New changes to NASCAR bring plenty of excitement
Fox Sports is proclaiming this as possibly being NASCAR's "best season ever." So far, it's started off in the right direction.
By Michael Eubanks
I’ll admit it. Until the last few seasons, I was really starting to lose interest in NASCAR.
To me, the sport was starting to feel boring. My favorite drivers were all retiring, the schedule was becoming stale, the fanbase was aging and teams were folding or losing sponsorship. It truly felt like NASCAR was dying.
Now, I honestly believe NASCAR’s best days still lay ahead.
Fox Sports has been airing a commercial I’m sure all of us have seen touting this year’s NASCAR season as the “best ever”. While the word “best” is subjective, I certainly think this season will be one of the most exciting in a long time.
Get ready for NASCAR's best season ever!
Hell, there are a lot of reasons just to be excited about NASCAR in general, with new drivers, teams and venues joining the sport. I’m going to briefly highlight them here. There’s a lot to go over, trust me:
* Let’s first start off by talking about the amazing group of young talent there is in NASCAR right now. As Jerry Bonkowski, my colleague at The Racing Beat, wrote Sunday, there is a youth movement happening in NASCAR. Of all the points-paying races in NASCAR’s top three series this year (nine total races), only one race winner has been older than 26 (Michael McDowell - the Daytona 500 winner - is 36).
Decades ago, a driver would only be beginning to find success in one of NASCAR’s national series by their mid-20s. Nowadays, many drivers are regular race winners and even champions by their mid-20’s (or even in their teens, as drivers such as 18-year-old Ty Gibbs, grandson of team owner and Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, have recently demonstrated).
But this is not your grandfather’s NASCAR anymore, and age is only one of the rapidly changing demographics in the sport these days.
NASCAR drivers have been almost exclusively all-male and all-white for the majority of the sport’s existence. But thanks to the sanctioning body’s new racial equality and social justice initiatives, NASCAR is becoming more diverse than ever.
Thanks in part to NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, young minority and female drivers, crew chiefs and team members from all walks of life have been given the chance to compete in all levels of the sport, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Cup Series.
There are graduates of the program in NASCAR’s top three series, including Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suárez. Females are also finding their representation in NASCAR, as both Hailie Deegan and Gracie Trotter have won in the ARCA West Series in 2018-19 and 2020. Deegan now races full-time in the Truck series, and Trotter is running a limited ARCA Menards Series campaign this year.
One of the reasons why I’ve always been particularly drawn to NASCAR drivers is because of their down-to-earth personalities involved. As Ken Squier once famously said, NASCAR drivers are “common men doing uncommon things”. I think part of why so many people enjoy NASCAR is because fans can see a bit of themselves in their favorite drivers. And if that’s the case, I think NASCAR will benefit from having a more diverse field as more drivers like Wallace and Suárez.
Speaking of Bubba and Daniel, both are driving for two new teams with two new owners. I’m sure you already know about Michael Jordan’s involvement with 23XI Racing and Pitbull’s involvement with Trackhouse, but I just want to point out how big of a deal it is that both men have taken an interest in and have decided to invest in the sport. Having new teams join the Cup Series during a pandemic and rough economy is already a great thing to have, but having two world-famous celebrities as team owners is nothing short of phenomenal. And if either Jordan’s or Pitbull’s teams do well, don’t be surprised if even more celebs become involved in the sport going forward.
But don’t think that NASCAR is only trying to attract new fans through its diversity efforts and celebrity owners. It’s very clear that the sanctioning body is looking to bring back old-school fans as well. Classic venues such as Darlington and Atlanta - both once thought to eventually be removed from the schedule - will have two dates apiece this year.
For the first time since 1970, the Cup Series will be racing on dirt later this month at Bristol. The Truck Series will also join Cup that weekend and will make their debut at the historic Knoxville Raceway in Iowa later this year.
A new short track will also join the Cup Series schedule in the next few years, as plans are in place to reconfigure Auto Club Speedway from a two-mile superspeedway into a half-mile oval that could host its first races as early as next year.
Also joining the Cup Series schedule are a few new tracks, and only one of them (Nashville) is an oval. Three world-class road courses have joined the schedule this season, meaning drivers better get used to turning both left and right. Circuit of the Americas, Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course are those venues, with the the IMS weekend being a doubleheader with IndyCar.
As you can see, there’s a lot to like in NASCAR lately. But there’s one more thing I haven’t said yet that’s great - the race winners! If someone told me before the season began that Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and William Byron would be the first three Cup winners of 2021, I’d likely have laughed in their face.
Yet here we are. And while the season is still young, I have a hunch we’re going to see many more different drivers in Victory Lane this year, and yet another first-time winner soon if Tyler Reddick’s performance at Homestead this past Sunday is any indication of more of what’s to come this season.
As you can see, there’s a lot going on in NASCAR. For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say I can’t get enough of it. And while just a few years ago I thought stock car racing was in dire straits, I can now confidently say I think the sport is entering into a new golden era.