1.  Will the new format for the 2009 Bud Shootout result in TV ratings?  Or will the silly season mix-ups screw it up?
Who is in?  
Chevy:   Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick,  Casey Mears (in Clint Bowyer's car), Jeff Burton 
Ford:  Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, and Travis Kvalpil 
Toyota: Kyle Busch, Joey Logano (Tony Stewart's car) , Denny Hamlin, David   Reutimann, Brian Vickers, and Michael Waltrip

Dodge:  Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, David Stremme (Ryan Newman's car), AJ Allmendinger (Elliott Sadler's car), Someone in Bobby Labonte's car, and Reed Sorenson

At this point, the list of those out is significant:  Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Robby Gordon, and Clint Bowyer.  Newman is last year's Daytona 500 winner, and a pole winner numerous times.  Martin and Stewart have won the Shootout in the past.  Bowyer is a race winner.
The off season's mergers, manufacturer switches and driver additions and subtractions have moved many in and out of the Shootout.  With the auto manufacturer's on the verge of bankruptcy, will this line-up hold until early February or is more jockeying to occur?


2.  Can California Speedway support two dates?
Nascar desperately wants to get into the Los Angeles market.  With two dates, the attendance has been lackluster, but Nascar has given the track a Chase race this year.  If the track can't deliver, will Kansas end up with one of these dates?    
If I were track president, I'd have  a true promoter, Humpy Wheeler, on speed dial and offer a nice consulting fee to help me sell tickets.  So far the mostly D-List celebrities on hand have not generated ticket sales, probably because those fame-whores are at every coffee shop opening.  Sell the race, not the audience!


3.  Will the recession hurt tracks who were already failing to sell-out?
Next year (2010) looks to be a radically new schedule.  Nascar has already announced that it would like to give Kansas a second race.  Where does that race come from?  Martinsville, California, and Pocono are on the short list.  But there could be others.  Of course, many tracks would like a second race.  This is the year for track owners to sell tickets and prove worthy of their race dates.  If the financial troubles continue into 2010, will Nascar react by shortening the season (which some argue is needed now)?
How will tracks attract fans to the races?  Lowe's in Charlotte partnered with hotels to reduce prices.  A big help, but the average fan knows the price gouging that goes on with everything from hotels, car rentals, meals and airfare.  Without help all around, many fans will be staying home and watching the race on the couch.


4.  Can Indianapolis host more than a tire test?
IMS turns 100 this year, and the plans for a big birthday bash are already in place.  However, Nascar fans who were burned by last year's extended tire test  may be wary of spending money on another ticket.  What will IMS and Goodyear do to improve the racing?  And will Nascar suspend the testing ban for IMS so that the race improves?



5.  Will the auto manufacturer's troubles continue to impact Nascar?
The financial difficulties of the Big 3 trickles down to Nascar, and has resulted in a couple mergers (Earnhardt-Ganassi) and a couple changes (Robby Gordon).  Many teams were feeling the impact in generating sponsorships, such as Stewart Haas, JR Motorsports/Hendrick and  Roush Fenway.  The cuts from their manufacturer's budget will not be welcome.  
GM and Dodge teams felt the most heat, but Ford had problems too.  Toyota registered its first loss in 70 years.   Will Toyota continue to spend money on racing or will it meet the budgetary ax?  With Ray Evernham out at GEM, will Dodge feel compelled to stay in Nascar?


6.  Will TV ratings go up?
Fans pan the TV broadcasts.  Everyone has a favorite, and everyone has someone or something they don't like.  Direct TV's Hot Pass is gone (probably because it was largely a black hole for their extra cash with no return).  
With the cost of the races escalating, and the fan's wallet  shrinking, fans will be stuck at home.  Will they tune in to watch?  Or will they wait to catch the replays on Wind Tunnel, Nascar Now or the evening news?

