NASCAR..I just dont get it

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by Jim Richards
ROFL! Sadly, the Nastycar fan is right. Thankfully not all road racing is as boring as F1.

I find F1 to be fascinating. The technology, and all the behind the scenes make races so much more interesting. If you ignored last season you missed an epic one that will be looked back at years from now as one of the best.


I tried to watch Juan Puablo at Homestead this year. My discussion on here about what I saw resulted in my new sig.

[strupgolf]

If I never hear another announcer say " they're in the pits and just made a track bar adjustment", I think I can find peace. Yes, maybe NASCAR is good racing, but it is really boring. To sit and watch a race for 3-4 hours of round-de-round just does not suit me. I like sports cars and lots of them.

[pwd72s]

Like I said, those who don't like it don't have to watch. I think NASCAR beats a golf match or a basketball game all to hell.

[VINMAN]

Originally posted by arcsine
Where NASCAR loses me is the pushrod and carbed engines (there has not been a carbed engine sold in the US since the mid-'80's),

Heres an example of a "low tech" 2100 HP pushrod motor out of a 38' offshore race boat. While it is fuel injected, I can show examples of carb and p-rod motors that put out well over 1200HP.

[David]

I've been to the Hendrick's facility in Charlotte a couple times. I was very impressed with the technology. They were even nice enough to roll one of Terry Labonte's cars over the "do not cross line" so we could get a close look. I was amused to see a mechanic at this multi-million dollar facility roll an engine out in the parking lot so he could drain the coolant

[tc-sacto]

Round and round and round, wait...piece of dirt on the track throw a yeller flag...Do it again for five laps repeat.

I wish Nascar was more like Austrailian v8 Supercars. Now that's cool v8 racing. Road Courses, cars handel well, sound awsome and don't throw yeller flags everytime a piece of gum wraper hits the track.

[afterburn 549]

I dont have to " watch it" I realize that, just trying to figure out what makes it interesting....as it is slightly more then gulf

[pwd72s]

I guess I'm just not sophisticated enough to join you "elite" fellahs...If Nascar & F-1 were on opposite channels? I'd choose Nascar. Matter of fact, I doubt I'll ever watch F-1 again since it's usually follow the leader, and then toss in the Indy fiasco. I really don't care if those upper class elitist twits ever return to the USA. But I'm weird...I also enjoy drag racing.

[arcsine]

Originally posted by VINMAN
Heres an example of a "low tech" 2100 HP pushrod motor out of a 38' offshore race boat. While it is fuel injected, I can show examples of carb and p-rod motors that put out well over 1200HP.

I fully understand that the NASCAR engineers are doing some very sophisticated work with the engines as are many other racers; boat, drag, heck monster trucks. Obviously the V8 motor platform has proven to be a very capable in many race series and even carbed and push rod motors can put out some big power numbers. No argument from me at all on that.

As I sit here and ruminate on my problem with NASCAR is, my criteria in judging interest in a race series is less on the design of the engine and more how a racers deals with acceleration and not just velocity. I hold in higher esteem a racer who can start, stop, turn left and right. NASCAR is trying to keep racing close for the sponsors and the fans and if they need to use what I see as somewhat anachronistic engines to do that, then so be it.

[afterburn 549]

To me, a race car is either a platform from what is available to John Q. Public, or a complete foreign platform any way you want to make it. Nascar by their rules says ( If I read and understand what the ruling said here on the Internet is correct ) that a roof part or some part need to be from the "look like" car so as to hold the same design line....Why bother? as under that -there is nothing there that comes off a Detroit assy line. It maybe a great race car but I believe it is a Detroit advertising plot, Just a bunch of parts to resemble some thing it is not.
If someone likes Nascar then Cart racing ought to be as exciting to them....and I dont get that either.
It used to be Detroit or any manufacturer could get schooled at the races and passed dwn the assy. line. Not no more.

[legion]

Can someone explain to me how ignition timing can be used as traction control?

