Kansas Speedway promoters were tasked with an increasingly difficult challenge before NASCAR visited the midwestern race track this weekend.
Selling tickets.
The 1.5-mile venue can hold 48,000 people. But that certainly wasn’t the number of folks who showed up. The grandstands looked anemic, and the lack of fan attendance continues to be a problem that the industry can’t seem to solve.
After last week’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin spoke to NASCAR President Steve Phelps spoke about this issue. According to a tweet by Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press, Hamlin said the fan turnout was “unacceptable.”
Kyle Busch said before the race today “make promoters great again is kind of our go-to” and Denny Hamlin reiterated that in a meeting with Steve Phelps it was agreed attendance last week at Texas “was unacceptable.”
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) October 24, 2021
Meanwhile, about 700 miles south of the speedway, Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, hosted nearly 400,000 spectators throughout the weekend of Formula 1’s U.S. Grand Prix. It was estimated that 140,000 people watched Sunday’s race at COTA — about the same number of bodies at the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year.
There was a time 10-15 years ago when the Average Joe probably couldn’t even touch NASCAR tickets. NASCAR was thriving with marketable names such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmie Johnson, transcending stock car racing’s popularity to a territory never seen before. And around the same time, F1 didn’t even have a Grand Prix in the States. The series had competed for several years on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in the 2000s but infamously soured fans when the 2005 USGP saw a six-car race due to a Michelin tire controversy.
How has F1 become more attractive than NASCAR in the U.S.?
Well, it is a combination of several facets. NASCAR’s popularity has decreased as it has lost plenty of its star power to retirement. It has been in a transitional period as it tries to make household names out of its young stars such as Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, or Kyle Larson.
In the last several years, F1 has gained traction in the U.S. as Netflix’s docuseries “Drive To Survive” has drawn in American T.V. watchers. The show’s popularity has led to an increased awareness of the mainly European racing league in North America, and people who might not have been fans three years ago are now traveling and spending a pretty penny to see F1 in Texas.
For decades, F1 did everything it could to become popular with the average American. All it needed was a reality TV-type show.
NASCAR’s 1.5-mile tracks such as Kansas or Texas have seemingly overstayed their welcome to race fans. They’ve been called “cookiecutter” circuits that don’t produce exciting races, and the apparent staleness has been repelling spectators for several years with no end in sight.
One must give NASCAR credit where it is due, though. The championship finale at Phoenix Raceway is sold out once again. NASCAR has also given its schedule a facelift recently by adding road courses and short tracks such as Road America, COTA, and Nashville Superspeedway, respectively, to the calendar. The Clash will race on a temporary paved short track inside the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in about three months, too.
“Make promoters great again is kind of our go-to,” said Kyle Busch about NASCAR’s attendance struggles.
NASCAR is supposed to be America’s juggernaut when it comes to auto racing. But the IndyCar Series is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as its television ratings continue to slowly but surely increase while F1 has created a fanbase no one could have predicted to exist three years ago.
“This is definitely our acceptance into the U.S.,” Lewis Hamilton said when asked about the enormous crowd on hand for the USGP.
F1 will have a second U.S. date in 2022. The series will compete on a street circuit in Miami next May, as well as the traditional date at COTA later in the season. There’s been talk about how an American driver could boost F1’s American popularity even further (Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series is often mentioned) and what other cities or venues in the U.S. could also host Grands Prix in the future.
NASCAR and Formula 1 are similar only in the elementary fact that they are car racing leagues. It’s two different worlds otherwise, but many racing fans follow both series. F1 has a worldwide audience, and its popularity seems to be in good standing. NASCAR’s audience is worldwide, too, but not nearly to the extent of F1’s. It’s an American series that’s meant to attract the average American sports fan.
The question remains, though, will NASCAR ever regain the popularity that F1 now has?
