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Yeh, it really is NASCAR!

jumpinjoe

Hellcat
Anyone watching the Busch Clash out on the 1/4 mile asphalt track they built over the football field inside the Los Angeles Coliseum? The 150 lap feature is just about to start. !!!!!! Lot's of beatin' and bangin' !!! This is real 'short track' racin' y'all.
 
I don't have regular TV anymore so can't watch NASCAR. I used to be heavy into it but lost interest when they started bringing the drivers out side by side in pairs to introduce them. Plus it became almost impossible for a car to p[ass unless they had a helper glued to their rear bumper.

I much prefer a 3/8 - 1/2 mile dirt track race any day , especially when the World of Outlaws are running.
 
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing (turning left) over and over again and expecting different results.”, AKA - the inevitable large crashes.

Lost interest when they gave the cars vasectomies, and the final straw was the woke "fake noose" incident.

Road racing; WEC/IMSA/F1 and European motorcycle (Isle of Mann TT, etc) is where it's at.

My .02
 
Real short track racin' is Friday and Saturday nights during the summer across town at the Pevely race track. In da dirt.
Is the dirt track still in operation down there at Farmington , MO? My B-I-Law used to race there . He started out with the old Coups and progressed to the sprints before they used wings.

We made many trips to the Farmington track.
 
Is the dirt track still in operation down there at Farmington , MO? My B-I-Law used to race there . He started out with the old Coups and progressed to the sprints before they used wings.

We made many trips to the Farmington track.
I think it is. We go by on our way to Fredericktown, but we usually don't stop in Farmington. In fact the last time I was there was for my friend's brother's funeral. Dan Peek from the band America.
 
Wow! I won't even begin to argue with any of these, they are all valid to a point. I'll only say that NASCAR, like every other sport in the world has/had to change to meet an ever changing de(y)mand from the watching public. I can almost guarantee you most of today's drivers/car owners would much prefer a good, hard Saturday night of short track racing on dirt or asphalt, or cinders, or most any surface one can race on. But time moves on....... some of us move with it ...... some of us don't. There are more reasons for me to dislike NASCAR today than there are things to like, but I still enjoy watching the show.

You see, my dad was a charter member of NASCAR, albeit not a continuing active member. He actually ran with a group of what was known at the time as an 'outlaw' group of racers who traveled up and down the east coast from Hialieha, Fl to Ft Erie Canada twice a year and hit all the money races along the way. Most of them never thought NASCAR would be long lived and didn't support it to the utmost.

I was born into it and basically cut my teeth on a 1/2" wrench playing in the pits of some/most of those tracks. And in later years (early 70's-80's on and off) I even raced a little bit on some of the old short tracks he had raced on in earlier years (1940's-50's). He actually raced on the old beach/road course at Daytona in 1949 or 50, and over the next couple years at a few NASCAR events.

He and my bio-mom divorced in 1949 when I was about 2+ and he married my step mom in 1952. On weekends when he had me with him, my step mom would take me into the pits while he was racing to play with other kids. Or hold on to me in the stands when he was racing at some of the closer local tracks. She would always buy me one of the little cheap track checkered flags on a stick, and I would wave my daddy by it and I made every lap he made. When he won, she would carry me down to the fence and hand me over to the starter or flag man who would then hand me in through the driver's window of my dad's car and I would 'help' him hold the checkered flag out the window for his victory lap. Things were way different back then than now.

He made my step-mom a promise to quit the racing if/when they got pregnant. Well, that happened in late 1954 and while he didn't quite keep those words to quit when they got pregnant, the night in 1955 my twin half sisters were born and he saw them, he left the hospital and sold his race car that very night and never got into another one as long as he lived. He passed away just a couple years ago now and I miss the times he and I would sit by the TV and watch every race we could and he would tell me old stories about he and his buddies flat towing their cars up and down the coast and stopping wherever there was a short track hosting any event that paid, what back then they considered, "big money".

So yep, NASCAR probably leaves more to be desired for me than most of you. And yep, I much prefer short track racing and haven't missed many over the years as a spectator. But in my world, NASCAR is still pretty important.

(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y):)
 
If they want me to watch it, it needs to have Big Chief, JJ Da Boss, Ryan Martin, Kye Kelly, and Lizzi Musi in it. ;):LOL:
I even enjoyed drag racing back when the racers really built their own stuff much like the circle racers did at the time. But today, much like NASCAR and every other type of professional racing, they spend big $$$'s to buy big cubic inches, then buy bottles full of high horse power and bolt it on, then do their tunes with a lap top computer instead of a wrench, then spend many more dollars trying to convince you and me their cars are "street legal" and that they are 'non-prep' racers/racing. Naw, it's a whole different world too.

While I still enjoy the technical sides of all types of racing including drags, and it boggles the mind just what can be done with enough money with today's technology, those guys are in the same boat as NASCAR. They're no more real, hard core racers than any of the others ....... they're just able to spend more of somebody's money than their competition can/does. And we are all sadder because of it. :cry::rolleyes:
 
Try not to miss too many episodes except when they go plumb silly. It kills me to see them deliberately tear up some car that could be made into something really nice. An old 60's-70's muscle car or similar.
 
It's sad Nascar is losing it's fan base.
I have a quality track in my backyard and it hasn't had a race in four years.
 
As for some of the changes in NASCAR ...... I hate they moved to hand made bodies instead of show-room sheet metal. I hated even more when they went to FI rather than carbs. Then I hated the COT in every way possible, and especially with all the air dams, slip streamers, splitters, and other aero options.

Wasn't sure what to expect with the new Gen 6 cars they drove today, but after seeing them in the flesh, I like the looks much better than any of the COT's since the late 90's-2000's. They almost look like real cars from some distance. But now I hate that NASCAR owns all the molds for all the pieces and all teams must buy their pieces directly from NASCAR, oh yeh and that the pieces are all plastic now. Maybe that'll level the field some little bit .... we'll see. But I hate the 18" wheels/tires with the center spin off lug. Hell, next they'll be going to air jacks built into the chassis like Indy cars. And I especially hate the IR suspension with the trans-axle combo.

Time will tell I guess.
 
If folks don't have anything to do for 12 hrs watch the Bathurst 12 hr race. They didn't race last year due to Covid but the 2020 race was a good one. I may re-watch it.

BTW - Don't get me going about Indy cars. More neutered over-grown go-carts now-a-days.
 
It's sad Nascar is losing it's fan base.
I have a quality track in my backyard and it hasn't had a race in four years.
I'm with you Wirenut, but the fact is they're losing their original fan base for several reasons. Biggest reason is all the 'good ol' boys' who started and maintained the excitement and innovation are mostly all dead and gone now. And it seems many of their progeny don't have the same interests and/or desires. So that base is actually fading through attrition.

But they're gaining a whole new fan base by the signs of today's event. If you watched the folks in the stands and the acts provided today, you saw mostly young people who are into rap and hip-hop. Most or all carrying phones and constantly texting or picture taking while the event was going on and have never even smelled moonshine liquor. And obviously the sport is becoming more and more integrated with minority owners coming in with start-up teams which is showing up in the stands as well.

Yep, NASCAR ain't what she used to be ............. whether or not that's a good or bad thing is yet to be determined !!! I will say from what I know of the coming year's schedule, there is some new blood in high places using some imagination and looking at many changes. We may even see a few old tracks coming back into use for NASCAR events this coming year.
 
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