Isn the split helping NASCAR?
There are two answers to that question. The first is that, although some people often attribute NASCAR’s recent rise in popularity to the split, the fact is that the rise of NASCAR was already well under way by 1995. NASCAR has been very smart in its marketing and presentation, and some of its popularity today can be attributed to serendipitous factors, such as the population and economic rise of the U.S. South (NASCAR’s traditional market) beginning around 1985, and the major league baseball strike of 1994, which NASCAR was very quick to capitalize on. Plus, it should be pointed out that a significant portion of NASCAR’s current audience is the direct result of the personal popularity of Jeff Gordon, and that Gordon constitutes Exhibit A of U.S. open-wheel drivers who switched to stock cars only after being unable to obtain a ride in CART. The second answer is that it shouldn’t matter. There seems to be almost an obsession in some corners of the open-wheel community to “get” NASCAR. T
