We continue to see people, mostly older, talk about how NASCAR is dying. These people typically point out abysmal TV ratings or half-empty race tracks, and their favorite argument is always, “Well, they tore down grandstands.”

Well, let’s take a little dive into NASCAR history to figure out why that is.

The 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s saw an incredible boom in the popularity of not only NASCAR but motorsports as a whole. Most of that can be credited to the affordability and ease of getting a TV and cable.

For quite some time, NASCAR was the only sport in the country that could come close to competing with the NFL, and they did come very, very close.

Gone were the days of race tracks having 10 or 15,000 grandstand seats, and the sport was ushering in an era of what we now know as unsustainable growth. We saw tracks installing upwards of 150,000 seats at their venues. And some of those tracks filled every last one.

Then you started seeing smaller tracks that either did not have the means, the property, or the willingness to expand go to the wayside. Look at Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. These two tracks were also ousted due to the southeastern region of the United States being overly saturated. NASCAR was growing substantially, so keeping the sport in a certain region was just stupid. You had massive, massive, untouched markets in California, the Midwest, and the Southwest.

And when NASCAR went to these tracks, you can bet that those tracks had incredible numbers in terms of seats.

Now let’s fast-forward to 2001, February. Arguably the greatest loss in the history of the NASCAR deal. Earnhardt passed away behind the wheel of his infamous number three at Daytona. A great many fans claim that this was the end of NASCAR. It was never the same again. Well, in a certain way it wasn’t and it hasn’t been. But it was definitely not the end of NASCAR.

NASCAR would continue to grow at unprecedented rates for the next few years. In 2006, five years after Dale Earnhardt’s death, NASCAR saw its greatest attendance, popularity, and TV numbers in its history. Only two years later, the United States and most of the world were thrust into what is now known as the Great Recession. No sport or person was safe, not even the NASCAR giant.

Over the next couple of years, NASCAR saw an incredible decline that finally stopped about 2009 to 2010 before climbing slightly back up and then dropping again roughly about 2013. Since then, NASCAR has been fairly stagnant while still seeing slight drops.

But what about those empty seats?

Well, NASCAR had the largest generation of babies in the history of the United States as a core fan base throughout those decades mentioned above. The boomer generation was NASCAR’s core fan base. Mix them in with the 80s and 90s babies, and you have a very potent level of fans that cannot be matched today.

Fast-forward to 2020 and the world was yet again thrust into an unprecedented situation with Covid. Now, we actually got to see what an empty race track looked like. Later in the season, more and more tracks began allowing fans in the stand again. But this time, it was a little different. Whatever the reason, NASCAR’s core fan base was visually being replaced at the race tracks. Younger and younger fans were showing up. And many were not from the southeast.

I personally traveled during Covid to Phoenix, Arizona, home of the NASCAR championship race. And you know what? So did tens of thousands of other fans. I’m at fans from Alaska, Maine, Florida, Michigan, California, etc. Do you know who I didn’t see? The good old boys. I’m sure they were there, but they sure did not make themselves known.

Apparently, the state of Arizona limited the venue to 30,000 fans, but as someone who’s been to dozen upon dozens of races, I can tell you that it was more than that.

But, a large group of NASCAR’s former core fan base have that fixation on empty seats. They refer to the massive chunk of empty seats, empty rows, empty sections, they even go as far as going NASCAR liars when NASCAR calls a race sell out, a sell out because of this. In fact, we had 12 sellouts in 2023 and are at 7 so far in 2024.

So why are we seeing tracks tear out the stands? Well obviously, if there is no one in them, why keep them? Well, many people point out to a cookie cutter race car, the Chase, the playoffs, win and you’re in, Toyota, the dominance of Jimmie Johnson, The racing product… and their two favorites… NASCAR is going “woke, “and Bubba Wallace.

Now let’s look at some of the real reasoning for these tracks; pulling these grandstands is, as stated above, the unsustainable level of growth that NASCAR had in the early to mid-2000s and even the late 90s. That was 20 or 30 years ago, and as much as we don’t like to talk about it, a great many of those fans have passed away. Maybe they got upset with the way NASCAR was run or something that they did and did not push their children or grandchildren into a love of the sport.

