When I first moved down south, I didn't get this whole NASCAR thing. Then I realized that my neighbors worked for teams, my student's parents were drivers, I was coaching relatives of famous drivers, I'd run into the Labontes at Food Lion... So I picked some drivers and got really into it. I had a Goodyear racing tire on my family room wall, autographed hats, models, went to races, race shops. Race Parties every weekend. It was total NASCAR immersion. Then slowly, everybody just stopped watching. Really strange, I'm talking people who were former drivers, gear heads, super fans... I haven't watched more than 5 laps in the last 5 years.
I haven't followed NASCAR with any real interest in decades. I think the last race I actually sat down to watch was Dale Sr's last one in 2001. But I am curious what y'all feel is ruined about it. Is it cookie-cutter cars and rules to promote parity? Uninteresting or obviously favored drivers and teams? Massive corporate involvement? Can't say I have a position either way cuz I don't know much about it anymore. Fill me in.
1 the chase for the cup especially now 2 pretty boy drivers people can't identify with 3 the chase for the cup
OK, I get #2. There's a lot of that in many things these days. But what specifically is bad about the chase thing? Again, I don't know so fill me in. I've always been more into NHRA drag racing. But my interest has waned over the years. They also instituted a playoff format similar to the chase some time ago.
Well in its first iteration they would reset the season points at about 10 races to go. Whoever did the best out of those ten races was champion. Which is dumb because if someone wins every race up until then and not in the chase for the cup they are not champion. Now they are resetting the field after every three races in the last 10(?) races and eliminating three cars every reset until the final race when whoever does best in that race out of two cars is champion. So you you could dominate all year then have a clunker in the chase or get caught in a wreck and not be champion because of one race. NASCAR thinks it makes it more exciting and wants to compete with NFL etc. But what it really does is make the first 20 or so races of the year worthless and not worth watching, then it makes the chase not worth watching because its just kinda tainted. It didn't help that Jimmie Johnson won so many in a row, he would have won about half that in the old system he would just do enough in the "reg season" to get into the chase then he would dominate the chase and win.
The restrictor plates suck. Too many caution laps. Not enough drafting. Multi star teams therefore less grudge racing. No pre-race benchoffs. These are just a few of the glaring PR problems they face.
Thanks for the explanation BBP. I gotta say that format is pretty crappy. NHRA whittles it down to 10 after Indy (Labor Day) and bunches those together. Those 10 are all still in it until mathematically eliminated. sisurfdogg, yeah the restrictor plate stuff sucks. NHRA has had their own battles against speeds and have put in place shiploads of rules to slow the cars. But even after shortening the track to 1000 feet top fuelers are still hitting 330+ mph. I think a lot of the problems start when big corporate $$$ become involved. Things have to be dumbed down and made more appealing to a wider audience. Things need to be made PC and more restrictions and rules are put in place. As a result the stars become further detatched from the fans. Long gone are the days when Bill and Ernie can put together a car in their pop's garage and go out and be competitive. Probably the last bastion in motorsports where the big corpo $$$ haven't yet ruined things is land speed racing. Those guys slave away for years building their own rides out of their own pockets for a chance at glory on the salt.
Two words: Formula One Every race counts and, yes, even though most times there's a team that dominates three quarters of the way through the season, the technology is better, they turn left and right, and the scoring is points based and easier to understand. Then you have the scheming and the gossip about the Nazi themed S&M orgies for when the racing gets boring. http://jalopnik.com/373884/f1-boss-max-mosley-caught-with-five-hookers-in-nazi-orgy-video-scandal
I always thought a good race format would be to give each team a set amount of money, say one million dollars. Have ten races, one every two weeks. The team doesn't know which track the next race will be at, maybe a short track, dirt track, road race, drag race. On second thought, it would probably work best as a reality TV show so I wouldn't watch it anyway...
How long would a million last on any of the major racing circuits? A week or two? The whole IROC (is that still around?) was supposed to do something like that. On some of the smaller circuits and tracks they have claimer rules. Any racer can buy any other racer's engine and/or car for a set figure. Keeps folks honest and depending on where you set the price it keeps costs reasonable.
A million would go as far as it had to in the crazy format I was thinking of. You can buy a ton of "stock Cars" for a million dollars.
