ShareThisNASCAR, the corporate monolith that has done its best in recent years to turn stock car racing into a black tie affair, has decided to go business casual.
During the annual media tour in Charlotte last week NASCAR chairman Brian France admitted what we already knew -- the sport just ain't what it used to be.
The fact that there are more empty seats at tracks and TV viewers are finding other things to watch has forced the organization to take a hard look at itself.
"Over the past 10 years we've dramatically increased safety and that mission continues," France said. "However, it's time for us to allow the drivers to drive. We don't want rules and regulations to get in the way of great racing and fantastic finishes.
"NASCAR is a contact sport. Our history is based on banging fenders."
Amen.
From an excitement standpoint the two biggest changes are the return of bump drafting at Talladega and Daytona, as well as larger restrictor plates at both tracks.
The smaller plates and "Do Not Touch" rules ruined the last race at Talladega. Yea, there were a bunch of passes but there were also a lot of single file parade laps.
Talladega Superspeedway president Rick Humphrey, an old buddy of mine and one of the truly good guys in the biz, is confident fans will get to see "real" Talladega racing again.
"Race fans have high expectations when they come to Talladega," he said. "They expect the tightest racing, the most lead changes, the most passes and the closest finishes. The return of bump-drafting certainly moves us toward meeting and exceeding each of those expectations."
The news should come as a relief to fans that have suffered through plenty of boring events in the past couple of years. And the drivers ought to like it even more.
Pilots want to have as much control as possible, and the rules at the two biggest tracks took much of that control away.
Simply put, racing is back in the hands of the drivers.
France also says he wants drivers to be more aggressive and "emotional."
By emotional I hope that means the informal gag order has been lifted from guys like Tony Stewart.
One of the great things about "Smoke" is that while NASCAR doesn't always like to hear what he has to say, it needs to.
And we want to.
Throw in the replacement of the wings on cars with spoilers, and it looks like for the first time in quite a while NASCAR is changing course -- and by changing course I mean it's headed back in the right direction.
NASCAR will never return to the days of shade tree mechanics and moonshine runners, but getting back to a few basics that helped make the sport great is a great move.
(Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at adamsonj(at)independentmail.com.)
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car of tomorrow
If NASCAR really wants to get back to basics, they would let teams drive different cars, let the manufacturers get back involved in the cars, and end the cookie cutter slot car racing we have now.