Published 01/02/2023, 5:10 AM EST
Back in the 90s, NASCAR was THE American sport with its drivers no less than Hollywood celebrities and the races on every single weekend comparable to yearly major events of other sports. But then, towards the end of the 2000s, just as it happens in life, a curtain came down and what was left in the aftermath was a draught of ratings, of sponsors, and the overall appeal. Despite this, somehow Kevin Harvick still had some big words for the sport.
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In a 2010 interview with Sports Illustrated, Harvick expressed his supreme confidence in the supremacy of NASCAR, which was then struggling with a fleeting audience compared to other sports, with a thumping comparison.
The then-Richard Childress Racing driver was asked, “A lot of fans have left the sport. You see this in the empty grandstands each week and in the falling TV ratings. From your perspective, is there anything that can be done to enliven the sport and bring back those fans?”
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“I look at it like you walk into Yankee Stadium and they don’t sell out their home opener,” Harvick responded. “It’s a sign of the times.”
“There are still more than 100,000 fans at most of our races, which is more than [the] Super Bowl.”
Full or not, Kevin Harvick doesn’t have a lot of time left to witness the grandstands
At 47 years old, Kevin Harvick is inches away from retirement. Now, his retirement has been a pretty uncertain subject over the last two years because he was expected to retire in 2022, but he didn’t.
And now there are rumors that 2023 will be the last time Harvick races in the Cup Series, which could turn out to be true this time around. After all, he will turn 48 by the time the coming season comes to a close.
DAYTONA, FL – FEBRUARY 16: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light #BUSCHRACETEAM Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, during qualifying for the Daytona 500 on February 16, 2022 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Regardless, he’s done and achieved all that he would’ve wanted to and has his legacy secured.
He entered the sport during its heyday, stuck around during its fall, and will possibly go out as it’s back on the rise again.
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NASCAR is recovering and rejuvenating its brand with bold decisions
Over the last few years, NASCAR has taken a lot of very radical turns and decisions in order to reinvent its image in the sporting landscape.
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With some of these decisions, they risked alienating a considerably large core part of their audience, with some they risked becoming a laughingstock in order to attract a new audience, and some were just calculated risks with which they stood more to gain and less to lose.
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But after all of this, with a diverse schedule and attempts to attract a diverse audience, today NASCAR is in the process of rebranding itself to reach the pinnacle it once held, the point that’s still very achievable, the pinnacle of being on the top of the American motorsports scene.