2017 Nascar Thread

Also+ Re sponsorships and images. I'm really not about this squeaky-clean driver thing. Racing doesn't come from a place of smiling golly-gee boys next door. It was toothless hill country folk who, often trying to support their young families, turned to a last resort to do so. A modern version would be meth dealers and their busted up Ford Rangers with a bunch of Wal*Mart plastic bags and duct tape for a rear window. Corporate sponsorships should be all Mtn. Dew, Duracell batteries, nail polish remover, and Pall Mall cigarettes.

 

What per say is your take on Kyle Busch's pass on JR at Richmond in the race on May 3rd of 2008? JK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocDS8zgOrlM

It was a clean pass. Larson didn't spin anyone or put them in the wall. Martin should have not F'ed around in the restart box giving him a chance. Drivers need to lean on each other a little more. I agree the aero could be better but that is how they are addressing safety. Make the cars less comfortable for the drivers and where they have to go slower to get the cars to handle. Also the harder the cars are to drive allows for better drivers to excel. In theory that works until a team figures out an edge. I.E. the 78. You used to have more passing because in places like Michigan there were more wrecks because tires would blow and they would eat the wall. Now for safety the tires are better and that is not happening as much. NASCAR has always been much like it is now. The issue is now less sponsors and larger teams mean the money divide and performance is much greater than before. Drivers make more money so they are not as hungry and sponsors and owners want drivers to bring cars home. And this BS of totalling a car in the post race celebration is what needs to end. That's teams trying to destroy a car that won't pass post race. They should have to drive in back the way it crosses the finish line or be disqualified!

Think of how fans felt when the 43 had the Daytona or when Bill Elliot erased a two lap deficit to win the Winston.

 

LOL, my cousin went to L.U. and was doing way more illegal shit than me. I have not spoken to him in 15 years because he is to religious to associate with me and my type. He didn't even get a degree because the school is not recognised for his major. Now he is one of those weird people who blogs about religious shit but won't even answer an email from his cousin. I now make three times the money he does and help more people in a week than he will in his lifetime. Fuck em!

 

Another thing to consider at a track like Michigan: It is YUGE compared to the cookie cutters, but it's still not a plate track. They need tall gears because they're running over 200mph but they're not running all tall gears from 1st-4th. They run taller gears in 3rd & 4th, but 1st & 2nd are still short like they are at smaller tracks and there's no plate to bog the engine down. With short gears it's REALLY easy to spin tires on a restart here and, where they would normally checkup and all wreck on the restart at a normal, smaller track, here they can just fan out 5-6-7 wide and go around the guys who spin tires or miss shifts. Michigan has always been about engineer setups and mileage and never about driver maneuvers. People have complained for decades. Now we get a race where a driver (who wasn't the leader and hadn't led a lap all day) had to get a good restart, pulled off an incredible on-track pass at the most difficult moment to do so, and won the race. it was an anti-Michigan finish and STILL, people gonna find something to complain about ('cause Toyota lost).

 

I figured JR not missing a shift and going all Days of Thunder was a win!

 

I don't watch many races, so when I get home and pull up results, I start with last place and scroll up looking for Jr. in the finishing order :/

 

I do want to be clear that I am not trying to just beat on you man. The sport is what it is. All I am saying is like anything much can be improved but be careful not to become one of the guys that thinks NASCAR at it's highest level should look anything like a local short track. NASCAR goes through these periods, at least the cars don't have a wing as a spoiler right now or that BS they had in 2008. Overall the racing is a lot like it has always been. What is hurting the sport is the constant rule changes paired with pussy drivers and sponsors drying up because if you are not in one of the major teams you don't have shot in hell. Also look at how social media now allows potential sponsors to reach more people much cheaper. NASCAR was never about appealing to everyone and being PC. It was a grass roots deal, NASCAR needs to remember who made them and why.

 

LOL, yeah it is sad but that's what it has become. Oh well, I enjoyed following him for many years so I don't care anymore. At the end of the day he is a good dude and right now his equipment is not where it needs to be. Plus his heart is no longer in it. He only climbs into that car for his fans right now. His heart is in getting good driver in good cars and the history of the sport. And maybe sending Harvick snap chats of his bank account.

 

2016 had good action and even 2015. Must have set the bar too high (I started watching in 2013, but not every single race until 2015). Hell even F1 has had passing this year, which is the opposite of what I expected

 

2013?! My you ARE a newb! I remember standing in the playpen at my great-grandma's house watching Bill win the '85 Daytona 500! My first race was the '91 Pepsi 400 (Bill won again). If you dislike today's racing product you REALLY would've hated the '90s. I remember watching Geoff Bodine win a race by an entire lap in '94. Jeff Gordon's era of dominance turned me off so badly I stopped going to races from '97-2005. Sometimes I pine for that honeymoon phase from '91-'93. THings changed in '94 and more so in '95, but they were still death traps. Now, not so much. I remember climbing in Richard Petty's car in '92 and Bill's car in '93 thinking "they really trust these things? to go 200mph and hold up in a crash? Even in the late '90s race car safety tech was primitive. Prior to the Gen6 car or whatever, these things were just giant soda cans with a seat, a steering wheel, and a foam cooler inside.

 

Lotsa rumors swirling that Monster is not happy with its return on investment so far. They signed on for two years (at a MASSIVE discount) with an option for '19 and further. If things don't step up (ratings, attendance, and shitty drink sales) in the playoff, they won't pick up the option for '19, making '18 a lame duck season as far as entitlement sponsorship goes. I'm fine with this. Let NASCAR spend their own money for a few year putting up purses and fees. That should really pop the bubble and reset the sport.

 

Monster could market better, no offense but they have shitty at the track events...

 

Perhaps had NASCAR not dumped Winston because it was not popular this would not be an issue. Serves Brian France right.

 

I thought Winston had to bail due to new federal tobacco advertising laws?

 

I agree. Winston had great fan interaction and tons of giveaways. Even into the '90s it wasn't that hard for a kid to go to the track and get some freebie chaw and a Joe Camel t-shirt. Big Bill might've created NASCAR, but Winston MADE /////NASCAR.

 

Yeah. It's all show for Monster. They seem to be using the opportunity to cross-promote their other sponsor efforts onto NASCAR fans.

 

I remember being at a race in Rockingham in the early 90's and I was given a can of Skoal and applied for a MBNA credit card before practice even started. I think I was 12.

 

I am sure you are correct but it still went down hill from there.

 

'85? Remember it's all relative, and compared to me, youre a newbie...lol. I started watching races On ABC's Wide World of Sports (in 1962) when they would replay a drastically edited race a couple of weeks after it had occurred. I think I heard the name Fireball Roberts and I was hooked. I really started following the races in 1964 when I would buy a Motor Trend magazines for race coverage.

Personally, I miss the true stock car. If you ever get a chance, go to the Talladega Museum. Don't know if it's still there, but the did have a 1962 Pontiac that Smokey Yunick built and that Fireball Roberts drove. That thing still had the stock tail light lens! The racing seat, which was handbuilt, was covered in vinyl that was taken from a factory bench seat.

And like you, my interest kind of ebbs and flows. I used to watch every race, but now I may watch 3 or 4 a year, and none of them in their entirety. I just can't get excited about any of these drivers.

 

Ya' mean this beauty?



Touched it.



I haven't been to the HoF in Charlotte (yet), but the 'Dega Museum, followed by the Darlington museum are my favorites thus far.

I saw this one in Dawsonville two weeks ago. It was a repro, but not overly so: