NASCRAP...what a joke.

I don't know why. I get sucked in every year. I had the TV on during the Daytona Shootout. What a pitiful excuse for motorsports. I used to think NASCAR was good because it popularized what was once a "fringe" sport and brought a lot of sponsors into motorsports. Now it just makes a joke out of it and sucks sponsors away from legitimate racing series. NASCAR is the WWF of motorsports. Good guys. Bad guys. All fake. There is no skill there. There is no racing technology there. There isn't anything on those tanks that wasn't on a production car in 1957. The latest "breakthrough" is throttle body fuel injection. Woohoo. The drivers just ride around waiting for somebody to get bored and stupid and wreck everybody. Then they clean up the track, rack'em up again and repeat. There is no racing line - they can go high, low, anywhere. Just driving down the freeway. No fast cars or slow cars. Doesn't matter. They are all in a clump. A guy in last may be first in three laps...and then back. Not based on skill or car. I'm done with my rant.. Won't make the mistake of watching the 500. I've got more important things to do like sort my sock drawer. Hurry up and bring on Sebring!

I'm using the 500 as a drinking game. If the commentators want to stroke some KyBusch rod, I'm drinking. I should be good and passed out in 50 laps.

I greatly dislike NASCAR, but a lot of what you just wrote is completely wrong.

Argo1 wrote: There is no skill there.

Well, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure about this bit.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

Argo1 wrote: There is no skill there.

Well, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure about this bit.

I am sure he's wrong. Maybe it's not what you like, but there is very definitely skill involved in driving those cars.

Perhaps I should clarify that there are a lot of skilled drivers in NASCAR but at Daytona luck far overshadows any driver skill. Let's face it, they race there for the money.

Unfortunately, NASCAR's biggest race features it's worst racing.

200 MPH Bumper Cars!!!!!

Argo1 wrote: Perhaps I should clarify that there are a lot of skilled drivers in NASCAR but at Daytona luck far overshadows any driver skill. Let's face it, they race there for the money.

I struggle to believe that anyone here would turn down a seat in NASCAR. Yes, they race there for the money; I have no problem with that.

I don't like the series at all. I don't like oval racing in the first place. It's no skin off my back though; I just don't watch it.

Yea they all suck even the ex F1 drivers!!! And all of the teams are just backyard operations with stills cookin' up moonshine!!! Yea I totally agree with you.......

Nascar became crap when the fan base switched from car enthusiasts to "sports fans". I've had many football fans (and I loathe football and it's fans) tell me that they now use nascar to fill in until football season starts. I guess the sports fan base make the France family plenty of money, but it such is a bucket of crap for us hardcore car/racing enthusiasts. I'd rather watch old worn out reruns of British Touring or Australian Supercars over a live Nascrap race, any day.

I had an aunt and uncle that loved dirt track racing and really loved NASCAR racing, making it to as many races during any given year that they could get to. They died in the mid '70s and I think they are up in heaven and cringing at what has happened to NASCAR.

ALL the cars have an aero "template" they must fit into. Doesn't much matter what the brand of car is...it must fit the same template that a Chevy AND Ford fit. What "comes out" is a body that ALL the cars use, that has SLIGHTLY different headlights and taillights.

ALL the cars are based on models that in the showroom as sold with FWD, tho none of the racers are FWD.

Considering how many drivers have died over the years, they get paid decent amounts of money to drive...I couldn't do it if there were more than 5 or 6 cars on the track with me at the same time. And I really wouldn't want to do it considering how they are all pretty much forced to run at the same speeds for hours so that it has become pretty much a high speed bumper car ride.

I agree that there was a period where NASCAR grew up from the good 'ol boys moonshiners and became a respectable series with manufacturers actually racing what they sold. I attended Bristol back in the 80's and it still ranks as one of my favorite races. I've been to Daytona, Sears Point, etc. but not since it became the "spec" series of completely irrelevant cars. Ovals have their place and racing doesn't have to suck just because it's on an oval. It's unfortunate that NASCAR has come to represent American racing throughout the world.

I've never raced on an oval or in a tight pack like that, but I think there's a whole lot more going on that you think. There's a lot of strategy involved and these guys use aero much differently than most road racers. The engines might be big ol' V8s, but they're insanely well developed with attention to detail that boggles the mind. They chase horsepower one at a time.

