NASCAR “alienating” its core fanbase by chasing new audiences

Former NASCAR Cup Series star Mark Martin believes the championship is “alienating” its existing fanbase by trying to attract new audiences with radical concepts and format changes.

The 66-year-old made that comment after being inducted into a new committee set up by NASCAR to review and potentially tweak the championship’s structure.

Martin remains a strong advocate for abandoning the current Playoff system and returning to the traditional Winston Cup-style championship where every race counts equally toward the title.

However, the 40-time Cup Series race winner admits such a move is unlikely due to resistance from broadcasters, who believe the Playoffs help NASCAR compete better with bigger leagues such as the NFL.

“Those fans watch the pre-race show, the entire race, and the post-race show. And they may even watch it with their kids and hand that on,” he told Shannon Spake.

“The new fans that they’re looking to bring to TV are different than that. And while you chase those fans, you’ve alienated those classic fans a lot because they just don’t recognize what they see.”

After the 26th round, the championship standings are reset, with the 16 Playoff drivers starting at 2000 points, plus the bonus points they’ve accumulated for race wins, stage wins, and top-10 ranking in the standings.

Martin believes this structure, despite rewarding victories with automatic qualification, has paradoxically reduced the true value of winning races.

“A lot of the things that were done for the playoffs for a good reason have turned out to be sour. So, it helped this (the sport), but it hurt that. Let’s say ‘win and you’re in.’ Somehow, making winning more important than ever has taken away from the importance of winning…

“But it’s just, ‘He won, he’s in.’ That’s all you talk about… Winning a race is huge. It’s the biggest deal. And you lose that. That’s not what you talk about all week. You talk about now he’s in the playoffs.”