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Drivers who stoke fans' passion need to win
by Jeff Owens, NASCAR Scene, FOXSports.com
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| Jeff Owens (NASCAR Scene) |
For a while this year, NASCAR benefited from the rise of two new stars. As Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards began to win more races — some in dramatic fashion — fan interest seemed to climb.
Is it a coincidence that TV ratings for the first half of 2008, when Busch dominated the series, were up?
By contrast, is it surprising that for the final third of the season, when Jimmie Johnson caught fire and sailed away to his third straight championship, ratings declined?
While Busch is certainly not one of NASCAR's most popular drivers, he is a controversial figure with a magnetic personality. And though he rubs many fans the wrong way, he at least stokes the fire, getting a rise and reaction out of them. Love him or hate him, he makes you want to watch races just to see what he might do next.
Johnson has the opposite affect. Fans don't seem to care one way or the other about him and seem to have grown tired of his dominance and vanilla personality. When he hits a hot streak, fans tend to tune out, as they have done at the end of the last two seasons.
Though Johnson's performance and historic achievements cannot be dismissed, NASCAR needs more drivers like Busch to stoke the fire of NASCAR fans.
And not all of them have to be bad guys. It needs both popular drivers and controversial characters to peak and sustain fan interests.
With that in mind, here are five drivers NASCAR needs to win next year:
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This one is a no-brainer. When observers pondered what was wrong with NASCAR prior to last season, there was a popular refrain: Nothing that an Earnhardt win or two wouldn't fix.
Earnhardt is by far the sport's most popular driver. No one sells more T-shirts. No one attracts more cheers. And no one gets more Web hits.
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The problem is, it has been a while since he has given fans of Junior Nation a legitimate reason to watch every week.
In fact, he might have had more to do with the rise and fall of TV ratings in 2008 than Busch or Johnson. He was, after all, on the rise at the start of 2008, winning two non-points races at Daytona and getting off to a solid start to the regular season.
He only won one race, though, and that was a fuel-mileage affair at Michigan in June. After that, he faded. Though he made the Chase, he plummeted once the playoffs began.
By the time the Chase was half over, it was pretty obvious that Earnhardt wasn't going to be a serious contender, which might have contributed greatly to the late-season dip in TV ratings and attendance.
Earnhardt's fan appeal and marketing prowess are both obvious and staggering. There is no driver NASCAR needs more.
And it needs more than one measly win a year out of him.
Jeff Gordon
Gordon has been both Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson during his distinguished career.
When he first came along in the mid-1990s, fans were intrigued with his amazing talent and instant success. Though he didn't exactly become a fan favorite — Dale Earnhardt fans saw to that — he kept fans stirred up, primarily with his propensity for the remarkable and his habit of beating Earnhardt.
By the late '90s, fans were sick of him, spreading the type of apathy they now seem to have for Johnson.
But, unlike Johnson, Gordon has built a fairly large fan base over the years. And with his credentials and his place in history, things always seem a bit more interesting when he is in contention and a threat to win, something the sport sorely missed this past year.
Gordon may also be on the verge of a phenomenon that drivers near the end of their careers seem to enjoy — the sympathy vote.
Drivers such as Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace, who spent much of their careers as villains, became immensely popular toward the end of their tenures, presumably because fans began to realize that they weren't going to be around much longer.
With his career winding to a close, it will be interesting to see if Gordon attracts the same appreciation from fans.
Regardless, fans seem to take notice when he is a threat.
Tony Stewart
If Stewart was not a mentor to Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, he certainly could have been. He has stirred up his share of controversy and fan angst over the years.
Stewart was relatively calm and quiet in 2008, scoring just one win and spending much of the season working on his move to his new Stewart-Haas team.
Things were a lot less interesting without Stewart snapping at reporters, stirring up trouble and climbing fences.
NASCAR needs him to get his Stewart-Haas team up and running quickly, giving the superpowers a new team to contend with and providing the valuable star a platform for stoking fans.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Montoya, the world-class driver of international fame, piqued the interest of fans in 2007, when he won races in both the Sprint Cup Series and what is now known as the Nationwide Series race in his first year of stock-car racing.
He also got a rise out of fans with his aggressive, hard-charging style and by demonstrating that he plans to back down from no one (remember his helmet-to-helmet encounter with Kevin Harvick at Watkins Glen?).
The former Formula One star from Bogota, Colombia, has the star power to attract an international audience and the talent to stir things up in the Sprint Cup Series.
But he needs the firepower to do it.
NASCAR needs the Earnhardt Ganassi merger to work so that Montoya's team has the resources and talent to give him a competitive car.
More so than any other driver, Montoya's immense driving talent is being wasted by a team that has struggled to contend.
In a more competitive situation, he has the talent to be a consistent winner and the personality and fire to stir things up. Give him a winning car and he becomes the sport's next Kyle Busch.
Mark Martin/Bobby Labonte
There are few things NASCAR fans like more than sentimental favorites — veteran drivers who were once big stars but who have fallen on hard times. Few things resonate with them more than seeing a popular veteran return to glory and become a factor again.
It's hard to imagine Martin being in that category, but thanks to his part-time schedule, he hasn't won a race in three years.
He will get his best chance in a while when he returns to full-time competition next year with Hendrick Motorsports. When he wins his first race with Hendrick — and he will — it will be one of the most popular victories of the season.
NASCAR needs Martin to not only win but to be a contender to make the Chase.
Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion, hasn't won in five years, struggling the past three with Petty Enterprises.
Like Martin, Labonte is a class act and widely respected by fans. A return to relevance would energize a large fan base.
Now that he has been granted his release from Petty Enterprises, he may get that chance. He is expected to sign with Earnhardt Ganassi, teaming with Montoya and Martin Truex Jr.
Labonte should help the new four-car team improve, and, in turn, it should give him his best shot at a victory in the past few years.
Like Martin, Labonte could produce one of the feel-good stories of 2009 with a return to victory lane.
And NASCAR can use all the feel-good stories it can get.
Jeff Owens is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 50 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information.
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