does anyone else think nascar is to commercial?

Question

ive been watching nascar since the 70's and back then one car teams and guys that just liked to race came to show what they had.
slowly sponsers came aboard but now it's more commercial than racing. i know it takes money but nascar is always saying there doing something to "cut costs" for the smaller teams.
does anyone else find this stupid when you see the race on tv for 5 min. then 5 min. of commercials????i just want to watch the race.

Answer 1

I totally agree with you. I've been watching since the early 80's. I really don't like the change.

Answer 2

Definately a good point. Like you, I was a fan in the late 70s and had to listen to most of races on the radio simply because they were not televised. I got to see the Daytona 500 on tv but I missed most races until ESPN came along during the mid 80s and started televising them.

Now I get to see every race from every angle and get to watch Speed all week long. I get hours of pre race stuff including happy hour and qualifying. Not a day goes by that I can't catch some NASCAR program on TV if I want, all thanks to commercialism. A small price to pay as far as I am concerned.

Yes, NASCAR has become very commercial but at least we the fans are reaping some rewards from those commericials.

However, I do miss the single car teams and the occasioanal long shot winner. I wish NASCAR would do more to help the smaller budget teams. I was ecstatic last season when David Gilliland won that BUSCH race without a sponsor on his hood. That was a fantastic story. We never get that in CUP.. not even close.

Answer 3

Well it's very apparent that nascar has commercials on and off the track. Look at the teams, jackets, cars, commercials, there is ALWAYS a logo. It's expensive to run a race car team, with all the maintenance, multiple race cars (that's not always the same on you see racing) and getting into the race itself. That's why you don't see mom and pop teams entering the race.

It seems its just a natural part of nascar racing.

If you want all the reasons and history behind advertising for nascar check out www.wikipedia.org/nascar

Answer 4

NASCAR, and racing in general, was fun to watch on television 15 and even 20 years ago. As soon as the sport sold it's soul to corporate sponsors, it changed. Every on-air interview is an homage to a sponsor or two or three even. Gone are the good ole boy's of racing. In their place are the fresh, young faces of the sport to sell it to a wider, younger audience, attracting new viewers and fans. I completely understand NASCAR's position to do it this way to make money and to continue to grow the sport, but I feel they lost their uniqueness along the way. To be a fan of the sport 20 years ago was like belonging to a secret society. Now, it's no different than belonging to Costco or Sam's Club - everybody does it.

FYI: Bobby Labonte was the series champion over the age of 35.

Answer 5

If you just want to watch the race your going to have to buy tickets and actually go to the race. The commercialism part of NASCAR is it's revenue, and of course that's going to take a lot of air time.

Answer 6

This has been kicked around in several forums.My thoughts is the networks are going to recoop their money that they spent to secure the NASCAR contract any way they can.So the simplest way is to sell commercials.For us the viewer we endure countless commercials that take up at least a third of the race.
NASCAR is a commercial in one sences as the cars are described as 200 MPH bill boards.
But yes the commercials are out of hand.

Answer 7

Back in my youth, the only NASCAR coverage we had was via AM radio and sporadically, 15 minutes worth of highlights on ABC's "Wide World of Sports" on Saturday afternoon of the previous weeks selected race.

I see more racing action today in one race than I saw in any entire season back then.

Who would you rather have paying for the telecast, yourself or the sponsors? Personally, I love racing but I can't afford 200 dollars a month (minimum) for PPV events.

I count among my blessings that in the 1970’s, a start-up sports dedicated cable network (ESPN) was in desperate need of and in search of live programming and brought weekly-televised races to a mass audience. What was it that made that possible? Commercials!

God Bless America! Support the sponsors anyway possible.

I may not buy Dupont Automotive Finishes but I have their refrigerant in my AC unit.


Justin M, if it was exclusively a poor man's sport originally and most early racers did it to make a living, wouldn't it be about the dollars? Who was it that helped get those racecars on the tracks? Sponsors. Small businesses like Dayvaults Tune-Up & Tire Center and Doc's Cycle Center

Ralph Earnhardt quit the mill, because he believed he could support his family doing it. He did promise his wife, Martha, that if he couldn't support his family with racing he would quit. To him, it was about the dollar and first place paid more.

http://www.webprosolutions.com/ghosts/ajones.php

Answer 8

Yes, it is one big commercial just look at the cars they are advertsing billboards as they go around the track..The TV networks has to pay for the huge contract to cover Nascar on TV...so yep theres the commercial torture we go thru.. I just can't not see why Nascar can't do what IRL does, do the side by side thing...Honda paid for that with IRL it was still a commerical but the race would still be on.....not sure if there is one huge sponsor that would do that for Nascar....Come on Chevy/Ford/Dodge/Toyota.... Hey Bruton Smith, you could pay for it easily..

Answer 9

OF COURSE its too commercial. The whole race is nothing but a commercial. From the sponsor stickers on the car, to the sponsor patches on the suits, to the sponsor helmet, to the banners on the walls of the track, to the name of the race, to the products that they serve at the concession stands, to the souvenirs you can buy..... its ALL commercial. I still love it though!

Answer 10

...I think they should use the prerace hour and a half to do most of the commercials and once the race starts then focus on the race, wrecks, recaps, and post race show.

...Like you say there are to many commercials and they are destroying the whole environment with excessive commercial breaks.

Answer 11

Yes and too much for its own good today. While I know and understand sponsorship is important, its pretty obvious they've been handed way too much power than they should have. It feels like racing is controlled more by corporate business executives than the sanctioning body itself.