Harvick won the last race, won this race last year and the semi-short track format in Richmond suits his out-in-front style of driving. He races well on banked ovals like Richmond and Bristol. If he catches a break on engine problems and yet another DNF, I see him in the checkers at the end in Richmond.
I do not see fan attendance in Darlington as any kind of seminal moment for ISCA. You expect this small track to sell out 'cause there ain't a lot else to do there except some awesome catfish fishing in the area. Tough to do that during a night race!
The set-up for the at-home viewer is hurting with Speed Network switching to Fox Sports who seems to love UFC head-banging events and soccer from around the parts of the globe you never knew existed. The excellent, NASCAR-focused practice and qualifying events that Speed pioneered are a HUGE loss to the sport and ISCA. Bad deal. Can you hear me, Brian? BAD DEAL!
The digital fan experience is not part of the growth potential, IMO, for NASCAR. Ten years ago we had Fanscan, followed by the Nextel (later, Sprint) cell-phone linkage and today's "inside" digital stuff is actually worse than the original content from years ago, IMO.
Indycar is livestreaming stuff with huge "hits" on-line. NASCAR's digital footprint is treading heavily in the earlier footsteps of Ned Neanderthal.
