The numbers are in, and they paint a disturbing picture for NASCAR as the series barrels toward its championship race in three short weeks.
Bottom line? Fans are leaving the sport ... in droves.
Nobody is watching. And those who are watching, are complaining. A lot. About the car. About the tracks. About the lack of drama, and personality, and, frankly, about the TV channel.
Most folks have turned it off completely. Those who have stayed aren't thrilled.
I don't need to tell you guys, but that's not a great place to be.
Take a look:
Why are fans leaving NASCAR? It's simple.
Last Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix drew a pathetic audience of just 1.2 million viewers. That number is alarming, folks. I've seen a lot of bad TV numbers for NASCAR over the years. Believe me.
It's not like they're hard to find.
But that's a low number. It's an unfathomable number given the series is smack dab in the middle of its playoffs. I never thought we'd see the day where a NASCAR Cup Series race drops below the Mendoza line (1 million), but we're getting close. Too close.
For comparison's sake, NASCAR averaged more than 4.5 million viewers per race in 2016, which was a really bad time for the sport. That's when viewers were fleeing left and right. Jeff Gordon had retired. Tony Stewart was on his way out. Dale Jr. was right behind him.
There's been a nearly 50% drop-off in viewership since then! Through 33 races this season, the Cup Series is averaging 2.3 million viewers per race. Through seven Chase races (that's what we're calling the playoffs this season), the number drops to 1.5 million.
So, yeah â I'd imagine alarms are going off in the big glass building across from Daytona International Speedway this morning. At least they should be.
Now, the obvious question they'll be asking themselves is ... why? Why is this happening? Where are fans going? Why are they leaving?
To me, it's a fairly simple answer if everyone is just honest with themselves for 30 seconds. I'll go in order from what I consider most pressing, to least:
The TV deal stinks. It brought in a lot of money, but it's really poor for exposure. Do you know how many races have been on network TV this season? Seven. Seven! Six on FOX, one on NBC. That means there has been one race on network TV since the spring (Daytona in August). That's awful. Asking folks to hunt down the USA Network, and TNT, and then download Amazon Prime, and also find FS1 for 26 of your 33 races is a slap in the face.
The schedule stinks. I don't mean the tracks themselves, I mean the time of year. NASCAR is putting its 10-race "Chase" right up against college football and the NFL. That's like taking a knife to a gun fight. No sport is going to win that fight, much less NASCAR. Chase Elliott said it years ago, and it's still true today: The season needs to end around Labor Day weekend. There's no upside in going up against the NFL.
The Next Gen car has been a bigger turnoff than a Kamala Harris cackle. Fans despise it. Drivers despise it. You can't pass. You can't push the car. God forbid you try to run in "dirty air." Folks aren't stupid. They've seen what it's done to these races, and they've lost interest.
To steal a phrase from the great Rick Pitino, "Dale Jr. is not walking through that door." There's no real personality in the garage anymore, beyond Carson Hocevar. Like him or hate him, Carson has moved the needle all season. Nobody else does. Chase Elliott is your "Most Popular Driver" year in and year out, and he was supposed to be NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. replacement. That hasn't worked out. Chase has no interest in carrying that torch.
Jeff Gordon is gone. Dale Jr. is gone. Tony Stewart is gone. Kyle Busch, tragically, died. He was, perhaps, the last of the "old guard" when it came to NASCAR. Beyond hoping someone goes viral and physically attacks Carson Hocevar every week, I'm not sure who NASCAR is looking at to bring in new fans. He doesn't exist.
And finally ...
Let's be honest, the drama isn't there anymore. At least it's not what it's been over the past decade. Yes, the shift back to The Chase format was popular amongst hardcore NASCAR fans. I get it. But the sport gave up elimination races in the process, which is naturally going to hurt interest from casual fans. People like drama. Having an elimination race every third race in the fall certainly helped with interest. Those are gone now.
OK, that was a long-winded "30 seconds" of honesty, but you get the picture. You add all those up, and I think it's fairly easy to see how the series has cratered in terms of viewership over the past few years.
As for the answers? I don't know. I'd shorten the season and own the summer. That's probably atop my list. Utilize midweek races in June and July. End the regular season in July, and end the postseason on Labor Day weekend.
The TV deal is done, so I'm not sure you're changing that any time soon. A new-era car would take a while to build, so that's probably a ways off, too. As for the lack of personalities in the garage ...
Imprenditori, leader del terzo settore, grandi interpreti dell’associazionismo e del civismo. Persone impegnate a costruire qualcosa di significativo. Protagonisti. A Milano, in Lombardia, in Italia. Su Affaritaliani.it Milano una rubrica dedicata al racconto di donne e uomini che con le loro iniziative, le imprese, la loro visione, forgiano quotidianamente la nostra realtà. A curare questo spazio, Mario Furlan: fondatore dei City Angels, ma anche attivista, giornalista, scrittore, coach motivazionale. Insomma, uno che di protagonisti se ne intende eccome.
