Just before the Martinsville race this fall there was a panel type show in which Larry McReynolds, Chad Knaus and others from the SpeedTV network sat down with NASCAR Competition Director Robin Pemberton to discuss the state of the sport as they see it. That roundtable session, along with this past weekend’s race in Talladega, convinced me that those most entrenched inside NASCAR’s upper levels are completely out of touch with the reality that is today’s racing scene. And by ‘most entrenched’ I mean NASCAR officials, team members and high level media members.

That conversation as well as other writings, television appearances and radio programs seem to always produce the same lines in regard to the sport’s present condition.

According to the insiders, NASCAR is in the best shape it has ever been in. Teams are learning the new car, fans will be back when the economy turns around, the Chase is great for raising interest and the competition level is high.

To address the first point that those on the inside want to push on a public which is becoming more and more resistant to this sort of talk, the Car of Tomorrow is a major part of NASCAR’s problem.

However, those in Daytona Beach and elsewhere have completely misread the signs coming from the fans. Those who pay the bills are not, nor ever will be, interested in whether teams get a grasp on the new car. The problem with the car is that is lacks character. Fans do not want to watch identical looking prototypes race around identical looking tracks. NASCAR fans are Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and even Toyota enthusiasts, not fans of molds with nothing more than stickers to distinguish them.

People want to be able to gloat that the car in their garage at least has some similarity to the one that won last Sunday’s race.

Add to the complaints that NASCAR’s mandating of so many of the parts and pieces on the car has taken away one of the most interesting aspects of the sport, ingenuity. With the rules as they are in today’s NASCAR there will never be another story like the rise of the Elliotts in the 1980s or Alan Kulwicki in the early 1990s.

And no, if things remain as they are the fans will not be back when the economy turns around, at least not in the same numbers as before. So many who respond to my columns or send me e-mails offer up the same story. “I used to go to X number of races a year but I haven’t been in two years and it has nothing to do with the economy,” is a common statement.

As for the Chase for the Championship, it is only rivaled by the CoT in terms of dislike among long time fans. While at first the notion of tightening up the field with ten races remaining seemed like an idea worth taking a look at. However, what the Chase has managed to do is turn every race into a points grab rather than a race for the win. Drivers have become far too content with top-10 or even top-15 finishes. Even races on once exciting tracks like Bristol and Richmond have suffered as a result.

But of all the arguments made by those who insist that NASCAR is better now than ever before is that of the number of cars on the lead lap at the end of a race. McReynolds, Pemberton and Knaus pointed to this in their discussion.

Well, it is easy to keep large numbers of cars on the lead lap when teams have so many of the vital pieces of the car’s set-up dictated to them. And more, the use of well timed ‘debris’ cautions can serve to keep the field bunched.

With all of these arguments aside, the real problem that NASCAR insiders do not get is that the sport has lost its soul. The personality and ingenuity have been taken from racing and replaced with corporate language and looks.

The reason I have written with so much negativity of late is that I hope those on the inside will finally see what is happening and save the sport I have loved since my childhood.

Please visit my website at RacingWithRich.com to contact me.