boring. These guys are exstreamly talented and its interesting to see how far they can push those cars. But i do think hockey is better.

That's part of NASCAR's problem right now...it's Gordon and Johnson...every blessed week.

(This coming from a massively frustrated Ryan Newman fan...)

[20lapointe4ever 0]

If only the NHL Could be as popular as NASCAR. I don't see how it isn't NASCAR sucks. Non Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks (NASCAR)

Edited November 17, 2007 by 20lapointe4ever

[terri27 0]

I'm a huge NASCAR fan and I agree witht 4e article. So much has changed, I grew up watching it back before all this new crap and now it's totally different. In a bad way. Alot I feel goes to Nextel who took over the NASCAR circuit. My two sports ruined by new changes-lwhy can't people leave well enough alone.

[Guest Jeremy88]

that martinsville race was exciting. There have been a lot of races this year with exciting finishes, the daytona 500, pepsi 400 (I was there booyakasha!), martinsville, etc...

The problem is the first 450 miles are super ultra mega boring, then the drivers dice it out for the last 50 miles

Like the Daytona 500, it was single file driving for the first 170 laps. It started to pick up with 30 laps to go.

[Jwo 7]

Nascar is the number one spectator sport because every goes just to get drunk.

Edited November 18, 2007 by Jwo