iNSIDE SCOOP: Fast and Furious

No, I’m not talking about the racing…yet. I’m talking about the rate of changes announced for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

First, the floating of a proposed change to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, adding four cars to the Chase field and knocking out four every three races until Homestead and then letting the remaining Chasers race for it head-to-head.

Now, the change from single-car qualifying to knockout rounds to set the field.

I’m not against it, not at all. I like knockout. But, this is a lot of changin’ from a group that traditionally hasn’t changed all that much and never very quickly. Will the fan base stand up for it? We’ll see.

That’s not to say that the way NASCAR does things is wrong. They will float something as a trial balloon, see which way the wind is blowing and move accordingly. If people like it, or seem to, they’ll go. If not, they won’t.

They floated the Chase change and will probably announce something next week at the annual NASCAR Sprint Media Tour presented by Charlotte Motor Speedway (at least I hope that’s still the name of it. If it is, I win the first-to-plug-the-tour pin this year!). They announced the qualifying changes yesterday.

This is warp-speed for NASCAR, especially with the tech redesign from the offseason testing.

There’s a strategy to changing slowly. It gives fans time to assimilate the changes, discuss and then go on as usual. This rapid-fire change, this is a departure from the old way of doing things.

NASCAR’s fan base is aging. All fan bases do. Plus, with the lack of discretionary entertainment dollars around these days, it is losing out to quicker, less-involved sports. You could even say it’s a societal shift, because today’s younger set is used to clicking a few buttons on the iPhone and having the world at their fingertips.

It makes for short-attention-span theater, and NASCAR is not a sprint series. It’s an investment of at least three hours. The next change, I believe, will be to put a time limit on the races or shorten them so they fit into a 2-hour TV window.

That philosophy made a guy named Bernie Ecclestone a billionaire…one they call “The Poison Dwarf.” He’s the Formula One capo who rakes in dollars like seashells at the beach every time they race.

We’ll see what will happen. It’ll be quick. I promise!