NASCAR encounters more bumps on road back to relevancy

Chase Elliott entered the Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs essentially an afterthought, not viewed as a legitimate championship contender and someone who likely wouldn’t advance past the second round.

Then Elliott opened the playoffs with a strong performance Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, leading 42 laps -- more than he had led in the past 22 races combined -- earning a bonus point for winning the second stage and finishing second overall to winner Martin Truex Jr.

On Tuesday, however, Elliott’s apparent turnaround became shrouded in controversy when NASCAR slapped Elliott’s team with penalties that included the driver losing 15 points, his runner-up finish being encumbered, and the suspension of crew chief Alan Gustafson for one race.

The Cliffs Notes version of what transpired is someone on the No. 24 team altered the body of Elliott’s Chevrolet to give it an aerodynamic advantage. It was an offense NASCAR caught with the help of video and photographs showing crew members had placed pieces of tape on the car prior to the playoff race, then removed the tape immediately after the race’s completion. The act of subterfuge became a hot topic on Reddit and social media, and had it not doled out penalties, NASCAR would’ve negatively impacted its credibility.

A crew member trying to covertly alter a car with a sliver of tape is an amusing story. One showing the lengths teams will go to in search of the slightest edge. It certainly wasn’t the first time nor the last such a thing transpires. These kinds of incidents happen in NASCAR. Always have, always will.

But what the Elliott penalties again do is take away the spotlight from where it should be. In the week leading into the playoff opener much of the talk wasn’t about who would win the championship. Instead it was on Danica Patrick announcing she would leave Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the season, suspect late-race cautions, Richard Petty getting into a terse and public exchange with a soon-to-be former sponsor, and an inept ambulance driver who nearly jumbled the playoff field by thinking it was a good idea to park at the entrance to pit road while drivers were attempting to pit.

So it goes for NASCAR. Amidst a time when it badly needs to showcase its many features in the wake of declining television ratings -- Chicagoland was the lowest-rated Cup race since 2001, according to Sports Media Watch -- the sport continues to find inventive ways to stub its toe. Just about every week it’s another controversy, often self-inflicted. And none of which are enticing viewers to tune in the following week or encouraging fans to buy tickets in droves.

Where’s the intrigue?

What NASCAR needed to start the playoffs was an exciting, drama-filled race that setup a compelling postseason. What it got was a race where the winner, Martin Truex Jr., won by a seven-second margin over a second-place finisher driving a car that would later fail technical inspection. Promising it was not.

NASCAR entered 2017 very much at the crossroads. To combat plummeting television ratings and a fan base skewing heavily older, the industry came together in an unprecedented showing of collaboration to conceptualize and implement stage racing.

The idea has proven smart, with drivers now incentivized to compete hard for the duration of a race and also being rewarded for their efforts with a better chance to win the championship come playoffs. All of which has been reflected on the track with a product that’s been more competitive than in recent years.

And yet, with television ratings still declining, evidence strongly suggests additional changes are required. And soon. As in the immediate future.

The 38-race schedule (36 point races, plus two exhibitions) is too robust, overwhelmed with events on the kinds of tracks (intermediate speedways) that too often fail to consistently generate the kind of racing synonymous with NASCAR and what fans seek.

Some reform comes next season when a road course and a second short track are added to the 10-race playoff calendar. But more overhaul is necessary. Except a sanctioning agreement between NASCAR and its promoters prohibits any reduction until after the 2020 season, time the sport cannot afford to spare.

Costs remain high while sponsors are in short supply

Beyond what happens on the track, greater cost-saving measures are needed. Teams are continually feeling squeezed financially, having difficulty attracting sponsorship to sufficiently cover its ballooned budgets that requires significant slashing.

Although Kyle Larson isn’t the face of NASCAR, he soon will be. The 25-year-old, fourth-year driver has come into his own this season giving further credence that he may in fact be his generation’s version of Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, the two drivers Larson’s compared to most frequently.

Yet even with the substantial amount of hype that surrounds him, and in spite of a breakthrough season where he won four times during the regular season and entered the playoffs as a championship favorite, Larson currently finds himself lacking a full-time primary sponsor for 2018. In July, Target announced it was ending its long association with Chip Ganassi Racing and would discontinue its backing of Larson’s No. 42 team.

Not that Larson is some kind of exception. More so, he’s just further proof of how far down the hierarchy NASCAR has fallen in the minds of corporate America. Instead of hitching its wagon to a potential superstar (if he isn’t one already), the Minnesota-based retail giant is shifting its marketing efforts to soccer, a sport with the young fanbase NASCAR lacks and companies desire.

Furniture Row Racing, which fields cars for Truex and rookie Erik Jones, is scaling back to just one team in the aftermath of Jones leaving for Joe Gibbs Racing sooner than expected. With Truex owning a series-best five wins and earmarked for a spot in the semifinal playoff round, if not the four-driver championship finale, FRR would seemingly have a compelling case why a company should align itself with the powerhouse organization.

Adequate sponsorship hasn’t materialized, and with the clock ticking on solidifying plans for 2018, it’s a near certainty FRR will downsize to single a car. Were this a decade ago, sponsors would’ve been lining up at the team’s Denver headquarters with a blank check willing to add however many additional zeros were needed to close the deal.

That FRR doesn’t have a line of potential suitors is a sad indictment of a sport struggling to find relevancy. Further proof NASCAR is facing a litany of problems, most of which are overshadowing anything tangible transpiring on the track.