I guess I'm all done with NASCAR

[Zeke]

This year I watched the Daytona 500 and turned off the TV. I haven't seen one other stock car race, although I have followed the points. I realy didn't want to see Kurt Bucsh win the championship, if that's what you want to call it. Busch is a dirty driver, the kind the old school like Terry Labonte hate to see in the sport. Now, Busch is the champion, but not in my book.

Busch got himself in a bit of trouble when Jimmy Spencer was about to kill him half way through the season. Busch represents tha kind of person that will push to the front at any cost. I don't think anyone at the track likes the guy at all. Shame on Jack Rousch for hiring such a lizard.

Mark Martin is also one of the last of the real drivers that won his races by driving a good car smart and not by pushing people into the wall. Mike Helton, NASCAR president, has allowed the sport to become pro wrestling in cars.

I get a kick out of the pomp and circumstance of Daytona and Indy. I don't watch the July Daytona Race, just the season opener. I will probably watch in 2005, too, but I'll once again turn the TV off for the rest of the season.

Next year is the last for Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Martin. Spencer has alredy been fired and probably won't be back. That's it, the last of the guys that ran alongside of Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough, etc. are now gone too.

Dale Earnhardt and Darryl Waltrip were part of that graduating class as well. Yeah, they were contentious when they were young, but either the older guys handled it better or the newbies learned fast when to push and when to settle down. Some of those old boys only took a shot at the newbies when they really deserved it and NASCAR approved.

That ethic is gone. AMF.

[motion]

Word, Milt.

Plus the new points structure is bogus. Gordon should have had this one.

Its a sponsored, scripted show now.

[84porsche]

The new points stuff made it more competitive but not easy to understand. It really came down to the last race. I was hoping Jeff would win it too. He only needed 3 more spots over Kurt Busch. Oh well, we will see how Daytona goes next year. Hendrick Motorsports has a good crowd driving for them.

[Rob Channell]

Saw a picture a while back that would be appropriate here except I cannot seem to find it.

There were two pictures side by side. One was of a NASCAR driver holding his prize belt with the huge golden buckle over his head and the other (you guessed it) had a pro wrestler holding his prize belt with a huge gold buckle over his head.

The caption below read "Is there really any difference?"

Wish I still had a copy........

[dd74]

Until it has more corners than just left-handers (with just two road courses), I'm afraid I'm done too. I'd rather watch NBA babies slap around their fans.

[KFC911]

As a bigtime sports fan all my life (pro & college & even Nascar too), I concur... I seem to have just totally lost interest in all of them the past few years. Ah...the good 'ole days when it was mostly about competition instead of 'the show'!!!

[asphaltgambler]

I'm a drag race guy. If I couldn't drag race, I'd road race. NASCAR is like WWF with wheels and just as campy. I live near the DC metro area and see more action around the Washington beltway at rush hour than anything on TV.

If you want to watch roundy-round go see Outlaw sprint cars slide around in the dirt. 400Ci injected engines on alcohol (=900HP) in 1900lb open wheel cars with 80" wheel base and direct drive. They run something like 12-18" of tire stagger. THAT'S entertainment!!

[Jeff Higgins]

I grew up watching NASCAR before it was "Winston Cup", "Nextell Cup", the "Coca Cola 600", or any of that crap. "Grand National" was the highest rung; the World 600, Firecracker 400, etc. were the races. My kids were priveledged enough to grow up watching the last of the old school (second generation) run. This new crop just hasn't earned it. Some of the last didn't either; my oldest wasn't very old when he heard it, but he still remembers Jeff Gordon as the guy Rusty Wallace said was born "with a silver spoon up his ass". He must feel the same way about this current crop. Oh well; audiences are way up. Isn't that what it's all about these days? Any real racing is very hard to find on the tube these days. The weekend channel surfing beer guzzling sports slobs don't understand it anyway. F1, IMSA, ALMS, etc. are all "too boring" and require just a little more understanding of the game to get anything out of watching. It's a lot more fun to just watch all the brightly colored cars banging into each other. Maybe someday, if NASCAR survives its current success, they will get back to racing. Or then again, maybe not. Spec chassis are on their way...

[304065]

Make them race for 24 hours. That would teach them a thing or two.

[}{arlequin]

it's WWF on wheels....

[id10t]

Originally posted by john_cramer
Make them race for 24 hours. That would teach them a thing or two.

And turn both left and right... maybe even in quick succession...

