Some of the places that they left were small stadiums that didn't sell out but had good racing. N. Wilkesboro and Rockingham were both under 40K seating and had stopped selling out for years. Moving those races to other tracks that seat 90-100K made sense even if they only sold 60-75K tickets.

My feeling on NASCAR losing fans is more along what and who have left NASCAR. Since 2002, the Cup series has lost the following drivers, all very popular drivers:

Jimmy Spencer
Kyle Petty
Ricky Rudd
Bobby Labonte
Ken Schrader
Terry Labonte
Dale Jarrett
Robby Gordon
Bill Elliot
Jeff Burton
Sterling Marlin
Mark Martin
Michael Waltrip
Steve Park
Rusty Wallace
Ward Burton

Plus the #3 car disappeared, #4 Morgan-McClure, along with the #28 Havoline, the Tide car, and the 3 beer cars. Couple that with the loss of Robert Yates, DEI, Morgan-McClure, Evernham, and Bill Davis, I think a lot of older fans kind of gotten a "meh" attitude.

The coverage also changed. When the ratings were great, the networks would interview almost every driver at some time during qualifying or the race if they were knocked out of the race. Interviewing Kasey Kahne is no where near being the same as interviewing Sterling Marlin. To me, NASCAR lost its drivers that the average person could relate to.