 1.  Will the new format for the 2009 Bud Shootout result in TV ratings?  Or will the silly season mix-ups screw it up?
Who is in?   Chevy:   Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick,  Casey Mears (in Clint Bowyer's car), Jeff Burton       Ford:  Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, and Travis Kvalpil
Toyota: Kyle Busch, Joey Logano (Tony Stewart's car) , Denny Hamlin, David   Reutimann, Brian Vickers, and Michael Waltrip Dodge:  Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, David Stremme (Ryan Newman's car), AJ Allmendinger (Elliott Sadler's car), Someone in Bobby Labonte's car, and Reed Sorenson

At this point, the list of those out is significant:  Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Robby Gordon, and Clint Bowyer.  Newman is last year's Daytona 500 winner, and a pole winner numerous times.  Martin and Stewart have won the Shootout in the past.  Bowyer is a race winner.
The off season's mergers, manufacturer switches and driver additions and subtractions have moved many in and out of the Shootout.  With the auto manufacturer's on the verge of bankruptcy, will this line-up hold until early February or is more jockeying to occur?


2.  Can California Speedway support two dates?
Nascar desperately wants to get into the Los Angeles market.  With two dates, the attendance has been lackluster, but Nascar has given the track a Chase race this year.  If the track can't deliver, will Kansas end up with one of these dates?    
If I were track president, I'd have  a true promoter, Humpy Wheeler, on speed dial and offer a nice consulting fee to help me sell tickets.  So far the mostly D-List celebrities on hand have not generated ticket sales, probably because those fame-whores are at every coffee shop opening.  Sell the race, not the audience!


3.  Will the recession hurt tracks who were already failing to sell-out?
Next year (2010) looks to be a radically new schedule.  Nascar has already announced that it would like to give Kansas a second race.  Where does that race come from?  Martinsville, California, and Pocono are on the short list.  But there could be others.  Of course, many tracks would like a second race.  This is the year for track owners to sell tickets and prove worthy of their race dates.  If the financial troubles continue into 2010, will Nascar react by shortening the season (which some argue is needed now)?
How will tracks attract fans to the races?  Lowe's in Charlotte partnered with hotels to reduce prices.  A big help, but the average fan knows the price gouging that goes on with everything from hotels, car rentals, meals and airfare.  Without help all around, many fans will be staying home and watching the race on the couch.


4.  Can Indianapolis host more than a tire test?
IMS turns 100 this year, and the plans for a big birthday bash are already in place.  However, Nascar fans who were burned by last year's extended tire test  may be wary of spending money on another ticket.  What will IMS and Goodyear do to improve the racing?  And will Nascar suspend the testing ban for IMS so that the race improves?



5.  Will the auto manufacturer's troubles continue to impact Nascar?
The financial difficulties of the Big 3 trickles down to Nascar, and has resulted in a couple mergers (Earnhardt-Ganassi) and a couple changes (Robby Gordon).  Many teams were feeling the impact in generating sponsorships, such as Stewart Haas, JR Motorsports/Hendrick and  Roush Fenway.  The cuts from their manufacturer's budget will not be welcome.  
GM and Dodge teams felt the most heat, but Ford had problems too.  Toyota registered its first loss in 70 years.   Will Toyota continue to spend money on racing or will it meet the budgetary ax?  With Ray Evernham out at GEM, will Dodge feel compelled to stay in Nascar?


6.  Will TV ratings go up?
Fans pan the TV broadcasts.  Everyone has a favorite, and everyone has someone or something they don't like.  Direct TV's Hot Pass is gone (probably because it was largely a black hole for their extra cash with no return).  

A DVD and the following Transcript arrived via Federal Express this morning.

Brian France:  Everyone sit down.  We'll get started here.

Jack Roush:  What's the idea, calling a meeting less than a week before Christmas?

Rick Hendrick:  I agree with Jack.  What's the emergency?  I don't like being threatened with disqualification from the Daytona 500 if I don't show up to your meeting!

