re: What caused NASCAR to crash and almost burn?

I consider several factors to be reasons for NASCAR’s decline (in no particular order):

1. Economic collapse of 2008 - going to races isn’t cheap given that most people have to travel and camp/stay in a hotel to go to races, the economic collapse only exacerbated those things and led to lower attendance. Sponsors also left the sport.

2. NASCAR leadership - Brian France, grandson of founder Bill France Sr., has been a terrible leader for NASCAR.

3. Major changes - over the last 10-15 years NASCAR has made so many major changes to the cars, the points system, the schedules, etc. that fans have had mixed feelings about.

4. Lack of competition - see Jimmie Johnson winning 5 straight championships.

5. Driver retirements - this has been more recent but the retirement of several major drivers has hurt NASCAR. Guys like: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle. Also, many of the new, young drivers lack personality.

6. NASCAR never totally recovered from the death of Dale Earnhardt - there was never another driver who had the clout of Dale Sr. I believe a lot of the competition issues would not have occurred if Dale Sr. had lived. He was the one driver who had major influence in NASCAR’s decisions.

7. Running teams keeps getting more expensive, even as the huge sponsors go away.