If you tell me not to watch, I won't

Yes, yes and yes from Jeff Gluck on one of NASCAR's standing problems.

"NASCAR can use gimmicks to make for a better show, but what would really get fans' attention is to have drivers racing door-to-door at 200 mph, lap after lap.
After all, isn't that why people plop down on the couch on a Sunday afternoon? It's about seeing the moments that are promoted so often in NASCAR's TV ads and highlight packages. It's about rubbing fenders or making a daring pass for the lead, about tempers and, yes, even the occasional crash." ...

..."To get people to tune in with the same passion they once did, NASCAR has to become appointment viewing again. It has to be must-see TV, not like the NBA where only the last five minutes seem to matter."

Substitute "last 20 laps" for "last five minutes," and you have the essence of the problem, and those last 20 laps aren't always the most-exciting thing in the world, either. I'm hoping the new Chase format helps in that regard, but what about the rest of the race?

Sometime this season, and it won't take long, a driver will be taken out in an early accident. He or she will be released from the infield care center to a waiting interviewer, and will say something along the lines of the following:

"It's really a shame. The (team name/sponsor name/car brand here) was really fast today, it's just too bad that (other driver involved in crash) doesn't realize that there's no need to race that hard this early. You're not going to win the race in lap (number of early lap here)."

He may not have been the first to espouse this philosophy, but I attribute it to Mark Martin, who for years dutifully pulled over if he was challenged at the beginning of the race, because "there's no point holding up the faster car now" and "to finish first, first you must finish."

And now every driver seems to have that attitude.

But I have an idea..

I don't know if you can force drivers to race harder from green to checkers, but you can keep them from telling the viewing public that there's no point in watching 95 percent of the event, especially when it's a four-hour event on a Sunday afternoon when there are a lot of other things people could be doing.

After all, you don't see LeBron James telling Doris Burke "Well, Doris, we're going to go about half-speed for 40 to 45 minutes or so -- gotta make sure you don't pull those hamstrings -- and then we'll go hard at the end" before a Miami Heat game, do you?

So when I become Supreme Ruler of the Sports World (which I swear will be a blog post someday), where I make all the rules by fiat, any driver who complains about someone racing too hard will work for free that weekend. If that's not enough, take points away. If that's not enough, take a win away.

And if it's a Sprint Cup driver dabbling in Nationwide or the trucks who complains that those drivers don't understand how to race ... well, they don't have to be there, and they won't.

Seriously, how stupid is it to tell the people who consume your product that most of it isn't worth consuming?

Almost as stupid as trying to sell a car on the premise that it will rat you out to your wife.