Mike Helton:  I'm sorry about that Rick, but this automaker bailout and the recession is causing a lot of problems for our season.  We needed your imput immediately.

Robin Pemberton:  And this was the only way we could do it.

France:  Now, we all know that the automanufacturers have been having some difficulty during these rough times. 

Joe Gibbs:  That sure didn't stop them from making cash handouts to certain people.

Pause.

Tony Stewart:  Why is everyone looking  at me?

Roush:  I, for one, am delighted that you are no longer driving for EE.

Stewart:  EE?

Roush: Evil Empire.

Stewart:  Gotcha.

France:  As I was saying, we've had to make some changes for next year.

Chip Ganassi:  YOU had to make changes? I had to practically close my business and merge with Teresa.

Richard Petty:  I'm with Chip on this one.  Nascar can't be hurting as much as the teams are.

Ray Evernham:  I don't understand why I got invited since I don't own a company anymore.

Pemberton:  Will you guys shut up?!?  Mr. France is trying to make a point.

France:  Thank you Robin.  We've had to make signficant changes in a few things.  Mike will outline them for you.  Thanks for coming.  I've got to go do some Christmas shopping.  Toodles!

Helton:  The first change is that, thanks to our COT program, as  your manufacturers reduce or eliminate their racing programs, you will be able to change manufacturers mid-season by merely changing the decal on the hood.

Hendrick:  What happens when they all go bankrupt?

Helton:  Uh.  I don't think that will happen.

Roush:  Shouldn't loyalty get you something.  Ford is still strong, not taking any federal money.  Why shouldn't my teams get more points since we chose a winner?

Michael Waltrip:  Toyota is still strong too.  We should get points along with the Ford guys.

Robby Gordon:  I'm with Toyota.  Sounds good to me.

Hendrick:  Look, the bankrupt teams need the extra points because the help from the manufacturer will be gone.  Not the teams who still have support.

Helton:  There will not be extra points just because your manufacture isn't bankrupt.  And there won't be extra points if they do go bankrupt.  We have had a couple changes in tracks hosting races next year.  Mansfield is off the truck schedule and Iowa is in.   If some of the tracks don't do a better job selling tickets, there will be changes in the Cup schedule mid-season too.

Roush:  What?!?

Teresa Earnhardt:  How can we plan for that?

Petty:  How will that work for the TV deal?

Helton:  TV is hurting too, so if we can cut their costs, then they are all for it.

Stewart:  How would that work?

Helton:  If we have to eliminate races, then we will move them closer to the East Coast.  The ones we are worried about are in California, Martinsville, Loudon,  and Pocono.  We'd have those races run at other ISC tracks, and maybe Charlotte. 

Evernham:  Wait a minute.  You're saying Chase races could change.

Helton:  Yep.

Pemberton:  Won't that make it more exciting?

Helton:  We think the Chase could look like this graph.

Silence for 2 minutes.

Roush:  I don't like it.

Hendrick: I could live with it, I guess.

Stewart:  Are you kidding me?

Gibbs:  Every other Chase race at Daytona?

Earnhardt:  Two at Charlotte?

Ganassi:  A Four week stretch alternating between Talladega and Daytona?

Evernham:  The finale is still at Homestead.

Petty:  But will anyone have a car left at the end after the first nine races?

Helton:  Again, this is only if we have trouble selling out races, getting sponsorship for the races and such.  We really don't want to change things mid-year.  We'd like to try and sell more tickets first.

Gibbs:  Are you suggesting...?

Roush:  No way.

Hendrick:  Are you kidding?

Pemberton:  Rick, think how many tickets Dale Jr. alone could sell!  I have here rolls of tickets for each of you.  We expect you to sell one set for each car you enter.

Waltrip: Why should I sell any?  I'm not guaranteed a starting spot.

Helton:  If you sell enough tickets, you'll be guaranteed a starting spot.

Gordon:  What if I sell two rolls?

Helton:  Two spots.

