NASCAR

[gramps]

Have a great time, Fred  !!

[thinkingman]

Spent 10 years overseas.  There's two kinds of racing....Formula 1 and Rally.  There were a few others that had quite a bit of coverage too.  Semi truck racing, off road hill climb obstacle course, motorcycle and motorcycle hill climbing. 

Used to watch quite a bit of racing because it was one of the few things that you didn't need to speak the language to understand what was going on. 

If I had to pick one between F1, Rally and NASCAR it would be Rally racing.

If I'm not doing anything and NASCAR is on I'll watch it.  I may get up and take care of some quick chores and come back to it or flip the channel for a bit.  But I won't sit and watch from pre to post race.

I used to chase/spectate rallys in the mid eighties when the Gruppe B (killer B's) were still running.
Great stuff.

[gaddy]

So Machias how was Bristol.
hate to bring up an old thread but was looking around & found this.
Was it every thing its supposed to be? Could you hear afterwords ?

[Machias]

It was great, but half the stands were empty.  They are reconfiguring the track for the Aug night race.  Should be more crashes, they think that will bring the fans back.  Used to you could not get a ticket for Bristol, but the past few years attendance has been steadily declining.  I really enjoyed it.  Had to run up top at the first caution and buy ear plugs.  It literally hurt!!    I'll be back there in Aug so I'll probably go to that race as well. 

[gaddy]

awsome, never been there. saw an interview where the owner is hoping after the reconfiguration & raceing gets back to the way it used to be that it will fill up again.

[Machias]

I hope so.  I'm moving to VA in the next couple of months, I looked at all the tracks within a few hours drive.  I'll be attending each one....yehaw! 

[Russ McDonald]

It is stupid that fans are watching for the crashes on not the good racing.  I think Bristol is much better then it used to be.  Fans not showing up is the economy not how the racing is.  Plus you get much better coverage on TV then being there.  You just don't have the commercials when you are there.

[Machias]

I gotta tell you most of the fans have been staying away because of the new style, they took a survey and it was overwhelming the amount of folks who hated the new style.

[Russ McDonald]

I enjoy racing...what those fans are wanting it the fights in the pits....the other tracks are having it now.  I guess there is just not a happy medium.  That is what Burton Smith is hoping for.

[gaddy]

rubbins racein. Most true fans dont go or watch just for the wrecks but they are a biproduct of heavy cars traveling at a high rate of speed, inches apart with each driver trying to beat the other for an extended period of time. one brain fart or malfunction & SMASH-CRASH-BOOM. Ahh, the excitement.
& yes you get more coverage on tv but you miss out on the noise, the smells, crowds ect..

[fair-chase]

I gotta tell you most of the fans have been staying away because of the new style, they took a survey and it was overwhelming the amount of folks who hated the new style.

I can't really put my finger on one isolated thing that keeps me away. Just a combination of changes that made the whole atmosphere of NASCAR too clean. I lost interest shortly after Winston was dropped as the cup sponsor. Not that Winston sponsorship had anything to do with my loss of interest, that was just the time frame when the changes started to make me less interested. I think the new sleek, clean, refined image of NASCAR as a whole keeps me away.

Regarding the crashes and fighting. No I do not want to see fighting and multi car pileups at every race. OK, maybe every other race.    What I would rather see is more than a sticker on the grill separating the vehicle "manufacturers". Maybe NASCAR should look at what their own acronym stands for and put a little more stock cars in stock car racing. I would pay good money to go see a NASCAR race between cars pulled off the assembly line with the only improvements being those regarding safety. Not only has NASCAR's regulations and purpose built cars made racing less interesting, it has taken away a great deal of competitiveness between the automotive manufacturers and their production line sports cars. Can you imagine the improvements in production cars today if they would have been racing side by side for the past 30 years?

[fair-chase]

Sorry Machias, with all the talk about how NASCAR is screwing the pooch, I forgot to say I hope you had a great time at Bristol.    My favorite track of all time.

[Russ McDonald]

Here is the reason why they went to similar cars.  When the cars had distiction between manufactures one manufacture would whine that the other manufacture had an advantage and NASCAR had to change the rules.  For example Ford would have a areo advantage over Chevy so NASCAR would make a change for the areo package on Chevy to help.  The rumor has it that since the Nation Wide series went to a more manufacture distiction in their cars that the cup series may go to that too.  I always figured that is one manufacture had an advantage over another manufacture the crews need to figure out to make their cars better.  That is what they pay the engineers and crew chiefs the big money.  All these changes really started after Dale Sr. died in the crash at Daytona too. 

I still have Bristol on my bucket list.

[Machias]

  I had a great time, really looking forward to the race in August!!  I don't want to go and watch a bunch of yellow laps either, but some fender bender and rubbing is always fun too!

[Machias]

I always figured that is one manufacture had an advantage over another manufacture the crews need to figure out to make their cars better.  That is what they pay the engineers and crew chiefs the big money.

AMEN!