Pretty much everybody in NASCAR nation has a hot take on how to fix the sport - and Cup Series great Mark Martin is the very latest to throw out his own strategic masterplan.

Martin would love a return to the halcyon days when he was winning 40 races in the biggest league of all, with the action playing out to packed stands of adoring fans.

Now all the talk is about how NASCAR can capture a new audience, TV ratings and what the new playoff format might be. For Martin though, the answer is much much simpler. He believes the people who run the sport are missing something.

The 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee says the obsession with the small screen is hurting the sport, diverting the brass in Charlotte away from the people they really need to look after.

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Mark Martin's plan to fix NASCAR

Speaking on the Kenny Wallace Show, he claimed: “I think we should put more emphasis on what our fans - our core fans - want, and less emphasis on TV ratings.

“TV ratings are important, but we’ve chased ‘em for 20 years now, and they’ve gone down consistently for 20 years.

"It’s time to quit chasing them and go back to chasing the race fan.”

That constant quest for higher TV ratings - and more TV dollars - is bringing in greater revenues with the latest rights deal set to deliver $7.7bn for the seven-year term through 2031.

Cut ticket prices, sell more beer and hotdogs

Martin says maybe it’s time to lower one particular dollar number in a bid to make this whole thing bigger - and that would be ticket prices.

“I believe it’s time to start selling tickets to these races - putting people back in the stands. If that means cutting ticket prices - GOOD! Just sell some more hot dogs and beers and drinks.

“Fill these places back up and get this thing back to a family, shared sport where the kids watch the races with their dads, as a family.”

The next few weeks should be very instructive when it comes to NASCAR’s short-term future - we expect an announcement soon about the new playoff format for 2026.

So far the offseason has been filled with mostly acrimony and sadness, with that high-profile court battle down in Charlotte followed by the very recent deaths of Greg Biffle and Dennis Hamlin.

The 2026 schedule is now just a few short weeks away as we head towards Bowman Gray Stadium on February 1 - time is short. If ever a sport needed some good news, it is NASCAR, and it is now.

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