Maybe you noticed...

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Guys, I have laid off NASCAR commentary for several years now, mostly because I didn't want to cause hurt feelings on HRW. But I still watch a few races... Did you guys see a 190mph hovercraft tonight, at Daytona? Forget all my objections to what is called a stock car these days. This is getting very much more dangerous than it should. The possibility that this could happen, all crowded up at the end of the race, is scary. I want to hear what you think. Don't repeat the commenters' gibber-jabber. Just tell me what you think. You won't hurt anybody's feelings, just comment, okay?

[loosewheel]

IMHO it's time for NASCAR to rethink the entire design of the cars. They are out of date, not really stock, and not particularly good race cars. Besides making for very boring racing.

[mattb]

Not sure what they can do, we've seen Indy cars airborne and end up in the catch fence killing drivers, F1 would do the same thing if they actually had any close racing with cars passing each other. Hydoplane racing has the same issue. Not sure there is really anything you can do when an object is going 200 MPH. Cars seem to be the safest they have ever been. Who would think a driver would walk away from such destruction, but they usually do. 200 mph most anything has potential to fly!

Not that it has anything to do with this issue, but it seems to me the current drivers either don't have the skill or experience that we have seen with previous racing on the super speedways. All that said, I don't watch many of follow the leader races anymore, as many long time fans don't. I still like the speedway racing as two lines of cars at 200 jockeying for the lead is about the only excitement in NASCAR racing anymore.

No one likes accidents, fans like close racing. Excitement is why racing was such a big spectator event. Not sure there is an answer to this. NASCAR won't make major changes.

[Mayberryman]

Today's restrictor plate racing was the result of the Allison issue when he became the first driver to get into the catch fence. The insurance companies mandated a top speed for Daytona and Dega with Daytona at close to 190 and Dega at 200 max. While I understand the need for slower cars I disagree with the method used to slow the cars. Today's superspeedway car has the speed to go really fast but not the torque to be able to pull out and run, thus we have had the different types of follow the leader race from the three car draft to the current 500 mile pace lap. As much as I dislike DW he made one of the best statements I have heard about speedway racing in many years. His idea was to make the front end like a brick and do away with the massive aero additions. You must remember that DW made this statement in the ricer wing car look that came before today. Flatten the front end and the speed gets reduced by drag and you can remove the restrictor and bring back the torque.

The three very worst tracks on the Cup schedule are Daytona, Dega and Indy, every year much hype and in the case of Indy many disappointed people because NASCAR fails to admit that Indy was never meant for big so called stock cars.

[strangebrew]

I've lobbied for years for a return to a STOCK BODIED stock car. No aero unless the manufacturer built thousands of them for
consumers. Take off the restrictor plates & add 2 more inches of tire to make up for the lost aero. Add a cubic inch,
weight & compression limit. You won't see any where near the corner speeds. Straightaway speeds may increase a bit, but brakes
& corner entry become all important. Cars should have the torque to now race each other off the turns .
No more mandated shock, spring & gear combinations. Teams will build cars to match their driver's styles.
I think you'll see driver skills be at a premium to win races. (No more "foot to the floor & steer" for 3 hours)
Also mandate 2 or 3 years of complete Infinity seasons' (or whatever they call it next) before moving up to the cup series.
Tired of rich kid's daddy's buying their way into top flight organizations.
Nascar will only have to build more templates for the different manufacturers.
(Some of Smokey's building skills will return to NASCAR)

[Racie35]

It's gotten rather boring hasn't it? Lots of stupid stuff going on...segments are way up on the stupid list. Too many times penalties for hardly anything determine a race too. They can actually dictate who wins nearly...pathetic.
Oh! And that one with the nice ass....isn't ever gonna win

[arroldn]

I have said this before. But here I go. Go to stock blocks vs custom built engines from whoever builds them now. All manufacturers have a crate engine program. Take a crate engine limit the cubic inches. Everything else is open. But must use factory heads and block. Specify the compression ratio. Now that may mean one brand may make more horsepower than its competitor. So how do you compensate for that? Put the manufacturers front end on the car. This will bring back the cars identity. May cause the manufacturers to get back in the wind tunnel. Do we force the cars to have stock suspensions not sure on that. We know back in the day Petty said his torsion bar leaf spring Plymouths gave a more predictable ride than the coil springs used by GM. I think the current suspensions would be fine. I think what you would get is a horsepower war. Now with a stock head the cars may have less horsepower but I think you could still get upwards of 600 HP. The cost would certainly come down.
But it will not happen as long as you can get sponsors to keep opening the wallet.Have you noticed how many sponsors it takes now to keep a car running the full circuit? Does anyone have one major sponsor the the entire series? I don't think so.
Arrold

