So NASCAR is making some changes, good? bad?
Personally I can't wait to see if the excitment comes back and we get them boys mixin it up a little more...

NASCAR: "Back to Basics Racing."



waiting for Sean's response...

Harry Hogge: Cole, you're wandering all over the track!

Cole Trickle: Yeah, well this son of a bitch just slammed into me.

Harry Hogge: No, no, he didn't slam you, he didn't bump you, he didn't nudge you... he *rubbed* you. And rubbin, son, is racin'

for Dean/MOTOV8

I still think Dale Sr said it best about the new generation of drivers.

" They better tie Kerosene soaked rags around their ankles to keep the ants from crawling up their legs and eating their Candy Azzes"

Get it straight....

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Sooo....more crashes and "emotion" from the Neckcar drivers is now encouraged, does that mean Smoke and the Busch brothers, etc... will get their fines refunded from previous "incidents?"

I mean seriously, does anyone care about NASCAR anymore?

"Let the boys be boys, or girls go wild (racing-style) in Danica Patrick's case."

I wouldn't mind seeing that.

As a note, I've sort of lost interest in NASCAR. We'll see what the season holds. The rule changes may bring back that spark.

Bring back the King and his ole' school buddy drivers... add REAL stock bodied, non-restrictor plated, STP livery painted, 220+ mph Daytona's and Superbirds at the super speedways...and THEN I'll be interested in watch STOCK CAR racing again.

Have to admit, NASCAR really has gone "ho-hum" when it comes to any excitement.

Biggest disapointment was last year at PIR...we got up and left before the "race" was half over.

I'll give it 2 or 3 "races" to see what if anything happens.

After that....fuhgetaboudit.

Let HP rule ???? damn straight .... its about time ..... we should see 200 plus at the big tracks ... the plates rule is a joke anyways ..... let em race .......

Well Danica was pretty impressive in the ARCA race, sliding through the grass and drove away without hitting anything.

Some bumping and grinding, so we'll see!

I agree she handled the car well in a race that seemed more like a demolitian derby than a race.

The Budweiser Shootout last night was pretty cool to watch there was a little bumping going on (cars).

If they unrestriced these cars on those 2 tracks they might very well be going 230 or even 240. They restrict them in the name of safety. Those cars are too big, too heavy with too narrow of a tire to let go around the track that fast. A driver getting killed at the track would become the norm, not an oddity.

I think what they did this year, increasing the diameter of the restrictor plate, worked well. They still had throttle response and you had to have a good car to get to the front.



Oh, and Danica did ok. Like Spencer said pre-race, the ARCA series is full of whackos who are going to wreck it up.

Richard Petty is still alive.....so are the Allison brother's, Rutherford, Unser, Yarborough, Baker and so on. And if I remember correctly, they were driving heavy, metal bodied, narrow tired, non-restrictor plated monster hemi's , bb Ford's and Chevy's...averaging well over 160 MPH over the course of the race..Baker AVERAGED 177 in 1980. I remember some pretty horrific crashes too.They had fewer driver safety features and less technology in crash survival.
In my memory, while they were racing they were looking out after each other. They didn't drive as "reckless" as they seem to drive knowadays....bumpin' is racin' has taken on a whole different meaning today.
I don't wish to see crashes and fatality's, but I don't neccasarily subscribe to the "speed kills" mentality.

Super Speedways are all about the speed of the cars. Remove the big ovals out of the equation and slow them down..it ain't stock car racing anymore IMHO.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I DO look forward to watching the Daytona and Talledaga races....and it's the speed they race at that's the draw for me.

Bring back old school STOCK CAR racing.

While I understand your point, when Bill Elliot set a pole record of 210 mph, NASCAR said WHOA, way too fast. When Buddy Baker did his 177 mph average, I'm sure is was almost caution free and were not running into the corners over 200. If they were able to go caution free now, they'd probably average nearly 190.

These cars going 230 to 240 is just not safe. There are tracks where the pole speeds are higher than the 191 that Mark Martin put up this year, but they are flatter and require more braking and cannot carry as much speed in the corner. With the high banks of Daytona and Talledega you are able to carry that speed into and through the corner...but if you lose it or get bumped you are toast.

I still says it's in the drivers best interest...and makes for more exciting racing.

I hear you Sean, on the safety factor...I wonder how the drivers feel about it ?!
Then, lets put them in Chevy Aveos, Dodge Neon's, and Toyota Corollas, with 4 cyclinder 200HP motors and 12 airbags on 1/2 mile circle track.
THe racing should be close with those as well, which would make it exciting, right ?

The biggest fear of NASCAR is a car flying into the stands.
The resulting lawsuits could shut them down.

They seem to feel that 200mph is the 'barrier' that will prevent that.

NASCAR has come a long way ..the horrific crashes today that the drivers walk away from are proof.

