NASCAR Commissioner makes damning driver admission that shows the sport has failed

NASCAR is a sport fighting for relevance right now - one look at the TV ratings for this season’s Cup Series playoff races tells you that.

Despite the best stock car drivers in the world fighting it out in the postseason, audience figures have been massively disappointing so far. New Hampshire just over a week ago pulled in just 1.29m viewers - a massive drop from the 1.79m last year.

The sport is going up against some mighty adversaries on the Fall sporting calendar - notably the NFL season which absolutely dominates Sundays from early September on.

One thing that fans and analysts alike bemoan is the lack of ‘star power’ on the grid - after all, outside of the sport’s heartlands how many folks would recognize Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch if they walked down a street?

This is an area where F1, for example, has been really strong in recent years - its superstars have enormous followings. Take Lewis Hamilton on 41million Instagram followers, while Hamlin boasts just 298,000. Even NASCAR's most popular driver, Chase Elliott, has just 507,000.

NASCAR HEADLINES: Bubba Wallace rages as Denny Hamlin hits back at critics

Phelps: NASCAR needs to build superstars

It’s an area where NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps admits everybody needs to do better - the folks in Charlotte included. After all, a total of $53million was spent on production capabilities in North Carolina.

Phelps, speaking at the Axios Media Trends Live Summit, said: “To answer your question with respect to what we would call driver star power, I think that we need to do a better job of it, frankly.

“We need to make heroes of these drivers, and then the relationships that we have with our media partners, they need to help us do that as well, because you strap into a 3,500 lb car, it’s dangerous, and these guys are heroes in their own right.”

Phelps believes progress is being made - with NASCAR even now resorting to paying drivers to build their own brands.

NASCAR is paying drivers to build their brands

“So I think for us this year we started this thing this year called the driver ambassador program,” he explained.

“Essentially, it pays drivers to build their own brands, which is kind of a neat idea. Not sure why we have to pay them, I’m joking!

“But it’s working. If you look at the amount of focus on our drivers, it’s up 40/45/50 percent and that is huge for us because it’s putting us in places where we’re not.”

READ MORE: NASCAR champion Joey Logano hit with FOUR penalties at Kansas

Related