Jimmie Johnson: The Least of NASCAR’s Problems

You hear about NASCAR’s season? The one with Jimmie Johnson in pole position on the leaderboard when it really mattered? No, I mean this season.Lame jokes aside, on this last day of the NASCAR calendar, people are beginning to wonder if Johnson’s dominance -- he’s about to win his fourth straigh Sprint Cup title -- is a good thing, if having a Tiger Woods of racing is helping or hindering the now-struggling sport.

No, it’s not the best thing to happen to the sport, but NASCAR has had this crisis of a “vanilla” superstar leading the sport into a reputedly boring stretch of dominance before, and it didn’t collapse during Jeff Gordon’s reign. Johnson’s run is nowhere near the sport’s biggest issue, too; his is at least a household name, a status he shares with Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and, well, who else?

Even so, NASCAR rating aren’t determined by drivers’ Q Scores: They are the products of compelling racing. That style of racing isn’t a Johnson hallmark, but you can’t blame him for being the best at the sport under current rules. You can, though, blame the rules designed to slow cars, which have taken much of the excitement out of the sport without returning as much safety in return, and the all-year season, which, instead of delivering a number of peaks and valleys, registers a resounding “Meh” from the viewing public.

Why doesn’t NASCAR fix its sport instead of fretting about the blankness of its drivers? Do something radical: Shorten races and condense a season to the absolute best tracks, telling sponsors it’ll give them better impressions over a more exciting strech, or design cars that are safe and balanced enough to allow drivers to be daring on the track and tell the world the days of thunder are back. NASCAR couldn’t cajole enough charisma out of Jimmie Johnson to fill a thimble, but fans aren’t watching for his witty rejoinders. They want racin’.

NASCAR should know how to deliver that.

↵