If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the motto that NASCAR needs to find a way to wrap its arms around.
While the NASCAR Cup Series continues to dwindle in television viewership and the Next Gen car continues to produce races that fans have grown tired of, five years into its existence, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has become the unquestionable standout series as far as on-track product in the NASCAR National Series ranks.
With the incredible racing product came a lucrative television deal with The CW, which placed the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts series in virtually every home in America. And that has led to surging television viewership, which constantly meets and/or exceeds a million viewers, for NASCAR’s second-tier series.
In short, the series has been very, very successful over the last few years, which has been a breath of fresh air in an industry that has felt, well, stagnant.
So, why does NASCAR seem so focused on changing the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series?
While John Probst, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President, stopped short of confirming a change to a Crossover Utility Vehicle body style for the O’Reilly Series in an interview with Sports Business Journal, Probst certainly hinted that the body style, which was originally developed for NASCAR’s EV concept race car, could help create brand identity for the series.
“Long term, you see it as, we do have that CUV body that we developed for our electric vehicle. I’m not sitting here saying today we’re breaking news, it’s going to CUV, but these are the things that are on the roadmap to consider,” Probst said, “so you’d have a Truck, a CUV, and a Cup, that’s three very different bodies that are relevant for our OEMs today to create that brand identity for each series.”
I understand wanting to appease the OEMs and the intense tug-of-war that has to be behind the scenes for Probst and NASCAR. Really, I do. But at what point does it feel like a step in the wrong direction to even consider making that kind of drastic change to the series that puts on the best racing in NASCAR right now?
Just reading the words from that interview has me feeling flabbergasted.
And for those thinking this interview could be chalked up to just some throwaway comments, and that change isn’t imminent for the O’Reilly Series car, there have been rumblings in the garage area over the last couple of seasons that NASCAR is working on a conversion to some form of a “Next Gen” vehicle in the O’Reilly Series and Truck Series in the near future, a potential move that some have expressed concern about.
That being said, change is likely coming to both the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series vehicles sooner rather than later, but let’s hope the changes aren’t nearly as drastic as the idea posed by Probst in the interview with Sports Business Journal. That would be such a back-against-the-wall Hail Mary move at a time when the NASCAR O’Reilly Series has actually experienced a decently successful stretch.
If it ain’t broke, please, NASCAR, don’t fix it.