I want to go to a Nascar race in person sometime. It must be a hell of a show.

The restrictor plate races are total crap. Using "debris" cautions to bunch up the field is bogus. And "the lucky dog" thing is double bogus. Before the plate races were pack races and there was always "the big one". Then they started this tandem 2 car pack, no "big ones", so what do the NASCAR crackers do? Go back to pack racing, and "the big one". They are going to end up killing a driver (again) with this style of racing. It's like playing Russian Roulette, one day the loaded chamber will come up.

Keith wrote: I want to go to a Nascar race in person sometime. It must be a hell of a show.

Yes it's a hell of a show. It just isn't a hell of a race. Strategy. Yes. But they have that in real races too. I'm sure running that fast in that tight of a pack is hair raising for the drivers since they have no control over when the big crash happens. I experienced tight quarter racing in the rolling starts in Formula Ford. I wouldn't want their driving job.

two weeks ago the Hamster did NASCAR.. it gave me a better idea of what the series awas about. I still do not care for it, but I have a bigger respect for the drivers. Who wants to do 200+ MPH in a car that is never settled?

For a group proudly using motorsports in their site name, the amount of ignorance posted in this thread so far is staggering. and to the clown using the word "crackers", really?

Argo1 wrote: I'm sure running that fast in that tight of a pack is hair raising for the drivers since they have no control over when the big crash happens.

So now we have removed driver skill too? What you're saying is that if somebody crashes in-front of you it doesn't matter how good you are, you crash too. In rally if you crash it is generally your fault.

Ovals don't need to be boring, NASCAR makes them so.

I have my own reason for for disliking NASCAR. I used to watch it through the 90's and liked it. This is going to sound lame, but when Dale Sr. died in 2001, that's when I feel it was the final straw. It had gotten ridiculous up to that point, but once he died, it was rule after rule after rule after rule. Then it just got boring.

At that point in my life I was also introduced to road racing and my view of racing changed all together.

My best friend is a die hard NASCAR/Dirt Track racing fan. I have had arguements with him and we still agree to disagree.

This: was racing.

This: is just silly marketing.

I think this says it all about NASCAR drivers.Its the Hypertrophy jaw muscles and not accual knowledge of the sport thats the problem.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona is a 24 hour endurance race for the Grand-Am series and one of the biggest sports car races in America. This race brings out all of the biggest names in American motorsports to mingle with the road racing elite. This year, like most years, the 50th anniversary field is peppered with NASCAR drivers.

The overall winner of the race driving a Ford in the Daytona Prototype class was NASCAR's own A.J. Allmendinger. Allmendinger teamed with Ozz Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson to bring home the win. Allmendinger himself drove the final leg to take the checkered flag.

In the GT class 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year Andy Lally teamed with John Potter, Richard Lietz and Rene Rast in a Porsche to beat the rest of GT class to the checkered flag.

Congratulations to A.J. Allmendinger and Andy Lally on some of the biggest victories of their young racing careers. I love to see NASCAR well represented in other forms of motorsports.

.

i am not a nascar fan, but i respect the vehicles.

i'll let you know how hard it is to handle one when i come back from the rusty wallace wheel to wheel racing experience in august.

NASCAR wants close racing to draw audiences. I have no problem like that. But what they have done is push cars to 200 MPH which have no business going 200 MPH. The respons has been all kinds of aero add-ons to make a lump of steel stay on the ground.

Years ago, when cars had to run stock bodies, or bodies which conformed to stock dimensions, auto manufacturers would update of even redesign the bodies of their street cars to make the new, better design eligible for NASCAR. As recently as the 1980s, Cheverolet and Pontiac introduced aero-coupes to compete with Ford's aero dynamic Thunderbird. In the 60s, Ford and Chrysler were one-upping each other with the Torino Talledega, Charger 500 and winged cars. Bring those days back. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Maybe we would get less boring looking cars from the manufacturers.

It is sad that the cars which I think have the best styling are retro looking, either blatantly or subtlely.

I will never make the argument that the drivers are not skilled. I don't watch NASCAR and do not find it interesting at all, and even agree that it is WWE or WWF or whatever fake wrestling is called today of motorsports, but the drivers are certainly skilled. The series pays the best and so it gets the best drivers...at least the best for going around and around in a traffic jam.