“We need to do a better job of making sure our existing fans understand that we care about them and are listening to them.” That was NASCAR President Steve Phelps to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Dale Jr. Downloads show (listen here). But Steve wasn’t paying lip service with that statement—NASCAR really is making changes, although you might have to be patient until 2022 for the most upheaval. Here are Steve’s greatest hits and hints of things to come:
On Qualifying:
“Single-car qualifying seemed like a last resort, but it’s now being considered.”
On Racetracks:
“Fans have said that they want to see more short tracks and more road courses and fewer intermediate tracks. The way we configured the track agreements put an emphasis on short tracks or on road courses. We couldn’t take away or add tracks because of agreements thru 2020. For 2021, short track and road course are absolutely on the table. What they are, where they are—there’s a ton of speculation about what would be a good racetrack for us to go to. We’ve heard, ‘They don’t run two races at the mile and a half.’ I’m not suggesting we’re not going to do that…we just have to do some things differently. Fans want us to do things differently and I think we need to do it as quickly as we can within reason. When I came into this sport, the two racetracks that rated at the bottom every single time were Sonoma and Watkins Glen. And now they’re top five. From a sponsor standpoint, no sponsor wanted Martinsville. It’s awesome. It’s a short track.”
On OEMs (and Dodge’s Return):
“I think our OEMs would like to see body styles that are more reflective of what happens in a showroom. I think they would want to see some different types of engine packages that we could put together that would be more relevant to what would be good to them. And as part of that, I think we could hopefully take the three existing OEMs we have [Ford, Chevy, and Toyota] and add a couple more—more and more excitement and more and more rivalries. For example, have Dodge back in the sport. We’ve had discussions with Dodge.”
On Racing in Nashville:
Since the NASCAR banquet is moving from Las Vegas to Nashville, will racing happen there, too? “Would we like to run in Nashville again? We would. There was a thinking at the time of don’t embrace country music…well, that’s a mistake. We want to embrace country music. Not only is country music incredibly popular, but it’s kind of a natural tie for our sport. So, going to Nashville I think is a great idea. There have been discussions with the folks in Nashville.”
On Suggestions From Fans:
“We have open-ended questions with them. The No. 1 question is, ‘What would you like to see different at a racetrack?’ And it’s ‘no rain.’ That one’s a tough one to fix. Ask most avid race fans, ‘Hey, was yesterday’s race the right length?’ Some will say, ‘I don’t think we should have 500-mile races except for the Daytona 500 and Coca Cola 600. All the other races should be 400 miles or laps or below.’ We have to take a long view. Looking at one segment, or frankly one race, is not how we should look at it.”
On the Gen-7 Car:
“As of right now, our Gen-7 car is on schedule. We have a lot of work to do, with our OEM partners and a lot of work ourselves and a lot of work to do with the race teams. But I think that a 2021 Gen-7 car—body style, chassis—as well as a 2022 potentially revamped engine is a distinct possibility. That’s what we’re working hard to get—I think it would be better. You’re going to take an engine and put a restrictor plate on it, tapered spacer on it, to essentially create ‘better racing.’ I think it would more sense to just build the engine into whatever that specification is going to be. And then the opportunity to make the car look cooler and more recognizable—early designs look really cool. And then on the engine side? We have late ‘50s engine technology that we’re using and it’s been fine-tuned and fine-tuned. I mean, it’s incredible the manufacturing that’s done, but I think there’s an opportunity to have something that’s going to give us long-term success.”
On NASCAR’s Mistakes:
“Listen, we’re not the only business that has made a mistake. I think we chased a new fan at the expense of an existing fan. We’ll never do that again. It doesn’t mean that we can’t have new fans in the sport—of course we can. But we want our new fans and our existing fans and our avid longtime loyal fans to nurture and grow these young fans or new fans—young or old.”
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