Getty Images Kyle Busch, one of NASCAR's winningest drivers.
You’re wrong. This is the Golden Age of NASCAR. Today’s NASCAR includes some of the very best drivers, with drivers from all across the country and from all walks of life. But more than that, on the two metrics crucial for the success of any sport, fans and financials, today’s NASCAR is dominating.
Today’s NASCAR runs races — all hugely popular — in America’s biggest cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. NASCAR Cup races are run at historic tracks, out west, in Las Vegas and Phoenix, in rural America, like Bristol and Martinsville, and nearly everywhere in between.
And as viewers witnessed last month at Atlanta, where three cars finished within 0.007 seconds of one another, racing has rarely been closer. It’s certainly hard to find any other motorsport where races are so close and so many racers have a legitimate shot at winning.
Plus, teams have probably never been more healthy. The sport just signed a multi-year, multi-billion dollar deal that spans multiple television networks and streaming services. Across YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, fans can interact with drivers, team members, racing officials — and other fans — at any time. These social media platforms are aggregating millions of views. Likewise, the Netflix series, NASCAR: Full Speed, proved to be a huge hit.
This is the start of the new Golden Age of NASCAR.
Your New Favorite NASCAR Drivers
Old school NASCAR fans love to regale today’s NASCAR viewers about the glory days. Pick your era and its very best drivers — or simply, your favorites. Richard Petty. Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Gordon. Maybe Jimmie Johnson? All great.
Two of the greatest NASCAR drivers, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, will race today at the Food City 500. They’ll compete against Daniel Suarez, from Mexico; Bubba Wallace, from Mobile, Alabama, who drives for the Michael Jordan-owned team, 23XI. Waiting in the wings are hopefuls like Rajah Caruth and Regina Sirvent, a young woman competing in NASCAR’s Mexico series. The potential NASCAR talent pool has never been as broad or diverse.
Add to this the financials of the sport. Having just signed a $7.7 billion media deal, the privately held NASCAR is working on an update to its team charter system. Holding a charter in NASCAR has never been a more financially lucrative bet. As Heavy wrote just last month, the value of a NASCAR charter went from a high of $10 million in 2021 to $40 million in 2023 — and that was before the big, new NASCAR TV deal.
Everyone Wants To Be Part of NASCAR
Today’s NASCAR has three healthy manufacturers, Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota. That’s three of the world’s largest auto companies. A fourth, Honda, is rumored to be wanting to join in the action: “NASCAR is working on getting Honda on board, but don’t expect an arrival until after the 2025 season.”
Millions of viewers will likely watch today’s race in Bristol, the Food City 500. And then talk about it with thousands of others across multiple social media platforms.
Don’t be surprised. As Heavy noted recently, “NASCAR dominates racing in America. As numbers for F1 and INDYCAR trend downward, at least in America, NASCAR TV numbers are growing stronger. Consider that while NASCAR delivered over 4 million viewers for FOX last weekend, on NBC, INDYCAR managed just under 1 million viewers. And that was for its season opener in St. Petersburg. Likewise, the F1 race in Saudi Arabia, televised Saturday night on ESPN, managed only about 900,000 viewers.”
NASCAR has conquered America. What’s next?
All that’s left for NASCAR is to grow the sport internationally. This can be done — and likely it will be much easier for NASCAR than other sports. Motorsports are popular around the world, including Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship, and a host of other regional car racing promotions. There is almost nothing like the NFL outside of America, yet the NFL has grown its international games into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut.
There was a time when F1 fans mocked NASCAR for driving heavy cars around in a circle. The days of mocking are over. NASCAR is ascendant.