- Carnage is not the only reason that fans watch NASCAR races, according to a new study.
- The study, The Demand for Aggressive Behavior in American Stock Car Racing, from the University of Iowa, found that more fans tune in ?to see who actually wins the race.?
- Attitudes toward racing have changed since NASCAR established its Chase for the Cup playoff to determine the Cup Series champion.
IOWA CITY, Iowa ? Is the primary appeal of major auto racing based on bloodlust, as critics of the sport have charged for years? According to a new study from the University of Iowa, violence and danger count, but competition ? especially since NASCAR established its Chase for the Cup playoff to determine the Cup Series champion ? is more compelling.
The study, The Demand for Aggressive Behavior in American Stock Car Racing, found that more fans tune in ?to see who actually wins the race.? The study informally has been dubbed ?Wrecks and Effects.?
Researchers John Solow of Iowa?s Tippie College of Business and Peter Von Allmen of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, report that competition is the principal reason people watch auto races, based on their study of nine years of NASCAR Cup Series racing.
The report was published in Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, a journal produced by scientific publisher Springer, based in Germany.
Solow and Von Allmen examined television ratings of 135 NASCAR races from 2001 through 2009, using a formula to evaluate the effect of various statistical measurements on the number of viewers who tuned in. They considered the size of the track, the competitiveness of the Cup Series points standings at the time of the event and other factors, including whether there was competition for fans because of a National Football League game.
The researchers also factored in changes in ratings in the aftermath of one or more crashes during a race. Each wreck yielded a 6 percent bump in the next race?s ratings, they found.
The study credits the Chase, which began in 2004, for stimulating viewer interest. The format takes the top drivers in standings after the first 26 races and resets their championship points to nearly equal numbers for a 10-race series that concludes the season and determines the champion.
The study results fly in the face of recent developments in the sport, including the dramatic revamping of Bristol (Tennessee) Motor Speedway, a half-mile track which was one of the most popular venues on the NASCAR circuit until an earlier renovation to the high-banked concrete track resulted in races with fewer crashes.
Attendance fell, and many fans heaped criticism on the track management for taming the action, and Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith listened to the criticism and made costly changes to the track to appease the critics.
Many traditional fans of NASCAR also have condemned the Chase as a novelty that makes the championship battle a crapshoot rather than a legitimate measure of the season-long performance by the driver who emerges with the title. Last year?s champion, Tony Stewart, barely made the 12-driver field for the championship playoff and said that he had little chance to win and did not deserve the title.
Then, Stewart ? without a victory at that point in the season ? went on to win five of the 10 Chase races, forging a tie in points with Carl Edwards and winning his third Cup title based on a tie-breaker formula that rewarded him for winning more races than Edwards, who won once.
In the first 26 races, Stewart had only three top-five finishes. Edwards had 12, including his one victory of the year.
Inside Line says: The study?s results are in conflict with the ongoing slump in attendance and expressions of dissatisfaction by some race fans.
Link:
Fewer Fans Watch NASCAR for the Crashes, Study Finds
Source: http://www.aftermarketleads.com/2012/08/fewer-fans-watch-nascar-for-the-crashes-study-finds.html
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