Danica Patrick claims NASCAR needs to shorten races to cater to new fans
Danica Patrick admits that NASCAR is struggling while F1 is growing in the USA.
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Danica Patrick (Via IMAGO)
Ex-NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick believes the premier stock car racing body needs to shorten its races to cater to the reduced attention span of drivers. Amidst the increasing competition from Formula One, the sport might be better off with short races with better final products.
In a recent interview, she gave a candid opinion about NASCAR and said the races have become too long. Patrick pointed out that the attention span of people isn’t the same as before, and the six-hour-long race weekend NASCAR is having is too long to remain attentive. Reacting to the consuming habit changes of fans is important for a solid future of any sport.
I sat down actually with one really important person within NASCAR… one of the things I said was, ‘the races are way, way too long.’ People’s consuming habits change… because people can’t keep their attention span long enough. So, when you’re asking them to sit in front of a television for five or six hours, with pre-race and the race and everything, that’s a lot of time to expect someone to be attentive.
Danica Patrick said, as reported by Awful Announcing.
An average NASCAR race is most often a three-hour event on the track, and the pre and post-race shows give fans a lot of content to consume, but the consumption might change from race to race based on the entertainment factor. In the meantime, the maximum time a race can be extended in F1 is three hours. This allows F1 to cater to more fans with a limited attention span.
Danica Patrick explains why NASCAR is struggling compared to F1
The only female IndyCar race winner ever pointed out that F1 is on the rise in the US while NASCAR is struggling a bit. There was a time when F1 failed even to make their presence felt in the States, and now is hosting three races a season. She pointed out that the sport’s star power drop is a major factor.
Sports all have their ebbs and flows. Formula One is on the rise, but NASCAR is struggling a little bit more. And there was a time when Formula One wasn’t really a blip on the radar here in the States, and NASCAR drivers were everything. A lot of that correlates with, yes, the product but also the marketability of the drivers within it and the personalities.
The young demographics prefer F1 over NASCAR in the US market, according to the view ship data in the last couple of years. The Netflix F1 docu-series played a massive role in it. NASCAR is also coming up with its version of docu-series this year and hopes to see it give a positive outcome in acquiring new fans.
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Justin P Joy
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