NASCAR star delivers a brutal reality check after fans turned off the championship race

The NASCAR season is officially over, which means it's time to dust off the 'ol mirror and do some good, hard looking in it.

A little self-reflection never hurt anyone. Every league should do it, frankly. There are always things to improve upon after a season. No matter if it went good, bad or indifferent, every league can do better.

NASCAR is no different. In fact, I'd argue this is maybe the most consequential offseason the sport has faced in some time.

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The big question? How do they get folks watching — and following — the series again? That's not me talking, by the way. That comes straight from the mouth of Denny Hamlin, NASCAR's oldest and biggest star.

"We have got to find a way to grow this thing and make it more relevant in the sports landscape, because it's just falling behind others in my opinion," Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast on the heels of Sunday's anticlimactic championship race.

"Our sport is different. It's not this one-v-one and it's either you or me, you know, and so we have to just embrace that this is what we wanted. We wanted a bigger sample size for the champion for it to feel right. I think it feels right. And so, it's going to always feel a little different, but it's our jobs as a sport to make it relevant in sports.

"And that's that's what I challenge more than anything ... we have got to make our sport relevant again when it comes to the general sports landscape."

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Amen, Denny! Say it louder for the people in the back. Shout it. I've been saying NASCAR has a relevancy problem all season long, and the latest batch of TV ratings don't do it any favors.

Sunday's race at Homestead got a 1.37 rating and averaged 2.471 million viewers, which was a nearly 11% drop from last year's title race at Phoenix. I'm not going to sit here and call it the least watched championship race ever, because, frankly, I don't feel like getting a call from NASCAR today.

It's a Friday. I've got things to do. I don't feel like getting into a long debate about how Nielsen measures things. Trying to compare things to the old days doesn't work, so I'm not going to do it. I know it's more complicated today.

I do not care.

The number is the number. The number was not great, again. Overall on the season, viewership was down 2%.

Here's the question we need to first answer ...

Who does this fall on? Seriously. Who's fault is it? Remember, this is mirror-looking time, folks! Start looking!

The fans? The car? The racing? The 14 different channels? All of the above?

It's a fair question, because there is an argument to be made that the fans didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

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Don't forget, all we talked about last offseason was how horrible the old playoff format was. You all hated it because you said it was too gimmicky. Everyone freaked out because Joey Logano won a championship two years ago, so NASCAR decided to blow it all up and start over.

I'm not saying going back to the old Chase format was the wrong call, but the fans begged for it and then didn't show up to watch a championship race on Sunday that was already decided.

Obviously, fans will point to the car, which has been another contentious topic all season. Fans do not like the Next Gen car. Drivers don't, either, but they can't say it as loudly as the fans can.

I get hundreds of emails every week about NASCAR. Hundreds. Do you know the most common complaint I hear?

"The car stinks. It's too slow, it doesn't look like a stock car, and it doesn't race well."

The car and Leigh Diffey — two things fans don't love. Sorry, Leigh.

Unfortunately, the car is the car, and the format is the format. As Denny said, neither are going away. NASCAR, and the fans, are stuck with both right now. It's on NASCAR to make the series relevant again.

"It ain't the car or the format," Hamlin continued. "It's much bigger than that. It's way bigger than that."

It's the promotion. That's the problem, Hamlin added. Outside of the Daytona 500, NASCAR simply isn't doing enough to promote the sport.

He might be right.

"I know we tried the whole midweek night races thing, but there was no promotion behind that at all," Hamlin continued. "I feel like the viewership number now is at a point where there I just ... what do you have to lose in that sense? Why can't we own Thursday night in the summer? You know when, when it's just baseball?

"Like own a night during the summer ... I'd love to see us try to own a night of the week during the summer when there's not much other sports on."

Ding, ding, ding! There it is! Does Denny read Monday Morning Pit-Stop? He has to. I've been barking up that tree for years now. Years. Ever since COVID.

Own the spring. Own the summer. STOP going up against football in the fall. Those are easy fixes you can implement right away. Next season. I know it would be a little difficult because the schedule is already out, but who cares? Tear it up and start over.

Give us midweek races in June and July. Give us a full summer of NASCAR. Shorten the season and have it end on Labor Day weekend. Promote the crap out of it. Market it like there is no tomorrow.

The car ain't going anywhere, folks. NASCAR is in too deep. They'll keep trying to improve it, but I'd imagine there's only so many more screws that tighten on it at this point.

The format isn't changing, either. It just did! They can't possibly mess with it again, can they? Not this soon.

The two things NASCAR can control? The schedule and the promotion.

Denny Hamlin said the quiet part out loud: NASCAR has a major relevancy problem right now.

They have three months to fix it.