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4/22/04
"In my day, sonny, a
Ford looked like a Ford. . ."
It is a fairly well accepted fact that professional drag racing's fan base both at the events and on the tube just isn't growing. The sixty-four dollar question is, why?
The drag racing I watch today shares little with the drag racing I grew up watching. For that matter all professional auto racing has evolved into something which hardly resembles the sport I first fell in love with.
Let me explain. When I was growing up and going to the drags, for the fans the lines in the sand were sharply drawn. There were Ford men like my dad who wouldn't be caught dead driving or rooting for a Chevy, and there was my Uncle Terry who was a Mopar man who felt the same about Fords and so on. When those two would take me and my brothers to Amarillo Dragway on a given Sunday to watch the likes of Jack Moss, who had a 427-powered Galaxie, square off against Fenner Tubbs' Mopar or Don Gay Sr's 421 Pontiac or Dickie Harrell's rat-motored Chevy, everyone at the track probably had a favorite driver and brand to root for.
And the brand loyalty extended to the fuel classes. Moss had a blown small block digger that ran against the likes of Eddie Hill's Pontiac-powered dragster or the Albertson Olds. There were Buick, Ford, Chevy and Chrysler powered Top Fuelers and Top Gas dragsters. When the Funny Cars came along Fords had Ford engines, Chevys had rat motors and so on. No matter what your brand was, there was a hero for you to identify with and root for.
Fast forward to 2004. NHRA Pro Stock is a GM dominated class. There is the odd Ford and Mopar but they almost never win or are competitive. The sad fact is that from half-track seats it is almost impossible to tell one brand from another.
It's gotten so bad that the only way the racers of Pro Stockers and Fuel Funny Cars can let the fans know what brand they are driving is to paint the brand name or logo on the car in two-foot letters. Part of the reason for that is that the NHRA and IHRA rules committees have let the car builders and factories bastardize the bodies to the point that they don't resemble anything that sits on a showroom floor. The casual fan that comes to an NHRA race for the first time would be hard pressed to know that John Force drives a Mustang and Gary Scelzi a Stratus or Ron Capps a Monte Carlo.
As for Top Fuel dragsters, the only thing they have for the crowds is sound and fury and the occasional 335-mph lap.
Perhaps the real fan attraction for all successful forms of auto racing from F-1 to NASCAR is the fan's brand loyalty. The audience may have peaked. It's generally acknowledged that both NASCAR and the NHRA/IHRA aren't selling out their venues. Even the Indy 500 doesn't attract the crowds it once did. According to AC Nielsen ratings NASCAR has lost as much as 15 percent of their viewer audience this year compared to last. Could the introduction of their "generic" body for Cup cars that make all of the cars look similar have something to do with that viewer drop?
When racecars, be they Nextel Cup cars, NHRA/IHRA Pro Stocks or NHRA Fuel Funny cars, all look and sound alike at the track or on the tube, perhaps the casual fan loses interest. How many times would you pay to see the same movie? Maybe there are just too many mostly white or mostly black Pro class cars with no real personality or branding for the casual fan to identify with. Maybe the fact that nitro cars make 8,000 hp and go over 300 mph isn't enough to attract and keep new fans. Lord knows drag racing has been selling that particular sizzle for a very long time.
I've come to the conclusion that 200-mph door cars and 300-mph fuel cars will keep the hardcore fans coming back but the casual cross-over fan won't come back to see the same cars and drivers accomplish that feat over and over. They need something or someone else to root for. What is the appeal to watching the same cars and drivers do the same thing over and over?
Here are a few suggestions for making drag racing more attractive to new fans both at the track and on the television. First, the sanctioning bodies need to overhaul the Pro Stock and Funny Car body rules. Put the "stock" back in Pro Stock. Make them look like what people buy and drive so they can relate and root for their brand. Let Corvettes and Vipers compete in Pro Stock. Banning those body styles makes no sense on any level anymore.
Put together a bonus program that rewards the top ten points earners in Pro Stock for GM, Ford and Mopar teams. Make Funny Car bodies much more stock appearing and brand identifiable to the casual fan. The mainstream electronic and print media will be much more likely to give coverage if they and their readers know what brand of car they are looking at. Force the racers to paint the freakin' Pro Stockers something other than solid white or black. Make a really big deal out of the manufacturer's cup; offer a one-time bonus for winning a Pro Stock Championship in a Ford or Mopar.
I think NASCAR has badly misjudged its fan base by letting first the race teams get out of hand and then allowing the networks to basically neuter the drivers. Now they are starting to pay the price. Somehow the suits that run the programs in professional auto racing (drag racing included) forgot how the sport started and what was the original attraction. It was and is about whose cars was quicker and faster and more often than not it about my Ford beating your Chevy.
Drag racing is among the most technological of all motor sports but guess what, the casual fans don't come to races to be educated. They come to be entertained. When they can't recognize the players even with a scorecard and they see the same play every time, they get bored and quit coming. NHRA or IHRA drag racing certainly isn't boring but it's getting closer every day. It's time for the guys getting paid the big bucks to step up to the plate and make hard decisions for the good of the sport. 
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