The Winston Cup series is flourishing.

Spectators are packing the stands for the races including 101,000 who converged on the quaint New Hampshire town of Loudon for Sunday’s New England 300.

Not only are all of the races televised on prominent television networks NBC, TNT, Fox and FX, but the pre-race qualifying is also aired. Even happy hour practices get some air time.

Drivers are becoming household names.

So what could be done to improve the series? What would you do if you were NASCAR president Mike Helton?

Five Winston Cup drivers who raced in the New England 300 were posed that question.

“It’s pretty darned good right now,” said Geoffrey Bodine, a veteran of 563 Winston Cup races. “As a driver, I’d race every week if I could.

“But knowing what these crew people and their families go through and how hard it is on them, I would shorten the schedule up. Instead of adding races, I’d get rid of races. We need 28 to 30 races. We don’t need 36,” Bodine added.

Bodine said the current 36-race schedule is “killing them.

“We’re working them to death. We’re breaking their familes up. There are so many divorces going on, it’s terrible,” added Bodine.

Second-year driver Kurt Busch said, “I think things are rolling along pretty smoothly. I’d like to see police escorts for us after races. For 36 weekends out of the year, we’re stuck in traffic.”

Jerry Nadeau, who is in his fifth full season on the Winston Cup circuit, said he would like to see NASCAR seek more feedback from the drivers before implementing changes.

“It would be nice to get more opinions from drivers instead of just doing something without asking anybody,” said Nadeau. “It would have been nice to have four or five drivers here when they actually did the work to the track in order to make it right.”

The Bahre family, owners of the track, widened a couple of turns to try to create another racing groove and also re-paved the track twice, once in April and again in June.

“They really screwed it up,” said Nadeau.

Terry Labonte, the two-time Winston Cup points champion (1984, ’96), said he is “glad” he doesn’t have Helton’s job.

“I don’t know what I would do. I can’t comment on it. I haven’t really thought about it,” said Labonte.

Dave Blaney, in his third year as a Winston Cup regular, also said he hasn’t given it any thought.

“I’ve got enough to do [racing],” said Blaney.

Tires are big NASCAR business

So how many tires does Goodyear provide the Winston Cup teams on a typical racing weekend?

“Around 2,200 to 2,400,” explained Richard W. Dimmig, the general manager of Competition Tire East which subcontracts and provides the tires and puts them on the rims for 11 races in the east and midwest.

“The Busch South teams get 1200, the Craftsman Truck series teams get 600-700 and the Busch North teams get 500,” added Dimmig.

“Each Winston Cup team gets 12 sets. They have three sets for practice and qualifying and nine sets for the race,” explained Dimmig.

He said Goodyear has 15 different racing tires and the engineers at Goodyear decide which tire would be the best suited to a particular track.

The company also subcontracts the Penske racing shocks which are used by 95 percent of the race teams according to Dimmig.

Dimmig has been with the company for over 30 years and has charted the growth of racing.

What has been behind the growth?

“It is family-oriented. It has family values. They keep it simple. They do a good job marketing it,” said Dimmig, who added that the fans can identify with companies who sponsor their teams.