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Now is your time, NASCAR Nation. As the recession forces many of you to make tough choices, it also makes your voice louder.

Your actions — from how often you attend races to how much you watch on TV — will make clear what you really think of NASCAR.

And what the sport needs to do to keep you.

Fan interest has slipped since 2001. Attendance at races has declined, too. While NASCAR isn't going away, many people within the sport are mindful of the numbers and are paying closer attention to you than they have in a while.

Consider this your year, "The Year of the Fan.''

Already, you've spoken. Asked to submit ideas for a NASCAR Fan's Bill of Rights, suggestions were plentiful.

Besides better racing, you want tracks to get you out of parking lots more quickly, drivers to show more personality, races to start earlier.

The list goes on. So does your dissatisfaction.

Even as the sport adds new fans, it's not adding enough to replace those who have quit following stock car racing. The ESPN Sports Poll notes that the percentage of fans interested in NASCAR has dropped 3.4 points since 2001. By comparison, the NFL, college football and college basketball all have grown by 3.2 points or more.

NASCAR's avid fan base, its most passionate supporters, is down 1.1 percentage points since 2001, according to the poll. College football, NFL and Major League Baseball each saw its avid fan base grow at least 4.2 percentage points during the same time.

With predictions that the economy might not improve until 2010, Americans will likely face ever more difficult decisions on how to spend their time and money.

How much NASCAR will you include in your 2009 budget? How will NASCAR and others respond to the economic hard times? Will it be enough to keep you coming back?

"You need Joe Fan," says 27-year-old Julia Hurley, a Knoxville, Tenn., resident who has attended Bristol races most of her life.

"When Bristol Motor Speedway, the fall race, was the No. 1 hardest ticket to get and now it's dropped down to (where) you can get a ticket anytime, that should be a sign to NASCAR corporate there's a problem here. Joe Fan no longer wants to buy your stuff, and Joe Fan no longer wants to go to your races because it's not fun anymore.''

AT RACES: Show me the money

Don't just blame the economy for fans staying home and leaving NASCAR behind, says Humpy Wheeler, who was Lowe's Motor Speedway's track president for 33 years before leaving last May. The issues go deeper than that.

"I think we got complacent,'' Wheeler says, "we" referring to track operators. "I think we took a lot of things for granted.

"We're kind of back to where we were &ellipses; when tracks didn't sell out and you had to get out and work like the dickens to get people to come to races.''

These days, tracks are creating a multitude of incentives to bring you back.

International Speedway Corp. reduced prices on about 150,000 tickets across 10 tracks it owns — about 15 percent of all seats. Some Daytona 500 tickets have been reduced to $55, a price not seen for NASCAR's Super Bowl event since 1995. Concession prices also have been lowered. Martinsville Speedway announced this month it was dropping the cost of all remaining backstretch tickets to $25.

Even with the deals, ISC said Jan. 29 that advance ticket sales for its events were still 17 percent behind last year's pace.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., which operates seven tracks that host Cup races — among them Bristol, Atlanta and Lowe's Motor Speedway — also has reduced prices for some events.

Bristol, which has had 53 consecutive sellouts, has what track officials call a "limited number'' of season tickets available for its Cup and Nationwide Series races. Bristol track officials are in the midst of a five-week, 29-stop caravan through Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky to sell tickets and assure their sellout streak continues.

Lower ticket prices help, but hotel rates remain a major issue. Portsmouth resident Mark Penland attends the fall Richmond race because he can return home the same day. Sometimes, he and friends will go to another race, but they look for one within driving distance. Even then, it's easy to spend more than $500 on a trip between tickets, gas, food, drinks and other items.

Add a hotel night's stay or more — some hotels have multiple-night minimums — and costs rocket. That's a key factor for many race fans. More than half the crowd at some Cup races come from 200 or more miles away, says Daryl Wolfe, ISC's chief marketing officer. Hotels raise rates — some more than double them — for the brief flood of visitors.

Example: An Eden Econo Lodge, about 30 minutes from Martinsville Speedway, recently listed room rates of $199.99 per night for the March race weekend. The day after the race, the rate plummets to $58.99 a night.

A Wilmington, Del., Fairfield Inn, about 45 minutes from Dover International Speedway, recently listed its room rate at $259 a night during the May race weekend. Five days after the race, the same room is $129 per night.

Some tracks have begun to work with hotels to get them to reduce or eliminate minimum stays and moderate the rate increase. Sometimes, Wheeler says, track operators just need to be forceful.

"We just told the people that were sticking it to the race fans, that we were not going to send any fans to them,'' he says of when he operated Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"It's just a question of (track operators) having guts enough to get out there and lay it to them.''

DRIVERS: Show me some love

Once fans have paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to get to the track, they want more out of their experience than the loud roar of distant engines. They want to see drivers up close. Some track operators say drivers need to be more accessible in what has been widely regarded as the most fan-friendly sport going.

NASCAR officials, however, liken the concept of allowing credentialed fans in the garage to other sports allowing their fans in the locker room — which, of course, doesn't happen. Even so, it's become more difficult for fans to interact with drivers outside the garage, as well.

One public relations person noted that a former points champion used to sign autographs nearly every race weekend at his merchandise hauler. That ended last year, when commitments from sponsors and others prevented him from going to the souvenir lot many weeks. He'll be back at the trailer this year, but possibly not as often as previous years.

