There is a difference between cultures. The U.S. once may have been a reflection of its European roots, but, in many ways, no longer. One of the more obvious differences ... our taste in sports compared to that of those folks across the pond.

Soccer is a good example. For European fans, Asian too, for that matter, the sport generates fanaticism we simply don't understand. Here, we paint our bodies, (well, some of you do) and sit in the cold for hours in the colors of our favorite football team.

We love baseball, basketball and NASCAR. Europeans love Formula 1.

The difference confounds Ron Dennis, who heads the McLaren F1 team. In a recent story from Reuters, Dennis complains that NASCAR is boring. He probably was talking about the generalization that a stockcar race is a bunch of old fashioned cars driving round and round an oval for several hours. I get that same reaction about racing in general from non-fans in this country.

Maybe it is a question of including Right turns as well as Left, going up and down hill, negotiating curves of different sizes at different speeds.

Overseas, it's F1 that brings out fans by the thousands to root for their favorite team or driver. Some are motivated by the nationality of the carbuilder, British, German, French, Italian. For others it is the nationality of the driver, British, German, French, Italian, Colombian, Argentine, Brazilian, etc.

Here in the U.S., at least as far as NASCAR is concerned, it's usually driver identification that motivates fans. They get adamant about buying the product of the company that sponsors their favorite.

In earlier days of F1, 40 or so years ago, sponsor names were not allowed on F1 cars, even though sponsorship existed. It finally came to pass though that, as the cost of racing grew, sponsors were expected to contribute larger and larger amounts of money, they simply could not do it without some more concrete evidence of their participation. Enter signage.

Still, while fans were fanatic about their favorite and the advertising was effective, they are not as fanatic about brands.

Ron Dennis is not just whining, however, he's studying. He has announced plans to attend a few NASCAR events to try to learn the magic.

Basically, what confounds him and other F1 bigwigs, is why their sport cannot draw U.S. fans like NASCAR does.

Four years ago, the return of F1 to the U.S., held at a modified road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, drew about 200,000 fans, roughly the same size crowd as the Daytona 500. But the fan base has not been as reliable year after year.

Dennis seems to think that the light years ahead technology of F1 should attract fans. It doesn't here. NASCAR fans don't care that the cars all look the same under the paint and use carburetors instead of fuel injection like their family car.

He admitted in the Reuters story, however, that there are things NASCAR does that F1 would like to do to make the experience more entertaining for fans and their families.

He said that increased commercialization, a more "circus" atmosphere, is something F1 teams would like to see and believe would add interest. However, Dennis said, the problem is that the commercial aspects of their sport are controlled by banking firms who are interested only in getting money out, not putting more money in.

I hope they figure it out.