[Puppy]

What hurts sprint car racing, is when a "fan" constantly rips apart one of the sub groups within the sport. "Winged racing sucks", "Pavement racing sucks", "anything outside of Indiana sucks". If you want "close racing" there are ALL KINDS of series wether it be road racing or oval track racing that produce. You just have to look for it. Oh and be open to the fact that it isn't a non wing sprint car an dirt in Indiana....
Why complain about it if it wasn't a "great show" on a particular night? Isn't being at the track better than being anywhere else? Jussayin....

[Therealether]

It all beats being in jail right??!!

[BrentTFunk]

Negativity hurts sprint racing. People complaining will never convince their neighbor to spend their time and money to go to a race.

[dsc1600]

100 percent agree! And it's not just sprint cars, there are people who love late model racing and hate sprints and vice versa.

If the dirt racing community could ever totally get behind something, it would be the 2nd biggest thing in American motorsports behind Cup racing.

[RBurns17]

Probably a myriad of things, but the divisive nature of race fans is pretty high up there and non-wing fans and late model fans are the worst offenders and it turns off what would be casual fans and creates a rivalry and conflict where there doesn't need to be one. Stuff like "who the hell would ever watch x series, it's awful and boring and blah blah blah." I could watch turtle racing and get enough enjoyment out of it to not complain that much.

Outside of that probably charging as much as a top level boxing ppv for live streams, features that end in sunlight, a lack of leadership at a national level from anyone who has an incentive to grow the sport, an aging demographic that doesn't attract many sponsors for teams, tracks, or sanctioning bodies, poor national level payouts, a sanctioning body with a stranglehold on the sport that pays their CEO $340,000 (roughly 10 times what they spend on marketing) and doesn't seem to have a clue how to attract new fans, break into mainstream recognition, or keep the talent that can draw in a wider audience.

And, as bad as I hate to say it, when you project yourself like a budget brand, people are going to look at you like a budget brand. Personally, I think non-wing sprints have the best racing in the country with some of the best talent, but when you have the top echelon of the sport posting pictures of someone holding a $5,000 check for winning Sprint Week, or for winning the non-wing portion of the Four Crown, it makes you look budget. And, in the mind of a casual fan, this matters a great deal when it comes to the perception of the sport and how exciting it is. Winged racing has tv contracts, winged racing has 50k and 100k crown jewel races, winged racing has brandable names that stick around, and so winged racing is perceived by the passerby as being the superior form of the sport.

I've always loved midgets but, being just shy of 30, I can remember a point in my youth where when the USAC midgets came to town basically everyone outside of very hardcore open wheel loyalists would collectively roll their eyes because of how the series was perceived at the time. "They're boring," "they flip way too much, there's a yellow every two laps," "the racing is awful," etc etc. Today pretty much everyone turns their heads for the midget portion and what has changed? The racing is the same. They get on their lids at a pretty equal rate. But, there are a bunch of drivers who are insanely loyal to the class, even after moving on and they have a crown jewel race that gets national tv coverage. Again, they still have the mantra that actually paying the drivers a fair share of the money they're bringing in is out of the question, but they're hitting a couple of the checkboxes and there is clearly a direct correlation between how big that single race gets, and how exciting the average person perceives the midgets to be.

Also, maybe what you're taking issue with is that different people have different tastes and it doesn't actually take being brainwashed for someone to get excited about the speed, grace, and almost hypnotic choreography of a winged sprint car race.

[Simon_says17]

This very loosely applies but I saw a shirt at a LM race lately, "Late Models: Because My Balls Weigh Too Much For A Sprint Car" Boy did it make me laugh out loud! Don't know that this sort of thing is REALLY hurting the sport in any way (like I said it actually made me chuckle), but at the same time it's kind of a slight on sprint cars and a loose example of the bashing towards other forms that permeates throughout dirt racing. A very intelligent follower of the sport obviously made that t-shirt.

[motorhead748]

I don't chew tobacco and have all my teeth therefore I prefer sprints over LM.

[Nut'n but Dirt]

Honestly, what is hurting racing in general is that people are staying st home getting results on their phones and laptops! Want to save racing? Get your asses to the tracks in your area!

[flagboy55]

I think the biggest thing that hurts racing is bad racing. This comes from many factors not the least of which is dilution of a class by variations in rules, too many tracks running the same time, etc. Going back to elusive "casual fan" If they're casual to sprint car racing, they're probably hard core on another activity that takes up their time, fishing, golfing, whatever. If you think your going to turn them into a hard core race fan, versus what they have the most passion for, not unlike the passion we have for our sport, you likely aren't going to do it with a local sprint show with 14 cars, and a dozen support classes.
And the I don't buy the "get results on my phone" keeping anyone away, except maybe if it's a long drive with possible weather. And to everyone that says get to the track, I go whenever I can, no where else I'd rather be, but I have responsibilities to other people who depend on me to honor them. Now if any of you would like to pay my wage for a day, I'll take a day off and join you at the track!

[darnall]

Originally Posted by Speedwrench While we're on the subject of hyped-up false enthusiasm on the part of some talking head/PR types, I have to scratch my head whenever I read a press release about some guy who ran seventh in his heat, sixth in the B, and somehow still made the show and ran eleventh in the feature and his publicist makes it sound like the guy won Knoxville and Eldora on the same night. And press releases for this guy read basically the same week after week. I understand the PR person is being paid to make the client look good and wants to keep the checks coming, but I don't see how some of these people can keep generating so much false enthusiasm endlessly. Somewhere this probably ties into the false enthusiasm put out by the race callers mentioned above. Edit - this is aimed more at press releases for individual drivers rather than sanctioning body or track PR flak.

Man I am right there with you. It is absolutely insane how many PR posts one has to wade through on any message board or social media site these days...especially when 75% of them are stories about 15th place finishes. I get that more exposure helps gain and maintain sponsorship and fan following but once it becomes this watered down is it really doing anybody any good anymore?

And the way it has trickled down is even more mind boggling. Apparently now every 9 year old that races a gokart must have a full time PR team. I literally saw a press release for a 10 year old kid racing rookie restricted wing karts on a purely local level that read as follows... "After running 3rd in his heat race the inversion put Mason on the front row for the A main. Mason was able to jump to the lead on the start and maintained the lead until lap 3 when his engine blew. Despite the ill timed equipment failure, Mason recorded yet another top 5 finish."

People that were there saw 4 karts take the green and the leader grenade a motor and park 3 laps into a 15 lap main and subsequently get scored for last place, which happened to be 4th.

People that actually read the "story" but weren't there could have come away thinking "Man that kids talented, even with a blown engine he still finished in the top 5."

Again I wonder...when your press release is competing for readership with press releases about Mason and his hard fought top 5 how much good are you getting out of writing up your 12th place finish in an 18 car field?