Sports Reporting Blog 4: NASCAR is Back. But do People Care?
Happy Daytona Day. Whether you care or not, NASCAR is back with its biggest race of the year, its so-called Super Bowl. However, while excitement fills the air for another NASCAR season, the sport is trying to curb the drastically falling ratings they have seen in the last decade. Part of doing this includes another new scoring system.
Already revamped once earlier this decade, NASCAR is trying to make the points system better. This comes with the new Chase format they instituted in which the Chase is staged in rounds with a number of drivers getting knocked out each round. All of this is in response to the decrease in ratings.
However, this new point’s system change may be what NASCAR has been looking for. In other sports, shots always count. A bucket is a bucket is a bucket. But if you watch enough NASCAR you will find a race where a guy who didn’t lead all race, or was even in the top 10, gets lucky after a big wreck, moves into eighth and makes a run to win the race. Did he deserve the glory that day? That’s what NASCAR is trying to tackle.
The new system splits all races into three segments; think of hockey and three periods. Each segment has point value with the last segment, or the end of the race, having the highest point value. So winning the race is still the most important, but if a driver is now leading for the majority of the race, chances are they will be rewarded by winning a segment. They can also earn points in duel races which happen throughout each race week.
All of this is trying to get people excited in the race. Far too often I have found myself excited for a driver who is doing well all race long only to see him crash and end up not finishing the race and be rewarded nothing for dominating the race while he was there. While I understand finishing the race is part of the race, I still think you should reward drivers for efforts throughout the race, not just where they are at the end.
Whether you are going to watch the Daytona 500 or not, I think everyone can agree that these new changes will make the first 450 miles much more exciting.
