{"id":186653,"date":"2025-10-03T04:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T04:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T04:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T04:51:09","slug":"is-nascar-really-about-to-go-back-to-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186653\/","title":{"rendered":"Is NASCAR Really About to Go Back to Its Roots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR may be solving a few problems that has plagued it the past handful of years by turning back the clock. <\/p>\n

One of those problems was a marketing issue, as for years, the NASCAR Cup Series has failed to create stars since the retirements of Jeff Gordon<\/a>, Tony Stewart<\/a>, Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/a> and more. Even the series\u2019 most popular driver, Chase Elliott<\/a>, is not a household name like those guys mentioned before.<\/p>\n

Couple that with a playoff system that has been torn apart for several years now, and it\u2019s no wonder that the ratings have declined so much to start this year\u2019s playoffs. This past weekend\u2019s race at Kansas Speedway had 1.49 million people tune in, down from 1.8 million last year. Those numbers are just a smidge higher than what the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series got or have been getting this season. The Cup Series is the top form of motorsports in the U.S., so those numbers should be way higher than that. <\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

The Real Drivers of Paradise NASCAR<\/p>\n

Well, the good news is that NASCAR has heard fans\u2019 complaints about both the marketing efforts and the playoff system as well as seen the ratings, because it is doing something about it. Whether or not the upcoming changes are actually effective will remain to be seen. <\/p>\n

On Sept. 30, the Sports Business Journal reported<\/a> NASCAR had hired the L.A.-based agency 72andSunny to develop a new marketing campaign. It is supposed to be a \u201cback-to-roots\u201d campaign with the tagline \u201cHell Yeah.\u201d <\/p>\n

When I hear that tagline, I\u2019m picturing all of the drivers entering to the sounds of breaking glass like Stone Cold Steve Austin before bashing two beers together and climbing into the car for a no-holds-barred race. Now of course that\u2019s not going to happen, but imagine the ratings if it did. That would truly be a throwback to the earliest days of NASCAR.<\/p>\n

Still, 72andSunny is a reputable force in the marketing world. It\u2019s done the NFL\u2019s campaigns for its 100th Anniversary and \u201cThe 100-year Game.\u201d It\u2019s been behind Google\u2019s \u201cYear in Search,\u201d Axe\u2019s \u201cFind Your Magic and Audi\u2019s \u201cLet It Go\u201d campaigns, as well as several other famous ones.<\/p>\n

After recent campaigns like \u201cDaytona Day\u201d and \u201cI Am NASCAR,\u201d the agency has a low bar to top, and it should do a pretty good job with this assignment. That is if NASCAR is actually going back to its roots next year. <\/p>\n

You can\u2019t come out with a theme of going back to the roots without any evidence of actually doing said thing. That would be like me declaring I\u2019m a vegetarian while you watch me gobble down a cheeseburger. <\/p>\n

That leads me to believe a full-season championship may be happening next year. What other area could NASCAR possibly be going back to its roots for? The Next Gen car isn\u2019t going anywhere. Returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway, Rockingham Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium have already happened. The 2026 schedule is already out, and there are no returns to any other historical tracks. <\/p>\n

The playoffs have been the only major thing being discussed this year \u2014 with a playoff committee having met three times \u2014 so that has to be the change where the \u201cback to its roots\u201d is coming from. Otherwise, these ads will just be throwing out a phrase NASCAR hopes will catch former fans\u2019 attention and get them to tune in, which would be false advertising. A former fan would turn a race on, see the cars, the stages and the championship haven\u2019t changed and feel lied to before changing the channel to something else.<\/p>\n

But if NASCAR is going back to a full-season championship or making some other massive change that is a callback to decades ago, then 72andSunny will be able to make a fantastic campaign around it, and it could lead to the reintroduction to many former fans. I\u2019d be really excited to see what they came up with if that happens.<\/p>\n

However, even if all of that goes off perfectly, brings back new fans and increases ratings, I\u2019m still not in love with it. Because it\u2019s only chasing old fans, not new ones. It would be an overcorrection from the mistakes NASCAR made 20 years ago. While NASCAR should certainly chase down some of the fans it lost along the way, the fact is some of those fans are probably dead now. If not, then they\u2019re really old. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eyes On Xfinity: Answer To NASCAR Ratings Woes Can Be Found in Xfinity Series<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way to fully get back all the fans lost, which means that NASCAR needs to find a happy medium. It needs something that appeases current fans while targeting former and new fans. That is much easier said than done, and I\u2019m not sure there are marketing campaigns or industry changes that could do all three at the same time. But if there is a company capable of doing that, it\u2019s 72andSunny. <\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s much easier to target different demographics now than it was 20 years ago, in NASCAR\u2019s peak. Back then, companies could really only market to people through TV commercials and print pieces, with maybe a few online ads. But now ad agencies can target people through social media, and they can base what ad people see on their demographic and search algorithm. So NASCAR and 72andSunny could essentially have three different ad campaigns, catering to current fans, former fans and potential new fans all at the same time. That\u2019s why it blows my mind that NASCAR\u2019s marketing has been so bad in recent years.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it is encouraging to see NASCAR at least acknowledge some of its recent shortcomings and try to right the ship. It will be interesting to see what this marketing campaign looks like when it rolls out and what kind of results it yields. But just remember, those results will be significantly capped if NASCAR doesn\u2019t actually provide any \u201cback-to-roots\u201d changes this offseason. <\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a>
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Content Director\u00a0at\u00a0Frontstretch<\/p>\n

Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.<\/p>\n

Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR may be solving a few problems that has plagued it the past handful of years by turning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-186653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}