The NASCAR Cup Series Has a (Lack of) Star Power Problem

More Rules Doesn’t Make for Better Racing

NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell stopped by the Door Bumper Clear podcast this Tuesday to discuss a myriad of topics within all three series.

One of the subjects that came up was the ongoing frustration with how stage distances at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway have negatively impacted the racing. For the majority of the event, the teams aren’t actually racing. It’s more of a Blue Angels formation flying at 40% throttle but still averaging around 190 mph.

It looks impressive on TV, but drivers sound nonplussed and unbothered simply making lap after lap in an effort to save a second of adding fuel on pit road or trying to eek out a stage. While the Jack Link’s 500 at coming up in two weeks looks to avoid that with stage lengths of 98, 45 and 45 laps, O’Donnell mentioned one thing they’re considering is mandatory four-tire stops so teams will be forced to fill up their cars and negate any fuel savings strategy.

What have been the main gripes amongst fans with the current Gen7 car?

• Mandatory single source parts providers/inability to innovate
• Mandatory power levels
• Mandatory pit stops

Since I wrote that, Ryan Blaney’s team just lost him a total of 17 spots.

For all the good work the sanctioning body and teams did over the course of the last six months with increased horsepower levels and reverting back to a more palatable points structure, like clockwork, the opportunity to take another step backwards cannot be missed.

This car doesn’t race terribly well on short tracks, and attendance reflects that. Can we at least allow some freedom at the drafting tracks where it seems to put on a decent show?

It’s one thing to mandate horsepower and maximum speeds for safety to keep Ryan Preece from inadvertently intercepting the next Artemis moon mission, but we can’t also take pit strategy out of the equation. While a boon for Goodyear to triple the amount of tires they’d be billing for, it would do nothing to better the event. Adjusting stage length is a no-brainer and doesn’t cost anything. The next logical step is simply not throwing a yellow flag at the end of the stage.

I mean if there’s one thing FOX isn’t afraid of, it’s aggressively cutting to a scheduled commercial break.

At the conclusion of the second stage at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, the top 10 hadn’t even crossed the start/finish line yet and they were already fading out for a commercial — while an image of Kyle Larson obscured the running order and the action on the screen. Drafting tracks and road courses gain nothing from having the equivalent of competition cautions pausing the action. How many times has FOX been in commercial break still with less than 10 laps to go at Daytona?

Lack of Star Power Driving Dramatic Downturn

There appeared to be quite a disparity in enthusiasm between the crowds at Bristol and the Nashville Fairgrounds this weekend. Estimates for attendance have varied wildly for Bristol with some estimating it was a low as 26,000, while some put the figure approaching 50,000. Nashville Fairgrounds was essentially a sellout at over 13,000. Nashville did have a driver making a rare start in Dale Earnhardt Jr., who many fans still seem to like.

Likewise, there was a bit of a social media stir last week when Mark Martin called out Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice for not taking his phone calls and that he wanted to “drive one of those trucks.” Predictably, many immediately jumped to conclusions, assuming that Martin was angling to drive one of the RAM trucks in the Craftsman Truck Series that they have open for “free agent drivers”. Martin put those notions to bed quickly and explained why he had no desire to compete. A couple of days later, social media was abuzz with images of IROC luminaries like five-time champion Martin, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch putting on an exhibition with vintage IROC racecars. Gordon and Busch were going at it like no time had passed with Busch taking the win over Gordon.

Juxtapose this with first-time winner Ty Gibbs‘ first win over Ryan Blaney at Bristol, which barely moved the needle among fans. Gibbs is a polarizing driver for sure, but has kept a relatively low profile since arriving in the Cup Series three years ago. Instead, the drivers generating the most buzz haven’t driven competitively in years, chief among them a 67-year-old who can legally start drawing his full social security benefit, and two others who were forced into early retirement from repeated concussions.

NASCAR has a continued star power obstacle to overcome, and until that is addressed, they’re going to be hard pressed to fill out some of these 160,000-seat arenas that remain from an era that hasn’t existed for almost two decades now. Factoring in the TV ratings for the Cup Series, things appear even more dire. While the O’Reilly Series was up 22% year over year, the Truck Series was essentially flat, while the Cup Series saw a 5% dip.

20 years ago, the #nascar TV rating for @ItsBristolBaby was 6.2. The viewership was just short of 10 million – airing opposite the NCAA men’s tournament.

Viewership and ratings declines of over 80% the last 20 years at one of the sport’s Crown Jewels. Feels like an issue to me.

— Tom Bowles (@RacingBowles) April 14, 2026

No, going against The Masters final round didn’t help, but this isn’t exactly a new event for the PGA Tour. If you would have told me 20 years ago that golf would draw four times the eyes than one of NASCAR’s most action-packed tracks, I’ve have laughed as Kurt Busch did snow angles on the start-finish line while Gordon shoved Matt Kenseth on pit road.

NASCAR has some questions that require answers for the long-term health of the sport. It made progress in the offseason with the short term needs of championship legitimacy and engine output. There needs to be someone who can resonate with the public the way drivers did 20 years ago. Hopefully, there’s time to make that happen.