COLUMN: Those who were not there

            INDIANAPOLIS – A fan wrote that he has been watching NASCAR races for over 30 years and had never seen as many empty seats as he saw watching the Brickyard 400 on television Sunday. Another wrote, “The cars look the same, the drivers look the same, and half the tracks look the same. I believe that in the name of ‘growing the sport,’ as NASCAR puts it, they have shot (themselves) in the foot.”

            One of the reasons for so many empty seats, of course, is that Indianapolis Motor Speedway has so many of them. But there’s no getting around the fact that the Brickyard 400 now draws little more than half what it drew three years ago.

            The reason why Jamie McMurray’s historic victory is being overshadowed by a cataclysmic droop in attendance is that it was so glaring. The empty seats cast a pall. Fans of sports in general got up Saturday morning and saw graphics on ESPN “Sportscenter” proclaiming that 250,000 fans would be on hand at a track that seats 257,000. Then they turned on the TV and saw, quite obviously, that it wasn’t so.

            Indy was an extreme example, but by the measure of attendance and television ratings, NASCAR is undeniably slumping. The overall numbers are much milder overall, but the sport is trending downward.

            Even by NASCAR’s dubious estimates – one can at least compare those estimates year to year -- attendance has fallen in 15 of the season’s first 20 Sprint Cup races. Average attendance is down 15 percent since 2007. Anyone who watches the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series knows the decline is even greater in the support series.

            Where are those fans? Apparently, they aren’t watching on TV. Television ratings were lower than 2008 in each of the first 19 races and lower than 2009 in 15 of them. Fox, which televised the first 13 races, received overall ratings that were off 6 percent, while TNT, over the next six, declined by nearly 12 percent (as measured by ratings points).

            Some of it is the economy. Some of it is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s struggles. Some is the inability of anyone else to force Jimmie Johnson to share the wealth. Some feel the sport has left them behind. At Indy, much of it is lingering bad will two years after “Tiregate 2008,” when thousands of fans left the great speedway feeling cheated by a race that was a travesty and officials who seemed arrogant and unfeeling.

            NASCAR officials are responsive now. They’ve been changing the sport at a willy-nilly pace, and the knee-jerk response at the moment seems to be changing it some more.

            What no one seems willing to examine is the notion that stock car racing has been changed too much already. Perhaps the Chase doesn’t need to morph further toward “rasslin’ matches” and reality shows.

            NASCAR chairman Brian France has all but guaranteed more changes. Come 2011, the Chase for the Sprint Cup may be administered by the Publisher’s Clearinghouse, or at least copied along its lines.

            Why not just stay the course, for once? Why not ride out this slump and quit tinkering?

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.