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VIEWS FROM THE GRANDSTANDS Better, ers? Didn’t think so. Television viewership is down. And seats remain available at most tracks. A TV executive says the problem is that the races are too long. NAS- CAR’s favorite driver agrees. I don’t. D Before the season, Fox Sports Chairman David Hill suggested that the run time of some races be short- ened. “I think the racing is far too long,” he said during Charlotte Motor Speedway’s pre-season media tour. “There is more diversion, more opportunities for stuff than any other time in man’s history.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings the LOOSE LUGNUTS Save that date Next year’s Daytona 500 is already set for Feb. 26, which means the 2012 NAS- CAR season will start later than any in recent memory. You can thank the National Football League. The NFL’s labor turmoil prompted NASCAR to make sure it avoided any conflict with the 2012 Super Bowl, which is scheduled for Feb. 5 but could be delayed if next season doesn’t start on time or if the NFL goes to an 18-game regular season. NASCAR hasn’t set dates for any other Speedweeks events, includ- ing the season-opening ARCA race and the Budweiser Shootout, but did eliminate the unnecessary off-week scheduled for mid-March. It’s also possible that, if the NFL season does stretch into mid-February, all the Speedweeks activities could be packed into one huge week. These folks are seri- ous As part of the big budget battle on Capitol Hill earlier this year, Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota found out just how passionate NAS- CAR fans can be. As a cost-cutting measure, McCollum proposed to stop the military from spending taxpayer money on racing sponsorships, such as the U.S. Army’s $7 million deal to sponsor Ryan Newman’s car in the Sprint Cup. After announcing her 34 TRUCKERS NEWS APRIL 2011 proposal, McCollum’s office was inun- dated with phone calls from upset NASCAR fans, and she even received a fax so threatening that she alerted Capitol police. McCollum withdrew her proposal, which she said was the kind of government cost-cutting the new Congress was championing. Yet, she noted, “the people who sent that message want us to spend $7 million for a sticker on a NASCAR.” Look who’s back A familiar, but not necessarily popular, face has returned to the front ranks of open-wheel racing. Tony George has rejoined the Board of Directors of Hulman & Co., which operates both the Indianapolis Motor Speed- way (IMS) and Izod IndyCar Series. George, grandson of IMS Chair- man Mari Hulman George, abruptly resigned as CEO of both IMS and the IRL (now re-branded as the IndyCar Series) in 2009 after disagreements about his handling of the financially challenged IRL and IMS, which, among other things, lost its annual Formula 1 race. In a shock, the Board hired former Professional Bull Riders CEO Randy Bernard, and he led the IndyCar Series to a surpris- ingly positive 2010 season. It’s not yet clear exactly what George’s role will be, though he won’t have any day-to- day management duties. KAY BELL Not Shorter Attention-challenged fans, TV execs and even some drivers say NASCAR’s problem is too-long races, but they are wrong id you watch the last NASCAR race from green flag to check- drivers’ perspective to the discus- sion. A lot of fans, surmised Earn- hardt, “just don’t feel they need to watch the first 200 miles. They’re skipping that on purpose. That’s what I think.” Sorry, guys, you’re off the mark. True, we live in an age of ever- shorter attention spans. But peo- ple aren’t skipping NASCAR events because the races are too long — it’s because they’re too boring. NAS- CAR has become that sad parody of drivers just going in circles. Shortening races wouldn’t do a thing to fix the tedium. A boring 300-mile race is just as mind-numb- ing as a boring 500-mile race. Much of the blame lies with the tracks. Too many venues are almost identical, and that means the races start looking alike. So NAS- CAR needs to do away with dupli- cate races at those boring tracks and look for facilities with true variety. And when they’re stuck at those cookie-cutter D-shaped ovals, NAS- CAR needs to stop making their problems worse. First, get rid of those manufac- tured cautions. I swear, when a race settles into monotonous circling (or Junior is about to be lapped), debris suddenly appears on the track. And of course the length of time it takes the clean-up crews to find the shard of rubber is interminable. Don’t get me wrong. Safety can’t STREETER LECKA/GETTY IMAGES