Medico chirurgo specialista in ortopedia, il dottor Riccardo Minola ha oltre quarant’anni di esperienza maturata tra la medicina, la chirurgia ortopedica e lo sport ad altissimo livello. Formatosi al Gaetano Pini e tra Berna, Lione e Pittsburgh, ha diretto la Chirurgia Ortopedica dell’Humanitas ed è past president della Società Italiana di Artroscopia. Nel 2005 ha operato alla spalla Gianluigi Buffon, che l’anno successivo sarebbe diventato campione del mondo.
Negli anni Minola ha affiancato all’esperienza sui danni e sulle patologie del corpo un’attenzione sempre maggiore alla medicina del benessere, dello sport e della performance. Oggi è Medical Director di Yamaha Motor Racing e segue la squadra in MotoGP, un ambiente in cui corpo e mente vengono portati al limite e nel quale ogni parametro può contribuire alla prestazione. Nel suo studio di Milano segue atleti e pazienti di ogni età e lavora allo sviluppo di un “gemello digitale” (Digital Twin) per misurare lo stato di benessere e comprendere come migliorare la performance.
Ma cosa può insegnare l’altissimo livello a chi non corre a oltre 300 km/h e vuole semplicemente stare bene e invecchiare meglio? Con Minola abbiamo parlato delle abitudini che incidono sulla longevità, dell’importanza della forza muscolare e dell’attività aerobica, degli effetti di smartphone e computer su collo e spalle e degli esercizi utili per prevenire problemi. Ma anche del confine tra scienza del benessere e consumismo del wellness, in un mercato sempre più affollato di integratori, app, dispositivi e protocolli che promettono di misurare e migliorare la salute.
Dottore, da dove si comincia? Dalle basi, banali solo in apparenza: dormire bene, muoversi ogni giorno, allenare la forza, mangiare in modo semplice, coltivare le relazioni. Forza muscolare e capacità aerobica sono tra i più solidi predittori di longevità. Nessun integratore si avvicina a questi effetti.
Lo smartphone ci rovina il collo? Il problema non è la curva, è il tempo. Restare a lungo con la testa in avanti, al telefono o al computer, carica collo e spalle. Non esiste una postura perfetta: la migliore è la prossima. Telefono all’altezza degli occhi, una pausa ogni 30-40 minuti, qualche rotazione delle spalle e un’apertura del torace.
Le spalle sono il punto debole di molti. Cosa fare? La spalla, l’articolazione più mobile del corpo, vive dell’equilibrio muscolare. Con un elastico bastano pochi esercizi: rotazioni esterne con il gomito al fianco, rematori e le «Y-T-W» a busto inclinato per stabilizzare la scapola. Poi la mobilità della colonna dorsale: una schiena rigida sovraccarica la spalla. Carichi progressivi, due o tre volte a settimana.
E cosa evitare? Lento e lat machine dietro la nuca, che stressano la spalla anteriore; le tirate al mento con i gomiti alti; i dip profondi con sovraccarico. E l’errore più comune: smettere di muovere una spalla che fa male. Quasi sempre il carico graduale è la cura, non il nemico. Per alcuni casi, un buon programma di esercizi vale quanto l’intervento.
Integratori, app, dispositivi: il benessere è ovunque. È un bene? La scienza dello stare bene esiste ed è rigorosa. Il consumismo del benessere è un’altra cosa: come in tanti ambiti della vita, ci fa inseguire dettagli e apparenze e ci allontana dal contenuto. Il protocollo miracoloso, l’esame che nessuno ha chiesto, l’integratore di moda, il dato dello smartwatch letto senza contesto. In MotoGP misuriamo moltissimo, ma un dato vale solo se cambia una decisione. Prima di comprare qualcosa per la salute, chiedetevi se avete già fatto le cose semplici. Quasi sempre la risposta è no.
Ciaron Maher has broken through for his first Geelong Cup win and is eyeing off the Melbourne Cup after Point of Law’s impressive outing in just his fifth career race.
Ciaron Maher has broken through for his first Geelong Cup win and is eyeing off the Melbourne Cup after Point of Law’s impressive outing in just his fifth career race.
Levi Kitchen just won the 2026 Monster Energy SMX 250 Class World Championship. But the 25-year-old already has his eye on another competitive pursuit for whenever he decides to hang up his helmet.
The Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider is an avid angler who spends much of his downtime on the water. And while he's got plenty left to accomplish on a dirt bike, Kitchen told OutKick OutDoors in an exclusive interview that he'd love to try his hand at tournament fishing someday.
In fact, he's already gotten a little taste of what that world looks like.
Earlier this year, Kitchen participated in the Bassmaster Classic Celebrity Pro-Am, where he teamed up with professional angler Tristan McCormick. The two didn't exactly dominate the leaderboard, but Kitchen came away with a few fish, a new friend and an even greater appreciation for the athletes who make their living chasing bass.
"It was amazing. Me and Tristan, we had a great time," Kitchen said. "I didn't know Tristan going into it. I'd just heard his name, but he's a great dude."
McCormick, who grew up near Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Tennessee, was already familiar with motocross thanks to the amateur racing held there. And Kitchen was pleased to discover that he could hold his own on the fishing side of things, too.
"He actually said I wasn't like, you know, sometimes he gets people that go to those events and they say they can fish a little bit and they really don't know what's going on," Kitchen recalled. "But I was proud to at least catch a few fish. We didn't do great, but it was a blast."
More importantly, the experience gave Kitchen a firsthand look at just how demanding professional bass fishing can be.
"It was an eye-opener, too," he admitted. "I've always said, when I'm done racing, I want to give that a shot. I really do. But I have so much more respect for those guys. If I ever wanted to do that, I'd have to really buckle down. You have to put so much time, so much time into it."
And it's not like Kitchen is a newcomer to fishing.
Growing up in Washington state, he developed a love for the outdoors thanks in part to his father. Around age 14 or 15, he discovered an old fly rod in his dad's shop, started practicing casts in the yard and quickly fell in love with fly fishing.
Watch Levi Kitchen's entire interview with OutKick OutDoors here:
These days, Kitchen lives in Florida, where bass fishing has become his primary obsession. But he still makes time to return home to Washington for an annual steelhead fishing trip with his father, friends and family — a tradition that has lasted roughly a decade.
"I still love it," Kitchen said. "When the racing's done down the road, you'll probably find me on a river fly fishing a lot, or on a bass boat. Just maybe not Florida in the summertime."
Fishing also provides a welcome contrast to the intensity of professional motocross.
Kitchen said he and fellow rider Malcolm Stewart frequently talk about fishing in Florida, and he suspects the sport appeals to motocross athletes because it's such a departure from their day jobs.
"We get to kind of calm down and be a little more present than when you're just wide open on a dirt bike," he explained.
But there's still a competitive element, even when championship points aren't on the line.
"It's another way to be, I guess, kind of competitive with yourself," Kitchen said. "You obviously don't want to go out there and not catch a fish, but sometimes that happens."
And as much as Kitchen enjoys catching fish, he also appreciates the atmosphere surrounding competitive bass fishing.
At the Bassmaster Classic Pro-Am, he found himself surrounded by athletes and celebrities from across the sports world, including NFL Hall of Famer Randy Moss. Kitchen was particularly amused by Moss' impressive collection of fishing boats.
"First, Randy Moss, I'm like, who's this guy with two of the same specced-out, crazy sweet boats?" Kitchen recalled. "And they're like, 'Oh, that's Randy.'"
He also noticed something that set the fishing crowd apart from what he's accustomed to in motocross: Competitors were hanging out together at the hotel bar the night before the tournament.
"You do not see that in dirt bike racing," he said. "They put their game face on when it's time to fish, but just the whole event and weekend is pretty laid-back, which is kind of my style."
Of course, Kitchen isn't preparing to trade his Kawasaki for a bass boat just yet.
Levi Kitchen has big plans for 2027 season
The newly crowned 250 SMX World Champion, who helped end a seven-year championship drought for Pro Circuit Kawasaki, has made it clear that he wants a long career in motocross.
After recovering from a serious crash at Daytona in 2025, Kitchen said he's learned the importance of racing smarter and protecting his longevity in the sport.
"I want to race for a lot more years to come," he said.
And he's certainly not satisfied with one championship. His goals for 2027 include winning both a Supercross and a Pro Motocross title before eventually moving up from the 250 class.
So, no, Levi Kitchen isn't walking away from moto anytime soon.
But when the day finally comes to hang up the helmet, don't be surprised if The Chef trades his dirt bike for a bass boat.
We now know, thanks to a speedy and thorough stewards’ investigation, the direct cause of a devastating horse death in the aftermath of Saturday’s Caulfield Cup. But more information is needed to complete the picture – and protect racing’s flimsy social licence.
We now know, thanks to a speedy and thorough stewards’ investigation, the direct cause of a devastating horse death in the aftermath of Saturday’s Caulfield Cup. But more information is needed to complete the picture – and protect racing’s flimsy social licence.