Stewart:  How do you propose we sell the tickets?

Pemberton:  Anyway you can - door to door.  Raffle.  Cold Calls.  Magazine ads.  Sell them to your sponsors. 

Helton:  If you get a sponsor to sponsor a race at a track, we'll waive the ticket sales for that race.

Stewart:  And if we don't sell any?

Roush:  I'm with Stewart.

Helton:  Then Nascar may take that as a sign that you are not a team player.  Oh, I forgot to mention that we plan to increase the penalties for failure to comply with the rules.  Start parking cars for tinkering with the templates.  Yank wins from cars found not in compliance after the races.  And We'd need to tech your car a bit longer, as your lack of cooperation is akin to cheating. 

Pemberton:  Won't it be fun!

Silence.

Earnhardt:  Give us the tickets.  I need every car we have in the race.

Waltrip:  Me too.

Other voices chime in similarly.

 

Kyle Busch won his 10th Nationwide race this season at Texas.  This ties a mark set by Sam Ard, who won the Busch series championship twice in the early 1980's.

Since his Nascar career, Ard has fallen on hard times.  He and his wife struggle to pay their bills and even auctioned off his racing momentos, (including trophys) a couple years ago to finance their living and medical expenses.  Ard has Alzheimer's and his wife is suffering from a degenerative eye disease.  After his win, Kyle announced that he was going to give Ard $100,000.

The Nascar Foundation and Motor Racing Outreach are currently auctioning items to help generate money for the Ards.  Delana Harvick has been a driving force behind helping the Ards, frequently touting the auction and sale during her and her team's media obligations.  Plus, the Harvicks donated a van to the Ards at the end of October.

The auction is currently going on, and several drivers have donated items that may still be bid on.

NOTICE:  The Following is a SUPER TOP SECRET discussion of the State of Nascar and the new 2009 Rules. 

DO NOT FORWARD.  DO NOT LEAK TO THE MEDIA.

Brian.

PS: This means you, Pemberton.

PPS:  This means you too Hunter.

PPSS:  I especially mean you Helton.

PPPSS:  I am really, really, really, really serious.

PPPSSS:  You don't want to know how serious I am that this not get out.

PPPPSS:  Two words:  Cleaning bathrooms. Forever.  At all tracks. Every Weekend.

 

Dear Board Members:

After an extensive review of our internal polling, ticket sales, and the solicitation of ideas from our sponsors, teams, manufacturers, the media, drivers and fans, we propose the immediate implementation of the following changes to Nascar, effective January 1, 2009.

Owners complained that Nascar is stealing money from them by having corporate sponsors.  For example, instead of allowing teams to make money by contracting to be the official team of Goodyear, Bridgestone, Hoosier or Michelin, Nascar instead gets the money by sanctioning only one tire manufacturer.  The same goes for fuel and restrictor plates.  There is nothing Nascar can do about this problem without hurting Nascar's bottom line, so the teams will have to suck it up as we are outright rejecting any change.

Throughout the fan polls, we found that fans' biggest complaints were that (1) things (tickets, travel, etc) cost too much; (2) not enough crashes, and [from mostly female fans ] (3) the driving suits cover too much or are not sexy enough. Nascar will leave firesuit design to the professionals, but will attempt to tackle the other issues, as set out below.

Team Structure

Nascar has already mandated that an owner's team size not exceed four cars.  However, we find that the mega-teams are still driving out our smaller sized teams.  In addition, we've had a severe problem with open wheel drivers failing to produce.  Obviously this impacts our fan base (and we all know how the Scottish, Canadian and Columbian fan base has collapsed recently).  In an effort to level the playing field for all teams and drivers, Nascar would propose  a radical new idea:  co-drivers. 

In sum, all cars would have two drivers in them, thereby opening new opportunites to new Nascar drivers, giving new drivers experience, and allowing teams the ability to cut overhead by eliminating at least 2 teams in each of the megashops.  Each owner could have 3 cars entered in a race for a total of 6 drivers, but only the expense of 3 cars.

