4 Reasons for Nascar's Big Skid

I am old enough to remember (that is, I'm older than 15) when Nascar was about to become the new national pastime, the sport of real America that was being eagerly embraced by corporate America because it offered so many places to plaster advertising slogans. I haven't heard a lot about the auto-racing enterprise lately, though, so while switching channels last Sunday, I paused for a while on NBC's coverage of the Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series Brantley Gilbert Big Machine1501161448612 Brickyard 400.

Most of what I saw consisted of jostling for the lead by Martin Truex Jr., currently No. 1 in the Nascar Cup Series standings, and Kyle Busch (No. 4), who ended up crashing into each other about two-thirds of the way through the race. But my attention kept wandering to the grandstands at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They were strikingly, shockingly empty. Eventually I observed some crowds clustered in the parts of the stands with shade, but according to the Indianapolis Business Journal, only about 35,000 people were there, in a facility with seating for 235,000. Five years ago, the crowd for the same race was four times bigger.

This is not just an Indianapolis problem, it turns out. Nascar stopped reporting race attendance a few years ago, but the publicly traded companies that own most of its tracks1501162991736 do report admission revenue, and it's way down from a decade ago.