NASCAR today is striving hard to regain the popularity that it once enjoyed across the globe. Various measures, such as international races and street circuits, are being introduced to achieve the same.
But from the view that RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski has, three crucial matters need the sanctioning body’s attention ahead of everything else to take the sport to the next level.
He detailed them on the "12 Questions" podcast with Jeff Gluck on Wednesday. First, he wants the tracks on the schedule to find sources of revenue outside of NASCAR. He isn’t fond of tracks looking deserted on non-race days and provided a solid reason why.
“The tracks aren’t able to raise enough capital to invest in the fan experience, or they’re significantly subsidized out of the media rights (TV deal) to make their business sustainable," Keselowski said. "That creates a series of dominoes downstream, whether it be the fan experience that doesn’t rival other sports or draining cash flow that potentially could be coming to the teams and enabling things like testing.”
In short, he wants the tracks to earn more money to be able to reinvest that money into the sport.
The team owner/driver has been in the show long enough to provide an opinion as extreme as this. He hammered down, as his second fix, that the concept of 10 playoff races being far more important than 26 regular-season races has to be gotten rid of, since it is very unhealthy for the sport.
“It’s demeaning to the other tracks and races,” Keselowski added. “And unfortunately, those 10 races that are supposed to mean more are in direct competition with other sports. It muddies the water. It’s not working for the sport.”
There has been a good amount of noise over the past several weeks to fix the playoff system. More likely than not, change is coming. The question is whether it will be favorable for the future.
As the last big measure, he wants NASCAR to bring new OEMs, original equipment manufacturers, into the sport. He called them “a high tide that raises all ships” and mentioned how the money they would push into the system, along with the media rights holders, would be useful for the coming days.
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