Mike Joy identifies biggest challenge for NASCAR, suggests solution

Mike Joy is revered as a broadcaster, lending his voice to many of NASCAR’s iconic moments throughout history. His understanding of the sport’s illustrious before-times make him uniquely qualified to comment on what’s plaguing it at the moment.

One area where Joy believes NASCAR can improve is attracting a younger audience. He hasn’t seen the sport resonate as much with today’s youth as in the past. In diagnosing the problem, the FOX Sports analyst also provided some unique insight into how it could be fixed.

“I think right now, the driver-base is getting younger. We have Jesse Love, 20-years old. We have 18 and 20-year olds coming into the Cup Series and making a mark. The fan-base is getting older. We’re not attracting the younger fan base that we need to move this sport forward into the next decade, into the next couple of decades,” Joy stated, regarding NASCAR’s biggest challenge at the moment, via Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “So, my first thing would be to energize the teams, the PR people, the sponsors — get out there and activate.

“The Food City 500, a local grocery store chain, you know, mostly in that area in Tennessee. During the heyday of NASCAR, which coincidentally was about the time Talladega Nights came out — that was when we hit our peak for fan engagement and crowds at the racetrack. I remember going into a Food Lion in Bristol, Tennessee, and you couldn’t push your cart down any aisle without knocking over a cardboard cutout of some driver hawking something. You couldn’t go in a supermarket without knowing about NASCAR. It was everywhere.

“I can’t blame COVID. I can’t blame the sponsors. But when NASCAR transitioned to being a sport with mostly B2B sponsors — you know, the uniforms that your guys wear at the car dealership you own. The motor oil that you pour in your service department. You know, when these started becoming the sponsors, and the sponsors stopped — absent Busch Beer and a couple of others, stopped activating toward the general public and toward the race fans, the sport just took a giant dump in the relationship relative to the everyday life department. We lost a lot of that young fan base that we really need to covet if we’re going to grow this sport again.”

Alas, it’s easier said than done to attract new fans to NASCAR, as many other sports have found out over recent years. Still, they’ve figured it out in the past. Perhaps as the driver-base gets younger, today’s youth will take an interest in something older fans have learned to love over the years.

Time will tell if Mike Joy’s advice is taken, of if it falls by the wayside. NASCAR would be wise to listen to his suggestion though. He’s seen it all in the sport, and people like him should be relied on for a helping hand in situations like these.