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StumblePublished Friday, March 27, 2009 | 7 p.m.
Updated Friday, March 27, 2009 | 8:16 p.m.
How can you tell that NASCAR is increasingly becoming a sport for younger athletes? Aside from the obvious fact that the occasional pimply-faced teenager is behind the wheel, drivers that most of us would still consider young are touting their diet and exercise routines as a way to stay competitive. This is a good indication that youth is having an impact on the sport.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon are two of the drivers who have been talking recently about their diet and exercise regimens. Earnhardt is only 34 and Gordon is 37. But when you have to compete against 23-year old Kyle Busch, who can compete in three racing events in one weekend without breaking a sweat, then I guess it’s time to buy a Stairmaster.
Remember when drivers didn’t make it to the Cup level until they were in their 30s? Now kids who aren’t old enough to buy a beer or rent a car from Hertz can drive in Cup.
Nevertheless, we’ll know that the sport is truly dominated by the young when we hear that Tony Stewart has joined Jenny Craig.
…
Wednesday’s edition of USA Today featured a full-page ad that was purchased by Bristol Motor Speedway thanking fans for the 54th consecutive “sellout” crowd at last Sunday’s race. This is insulting to NASCAR fans.
Even someone like me who has to wear tri-focals could see that every seat at that track wasn’t occupied. The newspaper ad also demonstrated this point. In the photo of the race that was used in the ad, there are a few empty seats.
It seems that these tracks consider the crowd to be a sellout once a certain percentage of seats are sold. Fine, but don’t expect us to buy the spin that the event is truly sold out when we can plainly see otherwise.
Sponsor $'s want a young face to sell razor blades, soft drinks, cell phones or whatever, so more drivers under 30 in demand.
Not sure how a few empty seats in a 160K seat stadium compares to a full house a few years ago when there were only 100K seats...especially in these times. The product is still pretty good, but the economy is not.
If I was under 30, I would probably just have the surgery, but, since I'm not, and having forever been scarred by "Un Chien Andalou", I put up with trifocals...it all comes back to the razor blades.
yea i went to nascar at the las vegas speedway got the ticket free from school district to fill up the stand it work. i would haven't bought the ticket.
Bristol was counting the 10,000 driver stand-ups it used top occupy the seats. With the economy and the change in the racing at Bristol (which you mentioned in a previous blog), it's no surprise that the placed wasn't packed. It will be interesting to see what happens when the circuit hits tracks that have had issues filling the sets in a robust economy. Unfortunately for NASCAR, the TV ratings were also down (this I attribute to the Car of Today and its self-correcting cars).
Dang guys (and maybe gals), I don't think I understand any of the above comments!?!