March 7th, 2011 
Journo The top-ten in Sunday’s Cup race was a diverse group. The drivers came from nine different teams, three different countries, all four manufacturers, and they ranged in age from 27 to 40. And your winner? Well, he was doing backflips.
On Saturday, it was an old face in victory lane and a history making moment by a new face (at least in NASCAR) just a few spots back. There was even a fight in the garage on Friday night – too bad there weren’t any photos.
Add to those moments 20-year-old Trevor Bayne winning the Great American race for the sport’s oldest team, and fan favorite Jeff Gordon ending a 66-race winless streak and you have three weeks of fantastic storylines.
NASCAR President Mike Helton agrees saying:
NASCAR has a lot of positive momentum right now. That undoubtedly has played some part in the big TV ratings bump (up double digits in each of the last three weeks) and sellout crowds. And with the backdrop of the “Millionaires vs. Billionaires” fight in the NFL and lockout fears in the NBA, NASCAR’s looking pretty good right now.
The fact is, the product is as good as it’s ever been. Races are close, the competition is close and the personalities have made it all pretty entertaining. And wouldn’t you know it, good storylines and good numbers all mean a more positive atmosphere throughout the sport. People are feeling good about the 2011 season.
Even with all the positive feelings there is a bit of apprehension given what everyone has been through for the last several seasons. After all, we’re just three positive weeks in to years of tough times.
Not helping matters though is this off week for the Cup and Nationwide Series. Fox isn’t happy about it – and you better believe with this momentum NASCAR isn’t too thrilled with it either.
Still, while the season is young and I’ll admit it’s a little early to be calling a turn around, I’m cautiously optimistic – what we’ve seen so far is a very good place to start.
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Hopefully NASCAR considers this scheduling anachronism when creating next year’s slate. In 2011, everyone flies jets back from the West Coast & the same cars won’t be used for Bristol. The extra week off is unnecessary, and would be better served later in the year when it’s more needed.
This week has always been the pothole in their Daytona 500.
great post! agree the week off is bad, the least they should do is try to schedule one national race every weekend, that way when the cup series is off at least we have a good nationwide or trucks race to watch. not sure why they didn’t make this a priority in the off season.
But we have the trucks at Darlington Saturday afternoon. Not too shabby of a race for a cup off week.
I’m enjoying the season so far. I’ve watched every lap this year. Something I haven’t done in quite awhile. I wonder how I’ll feel when we get to California & Texas.
NASCAR has already announced that there won’t be an off week early in the season since the Daytona 500 was pushed back a week.
@Jon- There is a truck race at Darlington on Saturday. I checked realy quickly, there are no weekends where there is not at least 1 race in the 3 national series.
This “week off” after the third race has been scheduled like this for years.
Four weeks working, a week off, then five more weeks back at work, including after the Bristol TENNESSEE race a trip waaaaaaaaay back out to Cali just to come right baaaaaaaack to Martinsville VIRGINA, taking us to Easter then work the rest of the season, twenty eight straight weeks, in the blazes of the hot summer sun.
I’d have scheduled right up to Easter then drop a week off in before Indy.
Someday they’ll fix this too…
I totally agree that things are going in a good direction for NASCAR so far. Storyline is always king, and it is good to see intersting lines develop so far and people really raising the bar in the broadcast and media side of things to work those storylines. It is all noticeably better to me and it is awesome to see everyones’ hard work paying off.
I still don’t get promo’ing this sport by doing spots that highlight nothing but crashes, but I guess if it seems to be working… However, I simply cannot resist the temptation to point out that the statistics clearly show that viewership has increased as the number of cars going upside down has virtually gone to zero (one incident that did not resemble the flights we saw with the wing)
. Sorry, but I’ll always be a die-hard “crashes don’t sell, good racing sells” kinda guy!
“Racing is as good as its ever been” – Hardly! The last 2 races couldn’t have been more boring! The facts that Brian Vickers can’t drive and created a massive pileup at Phoenix, and that Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch had problems at Vegas, does not a good race make. Daytona was a good race – multiple cars on the last lap with a chance to win. Gordon and Edwards winning by a straightaway is not “racing as good as its ever been”.
What would have really mitigated this week off for the Sprint Cup was for Fox to have run the truck race on Friday!
It would have been a wonderful chance to show off the truck series – always good racing there!
This year, because I’m now more familiar with the truck guys and because Elliott Sadler is full time Nationwide (I’ve always liked Allgaier), I’m following all three series full time.
And in keeping with my “no griping” year of NASCAR (: D), I’ll take the stance that folks will tune back in in two weeks even more eager to see some racing action. Folks just aren’t that fickle…
Aside from Kahne in KB’s truck, I am suprised there are not more Cup or NW regulars in Saturdays race. Darlington, under the lights, need I say more?
RE Jim: IMO, even though neither was super close at the stripe, the races were really good. Smoke was closer than a straightaway at LV and another two laps Carl would have had to deal w/ a “smoke bomb”. There was pit drama, passing, multiple racing lines and yes some crashes (sorry @ #24). That is the beauty of a DVR. I watch 4 hrs in ~1.5.
I agree with your “cautiously optimistic” outlook. Attendance appears to be better at the track. But why the need to declare Sunday’s event a “sell-out” when it was apparent that there were still many empty seats?
The TV gurus are all too eager to proclaim TV ratings up 29%! Hello! In 2010 there was a little hockey game taking place at the same time as the Vegas race, USA vs Canada. They simply recouped the audience that had left for the Olympics. In fact, NASCAR had to compete with the Olympics for the first 3 races in 2010. If you compare ratings against 2009, things are flat. Which is good news, they aren’t dropping. The challenge lies ahead as March Madness will compete for viewers.
Then there is the racing. Three different winners. As long as the perception is that Jimmie isn’t running away with it again and Junior has a chance, fans will continue to support with attendance and TV viewership. The moment either of those two things change, it won’t be good for NASCAR.
For me the NCWTS still provides the best show of all and this year is the best so far.