Commentary

Summer’s Five Things: What You Need To Know For July 24, 2018

July 24, 2018
Summer Bedgood
2 Comments
Share Kickin' the Tires

“Summer’s Five Things” is a daily column for NASCAR fans to catch up on the most recent, relevant, and need-to-know news and information in the sport! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!

 

  1. You Have To See This Video of Keelan Harvick

Kevin Harvick’s six-year-old son Keelan has been a shadow next to his dad and a regular at the racetrack since he was born. And, of course, he is his dad’s biggest fan.

However, he can’t always make it to the racetrack, so he was watching the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from home with his mom, DeLana.

As the laps wound down and it looked like Harvick might pull it off, things got a little stressful for Keelan …

But the stress turned into exuberance as his dad crossed the start/finish line.

One has to wonder if one day we’ll see Keelan doing his own Victory Lane dance.

 

  1. Overnight TV Ratings

As you can see, ratings for this year’s race in New Hampshire were down compared to last year, but the three-hour rain delay definitely didn’t help the situation.

Still, continued declining TV ratings are certainly a concern for NASCAR, though not necessarily one that is unique just this sport. Other motorsports and stick-and-ball sports are having similar issues.

However, the news isn’t all bad. According to Stern, the Saturday night race at Kentucky a couple of weeks ago was the second-highest rated programming of the night for the coveted 18-49 demographic and FS1 had the highest ratings of the night amongst cable sports networks for the Eldora Dirt Derby.

 

It’s all too common to see the gloom-and-doom naysayers who say that NASCAR is withering away, and evidence of lower TV ratings adds more fuel to the fire.

However, it’s not quite that simple.

I found Maury Brown’s column on Forbes.com to be enlightening and fair when it comes to the business of NASCAR. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here were a few points that I found interesting:

  • “According to Nielsen Scarborough, NASCAR has a higher proportion of women viewing on TV and visiting its website than any other major sports league.
  • “The numbers bear this out: NASCAR is second only to the NFL in reaching millennials, reaching five times as many millennials as MLS per event. Approximately half of the social media audiences of NASCAR-owned accounts are millennials, according to Nielsen Scarborough.”
  • “All told, 140 Fortune 500 companies have sponsorship agreements throughout the sport. The number of Fortune 500 companies investing in the sport has grown year-over-year in five of the last six years, dating to 2012. The number of Fortune 500 companies investing in the sport has increased 29% since 2008.”

Now, the TV ratings are certainly something NASCAR should look into addressing and fans who are concerned about the future of the sport should continue to tune in.

However, NASCAR is still doing very well in a lot of areas and is far, far away from the dying gasp that so many Chicken Littles make it out to be.

 

  1. Speaking of sponsorship…

Go FAS Racing announced a new sponsor for driver Matt DiBenedetto in this weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway. 

Suffice it to say, it’s already making for some entertaining social media…

https://twitter.com/mattdracing/status/1021540113963253760

If you’re not sure what this is and/or are too scared to Google it, Dude Wipes are a “men’s hygiene” product.

In other words … they’re flushable butt wipes.

I’m not going to post Dude Wipes’ welcoming statement to people who visit their website due to some potentially sensitive eyes — but I literally laughed out loud when I read it myself.

In fact, the whole website is rather uncouth and coarse, but what else would you expect from a company called “Dude Wipes”?

Which is what makes them a perfect fit for DiBenedetto and a chance for NASCAR fans to unleash all their favorite potty jokes.

https://twitter.com/mattdracing/status/1021556802843025408

 

  1. No “sticky stuff” at Pocono Raceway

The PJ1 traction compound that was applied to New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend (and has been used at other tracks, such as Bristol) will not be applied to this weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway…

…despite the fact that Denny Hamlin campaigned for the compound to be used in Turn 3 at the “Tricky Triangle”.

“I’d like to openly petition for we need PJ1 at the top of Turn 3 Pocono,” Hamlin said over the weekend. “When we had that new fresh asphalt up there, it completely changed the racing at Pocono and I really believe that it could do wonders for that race track and, you know, cause it’s been such a single-file race track ever since the repave that there’s a handful of tracks that really could help the racing and so putting it in the high side of (Turn) 1, the high side of 3 at Pocono would be a fantastic idea.”

NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition appeared on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday morning and explained why the decision was made not to follow through on Hamlin’s suggestion.

“Turn 3 at Pocono was one of the places where it was going to be applied,” Miller said. “That’s a third-gear corner for the competitors. Little bit difficult to kind of anticipate what the gearing change might be. We don’t want to change anything up for the competitors. Obviously we’re going very fast down the front straightaway at Pocono. Elevating the speed in Turn 3 only makes that more.”

The compound did seem to help create a second groove for drivers to pass in New Hampshire, though the rain at the track made it difficult to make a fair assessment.

Hamlin also suggested Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway as potential candidates for the compound as well.

 

  1. A New Tradition?

When Ryan Blaney handed his checkered flag to a young fan in the grandstands at Dover in 2017, he may have started a trend*.

Blaney has duplicated this in subsequent victories and now other drivers are following suit.

Over the weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, XFINITY Series winner Christopher Bell and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winner Kevin Harvick gave their checkered flags away to kids in the grandstands.

 

NASCAR.com has reintroduced the “Kids Drive NASCAR” campaign and, combined with drivers reaching out to these little race fans, it’s a great way to get children excited about the sport.

*In fairness, I do recall Kyle Busch attempting something similar several years ago, but another fan took the flag away from the person he was trying to give it to. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any footage of this happening or I would have given him more credit.

**

If you would like this column to appear in your inbox everyday, or if you would like to connect with me, send me an e-mail at [email protected].

You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

2 thoughts on “Summer’s Five Things: What You Need To Know For July 24, 2018”

  1. Downplay it all you want the tv ratings indicate they’ve lost millions of fans over the last five years. Yes that’s millions. Kentucky alone was 500,000 less then last year. Why do think sponsors are hard to come by? Get your head out of the sand. This decline has been steady for several years now and shows no signs of leveling off.

    Reply

  2. The lighter side of sponsorship–Dude Wipes? Hey, sponsorship money is sponsorship money! But I wonder if Matt DiBenedetto will be able to say thank you to them with a straight face?!?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *