There was a time when I would count down the days until the start of the NASCAR season.

Those days are long gone.

I did not even realize until some email about the Daytona 500 popped up on my computer Sunday afternoon that racing had even started.

With football over, NASCAR was next up to fill my Sunday afternoons and a few Saturday nights.

But the sport has become so diluted that I really do not even care if I watch a single race this season.

Most of the drives I grew up watching are long gone. They have been replaced by a bunch of bland drivers who are more worried about how they look on TV than doing any real racing on the track.

And even if they were more concerned about the driving part of the sport, its governing body, NASCAR, would change the rules to make sure everyone has an equal chance to win a race.

You know, like participation trophies in youth sports.

I have watched in amazement the drop in popularity over the past couple of seasons. Last year, I checked in on a couple of races to see who was winning and was shocked at how empty the stands were.

I am not talking about a few seats in a bad section of the track, but in the turns and along the front straightaway.

NASCAR is in real trouble. There are only a handful of quality teams, and they pretty much dominate the sport, while a few wannabe teams try to compete with little to no success.

The ever-changing rule book is one of the biggest problems.

While I am for fair competition, you cannot take away a competitive edge every time someone finds one. It would be like saying every team had to have Tom Brady as quarterback. If a team developed a better player, he would have to be handicapped somehow so that he was the same as Tom Brady when it came to skill set.

Engineers, motor builders and drivers work countless hours to figure out how to be just a little bit better than the other guy.

But once NASCAR figures out you have done that, they change the rules or the racing package so no one gets a competitive advantage.

Can you imagine if we ran the world like that?

So, if Apple builds a better computer than anyone else, they would not be allowed to release it until the other computer companies catch up to them. It just does not make sense.

NASCAR also needs to get some “good old boys” back in the sport instead of these lame Hollywood cutouts that are now driving the cars.

There was a reason why Dale Earnhardt Sr. was loved. He was the working man’s driver and regular people could relate to him.

When Jeff Gordon came along, their rivalry worked because it was the “good old boy” against the “pretty boy” from Indiana.

A natural rivalry was born.

If things do not change in the next couple of years, I hate to think where NASCAR night end up.

Heck, 15 years ago, they were threating the “big three” sports (baseball, football and basketball) as America’s favorite.

Now, I even wonder if they can even make a ripple against those sports.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com