Over the last few years, NASCAR has taken a lot of decisions with the intention of opening up the sport to new audiences. Be it the Clash at the Coliseum in LA or the Chicago Street Race last weekend, almost every new experiment has divided fans. This is something RFK driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski feels will be a challenge for the sport in the upcoming years.
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The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion has been an optimist about the sport making new additions to the calendar but has often spoken his mind about the danger of losing a particular audience to do that.
Brad Keselowski feels NASCAR has to play a tough balancing act
In a conversation this week with NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace, Keselowski spoke at length about the direction the sport is taking and where he thinks there might be resistance.
The driver expressed, “I think there’s a lot of really passionate motorsports fans but we are losing some of the Car Generation so to speak, you know, there’s a funeral every day right now, that is heavy on our fan base. That is going to be a big challenge for us, we have to grow into new audiences which makes me nervous, it really does. I think NASCAR’s doing the right thing. shoring up some of the track agreements and different initiatives they have with cars and so forth. But there’s some big challenges with the OEMs as well where we’re going there.”
“The success here for NASCAR and for Motorsports as a whole is going to have to be earned, it’s not going to be given.”
Keselowski on why NASCAR is in pole position to succeed
In the same conversation, the driver also talked about the one gap in the calendar that NASCAR helps cover, putting it at an advantage over the other major leagues.
Talking about how ratings are the most important thing for broadcasters to maintain steady revenue, Keselowski added, “The only thing that generates consistent and trustworthy ratings right now are sports. And NASCAR is in a prime position with being a sport that generates consistent deliverables, in months when most sports don’t by the way. Most sports are pretty dead in the summer, and even somewhat in the spring.”
Keselowski also touched on how with the rise of streaming it will only be an eventuality when NASCAR comes around to a package split between streaming and broadcasting. The driver hopes that the fans see that the only way for the sport to survive financially will be to embrace change in the media landscape and something that they should be prepared for.
