3. The new spoiler needs to work
NASCAR is making a good move switching from the rear wing to a more traditional spoiler on its new car.

The wing, and the splitter, are both strange, making the car look like ... well, not like a race car. It's so different from NASCAR's traditional stock car that fans – and competitors – just haven't accepted it.

Worse yet, the wing and the new car have done very little to improve the competition on the track. Drivers and teams have had a tough time adapting, and it has shown on the race track.

To NASCAR's credit, it realizes that and is making a drastic change.

Now, it needs to work.

The spoiler needs to make the new car look more like a race car, and it needs to produce better racing.

It needs to make the cars easier to drive and easier to adjust, allowing drivers to race closer together and put on a better show. Or, it needs to make them harder to drive, allowing the top drivers to go bumper to bumper and door to door.

Whether the current racing is worse or not, fans believe that it is, and often perception is more important than reality.

The spoiler needs to improve the competition on the track, or at least make fans believe that it does.

4. NASCAR needs a rivalry
NASCAR officials have given drivers free reign to mix things up this year, to bump and bang and run into each other and throw a fit if they want.

Now the drivers must take advantage of it.

Fans may not want a fight each week, but they want to see contact on the track – as Brian France says, this is a contact sport – and drivers show a bit of emotion when they get riled up and things don't go their way.

Rubbin' is racing, and when drivers trade enough paint, it eventually leads to heated moments and a few eruptions.

NASCAR needs that to happen more often. It needs those moments to spark a feud or two, and it needs those feuds to develop into some long-lasting rivalries.

NASCAR burst onto the national scene in the 1970s thanks to rivalries between drivers like Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison. Its popularity exploded in the ‘80s thanks to rivalries between Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, and in the '90s between Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon.

Whether it's Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya or Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, NASCAR needs a new rivalry to stir fans up.

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NASCAR officials have laid the groundwork. Now it's up to the drivers to mix things up.

5. NASCAR needs to keep listening to the fans
After occasional missteps and questionable moves that damaged its credibility over the past 10 years, NASCAR appears to be back on the right path.

It's doing perhaps the best thing that it can do to win fans back – listen.

In the past year, NASCAR has made several positive moves that fans asked for.

It implemented double-file restarts that have made the racing more exciting.

It is switching to earlier start times this season, appeasing fans that complained that the races have been starting too late on Sunday afternoon.

It has listened to complaints about the new car, and is attempting to address them by switching from the wing to the spoiler and pledging to make more changes if necessary.

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And it is encouraging drivers to mix it up more and show more personality and emotion.

France and NASCAR's current leadership acknowledge that the sport is in a bit of a lull. And they appear to understand that the best way to turn things around is by listening to the fans.

The fans are NASCAR's greatest asset. Everyone else – the drivers, teams owners, sponsors and TV networks – don't matter if there aren't any fans to watch them perform or to see their products.

NASCAR needs to keep listening and do everything within reason to keep its fans happy and to protect its greatest asset.

For more racing news, visit SceneDaily.com.

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