Column: NASCAR plays a glum, frustrated second fiddle to F1

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — NASCAR, the longtime king of U.S. motorsports, has never had to worry about Formula One, the popular globetrotting series that has never quite grabbed hold of Americans. Perhaps the show is embellished — current championship leader Max Verstappen told The Associated Press producers “faked a lot of rivalries that don’t really exist” and he’s not participating this season — but it didn’t seem to matter when F1 rolled into Austin, Texas last week. Denny Hamlin raised the alarm last week after NASCAR raced in front of a sparse crowd at Texas Motor Speedway, with the three-time Daytona 500 winner calling the turnout “a big disappointment” just before all the buzz about “the biggest crowd in history showing up for COTA F1.” Hamlin, in fact, says he’s watching more F1 this season than ever before. I think they’ve just really dropped the ball and a lot of it is because just such a small part of the revenue and it’s not a needle-mover for them.” Kyle Busch said a friend of 10 years who lives six minutes from Texas Motor Speedway had no idea NASCAR was in town racing two weekends ago. Last week, a “fan question” for each set of drivers came via pre-recorded video from children who asked everything from “what weapon would you choose in a zombie apocalypse” to “what feature from the Batmobile would you put on your F1 car.” It’s not that NASCAR drivers won’t entertain such questions — all eight playoff contenders, plus Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley answered the zombie apocalypse question Sunday morning — but NASCAR has cut its required availability to 15-minute pre-race sessions and when drivers show up, some seem as if they’d rather be undergoing a root canal than answering questions.