[Racie35]

Petty was wrong but he had enough hp to be wrong......Toyota had to build a pushrods engine for this antique racing class...so I don't know what yould call "stock" for them.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

We're kinda coming close to what I wanted to know, here. So many of us remember what was the "golden years" of NASCAR, touching on all the key points... an actual stock car, reasonable weight-saving and tuning efforts, steel gonads in the driver's seat, and a helluva lot less rule-making by people who aren't drivers. Then there are the ridiculous exclusions of viewers that crooked cable and network TV people have instituted. There are other things, but the high points are on the list, I think.

But what we face now, and have made expensive, pointless efforts to overcome for decades, is that there aren't many actual candidates for stock cars today, and their engines, being dependent on computers, could never hold up for 500 miles at speed. So, what is the way forward? Do we re-name NASCAR to reflect what it really is? Or do we hold races that are so much less strenuous that today's "stock" cars could survive? Or both? When the Indy/Formula 1 split happened, and the LeMans cars in the US became a whole assortment of cars (some of which just dropped out of sight), and the development of the Daytona Prototype (which was never a prototype, never intended to advance anything, just another falsely equalized set of cars people would pay to see), the European folks have done great things with their racing venues and classes.

They were brave enough to try, why are we still referring to cars by class names that make no sense, and trying to make a 230mph car go slower to save lives, and simultaneously shaping a computer modeled plastic and aluminum body in computer aeronautic precision? It is an overstatement of the facts, certainly, but couldn't we all have better access to racing fun with a new set of North American racing classes, perhaps mirroring the European setup? American Touring Cars? Minivans? SUVs? How about subcompact cars on a grass oval or road course- wouldn't you love to see old Chevettes, Vegas, Pintos, Dodge Colts, the GM H body cars, tearing up the landscape on some pasture? (and a farmer counting cash in the background, not a corporation) Beer sponsors would fall all over themselves to host it. At least we could bring variety to play and bring ordinary people back to the races. What's more fun- a dozen crazy car guys, sliding all over the place in cars that aren't worth $500 (but you know everything about) for 2 hours for which you pay $30 for a ticket, or paying hundreds to sit in the blazing sun, surrounded by concrete for four hours, so far away from the track you need a handheld video receiver to watch it on TV to keep up?

The crooked TV outfits would have to deal with it. As it stands now, you can only see very few races of any kind in the US without paying insane amounts to cable outfits, even when you have a Roku type device to avoid the cable monopolies. You pay to have the channel with the races on your Roku, and you can't use it because the cable outfits have a crooked contract that excludes you. This garbage will never stand in court, but imagine how much racing we can see when this obvious collusion is banned by the courts! The way to make it happen is lots of variety in racing, so much so that the cable jerks must cave in.

[texasleaguer]

A major problem with the Farmer Oval is the insurance the farmer would have to pay. Support of your local track would be a start to bringing back good ol' racing. As far as Nascar goes, since all new cars look like bars of soap, and unless your close enough to read badging hard to tell whats what, would be for nascar to provide one body style to all teams with no allowed alterations, but leave everything else unregulated. Creativity accepted not rejected. Thus, whatever teams had the best thinkers would have the edge. Bring back the tire wars. Limit pit stops. Get rid of the computers in the pits.

[mattb]

I agree with all the above, also agree Nascar has their heads in the sand for the most part and won't make any major changes. Outwardly they put on the face that everything is great, but inwardly they know what the popularity, ratings and fan base are and think. Much like a big business CEO, they will just ride it out and make millions in their lifetimes and somebody else can try to re-build what is left.

[strangebrew]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Man, that looks like fun!

[texasleaguer]

That's what it's all about. My old track was 3/8's of a mile dirt and ran winged sprints, modifieds, late models and bombers. Twice a summer we had the World of Outlaws show up. Man, those boys could humble you in five laps in the thirty lap main.

[Broman62]

I enjoy watching it abit more now with the "Stage" racing because it has helped make it a little more interesting during the race instead of just at the end!! The guys are racing harder to get the points instead of just laying back and making it real boring like it used to be!!

Though if you look closely when they do aerial shots of the cars and track and this is pretty much at all the race tracks... the crowds are sparse and not filling in the seats...it's waning!!