A car that looks like a lot more like something out of a European rally race than anything Detroit ever made; a point’s leader that is arguably one of the most arrogant asses in sports driving a Japanese car; and races that rank a half-step above curling on the boredom meter: what else could go wrong with NASCAR this year?

Try gas prices. So far, attendance at NASCAR races is down close to 10 percent from last year, and campers – those big-ticket faithful who show up week after week in their custom RVs and tricked-out school buses – are declining at an even faster rate.

“Higher fuel prices have hit (the fans) hard,” said Roger Van der Snick, a spokesman for International Speedway Corporation, owner of the Daytona and Talladega speedways, among others. “We pull from such huge geographic areas.”

When it comes to cutting the family budget, it looks like the $400 it takes to get the Winnebago back and forth to a race is one of the first items to go. This has become especially true since NASCAR expanded beyond its traditional Southeastern base. During the Jimmy Carter gas crunch of the 1970s, die-hards didn’t think twice about commuting between Rockingham, Charlotte, Martinsville and Bristol, because none of those tracks was more than a two- or three-hour drive. Now, the summer schedule moves from California to New Hampshire to Daytona to Chicago to Indianapolis in five weeks. Not even the most ardent fans are making those trips.

Track operators are trying to put a smiley face on it. “If you’re a fan and made the decision to go to Talladega or Michigan or Richmond, you definitely make those plans like other families would go to Disneyland,” said Michigan International Speedway president Roger Curtis. “It sort of insulates us.”

At $4 a gallon, even Disneyland might beg to differ.

Throw in the fact that the point’s leader is Kyle Busch, one of the least liked drivers in the garage, a guy even Rick Hendrick, who has the patience of Job, threw overboard last year, and that Toyota has jumped to the top of the manufacturer's chart, and that the Car of Tomorrow has dulled even the most exciting races, and it’s easy to see why NASCAR is in a bit of a slump.

The sport still makes money – gobs of it if the suits at NASCAR’s Daytona offices are to be believed – but they are far from on a roll. Let’s just hope The Chase gives fans something to get revved up about.