Dear NASCAR: you are not Formula 1

Appleseed wrote: If they did a full cup car dirt race at Eldora, I'd never miss it.

They do a truck race there now.

gonna watch the Darlington race tonite.

Used to be known as the Southern 500.

Darlington is pretty much the only oval race I watch (on purpose) other than the 2 at Martinsville

In reply to wbjones:

No bristol? I'll watch Texas and richmond as well.

wvumtnbkr wrote: Nascars only reason for being is entertainment. I like my racing to have more meaning. All the above is, obviously, my opinion.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is an entertainment aspect to most pro sports.

Unless the event has no sponsorship decals, no commercials, and no advertising at the track, they are providing entertainment. This sponsors are counting on revenue from fans that watch the event because it's entertaining enough for them to go to the event, or watch it on tv. Unless the event is entertaining enough to have a large enough fan base, the sponsors will spend dollars elsewhere and the events fade away as the dollars vanish.

Disclaimer: I'm not a NASCAR fan, and haven't watched more than a few laps of a few races.

I think a lot of the NASCAR hate is because they are more successful than many of the other racing series.

They have figured out how to excel at providing a motorsport that draws a large enough audience to get the national coverage, sell out races, and market all sorts of swag.

No other Motorsport series has that success, and fans of other series hate NASCAR because it gets the major networks, but their series end up on second tier channels.

Now the trolling: I equate it to people hating the NE Patriots, it's not because the Patriots are bad guys (they aren't beating their wives or children), but because they are better than their favorite team. People will celebrate the efforts Smokey Yunick made to push the boundaries of the rule book, but vilify Brady and Belichick whenever possible.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to wbjones: No bristol? I'll watch Texas and richmond as well.

no to Bristol .. I loved it when it was a normal short track … the high banks don't do anything for me … at one time I enjoyed the mile and a half tracks, until everyone and their brother started building the exact same track everywhere in the country

then they even re-made Atlanta … at one time it was a very unique mile and a half … more circle track than oval … now ? it's not any different from all the rest

Texas, Kentucky, Chicago … etc… etc … they're all the same

perfect for TV and folk in the stands … dangit I miss North Wilkesboro and Asheville-Weaverville

now you kids get off my lawn

jstand wrote:

wvumtnbkr wrote: Nascars only reason for being is entertainment. I like my racing to have more meaning. All the above is, obviously, my opinion.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is an entertainment aspect to most pro sports. Unless the event has no sponsorship decals, no commercials, and no advertising at the track, they are providing entertainment. This sponsors are counting on revenue from fans that watch the event because it's entertaining enough for them to go to the event, or watch it on tv. Unless the event is entertaining enough to have a large enough fan base, the sponsors will spend dollars elsewhere and the events fade away as the dollars vanish. Disclaimer: I'm not a NASCAR fan, and haven't watched more than a few laps of a few races. I think a lot of the NASCAR hate is because they are more successful than many of the other racing series. They have figured out how to excel at providing a motorsport that draws a large enough audience to get the national coverage, sell out races, and market all sorts of swag. No other Motorsport series has that success, and fans of other series hate NASCAR because it gets the major networks, but their series end up on second tier channels. Now the trolling: I equate it to people hating the NE Patriots, it's not because the Patriots are bad guys (they aren't beating their wives or children), but because they are better than their favorite team. People will celebrate the efforts Smokey Yunick made to push the boundaries of the rule book, but vilify Brady and Belichick whenever possible.

to a great extent I agree with you … but to "us true racers" I really think a lot of the "hate" comes from the WWE aspect, and as much as anything, the silly use of FCY's when there isn't any reason (other than to regroup the cars and create more FCY's)

I'll tune in through out the summer, and usually someone will get sideways, slide for a while, fishtail back and forth, and then continue down the track … but the yellow is already out … WHY ?

and now the same attitude is taking over Tudor and IMSA … at the Rolex the FCY's will last as much as 20 - 30 min … all for a car that slide off track and then came back …

when allowed to, the NASCAR racing is fun and entertaining … too bad it doesn't happen all that often

With technology the future is limitless...how about drone cars that pose no risk to the driver...add more speed...how about autonomous race cars where the programmers replace the drivers altogether and are considered rockstars?

Just sayin...

KyAllroad wrote:

Knurled wrote: Something something NASCAR was cool back when you could still buy body on frame stick axle carbureted V8 cars. The genie's not out of the bottle. The bottle is gone and has been gone since the 80s.

Exactly. I'm bothered by the intentional dumbing down of NASCAR racing while still calling the cars whatever is selling in the dealerships. I think it'd be cool if they raced whatever was being sold but without the artificial limitations. I.E. Race a Taurus but it has to use the actual body stamping and drive layout that is sold at the dealership. But allow virtually unlimited mods to make it fast. Then we'd see the 3.5 ecoboost dialed up to 11 and chassis development to match.

Sounds a lot like Super GT's GT300 class.

stafford1500 wrote: The primary reason NASCAR is allowing it is the teams (at least the ones with deep pockets) are already doing it via the publicly available fan view software. At least on the receiving side of the telemetry.

It doesn't take deep pockets to do that, it takes a couple hours of coding at most.

I'm not a nascar fan, but I say let them run whatever. Give rules for body shape and let them fill it with whatever suspension and driveline their heart desires. It already takes megabucks to be competitive so I say go nuts. Twin turbo V12? Go for it. Blown Hemi with nitrous for passing? Rock that E36 M3. That probably sounds stupid to most people, but in my mind that would be fantastic

Yeah, but remember what happened with Group B? Crazy do whatever,and people died.

On the other hand, look at how nuts Can-Am got, and that series wasn't Known for killing people.

The NASCAR cars are basically the ultimate development of stockcars running all over the country almost every night of the week. They also share pretty much nothing with a production car.

I really don't understand why so many people feel that they are superior to circle track racers, many of them also convinced that somehow driving a stock economy car around a parking lot full of cones is a more legitimate form of racing. The first time I went to Watkins Glen with the Busch North car I was talking with a guy who raced an MG. I was very unhappy that these Neanderthals in taxi cabs were taking valuable track time that could be devoted to real racing cars like his. Cars with 11hp and drum brakes and bits of leather holding the body work on. This man was also oblivious to the fact that without the track being taken over by NASCAR it would most likely just be another abandoned crumbling facility in the vacant space in the middle of nowhere.

There was some really good racing last night.

the top drivers showed their skills with the cars on the very edge.