We live in a digital age, with 75″ TVs, smartphones, and tablets. To get a great racing experience, you don’t need to be at the track anymore. TVs are not off-colored and 15″ screens anymore. I can sit in my recliner with an ice-cold beer in the A/C and enjoy myself. (Personally, I’d prefer to be there, but you get my argument). I can watch the races at work, at the store, or in the back at some obnoxious nephew’s 4th birthday party.

Another massive reason is that racing is not as relatable as it once was. Not many people can afford to buy a race car and compete, even at a local level. Upper-middle and upper-class families would struggle to do so. Want to be competitive and not just ride around? Pull out the checkbook. So we are seeing fewer and fewer younger drivers at our local tracks.

On the other hand, the best hope for that situation is that it does not require tires, fuel, a trailer, or even tens of thousands of dollars. It’s the growth of Sim racing. For under $100 US, you can buy a cheap wheel and log into some of the most advanced racing simulators ever created, such as iRacing. Just look at William Byron, Rajah Caruth, or Ty Majeski; that was their route.

So why do we tear down the grandstands instead of keeping them up in hopes of filling them one day? A lot of these fans like to point out, wrongly, that they want to make it look more successful. 30,000 fans in a venue that can hold 35,000 looks a hell of a lot better than 30,000 fans in a venue that can hold 100,000. No one will argue that. But it’s still wrong.

Now, we can’t say everything without hearing from every race track. But a great many of these race tracks are taxed on their saving capacity. So if you, as a track president, have 100,000 seats in your venue and you sell 60,000 tickets. Your local and or state governments are taxing you for 40,000 unused seats. So, how do you make that revenue back? Well, you can always cover them with banners and sell sponsorship. But you’re still paying to maintain those seats, so any type of revenue return gets shrunk even more.

So what do you do? You tear them down. A one-time fee for tearing down grandstands is a much better business move. Now you’re not getting taxed on them and you’re not paying to maintain them. Now you can offer something different to your fans, a new generation of fans. Something like extremely expensive VIP RV parking down the backstretch that can make you maybe the money that selling out every one of those 40,000 seats would have.

You can add Infield fan zones where seats that were formally in the infield may have been. Now, you’re generating revenue again and offering an unprecedented option for your fans at your venue.

Let’s stay with those infield fan zones for a second. Some of the tracks in field fan zones can hold thousands upon thousands of fans. And the majority require a grandstand ticket to have access on top of fan zone access. So you are continuously generating revenue for your track and contributing to a sellout, even though that may never even know where his seat in the grandstands actually is.

There is something else to remember when you hear of a sellout at a track but you see empty seats. We live in the age of the Internet. You can buy seats online and don’t even have to buy them directly from the racetrack or NASCAR. You can buy them from websites like StubHub, SeatGeek, or Ticketmaster.

These secondhand parties typically buy thousands of seats with the intention of turning them around and selling them at a profit. Often, especially older fans, don’t even know that this option exists. Or fans who refuse to pay the incredible fees on top of the markup on the ticket price, therefore leaving those seats unattended.

Here’s the deal: those seats are still sold. So if you have a venue that has 50,000 seats, 40,000 are purchased by fans or sponsors, and the secondhand markets purchase 10,000, but they don’t resell a single one. Even though you see 40,000 fans in the stands and 10,000 empty seats, that is still a sellout. Neither NASCAR nor the tracks can really do anything about it without saying that they are only going to sell tickets at the door the day of the event. And that’s just stupid.

Now, we can all ramble and argue for days and days and days, and let’s be honest… on Facebook, we do. We can argue about whether NASCAR is dying. TV and attendance numbers are climbing again, so that goes against that argument. We can argue that tracks are faking numbers or NASCAR’s making stuff up. But there’s nothing concrete to prove that.

But we can all agree on one thing: if you’re truly a fan of the sport. We all want to see it succeed. We might not like every decision NASCAR makes; I certainly don’t. But we can all contribute to the resurgence and rebuilding of the sport. We can spend our money going to races, buying merchandise, and putting stickers on our cars. Or you can do something as simple as tuning in. But the best thing you can do to help rebuild this sport is bring a friend. Introduce them to what was once America’s most fantastic spectator sport and help it return there.

Image: Julian Wayne