The Top 14 Chapters in "NASCAR for Dummies"

Billibears,

Used to race. Loved it. Watched every Winston Cup race last year except the Brickyard 500.

Reason I watched every race I could last year was because, as you apparently don't know- the AERO PACKAGE introduced last year made the cars less important than driver skill. Human skill is what makes a sport. It really pissed off the drivers and teams who for years past were better at marketing their business advantage to "hood commercials" to sponsors than more skillful at driving- which is the heart of a "race"- a competition.

So, this year, with incredible complaining from sponsors over the winter that the teams and cars with the most money invested into advertising traffic for their sponsors weren't getting a return on their investment comensurate with previous year's exposure of name recognition, NASCAR CAVED to sponsors rather than maintain and improve the more competitive, driver skill oriented races that was the hallmark of last year.

Sure, the car itself ALWAYS plays a substantial role in the race, but last year's aero-package placed more emphasis on driver skill, and boy did that piss of advertisers/sponsors who had invested under the previous years of - just throw the money into the car and hire a driver that won't wreck the thing as he passes.

Business- including advertisers/sponsors don't like their return on investment being toyed with. Let the fans be bored, who's gonna know it's all about the car.

Perhaps you should have paid closer attention to Michael Waltrip's comment yesterday--- making a note to people at home about the new aero package this year that creates this boring, stupid, non-competitive "race", Waltrip said: "Hey you people at home, the guy with the fastest car is the guy in front."

Who cares who's driving it or how much skill they have if its all about the car, the engines for which are sealed for secrecy of design by their makers--- boy that's really seeing some competition on the tube on Sundays...

NASCAR has gone back to being a joke.

And get a clue, when its at the billions of dollars level, it's a business. If you want to make believe it's something more now, be my guest.

I've been in the thick of racing. The sponsors did NOT want the boat rocked and they got their way- it's back to considering how many people they will loose between the start of the race and the end watching, versus the amount of money they pony up for their hood ornament. There are people who literally pencil out the cost/benefit ratio on this.

Now, I'll tell you again what's going to happen at the Daytona 500. The first 25 laps will seperate the fields into well financed cars and not so well financed cars. You automatically and obviously expect that every car in the field can blow and engine, split a tire, loose a hose, burn up an ignition system, drop a tranny, etc. So, the playing field is altered by those things for certain. Add in wrecks, and that generally alters the ability of a good driver to be competitive if if messes up his aero or some other crucial function.

Outside of that, after the 25th lap or so, when the tires set in, and mind you, it might be sooner today than 25. They had rain y'd and that washed much of the rubber build-up off the track, it's a sunny day, track will heat faster, rubber will wear faster, a clean track will take the seal off the rubber real dam quick, so somewhere arounf the 25th, it'll get sorted out, the lead group will set-out in single file, the race is essentiully over. Come back when its the 5th lap and I guarantee you, barring some incredible fluke or accident, the winner will be who was in the top 5 at the 25th lap, and in between the 25th and the last lap, there will have been maybe 4 or 5 lead changes between that group- forget pit stop lead changes from those staying on the field- that as you know doesn't matter.

So, there' the race for you. When it's all over, you can argue with me to your heart's content with all the rationale, reason, and earnestness you believe is in you- it'll be just as I said... and it's real simple- its back to car and not driver, and you might as well read the obits today and cross the names out of your phone book for entertainment.

That ain't racing- that's advertising....

There will be more mullets in Volusia County today than in all the south Florida canals and waterways.

NASCAR fans in their natural habitat.

"Fill her up son!" (BURPPP)

heh heh...

By the way, your rich versus poor complaint does not become you. I thought Liberals were the ones always spewing money envy. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, some of the wealthier teams have not been competitive recently. Jack Roush spends as much money, if not more, than any other team, yet Jarrett, Martin, J. Burton and Kurt Busch were horrible last year (in comparison to expectations). The new Dodge operation under Everham has unlimited money, yet they managed only one win last year. Granted, it was a start-up operation, but that proves my point, that its not necessarily money, its the operation and personnel.
For Pete's sake, you codify my point better than I did. Last year's aero package put more emphasis on ON-TRACK race competition and obviously more emphasis on set-up changes during the race. It brought the sport to the track. It caused driver skill to be more crucial than ever before in NASCAR history. It did EXACTLY as you said, all the money that went into teams, engineering, etc, which prior to last year was THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of Nascar basically stopped. It meant that the teams were inextricably tied to their driver's skill and their crew cheif's ability to make decisions and adjust the car for that very competition day. Everyone, no matter how rich or poor, had virtually the same chance, but skill seperated the field more times than engineering off the track, and it made for GREAT COMPETITIVE RACES.
It wholly pissed off teams and sponsors that poured money into off-track engineering and advantages that had nothing to do with driver skill. They asked the question over the winter- what good does it do us to pour all this money in there if that doesn't matter anymore- we want some sort of consistency.
Now, and watch what will happen today at Daytona- Labonte- the WC champ from 2 years ago- he'll be right back up front... he's not the greatest driver, but he's got the off-track support to allow a not-so-great driver to actually become competitive.
In short, what is back to happening is that driver skill is less important, the "race", if you want to call it that anymore, has been returned to a few guys going around in single file for 500 miles, and nothing much of anything happens.
Whoa... I'm thrilled... dam this is exciting... maybe I'll put a couple of marbles in a garbage lid and make them go around for three hours and get that same sensational entertainment feeling.

It ain't racing, it's advertising.... too bad, it had a great chance, but NASCAR caved to the money... a dam shame.

closed the italics. sorry

OMG is that my husband in that picture ... lol

or this one? ...

Hey, iss jess wunna them dee-uhlz....the NASCAR all-ourpose explanation/excuse.

You're killin' me Glock. I did not need to see that 10 minutes before the race.

I always suspected Gordon of wearing frilly panties. But a tube top? Nahh.

Ooops. Strike that. I responded to the wrong reply. Sorry.

Well, thank yuh. Thank yuh vury much.

ping

You really despise American business, don't you. Move to a country where there are no big American-style corporations to make money, provide jobs, services, and products, and then compare your quality of life in America with that place.

dupont=paint.didn't they teach you that in art class at high school? or are you a high school drop out?