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NASCAR legend Kenny Wallace once again offers his thoughts on the current position and future of NASCAR, but his current view of the business seems to run counter to the many tirades he’s been on lately, where he painted an extremely bleak vision of the future for this racing franchise.
In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Kenny Wallace shared his thoughts on the current state of NASCAR. He believes that after 15 to 20 years of struggle, NASCAR is finally finding its new course. He attributes this to changes brought about by technology, such as live streaming, and changing people’s attitudes due to social media.
“What I think of NASCAR right now is that they’re finally after 15 or 20 years of misery, it’s been brutal, they’re finally finding their new course.” said Wallace. “Because even though we agree that NASCAR, let’s just say to make the fans happy, let’s say NASCAR was 50 at fault. I won’t go any further than that because with this invention of this cell phone and all the live streaming, life changed so much, it wasn’t entirely NASCAR’s fault.
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“Also people are more negative in nature now, people are meaner these days because of social media,” he continued. “Everyone just…I think NASCAR is the best it’s ever been because they’ve taken enough risks, they know people our age, you know, we’re the, you know, we’re watching the races but you know we have to we have to create excitement so they took a chance and all the NASCAR car owners they wanted this new car they were the ones who wanted the next generation the owners of cars hear my voice go up surprise So in a weird way car owners man it rained hard here car owners wanted this next gen car and it’s really saved NASCAR because they can take their Daytona 500 car that’s going 200 miles an hour in Daytona and go straight, take that car to the Chicago Street race course and it’s a huge, huge deal.
Wallace also speculated that NASCAR could be heading to Canada next year and suggests they should go to Circuit Jacques Villeneuve in Montreal. He praised the location for its cleanliness and bustling college town feel.
Finally, he touched on some people’s nostalgia for the “good old days” of NASCAR. He argues that while NASCAR was great back then, it wasn’t perfect and people tend to romanticize the past. He concluded by saying that what people consider good or bad is ultimately entirely subjective.
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His current perspective seems like a huge departure from how he approached things just a few months ago.
In April of this year, he expressed his disappointment with NASCAR’s 75th anniversary celebrations, accusing the organization of neglecting its “golden age” and focusing too much on recent stars like Jimmie Johnson. Wallace suggested that NASCAR should celebrate its best years, which he identifies as the period from 1985 to 2006. He mentioned drivers like Dale Earnhardt Sr., Terry Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Kenny Schrader, Ernie Irvin and Davey Allison, arguing that was when NASCAR was at its peak.
He also criticized NASCAR’s continued efforts to attract younger audiences, arguing that they should focus on their existing viewers. Wallace stressed the importance of the 60-70 age group, who continue to tune in and attend races. He also expressed his frustrations with NASCAR for not recognizing his brother, Rusty Wallace, the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup champion, and other NASCAR “golden era” drivers.
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Last August, Wallace also called out NASCAR for what he described as abandoning its roots in search of bigger venues and more seats. He accused NASCAR of ditching iconic tracks like Wilkesboro, Rockingham and Indianapolis Raceway Park to accommodate wider audiences.
Do you agree with Wallace’s current assessment of the current state of NASCAR? Let us know in the comments below and on social media.
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