EDITORIAL: NASCAR's engine needs overhauling

Another NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup has come and gone, and apparently not as many of us noticed as we have in previous years.

While Jimmie Johnson was cruising to his fourth straight Chase title, many television viewers were changing channels. Ratings for nine of the 10 season-ending Chase races were down from 2008. The Nov. 1 race at Talladega was the only race weekend to see a slight increase in ratings over 2008. While NASCAR remains a popular diversion for millions of fans, the sport appears to be in the midst of a significant decline in interest. Looking at the NASCAR season overall, ratings on ESPN held steady from 2008, but ratings on Fox and TNT dropped dramatically.

The decline in TV ratings is especially troubling for NASCAR because the sport has also seen a dramatic drop in attendance. Despite drops in ticket prices throughout the circuit to help offset a poor economy, there were tens of thousands of empty seats at races from Charlotte to Michigan to California this season. NASCAR just isn’t what it was at its crest of popularity at the turn of the century. The cars are different from days of old in that they’re all the same. The drivers are different from days of old in that they’re of the same mold.

The racing is different from days of old in that there doesn’t seem to be as much excitement. In days of old, it seemed someone was getting upside down every weekend. These days, someone gets upside down maybe once, twice a year. The geography is different in that NASCAR greedily decided some seven years ago to move away from its southern roots by giving more races to places like California in hopes of bigger paydays.

Of course, a lot of the above has alienated many hardcore NASCAR fans. Some, in fact, have sworn off NASCAR forever and now get their racing fix at local tracks. If we were on the board at NASCAR, these are some changes we’d seriously consider:

-- Give a second race back to Darlington Raceway. The Lady in Black came within a few thousand of selling out its Mother’s Day weekend race, which is more than a lot of tracks on the circuit can boast this year.

-- Scrap the Chase. If it hasn’t been good for the sport in its first five years, it’s never going to be good for the sport.

-- Scrap the current points system in favor of a system that places far more emphasis on winning each week than consistency. That might make drivers try much harder to get to the front instead of laying back for points, which would make for more action on the track.

-- Give us a NASCAR Super Bowl at the end of the season. Have a regular season points champion. Then for the final race of the season, put the top 20 drivers in points on the high-banked oval at Bristol, $10 million in a souped-up Brinks truck for the pace car, and have the winner take all.

Just imagine the excitement, ticket sales and TV ratings for an event like that each year.