Is NA$CAR for sale?

[935k3]

It looks like it is. see this NA$CAR for sale

[Fat Brian]

I heard that the France family wants to sell their majority share which effectively sells the brand. Maybe somebody who can rebuild it will buy them out.

[Miatatom]

They've ruled over Nastycar like a group of dictators and run what was a pretty good racing series into the ground with gimmicks to "create drama". I hope someone who knows what they're doing can straighten it out. I haven't watched a lap this year and I used to watch all the races.

[martinfan5]

 NASCAR is not for sale yet, this just a  exploratory move to see if there would be any interested parties.

Edited May 8, 2018 by martinfan5

[martinfan5]

1 hour ago, Miatatom said:

They've ruled over Nastycar like a group of dictators and run what was a pretty good racing series into the ground with gimmicks to "create drama". I hope someone who knows what they're doing can straighten it out. I haven't watched a lap this year and I used to watch all the races.

Its NASCAR, not "nastycar", but yes, you are right, they have done a good job of running into the ground.

I am just going to say one thing , NASCAR getting new owners does not guarantee that things will get better, this is very much one of those be careful what you wish for types of things.    I would love to see NASCAR get righted and the 3rd gen France Family out , they clearly only care about money.

Edited May 8, 2018 by martinfan5

[niteowl7710]

Maybe German Venture Capitalists can buy it for pennies on the dollar...

[Joe Handley]

So.......has that media group that bought Formula 1 last year recovered from that purchase yet?

[mikemodeler]

4 hours ago, niteowl7710 said:

Maybe German Venture Capitalists can buy it for pennies on the dollar...

Yeah, and then we can get all new tool NASCAR model car kits!

 

Watching Sunday's race and seeing all the empty seats, I figured this day would come as it has to be hard to convince a track owner to upgrade his facility to only see fewer fans show up every year.

Last year I had a bunch of tickets to race week here in Charlotte (All Star Race thru Coke 600) and could not give them away. People have moved on to other entertainment, even TV ratings are down, because it's become the same old, same old.

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, mikemodeler said:

Yeah, and then we can get all new tool NASCAR model car kits!

They'll close the U.S. Office and import DTM racing...

[peter31a]

8 hours ago, martinfan5 said:

Its NASCAR, not "nastycar", but yes, you are right, they have done a good job of running into the ground.

I am just going to say one thing , NASCAR getting new owners does not guarantee that things will get better, this is very much one of those be careful what you wish for types of things.    I would love to see NASCAR get righted and the 3rd gen France Family out , they clearly only care about money.

I have to agree, Jonathan. I figured people would be saying it can only get better but if someone who doesn't get NASCAR gets theirs hands on it it could definitely be Be careful fo what you wish for.

[mikemodeler]

52 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said:

They'll close the U.S. Office and import DTM racing...

Wrong thread, but I like the way you are thinking!

[restoman]

10 hours ago, martinfan5 said:

Its NASCAR, not "nastycar", but yes, you are right, they have done a good job of running into the ground.

I am just going to say one thing , NASCAR getting new owners does not guarantee that things will get better, this is very much one of those be careful what you wish for types of things.    I would love to see NASCAR get righted and the 3rd gen France Family out , they clearly only care about money.

Yup.

Any new owners are in for an up-hill battle, and would be even if the France's hadn't hoovered most of the genuine out of Nascar.

Motorsports are changing: the new norm is going to be smaller fan bases, no matter what. I'm pretty sure the France family sees this and wants out while the Nascar name still holds some value.

...But, there are no guarantees any new owners will make things better.

[Ace-Garageguy]

So...ummm...since there aren't going to be any more American "cars" in the nearish future, exactly what will be eligible to "race"?

[Rob Hall]

Camaro, Mustang, Camry for the 2019 season...maybe they can get Honda and Nissan to join, bring in the Accord and Altima branding. 

[89AKurt]

Everything is for sale, just look at all the sponsorship logos.  

