The fake rope debacle was ridiculous.
I grew up in a home that lost interest in NASCAR many years ago. My father swore like Bobby Boucher’s mama that Chevy was the devil.
As my old man would say, “They pi%# and whined so much that they couldn’t keep up with the Fords” and twisted NASCAR’s arm into restrictor plate racing.
….”Bill Elliot was 20 Country miles down and ran those candy arses down and won!”
I have been to a few races and it is a pretty cool experience. I am much like my old man and think they should let them build the cars , quit meddling with packages and dumb rules like counting lug nuts .
I don’t think todays drivers possess the toughness the old guys did back in the day. It Grinds my gears when I hear them on TV whining about how Talladega is too fast and they need to slow down! Geez! It’s a race quit being such a wussy. I’ll get off my soapbox.
Lot a truth here. I've said for years, get back to shop built cars using factory sheet metal (no mods in shape other than safety), make a spec and claimer rule for all engines, then put it on a spec built chassis. Do away with all 'aero' except what comes out of Detroit and is factory standard, then go race.
I'd much rather see 35-40 cars all relatively equal all running at maybe 160-180mph on the super speedways than to see 6-8 cars up front running at 190-200, then a little ways back another group of maybe 10-12 cars all running at 180, then a lagging group all running together and struggling at 150-160, then last (usually a couple laps down) the 'also rans'. And these same groups being as predictable as clockwork every week.
To argue the best car or make of car is futile. Sometimes it seems the Fords are unbeatable, then the Chevy's, etc. At times the Mopars were king (remember the days of the Hemi?). When one manufacturer gains a little on another, that lagging manufacturer puts extra engineering and dollars on it until they catch up. The old addage of 'Win on Sunday/Sell on Monday' still exists today, just not quite as boldly as older days. Hell I remember a time when Rambler (American Motors) was up to par and playing the game.
The only way to positively maintain 'even-steven' racing is with a spec built chassis (no exceptions or leeway), claimer rule on engines, and factory sheet metal only (again, no leeway). The only variation in appearance is what comes out of Detroit and must be some reasonable number produced for the public market. Period !!!! No tolerance given, no leeway, only one set of templates to match the factory sheet metal.
Then let's go racing !!! We'll never see real racing again due to the commercialism. Racing has become way more big business than anything else. We started seeing the commercialism of NASCAR when Winston began sponsoring the entire series. Remember when it was the "Winston Cup'?
I'm all for individual car and team sponsors to help pay the bills, but any series sponsor should not have any input into any individual team or brand. I'd also like to see more brands involved ..... and as much as I hated to see Toyota get involved at the time, I recognized that it had to happen in order for NASCAR to survive. Import cars were becoming more and more accepted in American's daily lives, so it had to be. And that being the case, I'd like to see even more imports involved...... at the same time as more American models get involved.
Just this one man's experience and opinion!!!!
With all due respect, I'm pretty sure 'he with the fattest pocket book wins'. Like every other form of racing, there's no real skill anymore ....... it boils down to computers and whoever can spend the most $$$$'s.