Drivers strike a delicate balance as they try to appease sponsors, who pay the bills, and fans, who buy his products. Driver Jeff Burton suggests that it's time that balance was revisited, time that fans got more from drivers.

"I think that we've been spoiled,'' he says. "I think this is a wake-up call for all of us.

"We've got to go out and &ellipses; prove to the fans that we're willing to do whatever it takes so that they come to the races and have a good time.''

It's a nice thought, but how?

"The hard thing is, you look at the schedules,'' Tony Stewart says. "There's only seven days a week. If they give us 10 days a week and make it 400 days a year and make it 36-hour days, we can get a lot more done. It's not like we've got an overabundance of free time to begin with.''

Virginia driver Denny Hamlin has found a way to reach fans. He's buying four tickets for each Cup race this season and will give them away to fans through his Web site dennyhamlin.com.

"There's a lot of these race fans that would love to come to these races but don't have the means to do it,'' Hamlin says. "We have more means than we know what to do with right now, so we need to give back to them."

ON THE TUBE: Show me cars, not commercials

If you toss out the quality of racing, NASCAR officiating and Kyle Busch, you'll find few subjects that elicit as strong a reaction in people as what they think of the TV coverage.

They can't stand Darrell Waltrip; they love Darrell Waltrip. ESPN is too stiff. Fox is too childish. Show their favorite driver. Quit showing the leaders.

So, how does a fan enact change to TV?

"If people are having a bad entertainment experience watching a NASCAR race and stop watching, that's the best vote they can give,'' says Rich Feinberg, vice president of motorsports for ESPN. "That's going to get our attention.

"Fans have an incredible voice and power.''

ESPN's average rating for Cup races fell from a 4.4 in 2007 to a 4.0 last season, though it's important to note that three races in 2008 competed against the Olympics and a rain-delayed race was moved to the network on late notice. Even with the drop, the Cup races ranked second to "Monday Night Football'' at ESPN.

Ratings for ABC's broadcast of the 10 Chase races were even with 2007. ESPN/ABC will broadcast the final 17 Cup races this season.

So, what will change with the ESPN/ABC broadcast? Feinberg admits the economy impacts the network motorsports budget, so there will be fewer new items.

"I think our goal is to use the tools that we have even better this year,'' he says.

The goal is similar at Fox, which again broadcasts the first 13 Cup races, including the Daytona 500. Fox's ratings increased 2 percent last year, snapping a two-year streak of flat ratings.

Fox Sports Chairman David Hill is well aware of fan criticism. He says the biggest complaint the network gets is that the camera is on the lead cars too long.

"NASCAR fans are very, very fair,'' Hill says of the criticism. "They're not snarky, which fans of other sports can be. It's because I think of the level of knowledge. They appreciate it when we get it right.''

Fans also can be relentless, but it will take a unanimous and loud fan voice for some changes to take place. While fans would like commercials and the race broadcast to appear side-by-side during breaks, as ESPN has done with its Indy car coverage, it won't happen until the sponsors, NASCAR and the networks can agree to it.

Many East Coast fans grumble about the late starting times, but it will take more detractors to change that. Hill likes the late starts.

This year's Daytona 500 starts at 3:40 p.m., about the same time as last year. The following week's race at California has a 6:16 p.m. EST start — two hours later than 2008.

Hill would like Fox's races to end shortly before primetime shows begin, providing a lead-in audience for prime-time programs that could raise ratings. For fans who say that leaves little time for a post-race show, the argument is that there's always Speed Channel. Provided you get it.

ON THE TRACK: Show me some racing excitement

Jeff Eisenhauer doesn't plan to attend any Cup races this year. Two years ago, he went to three. Last year, one.

A variety of factors — from facilities to parking lots — have ruined the experience for him. And there's also the racing.

"They race in the last 10 laps,'' says the Chesapeake resident. "You're sitting there for four hours, and they're going to race in the last 10 laps. They're parading around the track.''

Fans often criticize the racing and blame the new car, introduced full time last year. They're not alone. Many drivers complained about the car until a closed-door meeting in June during which NASCAR officials essentially told them to quit griping in public.

Complaints subsided but not the frustration. Several teams struggled with the new car in its first full year. The result was that the series had only 12 different winners — the fewest since 1999.

NASCAR President Mike Helton defends the racing fans saw last year.

"I think the competition is pretty dang-gone good right now,'' he says. "We run a 36-race schedule. We run it at a variety of playing fields. Circumstances like weather (and) whether 15 drivers are on their game or only four of them are on their game, all of that plays a role in how good that one particular race would be.''

The average number of lead changes (20.89 per race) last year was the second-highest in the last decade, but the average number of leaders per race (10.50) a year ago was the lowest since 2004.

Helton says the racing will improve the more NASCAR allows teams to work with the new car and not change the rules.

Until then, Eisenhauer says he'll watch races elsewhere.

"I'd rather go up here to Langley (Speedway)," he says, "and watch these guys that have a little bit of money in their pocket and are trying to do something than to watch the big show where it's fancy colors just driving around in circles."

NOW WHAT?

So, what about you? Are you going away? Or are you going to stay?

"The fans aren't asking for much, in the grand scheme of things,'' says Hurley, the Bristol fan. "I think the bottom line needs to be a little more fan focused. You've got an opportunity here.''

So, speak up, speak often and speak loud, NASCAR Nation. There's no guarantee you can change everything, but if you don't try, how will you know?

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com