They tried pickups, maybe they can introduce SUVs, with Playskool sponsorship.

[Super Mario]

10 hours ago, Joe Handley said:

So.......has that media group that bought Formula 1 last year recovered from that purchase yet?

Liberty Media was the group. Not sure of their funding but if they bought NASCAR too they would have rights to almost all racing...

[Junkman]

Thanks God there is a lot more racing than Nap Cars and Formica ones.

What's with that there No Hot Rods Allowed? Is that for sale, too?
If yes, I'd bid £1.27

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

36 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

Everything is for sale, just look at all the sponsorship logos.  

They tried pickups, maybe they can introduce SUVs, with Playskool sponsorship.

How 'bout Tampax and Spanx?

[Jim N]

According to Jayski, one of the parties interested in purchasing NASCAR is Marcus Smith.  Marcus Smith is one of Bruton Smith's sons.  Bruton Smith is the majority share holder of SMI.  SMI owns a large number of the tracks NASCAR holds its races. 

It is easy to place all of the blame for the current lack of popularity of NASCAR on the France family, but let's look at Bruton Smith's contributions.

Reconfiguration of Atlanta.  Atlanta was a 1 1/2 mile true oval.  A very unique track, and for many years the last race on the schedule.  Bruton Smith for reasons unknown decides that Atlanta must be reconfigured to look like Charlotte.  A double dog leg 1 1/2 mile track.  Then when the countrywide expansion of NASCAR begins, Bruton volunteers to build a track in Fort Worth, TX.  It will be configured like Charlotte.  So those who complain of cookie cutter tracks we now have the Atlanta, Charlotte, Texas triplets.  These tracks comprise 5 of the 36 on the schedule.

Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre (then owner of New Hampshire Speedway) raped North Wilkesboro of its dates.  They each bought a 50% stake in the track and then moved those two dates to their own tracks.  New Hampshire got a second date and the other went to one of Bruton's tracks.  The only item of poetic justice is that Bruton Smith bought New Hampshire and then took this track's second date and moved it to Las Vegas.

If what happened to North Wilksboros was bad enough, Bruton decides to repave Bristol in only what can be described as a criminal act.  Bristol at one time had over 120,000 in the stands and a waiting list for tickets.  Bruton should have torn up the concrete and merely put down another layer of concrete and left the track alone.  But Bruton puts progressive banking in the track and destroys everything that people loved about Bristol.  That track now has 60,000 in it at the most for each of the two Cup dates.

Lastly, Bruton Smith showed the world how to force NASCAR to give a track a race.  Bruton owns Kentucky Speedway and wanted a Cup date.  NASCAR did not want to give Kentucky a race date.  Bruton talks one of the SMI shareholders into suing NASCAR under anti trust grounds.  NASCAR caves and Kentucky gets a race date.  Now fans want the schedule to be redone as one race looks just like another.  It will never happen.  As soon as one track gets threatened about losing a race date, the lawyers will crawl out of the wood work to pursue anti trust law suits.

So while it is fashionable to bash NASCAR for the problems with its brand of racing, they had a lot of help from Bruton Smith.  Now one of his sons may want to own NASCAR.  The France family may not have been the best stewards of the sport for the past decade and a half, but I shudder to think what could happen if the Smith family gains control of the sport.

[Lunajammer]

10 hours ago, mikemodeler said:

Watching Sunday's race and seeing all the empty seats, I figured this day would come as it has to be hard to convince a track owner to upgrade his facility to only see fewer fans show up every year.

Last year I had a bunch of tickets to race week here in Charlotte (All Star Race thru Coke 600) and could not give them away. People have moved on to other entertainment, even TV ratings are down, because it's become the same old, same old.

Gonna have to go with this one...

[Miatatom]

6 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

Camaro, Mustang, Camry for the 2019 season...maybe they can get Honda and Nissan to join, bring in the Accord and Altima branding. 

