NASCAR Popularity

Almost all NASCAR races begin with a prayer - national anthem - and war planes flying overhead.

Not bad for a "sport" that supposedly got its beginnings with drivers outrunning the feds - while delivering moonshine!

 

They have come a long way!!!

 

NASCAR racing has developed into quite a science!

 

A couple years ago our church had a guest speaker who was a retired chaplain for the ARCA series. He was a very sincere devout man, and knew practically every driver on the NASCAR circuit. He shared with me many stories of the faithful Christian lives of many of the men we watch drive on Sunday afternoon. I think NASCAR is awesome and it is good to see that in the midst of all the other sports that NASCAR has drawn so much attention and popularity. I pray that these drivers who are faithful to the Lord will have a great impact on the world.

 

Yep. I've been to Richmond, Charlotte, and Martinsville. I still haven't quite gotten used to the cheering after the "invocation". We should start cheering after our prayers in our church!

 

I have watched NASCAR races quite a few times and it is pretty awesome stuff. Yet why not run them around a Formula One track with plenty of corners and twists?

In Australia we have the V8 Supercars that are intensly popular (V8 GM Commodores vs V8 Ford Falcons). Oval track racing is great some of the time, but watching passing on corners is really awesome and denotes much driver skill.

 

There are two road races each year on the NEXTEL circuit.

One is Watkins Glen - the other is in California - can't spell the name.

Last year Robbie Gordon won both races. He cut his teeth on road courses!

 

It's Infineon Dan, used to be Sears Point in California. Now it has it's own sponsorship like Lowe's in Charlotte.

Speaking of skill on twisty tracks in comparison to ovals... you'd be amazed at the skill it takes to be competitive on ovals. Those guys are riding around on he edge almost all the time.

The only reason I have any idea of what it's like is because I used to race in online racing leagues. We'd run Nascar Racing software on our computers which was a very good simulation, and it was crazy hard to run at the most realistic settings.

 

With about half of the field out of last Sunday's race - due to accidents - I agree with your analysis of the ovals.

Each track is a little different than all the others.

Length
number of corners
flat of banked
how much banking
surface - last week's race was run on a concrete surface, which reacts much differently than asphalt surfaces.

[ June 15, 2004, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: Dan Todd ]

 

NASCAR is the only sport we watch at our house. None of the others compare to the excitement of the race. I just don't always like the winner. LOL As in yesterday's. Dale Earnhardt is still the most collected driver of all times. We have a collection that fills up a room. My brother's collection fills two rooms, one for Sr. and one for Jr.

 

My guess is that NASCAR's popularity has peaked unless they fix some of their problems. While the sport is still compelling to watch and the finishes are unpredictable and exciting, there is an element of "anything to win" among some drivers which puts a ruthlessness in the sport which has not traditionally been there. In the last three races, NASCAR has struggled with scoring, rules, and procedures because of complicated and confusing rules that have been put in place. For years, there was a "gentleman's agreement" by which drivers conducted themselves when a caution flew. Two years ago, drivers stopped abiding by it. The complicated rules became necessary because the drivers would not police themselves and govern their own behaviour. Now the complicated rules are lengthening cautions and causing scoring confusion. This makes for long, boring, cautions which aggravate the fans who attend races and cause viewers to bore and change the channel. Unless they fix it, I suspect the ratings on TV will start to decline.

 

Time for someone to go to the woodshed - for an old fashined whipping!

 

NASCAR also got lucky this past week that Jimmie Johnson recovered and won the race. The flagman that opened pit road a lap too soon could have easily cost him a win. NASCAR admitted it was a mistake just like they admitted a mistake in a truck race a couple weeks ago that cost a driver a win. I think in that instance the caution lights flashed on so the leader, Carl Edwards, slowed down and was passed. They didn't do anything to correct it and it probably cost him a win.

What do you think about NASCAR's efforts to try to prevent races from ending under caution? Should they do something else like not counting caution laps or continue throwing a red flag when possible at the end of a race to allow a green flag finish? There have been way too many caution laps this year, but supposedly NASCAR is working on correcting it also.

To be fair, there are a lot of no-win decisions NASCAR has to make each week. If they don't throw a caution soon enough it can result in a bigger wreck and put drivers in danger, but if they throw it too soon it could be it could be for something unneccesary like the smoke from a bent fender rubbing on a tire in the last race. I heard several drivers say after the race that they didn't have a problem with that caution because of the situation in the previous race when Casey Mears' car left oil on the track causing Kasey Kahne to wreck.

 

I was born in Hueytown, Al and lived there as a child.

During the 60's, 70's and 80's, Hueytown was the center of the racing universe.

It was the home of the Alabama Gang and home to the Alisons (all of them), Neil Bonnett, Red Farmer, Roger Minor (he was actually from Pleasant Grove but we won't hold that against him), later, Hut Stricklin and Chad Little would both live there.

I still have the card Davey and Liz Alison sent my mom after my dad died.

Everybody I've ever rooted for is now either retired or dead so I don't watch it much anymore.

I used to watch it fanatically, even before it was popular and people used to make fun of it. This was back in the day when drivers would drive their own trailers to the track, work on their own cars and beat the crap out of another driver who spun them out.

Now, it's so corporate and fake I can't even sit through a whole race anymore.

Give me Bobby Alison and David Pearson duking it out down the front stretch at North Wilksboro any day of the week over two nineteen year olds like they do now.

 

Pocono's TV ratings from this past Sunday were down 8% compared to last year.

 

The rise of sponsorship has changed racing. With the dependence of the cash provided by sponsors, the racers can't afford to offend the sponsors and risk losing the money flow.

In the earlier days of NASCAR, they raced true "stock" cars - now they run fabricated cars that bear only a passing resemblance to the models they represent.

NASCAR racing is evolving into something that's very expensive for both the racers and the fans. Sooner or later it will reach a point that it's not cost effective for either to continue.

 

Sundays race ended under a yellow flag.

Kasey Kahne was charging fast - and it would have been nice to see what would have happened in a yellow did not stop the race to the finish!