Now that NASCAR is deep into its new Chase, and as we see winless Ryan Newman unspectacular-but-steady and Matt Kenseth hanging-in-there (both would advance to the Homestead finale as of now), it's time for me to repeat what I said long ago:
If this "elimination" system produces a champion who went the entire 36-race season without a victory, NASCAR will get ripped Big Time in the national media, and there will be a whole lot of unsatisfied fans. At a minimum.
However, if Kevin Harvick is to be believed, the NASCAR suits need not worry about a second Cup for Kenseth. After their wreck and beating-and-banging Sunday at Martinsville, Harvick said:
“Yeah, he (Kenseth) won’t win this
championship. If we don’t, he won’t.”
Kenseth has been one of racing's most uncontroversial drivers his entire NASCAR career. Man, has that changed in the last three weeks! Kinda late in life to be changing his image!
On the Business of Racing front, NASCAR and baseball are alike in two respects. Both the Chase and World Series TV numbers have been down. And both sports have long-term TV contracts, worth billions, to keep them secure.
News from Wall St. last week worth noting: Both Coca-Cola and McDonald's, two important NASCAR sponsors, reported bad quarterly results. Stock analysts immediately began predicting management changes. One CNBC head said it could be 20 years before he'd buy Coke stock! McDonald's year-to-year same-store sales and overall numbers have been downsliding for quite a while and the company hasn't been able to successfully launch a new product or shake its "unhealthy" image. In an unfortunate bit of timing (or maybe it was intentional), this was the week CBS' Sunday Morning show chose to run its soft and fuzzy Politically Correct feature on McD's CEO.
[ announcement of recipient of 2014 Jim Chapman Award for excellence in motorsports PR here Sunday, Nov. 2; also @SpinDoctor500 ]
