Can NASCAR Fans Have Too Much Sway? I Wouldn't Worry

In the upcoming Sprint Unlimited race (AKA Used to be called The Shootout) at Daytona, NASCAR is letting the fans choose the rules to the race.

The options fans get to choose include

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Race Format: How should the three race segments be divided?

• -- 40/20/15 laps
• -- 35/30/10 laps
• -- 30/25/20 laps

Pit Stop: Should there be a required pit stop at the end of the first segment?

• -- No pit stop
• -- Yes, 2 tires
• -- Yes, 4 tires

Elimination: How many cars should be eliminated at the end of the second segment?

• -- None
• -- 2 cars
• -- 4 cars
• -- 6 cars

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Sprint Cup Girl Firesuits

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Voting ends on February 13th.
(See link for voting at bottom of article)
(Did you catch who the new Sprint Cup girl is for 2013?)

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This seems to have inspired some conversation as to whether the fans have too much to say within the sport of NASCAR.  I don't think so.

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Fans Don't Have THAT Much Control

For one, I think it's pretty awesome that NASCAR does turn to the fans to get their opinion.  How many sports do you know do that?

For another, in a survey taken by statisticbrain, 56% of internet users are on any one social network, with 54% of them on Facebook and 10% of them on Twitter.  (I don't suggest the aforementioned survey be the end-all of stats on this matter, but survey samplings can be pretty close to the mark, giving a general consensus on an issue.)

And though we might think that social networks, especially like Twitter, might have an impact, I think NASCAR understands that though vocal, the Twitter demographic does not represent a huge percentage of fans.  Just the vocal ones.  At least right now.

But then NASCAR takes it a step further and eliminates that particular potential for skewing any free-for-all trend by holding their surveys on their own website.  This could in fact, de-trend the voice of Twitterees, and make the voting a more fair process.

But my final perspective on this issue of fan control is that though some think fans have the control, it's not so much as you think.

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Fan Control Filtered

If you think about it, fans may all have their own ideas about what is or isn't good for the sport.  And that NASCAR is listening to the fans or the NASCAR Fan Council.  But if you take a step back and look, NASCAR is still guiding the fans.

If there were absolute fan control, original ideas and content could be making it to the head offices of NASCAR.  But some of the fine ideas fans come up with don't clear the first hurdle!

Instead, what NASCAR does is present options for fans to vote on, like in this latest poll for the Sprint Unlimited race.  Fans don't have a blank option to fill in, but rather, they vote on options that NASCAR has chosen to provide.

In the end, NASCAR has the control, but is letting fans fine tune the end results.  Period.

But it's still pretty special that fans have this kind of interaction and influence on some of the details with the sport of NASCAR.

[source links:  NASCAR Sprint Unlimited Poll; Statistic Brain]

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