I disagree. One has to put things in perspective with where we are today with today's economy, today's overboard political correctness and over reaction on social media. Another factor is the diminished support from the manufacturers.
There are some drivers who still have personalities. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and many others still have personalities. No, they aren't like Dale Sr., Darrell Waltrip and others from the past but the reality is that it is so expensive to run a NASCAR team and so tough to find corporate sponsors that drivers have to be cautious on what they say because there are so many people that are so quick to jump on social media and start a huge negative campaign against a driver and sponsor just because they said something some people don't like. Corporate America no longer cares about free speech.
Then you have the manufactures. Dodge pulled out after a strong come back. The remaining 3 manufactures did not fight against uniform bodies with decals to identify the car brands. I think NASCAR is working hard to make racing more competitive but I don't think they are going about things the right way in all circumstances. The late Benny Parsons preached that if you want to slow the cars down reduce the rake of the windshields so that they are more upright to reduce aerodynamics. I thinks smaller displacement engines is a better answer than restrictor plates of any kind.
You bring up good points, but all that you said is a exclamation point to all that's wrong.
Most younger people don't car about cars because the majority are boring and appliance like. NASCAR took boring cars and standardized them to be more boring, the pace car is the most exciting body in the whole damn place.
Then there is the safety side. While everyone preaches safety the fact remains we are all waiting for a good wreck, paint rubbing, and serious competitiveness. Like the Dodge commercial of the guys racing that started back in junior high when you testosterone was kicking into overdrive, not well okay you come on back around because some dummy spun out. The engines are wrong, each manufacturer makes a V8 engine all in the same displacement range is those, not some outdated small block that except for restorations no body is looking for. Toyota has had a V8 truck engine for over 20 years, the LS has been around 20 years the 3rd gen Hemi has been out 17 years and Ford stopped using the Windsor in cars 30 years ago. It's time to move on from those small block 1950s based engines. Everyone (except Toyota, because they make appliances) has a ~500 how version of a N/A V8 freeze frame these specs and make them run that ie. Crate engines, and no not the supercharged versions. Get rid of this 14-15:1 compression, tool steel flat tappet cams, and carburetors for that matter.
NASCAR is too thick headed and IMHO too far gone to stay afloat. As soon as one of the grass roots racing organization figures out a formula, NASCAR will be headed to the sewage treatment plant.
NHRA is learning this, their is a lot of grass roots and almost no sponsor$$ racing series making strides and personally more fun to watch than a NHRA nitro event. These are boiling down to crazy powered machines with a body you can still recognize, think Pro-mod, no prep/street outlaws, Drag week machines. Also cahing in on the popularity of muscle cars is F.A.S.T. or even pure stock, both of these are facinating to see the cars do what ledgend has them built up to have done.