[Zeke]

Originally posted by john_cramer
Make them race for 24 hours. That would teach them a thing or two.

I don't think that would solve any problems. They would all just cruise around paying attention to their pit stop timing and staying on the lead lap until the 2nd to the last pit stop when track position is more important.

All of the racing is done after the last pit stop. The only thing that throws a hitch in plans laid is a late caution and half of those are scripted or caused on purpose. Make that more like 80%.

I think he's sright about sprint car racing, winged or without. That's some balls out racing. At the Copper Classic in Phoenix, coming up right after the first of the year, they race just about everything that goes roundy round and there is a lot of tire smokin'-off-the-corner racing with drivers driving as hard as they can go for the entire race. You see, those heats are short like the sprint cars. 50 laps is the big one, not 500.

NASCAR has to fit into a 2-3 hour format like a football game. Long enough to sell a lot of air time to the beer companies and make it worthwhile for the spectators to spend all day just to watch one race. No, I don't think 24 hrs is the answer, not that I give a rat's ass, but maybe 2 races with a half time like all the rest of the sports except baseball.

Now if the cars were as slow as baseball, we'd have to have a pitcher out on the straightaway throwing at the cars as they came down the straight. They'd have to dodge the ball or be eliminated. 3 strikes and you're out. Sorta like Rollerball.

The whole thing is silly just like this is. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

[project935]

It's an American money making machine - like everything else, the drivers go where the $ is.

Sorry to say, but to really bring other forms of racing to the American populus some of the drivers need to branch out - have success and stick with it. Jeff & Robby Gordon, Dale Jr., Stewart need more exposure in the road-racing waters ... maybe even the open-wheel markets as they once did/dabbled. But I supposed 36/52 weekends/year in your 'regular job' doesn't leave a lot of scheduling room to play with.

The young kids can't do it IMO ... all they've ever done is roundy round.

I think it would be cool to see Martin and Rusty involved in some sportscar road racing series after NASCAR retirement ... but they'll probably just go on to team ownership.

[TerryBPP]

I have met many athletes and 9 out of 10 of them are very nice guys. Here is my one experince with a Nascar driver.

My girlfriend use to babysit for Sterlin Marlin. So when we started dating I met him. Keep in mind I am not a fan of Nascar, never watched a race. If you have every seen Marlin he is short, has bad teeth, and looks a little down syndromish. Oh yeah, he wears a toupee (little know fact). Anyway, he was by far the most arrogant perosn I ever met. He was a ***** to the waitress at the reatraunt we ate at and let a $10 tip on a $500 bill. The funny thing is I offered to pay for the meal and he acted like I couldn't afford it, although I make a good living. So when we were walking out I gave the waitress a extra $50 and apologized.

[}{arlequin]

the only tipping that rednecks know relates to cows.....

[project935]

I used to work for the owner of the largest team (hint: he has won the championship the last 2 years).

A few years ago, I was on a business trip with him down in (Charlotte) with some other employees. We were having dinner at a very nice, somewhat upscale Italian restaurant. He notices Benny Parsons (ex-racer, TV announcer) sitting across the room having a quiet dinner with friends. He proceeds to chuck a dinner roll across the room over 2 tables of other patrons ... bounced off the poor woman in the group and stands up and yells "Hiya Benny!" and laughed histerically.

I lost some respect for him that day ...

[TerryBPP]

All the money in the world will not buy class.

[928ram]

... but more than the next guy will buy championships...

[}{arlequin]

classic story lol, unfortunately it's not flattering AND typical...

[dd74]

CNN or Nightline (can't remember which) had some interesting insight last night on what makes an athlete and his sport famous. Though this focused on NBA, it's the same for NASCAR. The money comes from the athletes being "bad," very bad, which is why Tim Duncan of The Spurs has very few endorsements - because he's not controversial.

Same goes for NASCAR drivers. The market now likes them nasty and mean - stuff that started with Dale Earnhardt and how he'd push cars out of his way while driving. Hence, the meaner you are, the more you're paid.

Conversely, I bet most of these NASCAR drivers can drive road courses and be more than adequate in other types of cars. Jeff Gordon was rumored to go to IRL at one time, so I'm sure he can drive open wheel. But of course, insurance and their contract doesn't cover them if they were to go to another form of racing and get hurt doing so - Earnhardt Jr. learned that when he set himself ablaze inside his Corvette last Spring.