Not laughing at you Rob, but this whole badging thing for the cars is a joke. They're purpose built, tube frame race cars with bodies that are almost identical, not to the car they're supposed to represent, but to each other. They had to go to the Camaro Mustang thing because Ford isn't going to build any more sedans. Bye Fusion, Taurus, etc.

[tbill]

I’m not a nascar fan by any stretch of the imagination,  but I gotta tell ya, I think I’d watch if it were like the ‘old days’, slap a factory rwd V8 powered car I can buy at the dealer on the track , and have at it ( obviously with the proper safety equipment installed on said race car) .  You know, the kinda stuff that you can identify even if it has no badges on it, not a bunch of cookie cutter cars with the same roofline etc to make it a level field.....

Edited May 8, 2018 by tbill
Added comments

[Fat Brian]

3 hours ago, Jim N said:

According to Jayski, one of the parties interested in purchasing NASCAR is Marcus Smith.  ... The France family may not have been the best stewards of the sport for the past decade and a half, but I shudder to think what could happen if the Smith family gains control of the sport.

Jim, you're not wrong. I live near Charlotte and Bruton Smith holds Concord (pronounced CON`-cord, not "conquered") where the track is actually located over a barrel and Charlotte to a lesser degree. After a tiff a few years ago with the Concord city council in which the city eventually bent over and took it in the hind quarters they renamed what had always been Speedway Blvd to Bruton Smith Blvd in an effort to appease the Emperor of Brutonia. Any time he's unhappy about something he threatens to move the track to South Carolina and the politicians throw more buckets of taxpayer money at him.

[Rob Hall]

54 minutes ago, Miatatom said:

Not laughing at you Rob, but this whole badging thing for the cars is a joke. They're purpose built, tube frame race cars with bodies that are almost identical, not to the car they're supposed to represent, but to each other. They had to go to the Camaro Mustang thing because Ford isn't going to build any more sedans. Bye Fusion, Taurus, etc.

Yeah, that's how it works...I suppose they have to put some specific model name on there, instead of just 'Ford', 'Chevy' or 'Toyota'...it doesn't really matter, though since NASCAR is about the drivers and teams more than the specific car brands. 

[mikemodeler]

1 hour ago, Fat Brian said:

Jim, you're not wrong. I live near Charlotte and Bruton Smith holds Concord (pronounced CON`-cord, not "conquered") where the track is actually located over a barrel and Charlotte to a lesser degree. After a tiff a few years ago with the Concord city council in which the city eventually bent over and took it in the hind quarters they renamed what had always been Speedway Blvd to Bruton Smith Blvd in an effort to appease the Emperor of Brutonia. Any time he's unhappy about something he threatens to move the track to South Carolina and the politicians throw more buckets of taxpayer money at him.

Last year Marcus Smith approached Charlotte city leaders asking for the moon and stars (I wonder where he learned that tactic?) to build him a stadium for a Major League Soccer team and  had yet to be  awarded a franchise. The city asked a bunch of questions, mainly about his investment portion and when it was disclosed he didn't have much skin in the game, they decided it wasn't worth the risk. There were many who felt we (Charlotte taxpayers) missed out on a great opportunity to become a "World Class" city by not having a MLS team but after getting held up for upgrades to the football stadium and arena where the NBA team play, many of us let it be known that we were tired of paying for sports facilities for millionaires.

If the Smith family were to buy NASCAR, I could see them trying to strong arm communities for track upgrades and tax breaks. Ironically enough, in today's Charlotte newspaper it was reported that the Smith family of racetracks (Speedway Motorsports Inc, a publicly traded company) reported a 7.4% DECLINE in revenue, so if they were to pursue NASCAR, rest assured that the France family is aware the numbers are working against them. 

Whatever the outcome, the reality is that NASCAR racing has definitely changed and whomever assumes control will have to find a way to make it relevant again if they want to see it return to the popularity it once held.