Columnist Ron Kantowski: More money, less competition

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column usually appears on Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@vegas.com or 259-4088.

With crowds approaching papal-visit proportions and TV ratings that even the producers of the wildly popular hospital drama ER would -- well, die for -- these are halcyon times for NASCAR.

According to a recent Nielsen Media Research report, NASCAR has passed the NBA on the high side and lapped Major League Baseball and the NHL in domestic TV ratings. That's on the network side. Over on cable, the so-called "stick-and-ball" sports aren't even on the same track as the stock car drivers.

The only sport that tops NASCAR in the ratings is NFL football. Take note, David Stern. The good ol' boys have put your bad ol' boys in their rear view mirror.

Don't think the TV execs haven't noticed. Both CBS and ABC/ESPN reportedly offered NASCAR in the neighborhood of $300 million a year for its annual TV rights. That wasn't nearly enough. They were outbid by $100 million, as Fox and NBC paid a hefty price -- $400 million annually, $2.4 billion for six years -- to start carrying NASCAR in 2001.

I'd have to ask the guy in the infield how many cases of Busch beer $2.4 billion will buy these days.

In reality, a huge chunk of the kitty is targeted for the tracks that host the races. In theory, that means fans shouldn't be subjected to another ticket increase for the life of the new TV contract, right?

There's so much money being pumped into the sport that by the time 19-year-old fourth generation driver Adam Petty is ready to have a son, his offspring will be able to afford an Ivy League education. Or at least a full ride to North Carolina State.

Off the track, NASCAR is like Dale Jarrett in a restrictor-plate race. There's no stopping it.

It's on the track where the series may face its biggest challenges.

NASCAR has built its reputation on a claim that its style of racing is the world's most competitive. But recently, that just hasn't been true.

This year's Daytona 500, the crown jewel in NASCAR's 34-race tiara, was nothing more than costume jewelry. With the horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates forcing the drivers to form unholy alliances within the draft simply to overtake another car, there were a grand total of two on-the-track passes for the lead. At the end, two Las Vegas cabbies were running on the lead lap.

The restrictor plates were off for last week's race at the shorter 1.017-mile North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. So was the number of cars on the lead lap. There were only four that completed all 393 circuits.

And people say Formula One is boring.

This lack of compelling racing looks more like the rule, rather than an exception. At one point late last year, Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon had won 20 of the 30 Winston Cup races.

Contrast that to CART, whose open-wheel cars make the Winston Cup stockers look like taxicabs on the speed charts but are running a distant second at the turnstiles and on the tube. CART fields are usually limited to 26 cars (NASCAR starts 43) and CART has 14 fewer races than Winston Cup yet 10 different drivers -- roughly 40 percent of the field -- won races. The rival Indy Racing League had similar numbers.

According to a report in the Birmingham Post-Herald, during the past 10 years only 27 drivers have finished in the top 10 in Winston Cup points. A total of eight drivers -- the four mentioned above along with Terry Labonte, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Tony Stewart -- have combined to win 141 of the 161 races held during the past five seasons. That group won every points championship in the 1990s, except one.

The gap between the haves and have-nots is growing, which may explain why sponsors -- at least team sponsors -- are reconsidering their commitment to NASCAR.

For some companies, entertaining clients in a luxury suite while their car just runs around in circles on race day isn't enough. They want to win. Which may explain why major sponsors such as Sara Lee, General Mills, Phillips Electronics, Remington Arms, Paychex Inc., Skoal and STP have either reduced their sponsorships or left the sport altogether.

It's why even some of the sport's movers and shakers, such as Bruton Smith, who owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway and just about every other track that NASCAR founder Bill France Jr., doesn't, have begun to complain publicly about the quality of the competition.

Even worse, says outspoken driver Kyle Petty, is that in other sports, kids still dream about playing in the major leagues. Given the state of today's money-driven NASCAR, he says they would be better off seeking a career in rocket science than pining to be a Winston Cup driver.

"That's not a dream," Petty recently said about the possibility of a kid following in Earnhardt or Gordon's tire tracks. "That's a nightmare."