Where did all the fans go?

By Monte Dutton

NASCAR This Week

When I first began writing about NASCAR, the track in North Wilkesboro had 60,000 seats. Then Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre carved it up as if they were diplomats playing Monopoly with conquered land, and the capacity was revealed to be 37,000. Same when International Speedway Corporation got its hands on Martinsville and alleged attendance dropped by a third even though the grandstands remained the same.

Old newsreels of Darlington in the 1960s claim 80,000 fans. Now the track has three times as many seats and draws 20,000 fewer fans. I know people have gotten larger, myself notably included, but not that much.

Forgive me if I don't take what NASCAR types tell me at face value.

Bristol once allowed as how it had a six-year waiting list for tickets. Fontana blamed the Academy Awards for falling attendance. NASCAR itself claims it's going to put carburetor restrictor plates on engines that don't have carburetors next year.

Nineteen years in Wonderland have left me just a tad cynical where the Greater NASCAR Chamber of Commerce is concerned. Before I feel inclined to dwell not on "the people who weren't there" at Bristol Motor Speedway but the "120,000 who were," I'd have to believe in the existence of 120,000, which I don't. A lot of the people who weren't in the grandstands also weren't in the campgrounds surrounding the track. Some of that is surely attributable to the economy, the price of gas and everything it affects (which is ... everything), the uncertainty of the world political situation, flooding in New Zealand and catastrophe in Japan.

But I doubt 50,000 race fans spent Sunday collecting foodstuffs for disaster relief.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that one factor is the aging fan base. The more I think about it, the more I believe that the people missing from the grandstands were the people missing from the campgrounds.

The crowd isn't as rowdy because it isn't as young. A man gets up in his 50s and he isn't inclined to rough it as much. Where five years ago, he (and, yes, she) stumbled around for three days and three nights, eschewing shirts and showers in favor of booze and carousing, nowadays the mantra is "let's not and say we did." That couch feels a lot better on race days than the cold, hard ground and navigating the bonfires from inside a fishbowl.

Six or seven years ago, NASCAR claimed most of its fans were God-fearing, gun-toting, Rhodes scholars with family values, a successful practice and a six-figure income. There were 75 million of them watching on TV, even though only a couple dozen such people actually existed.

Meanwhile, the empty seats aren't buying hot dogs, not even the ones at Martinsville.

Monte Dutton covers motorsports for The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette. E-mail Monte at nascarthisweek@yahoo.com.