raceannouncerblog

"Change is inevitable", as the old saying goes. For anyone even remotely interested in NASCAR, 2007 was a notable year. At almost every level, changes were instituted and felt throughout the series. Whether the changes were good or bad is subject material for another blog and, certainly, history will be the final judge. For now, let's outline the changes in no particular order (and make no mistake about it, several of these changes were VERY fundamental ones...)

• NASCAR leadership: this actually began before 2007: Brian France put in charge of the sport his grandfather had founded and his father grew it into the NASCAR we all know and love. Brian's influence was felt gradually as the sport entered last year but with the passing of his father, Bill France, Jr. last year, the change was complete. Any change at the top trickles down below and several of the changes, good or bad, that the sport saw in the last year or so will be Brian's legacy.

• The "COT" (Car of Tomorrow): NASCAR racing machinery had been built pretty much the same way for nearly 3 decades before the sanctioning body began looking into designing a new car. The design changes called for the car to be built and rules applied "from the ground up" (allowing officials to more closely regulate the way the cars are built, thereby cutting back on potential "rules bending" or outright cheating; incorporating safety changes improving driver protection; potential cost-cutting for owners (as the same basic structure of the car is used for all tracks, eliminating specially designed and more expensive separate "short track", "road course", "intermediate" and "superspeedway" cars; aerodynamics changed to a higher roof profile along with a front air-dam "splitter" and more adjustable rear wing (rather than the traditional "blade spoiler) to allow "tuning" the car to specific tracks and reducing the dreaded "aero push" on the front of the cars; and finally, the ability to better distinguish "makes" of cars, even though the new rules border on "spec". The car was phased in gradually in 2007, as NASCAR mandated its use on short tracks and road courses last year along with one "super-speedway" race--Talladega in the fall. For 2008, the "COT" completely replaces the "old" car at every track on the schedule.

• Team ownership: With the upward rising costs of racing, team owners have had to change the basic way they run their teams. Very few sponsors today can afford to be the "exclusive" sponsor of a particular team so owners have had to adapt. Some brought on multiple sponsors to bear the brunt of the costs. More profound, however, are the new "mergers" with non-racing entities: Roush Racing, selling the team to the Fenway organization (the same group who owns MLB's Boston Red Sox), Ray Evernham partnering up with the Gillette family, etc. New blood and new money with the potential for fresh, "out-of-the-box" thinking are the immediate benefits of these new organizations. On the down side of the ledger, however, are the teams that have been squeezed out as the expenses have skyrocketed. Even though it was not official until this week, Morgan-McClure Racing, a long-standing team, had folded due to lack of adequate funding after finding it almost impossible last year to make races. Yates Racing has no sponsors for the new year and single-car teams have all but disappeared, with Robby Gordon racing and BAM Racing notable exceptions.

• Influx of non-traditional drivers: Juan Pablo Montoya (Formula 1 ace) became the "mold" of the new NASCAR driver when he was named to the #42 Chip Ganassi Texaco Havoline Dodge for 2007. His success in stock-car racing certainly was not guaranteed but his talent to drive a race car could never be questioned. Despite a huge learning curve to adapt and causing a "ruffling" of a few of some other driver's "feathers" at times this year, he won his first NASCAR race at Infineon and, taken together with his other great finishes during the year, helped him acheive "Rookie of the Year" in NASCAR in 2007. The floodgates are now open: Dario Franchitti ('07 Indy 500 winner), is now Montoya's teammate at Chip Ganassi in the #40, Jacques Villeneuve (Formula 1 & CART experience) is learning the "A-B-C's" of stock-car racing and Patrick Carpentier (IRL & Grand Am) is also a new NASCAR Cup driver. No longer do the "stars of tomorrow" necessarily come from local stock car tracks. If anything, the competition to reach NASCAR as a driver has become much more difficult. (Veteran racing fans can remember back to a time when NO driver from INDY cars, much less Formula 1, would DARE step into one of those "taxicabs" to race it. In those days, NASCAR, as a legitimate racing series, did not exist in the narrow minds of some.)

• Sponsor changes: When the series became the "NEXTEL Cup Series" just a few years ago, many wondered how long the transition would take from the old "Winston Cup Series". The previous title sponsor of Cup racing had been involved in the sport for over 30 years, with longtime fans, while not necessarily smokers, had huge respect and admiration for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Newly-named sponsor NEXTEL realized it had to be mindful and respectful of that relationship, while forging new ground for itself when it took over just 4 years ago. Then, Sprint bought out NEXTEL in 2007 and a new name for the series was announced for '08: "NASCAR Sprint Cup Series". To some veterans of traditional sprint car racing on both dirt and asphalt, this was as much confusing as it was amusing. NASCAR fans barely had time to get used to the "NEXTEL Cup Series"; now they have another new one to get used to.

• 
  TV broadcasts ups-and downs: For many decades, NASCAR had no network TV presence. Sure, ABC's "Wide World of Sports" would replay races a couple weeks after they happened back in the '60s and'70's. Then, in 1979, CBS broadcast the Daytona 500 live and NASCAR TV coverage took its first "giant leap" forward. But it wasn't until the '80s when ESPN covered almost all of the NASCAR Cup races live did the sport begin to really flourish. Together with the in-car camera that CBS announcer Ken Squier brought over from Australia in late '82, TV coverage of racing became exciting for people at home. ESPN's original NASCAR broadcasts took the sport to a new level of popularity but something was still missing: a TV deal that included national network coverage in a mix with cable partners. NASCAR brokered a deal over 5 years ago with FOX and NBC, along with TNT, then changed the deal again in '07, replacing NBC with ABC/ESPN to go along with FOX. Knowing when and where a race broadcast is happening has always been a concern for race fans and with the five year broadcast deals, NASCAR took steps to try to bring some stability to its race broadcasts. Yet, despite all its good intentions, NASCAR TV ratings took a plunge in '07. The effects of the downward trend has yet to be felt and NASCAR officials say they're not too worried about it (yet!). If the trend continues in '08, most will point to the 2007 ratings slip as the beginning of the downward spiral of the sport.

• Points system: NASCAR completely changed the way points were earned with the introduction of the "Chase for the NEXTEL Cup" in '04. It stayed pretty much the same until 2007 when the number of drivers eligible for the Chase after 26 races was upped from 10 to 12. This change was as much about some of its stars, most notably Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart among others, not making it into some of the past "Chases" as it was anything else. Also tweaked: rewarding winners in the "regular" season bonus points for those wins as the Chase began with 10 races to go. Then, Jimmy Johnson and his team went on a streak which took a lot of the drama out of the championship last year. Entering the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Jeff Gordon was the only driver that had a chance to beat Jimmie Johnson for the title. Johnson went on to succesfully defend his '06 championship, proving that NO points system can make things exciting when a team goes on a roll and wins often.

There were also several smaller changes as well but the ones listed above are notable and far-reaching. For a lot of people, change is hard to accept---CHANGES (plural!) are even harder!

Mike Paz, Motorsports Announcer