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Well, part of the attendance problem is, if not ticket prices, the ramped-up prices at the hotels for race weekends, and that bubble definitely burst with the start of the recession in late 2008.
IndyCar oval races are 250 miles, at the short end, currently. Road courses run 200-225 miles; I wouldn't mind Road America going from 55 to 60 laps even. Their street circuit races, apart from St. Petersburg, run 150-180 miles; I think Toronto should come up to 90 laps, and St. Petersburg down to 100.
I'm not sure how you convince the locals that shortening their race isn't a demotion, and that could definitely be a sticky issue for NASCAR, particularly at those two (really) short tracks.
As for the Chase, I can say that the people around here, even just listening to casual conversation around various places, weren't in favor of it from the time it was announced. It just seemed like a way for them to try and recapture some of that magic from the 1992 season finale. And as the Chase is the root of this stuff, and all those gimmicks subsequently added on to it, well, cut it out and remove the problem.
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