Last week, I raised and tried to answer the question, "Why hasn't NASCAR had more success in turning its 'Young Guns'--like Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson--into big stars?" My supremely media-savvy buddy Nick Braccia read my post and came up with a much sharper answer than I could.
Nick suggested that in any given storyline, there's only room for one each of the archetypal characters--one "Good Guy", one "Rebel", etc. Now, there's also only a limited number of stars NASCAR can have at any given time. Putting this all together, we have a situation where the kind of people who are likely to be Kurt Busch fans are already Rusty Wallace fans and the kind of people who are likely to be Jimmie Johnson fans are already Jeff Gordon fans.
The next question, then, is: Which of the "Young Guns" will gain the most fans after big stars like Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin retire?
3 comments:
Forager,
Thanks for the credit. I think it's also worth mentioning that this theory
holds water in NASCAR (as opposed to other American sports) because the relationships between the fans and the stars aren't contingent on regional ties (at least for the most part ~ obviously Kevin LePage has Vermont fans and Owensboro, Kentucky residents love Mayfield, DW and Michael). My point is that baseball can have 6 amazing shortstop superstars because the sport is split into regional markets. NASCAR is more like a rock n roll tour, bringing the whole lineup to every city...
There just isn't enough emotional bandwidth inside of the fans for 15-20 headliners...
On the question of inheriting spots...
I think Sadler will grab Jarrett's fans ~ because of the Yates connection, more than anything else. People also love his colorful M&M'S sponsorship.
Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch (who I align more with Tony Stewart)I think are kind of up the creek, since Gordon and Stewart are both still pretty young.
I think the colorful Carl Edwards will take over the Rusty mantle and
Greg Biffle will inheret many of Martin's fans.
Who knows? Maybe the sponsors are demanding so much emphasis (lots of mouths to feed) that the drivers will remain somewhat anonymous, aside from a few standout stars with uncontainable personalities. Gordon because he's such a superior driver, Stewart, because he's a hothead and
Jr., because his dad was good and he likes beer.
I like the young guns. i saw them in a gillette razor commercial. gillette makes razors such as MACHK 3 and track 2. these are razors that shave things such as faces.
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