Insider calls for NASCAR to pick between entertainment and racing

A NASCAR insider wants the organization to choose between entertainment and racing when it comes to its top focus. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic revealed that would be his focus if he was in charge of bringing more fans into NASCAR.

“NASCAR has got to sit down and really come up with what they want their identity to be because I still think it’s a little bit of both sometimes in terms of entertainment and purity of competition,” Gluck said. “If they want to lean into whatever it is, fully lean into whatever NASCAR thinks is their brand.

“There are enough things to differentiate it from the other motorsports series that you could sort of attract motorsports fans and general sports fans and then keep the hardcore NASCAR fans happy. But you’ve got to sort of go all in on being one thing instead of trying to be something to everybody in some cases. They do it with the schedule, which is fine. I think that’s fine because it’s such a long season that it’s okay to try to sprinkle enough stuff.”

Gluck added, “I think NASCAR has the most competitive, closest, most exciting racing in the entire world, particularly on ovals, paved ovals, big paved ovals. I would try to really emphasize and say, ‘This is what we are. This is who are. I know road courses are attractive and there’s other reasons to go to other tracks.’ But still, I would be like, ‘No one can come close to matching the competition we offer at places like Kansas, Homestead, Charlotte Motor Speedway.’ I’m going to totally lean into that.”

NASCAR president Steve Phelps talks about balancing entertainment vs. sport

The interesting thing about Gluck’s comments is that NASCAR president Steve Phelps talked about balancing entertainment vs. sport. “To me, as long as you don’t cross the line where it’s just not authentic and it’s gimmicky — and that line is probably different for everyone,” Phelps told Bianchi last week. “With that said, we are about entertainment, and we need to entertain our race fans. We need to have compelling racing and a compelling product on the racetrack.

“That’s what they’ve come to expect from us, and that’s what they’re going to get moving forward. So again, whether there’s a tweak to it or a wholesale change or nothing, we’ll make sure that we are looking through that lens of entertainment versus making sure we are being authentic and true to who we are as a sport.”