[arcsine]

Less ignition advance = less horsepower produced = lessened chance to spin tires

[Rikao4]

Second on the dragracing, until you been to one up close...
Some of the Nascar drivers do quite well on the road/ past 2 Rolex 24's show that,
Ringers brought in to run the roadcourses for Nascar races have yet to win, that includes my boy Boris (he ran in a bobsled race this winter, think he won that) Robby Gordon running Baja & Dakar.There are some true drivers in Nascars, and for the $ some get...I would turn left all week also, then you do what E. Jr did, past vette driver
'I went a bought me Porsche..got tired of being passed by them'

Rika

[SlowToady]

WORSE they killed the promisted drag strip
that was to be part of the complex
to get the kids off the streets and on a safe track
but as nastycar wants no other non owned races at ''their'' tracks so local kids street race and die

Right, because obvioulsy "Nastycar" is to blame for stupid ass kids with no talent racing and dying on the street. Are you serious?

Who cares whether or not you can buy any part of a Nascar "off the showroom floor." When is the last time you tried to buy an F1 motor at a BMW dealer?

Nascar hasn't been about cars close to street cars for a long time...think maybe it might be time to get off that horse?

Hey VINMAN, what does one of those motors sell for? I'd like to put one in a 911:-D

[legion]

In Joliet, the Chicagoland Speedway (used by NASCAR, IRL, and ARCA) is part of the same complex as the Route 66 Raceway (drag strip). They only opened a few years ago.

If NASCAR had a "no other event" policy, it would have showed here.

[VINMAN]

Originally posted by SlowToady
[B]
Hey VINMAN, what does one of those motors sell for? I'd like to put one in a 911:-D

Pretty reasonable, about $60,000

[Superman]

NASCAR is auto racing. Auto racing is auto racing. In NASCAR, the cars are all virtually the same, though there are small opportunities for the technical crew to create slight advantages. But mostly, the cars are the same so it is, actually, a driving challenge. At 200 mph.

I prefer road course racing also, but automobile racing is automobile racing. I'd draw an analogy between racing and sex, except that it's not analagous. It's a contrast. Bad sex is......bad. Bad racing is.......still racing.

[nota]

Originally posted by legion
In Joliet, the Chicagoland Speedway (used by NASCAR, IRL, and ARCA) is part of the same complex as the Route 66 Raceway (drag strip). They only opened a few years ago.

If NASCAR had a "no other event" policy, it would have showed here.

but only because the drag strip was THERE FIRST
and they havenot finished taking total control YET!!!

''INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TO ACQUIRE ADDITIONAL 37.5 PERCENT INTEREST IN CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY AND ROUTE 66 RACEWAY
- Will Exercise Right to Purchase Remaining 25 Percent Interest -

- Transactions Expected to Close in Early 2007 -

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - November 1, 2006 - International Speedway Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select Market: ISCA; OTC Bulletin Board: ISCB) ("ISC") today announced it has entered into a purchase agreement with Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation to indirectly acquire an additional 37.5 percent interest in Raceway Associates, LLC ("Raceway Associates"), owner and operator of Chicagoland Speedway and Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. The purchase price for the transaction is approximately $69 million in cash.''

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by Superman
NASCAR is auto racing. Auto racing is auto racing. In NASCAR, the cars are all virtually the same, though there are small opportunities for the technical crew to create slight advantages. But mostly, the cars are the same so it is, actually, a driving challenge. At 200 mph.

Is it still racing when that technical crew that got it right is penalized with phantom safety issues that require a safety car to be brought out so any lead that team may have etched out is negated?

NASCAR in the old days was racing, now its just a show and it kind of insults me when I attempt to watch it in the same manner I find "Pro Wrestling" a big joke. I am not that stupid and refuse to buy into the ploys to make the race more interesting. I say if a team is faster let it walk away from the pack and win. All this regrouping the field BS makes it 100X more boring than ANY follow the leader F1 race.

How does the old sports car saying go? (this is also a slam to F1)

If it does not race in the rain, at night, or turn right its not a real race car.

pwd72s - Its not about being elite. Its about good racing. I actually like the speed TV SCCA coverage, I wish there was more of it, over any other form of racing.

[afterburn 549]

It dose take away from those who can do it better...kind a like gummy them all dwn to no talent. Why not make them remote controlled or put robots in them ??
I think I will for ever "not get it "