After much thought, Nascar has decided that both drivers would be in the car at the same time.  One would have the ability to steer the car while the other would have shifting and braking ability.  The track would determine whether the steerer or the braker had the gas pedal.  We anticipate a 50-50 split on the gas pedal duties. 

Nascar examined the possibility of switching drivers at the mid-race point, but decided that co-drivers would add to the crash factor, and thus higher fan ratings.  Plus, the co-driver requirement will bring back those nostolgic memories of driver- mechanic races in the early 1900's.

COT: An Old-School Approach

In a further effort to reduce costs for teams, Nascar has partnered with one manufacturer to produce all cars in the field.  While an individual team can still be sponsored by Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Dodge or whomever, all car bodies will now be Ford Pintos.  As Ford had a large surpluss of these vehicles, Nascar has purchased them and will sell them to the teams at a substantial profit.  Ford sold acres and acres of the Pinto to Nascar for approximately $100,000.  Nascar will sell the cars to each team for approximately $25,000 a piece, thereby recouping the fall off in ticket sales from 2008.

Additionally, the small car size will encourage fans to buy smaller cars (this is our public service to the world), and will enable a fluid communication between co-drivers.

Race Length

Everyone has complained about the length of certain races (Pocono, any cookie cutter, most short tracks, heck pick one off the schedule).  With the recent soaring gas prices, teams have complained about the added costs of gasoline. 

To encourage engineers to "think out side the Pinto" , teams will be only allowed to fill the gas tank three times during a race event.  The car that makes it the farthest wins.  Also, all rules relating to gas tanks are removed (since Smokey is long gone, we figure it doesn't matter any more.  This rule will be amended if Knaus wins too often).

Season Schedule

The length of the Nascar schedule has long been scrutinized.  In an effort to further reduce costs to teams, and to drive up ticket sales, only ISC tracks will have Cup races.  SMI and other owners will have to content themselves with the NHRA, IRL and other sanctioning bodies.

Pit Crew

Several owners have complained about the high cost of pit crews and others that they must have on hand at the race track.  Fans complain that the pit stops are getting too fast for them to appreciate the grace and beauty of the teamwork.  And they like more crashes on pit road.  Effective January 1, 2009, pit crews will only have 2 members, including the crew chief.  The co-drivers will also be allowed  required to help pit the car.  Plus with the gas rule, most teams will want a longer stop to fuel up.

Nascar is concerned that a large number of pit crew members will be unemployed.   Thus, Nascar announces its new "Parking Crew" who will be comprised of former pit crew members who now valet park cars at the track and direct traffic both before and after events.  Fans bitterly complain that getting out after races is terrible, and cite this as a reason they do not attend races in person. This measure will help alliviate those concerns.

Cheating

The new penalty for cheating will be an added 200-250 pounds on the car:  Namely Mike Helton will ride-along for a period of weeks.  Extreme cheating will require both Helton and the car's crew chief to ride along in the hatchback of the Pinto.

Fan Impact

Finally, to replace the Chase format, Nascar will implement a new Fan friendly competition, entitled "Crash/Crush".  At each regular season race, three fans will be chosen at random.  These fans will become co-drivers in the final 3 races:  at Daytona, Sonoma, and Phoenix.   The fan will have the option to chose their driver or their driver's rival to drive with at the beginning of the Crash/Crush.  Thus, the incentive is to be at the first few races in person to have your choice (Dale Jr, Jimmie, Tony, Kyle, Jeff) instead of being stuck (Hornish, Busch brothers).  For these three races only, the co-drivers will switch at the mid-race point.  Note:  Fans must provide their own health and life insurance.

Conclusion

Nascar believes that these few tweaks will result in higher TV ratings, more fan participation, lower costs for teams, and a reduction in whining from all quarters.  And most importantly, will add to the Nascar bottom line.

Brian France