Personally .. I would rather see them take a car off the showroom floor, cage it, and race it.
If you and I can't buy it off the showroom floor, it aint legal for NASCAR. period
Let the races begin

Don't you know the factories would be offerin some real road burners

-Frank

I'd watch NASCAR all the time if they'd race these on the big super speedways at 225+ MPH



Add some Vipers, bring back the Ford GT (40)....hell, let Toyota enter their old school Supra (or the new Lexus LFA Super car).

Can't help ya with the big neckcar super speedways (although the C5.R did win outright the '01 Daytona 24 hour, before the IMSA split), but how about dicing with an Aston/Ford or Ferrari down a public road in France at about 194 mph? Thats what the GT1 C6.Rs would hit down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. Don't know what the GT2 vettes will pull, but I'm looking forward to finding out this year!

Now THAT'S RACIN'
I would even prefer seeing the ALMS Corvettes racing the big ovals over open wheel cars.

YEAH !!! lets get that bump draft workin ............

GT2 ..yassir .. lookin forward to Ferrari whinin about those mean, nasty corvettes peein in their pool

-Frank

IMHO...

NASCAR of late has relegated itself to nothing more than a high speed version of the old Roller Derby ie. some are blockers and some are jammers but only the headliner is to take the lead. Oh sure, call me a skeptic, but realistically do you really think that for one minute that the Roushe's, the Hendricks, the Ganassi's et al have never told their teams who is to block and who is to be the front runner for the "cartel"? Remember, the team owners not doing this for a hobby.

If you look beyond the "team" names on the link below ,you can see who is the "listed owner" and there are several two (2) car owners (Penske, Yates, Roush, etc) and Childress is the "listed owner"of three (3) cars. What might be the most interesting factoid being that Jeff Gordon is the "listed owner" of Jimmie Johnson's ride. I guess it beats pulling any old name out of the phone book, huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NASCAR_teams

My view of a perfect NASCAR world...I'd like to see NASCAR limit any one organization to no more than two (2) entries per season thereby limiting any one entitiy's ability to try and engineer/choreograph one of their car/driver's apparent performance.

Let the cars race, let the driver's drive and let the spectators see real racing, not some watered down, choreographed, media event of loud cars making left turns for an afternoon.

Yeah, I like to watch it, but only if there's real competition amongst the drivers and not the "cartels".

my 2 cents

Now I'm not saying some of the "team orders" stuff doesn't happen. But do you really think that an organization would "limit" a guy that has been voted the most popular driver in NASCAR since he began driving the series to a 25th position overall during the season (Dale Jr.)? That would hurt his rep and lose fans...I'm one of them that doesn't really care a whole lot right now because he's done so poorly.

If those "orders" were given, why does it seem that Roush boys like to wreck each other every once in a while.


Why has Jimmy been "given" the championship the last four years instead of Gordon so he could surpass Dale E. in total championships?

While I agree that some of that goes on to a VERY mild extent, your argument is too full of holes.

To answer your last questions, I think it's pretty obvious, because it has made good business sense.
1. Clean cut, JJ, plays the patience game very well, and no doubt gets boo-coo bucks from Lowes. So why upset that revenue stream if I were Hendricks?
2. Jr, who doesn't love an underdog? Publicist are paid very well in his case to keep his popularity up, in spite of only making an "appearance" on the track.
3. Jeff G? Let us not forget the suspect controversy not that long ago about his lifestyle orientations that made him although perhaps more attractive to a specific market, not one that was particularly mainstream to NASCAR. Can you say "the rainbow warrior"? Still a good sponsorship dollar, but tarnished, rightfully or not, in the eyes of the corporate ad dollar spenders.

It seems to me that from a business model standpoint the watered down, nearly predictable NASCAR product is nothing more than a means to accomplish an end, hanging one's corporate logo in front of million's of people every weekend for hours and in the end pay less than it would cost for an equal amount of time paid to a network for 1 minute ad spots. If I'm getting $20 million in 2002 for making sure that one of my drivers makes a good show, why wouldn't I be trying to choreograph my team to ensure that money still comes in?

Check out the link below and try to honestly tell me this is all about the "sport of racing" or is it the sport of advertising and multi-million dollar sponsorship deals that amount to nothing more than hours of advertising. If anything the business of NASCAR, and that is exactly what it is, a business, has gotten more commercial than when this article came out:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nasca...ov-sponsors.htm

I agree with whomever said let's get back to the real sport of racing with livery markings on the cars vs cereal brands, after shave, hardware stores, delivery companies and male enhancement products on them.

As I see it, IMHO, right now it seems like NASCAR - Roller Derby....there ain't much difference.

To call it NASCAR racing is tantamount to calling the WWF on par with Olympic sport of Greco-Roman wrestling.

Bottom line, it's still just entertainment.

Sorry to have hidden the rose colored glasses on some people here.

Man, do I miss weekends at Limerock....sigh

Pothole