NASCAR Introduces New Format for Selected Races
ESPN
March 16, 2006
NASCAR is one of the most popular sports in America, but CEO Brian France is always looking for ways to expand the fan base. "The average person can relate to sports like baseball and basketball because many people played those sports growing up. Many sports fans cannot relate to what it takes to drive a race car and those fans have a hard time seeing racing as a sport.", France said in a recent interview.
So what changes does France propose to help more fans relate to racing? Some of the races for next season will feature a passenger of the opposite sex in each car to act as a back seat driver. "Most men can relate to how irritating it is when their wives or girlfriends critique every aspect of their driving.", said Mr. France. "This will add a new dimension to the races that more people will be able to identify with."
The passenger will be trained in the use of phrases designed to distract the driver. The degree of difficulty will increase as the race goes on. During the first ten laps, the passenger will make random irrelevant comments about discounted items at the local department store or about the ridiculous outfit so and so's wife had on at church. For the next ten laps, comments like, "Do you realize how fast you're driving?", "If you get a ticket our insurance will go up, and we're already paying enough as it is.", "Don't you think we'd get better mileage if you slowed down a bit?" and "Were we really supposed to turn left back there?" will be allowed. After twenty laps, anything goes. The earlier phrases can be repeated but more will be added such as, "Do you think I look fat in this outfit?" and "Will you look at that! Why do women wear such skimpy things?" There will also be random emotional outbursts about anything unrelated to driving and frequent requests to turn down the volume on the radio or change the station.
A microphone in the car will record everything and television broadcasts will feature audio from selected cars throughout the race. The drivers will be assessed time penalties for any physical aggression directed at the passenger and any response that includes profanity.
This new feature will not only give men watching the race a new way to identify with the drivers, but it will make the race even more challenging. The passengers will be judged according to how distracting they were and prizes will be awarded to them as well.
"It should not take much time or effort to train enough passengers for the scheduled races.", commented France, "This sort of thing comes naturally to most women."