Stewards have released their findings following an investigation into a tragic race-day fall, while Chris Waller comes to Melbourne ahead of the Cox Plate.
Jockeys Jye McNeil and Mark Zahra were lucky to escape the fall in the Caulfield Cup without a serious injury. They will both be back riding by the weekend.
Racing Victoria needs to be transparent this week as it digs into the reasons behind the death of horse Ohope Wins following Saturday’s $6 million Caulfield Cup.
The end of an era has fallen upon an Australian sporting landmark as the greyhound races at an inner-city track kicked off for the very last time.
Thousands packed into Wentworth Park in central Sydney on Friday night, where greyhound races have been held since 1932, for the last race meeting before the track’s planned demolition.
THE gloves are off, the engines are roaring and Germany is bracing itself for a motorsport showdown of epic proportions! Forget the calculators. Forget the cautious driving. And forget playing it safe. The 2026 DTM championship reaches its explosive conclusion at Hockenheim this weekend, with SIX drivers still dreaming of lifting one of European motorsport’s most coveted trophies.
And the man with the biggest target on his back is Porsche superstar Thomas Preining.
The Austrian arrives at the legendary Hockenheimring with a commanding 23-point advantage over his nearest challenger.
But with 56 points still available across the final weekend, the champagne will have to stay firmly on ice.
PREINING IN POLE POSITION — BUT RIVALS ARE CIRCLING
Preining, already a DTM champion, knows exactly what it takes to survive the pressure of a title fight. Driving for Manthey, the Porsche ace has put himself in the driving seat for a second championship crown.
But Mercedes-AMG star Maro Engel is breathing down his neck, and BMW veteran Marco Wittmann, a two-time champion, is lurking dangerously in the background. Both have the experience, machinery and determination to turn Preining’s dream weekend into an absolute nightmare.
Then come the outsiders. Mercedes driver Lucas Auer, Ferrari racer Matteo Cairoli and Aston Martin’s Nicki Thiim all retain mathematical chances of snatching the championship.
For those three, however, it would take something approaching a motorsport miracle. They need brilliant results — and some serious misfortune for the men ahead.
HOCKENHEIM: WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE — OR DIE
There could hardly be a more fitting battlefield.
The Hockenheimring has hosted the DTM season finale more than 30 times, earning its reputation as the place where champions are crowned and reputations shattered.
Its 4.5-kilometre Grand Prix circuit demands precision, courage and nerves of steel.
Get your braking wrong and a rival can pounce. Make a mistake in traffic and an entire season’s hard work could disappear in seconds.
And nobody needs reminding what happened here last year.
Turkish racer Ayhancan Güven snatched the 2025 championship with a breathtaking late move against Wittmann at the Sachs-Kurve.
It was the sort of dramatic finish that makes motorsport irresistible.
Now Wittmann is back, determined to ensure history does not repeat itself at his expense.
GERMAN GIANTS PREPARE FOR BATTLE
The DTM is no ordinary racing championship. This is a contest in which some of the biggest names in the motor industry throw their engineering expertise into a furious battle for supremacy.
Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, BMW, Ferrari and Aston Martin are represented among the six title contenders, and with GT3 machinery producing spectacular performance, the racing promises to be fierce.
Unlike Formula One, where aerodynamic advantages can sometimes leave the field stretched out, DTM’s competitive format regularly produces close battles, aggressive overtaking and unpredictable finishes.
Track position is precious. Pit-stop execution matters enormously. And a poorly timed safety car can transform the championship picture.
One moment a driver can be heading towards glory, the next, he can be staring at disaster.
TWO RACES. ONE CHAMPION.
Saturday’s race begins at 1.30pm local time, with Sunday’s championship decider scheduled for 4.30pm.
That leaves precious little room for error.
For Preining, the equation is straightforward: protect the advantage without becoming so defensive that his challengers seize the initiative.
For Engel and Wittmann, the message is equally clear. Attack.
They cannot afford to sit behind the Porsche and hope for the best.
And should Saturday’s race produce a major surprise, Sunday’s finale could become an extraordinary winner-takes-all spectacle.
MORE THAN JUST A RACE
Away from the championship battle, Hockenheim is preparing a full-blown motorsport festival.
The supporting programme includes the ADAC GT Masters, Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, ADAC GT4 Germany and BMW M2 Cup. Fans can also enjoy pit-lane walks, driver appearances and live entertainment.
But the biggest attraction remains the battle on the circuit. Six drivers started the weekend with a mathematical chance of becoming champion. Only one can leave with the crown.
When the chequered flag falls on Sunday evening, there could be tears, triumph — and the sort of last-lap drama that makes the DTM one of Europe’s great racing spectacles.
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