NASCAR

[crappiekrazy]

Sprint/Nextel/Whatever Cup Racing to be exact is losing it's ratings both on the tube and at the track. If you ask me it all started with the "Chase". Jimmy Johnson is well on his way to a 5th championship, but if the points system had never been changed he wouldn't have won 1. Under the old system, Denny hamlin would be leading the points this year and thats impressive for a young driver at this point in his career. Todays horror is the "CAR OF TOMORROW" if you ask me. Fords, Chevys, Dodge and Toyotas all look the same. They have different colors and decals but other than that you cant tell them apart. Something got lost when they took that away from the sport. Don't beat, don't bang and don't smoke or cuss on TV is the replacement for some good old school pushin and shoving and some post race fist-a-cuffs. I hope they can turn it around but as for me Sunday afternoons have been substituted by local Fri. and Sat. night 3/8-1/2 mile bull rings where they race for the fame and not the fortune. Just venting................

[Fin Hunter]

You hit the nail on the head. The same has happened to several other sports as well. Take the Bassmaster series this year. Skeet Reese had one of the best years in recent history as far as wins and consistant top finishes but did not win Angler of the Year. These awards are no longer a true reprensentation of a competetors full season only who has the best luck and run at the end.

[Avenger]

Defintely right on the COT thing. NASCAR has been bought by the manufacturers and sponsors and the money, as it's prone to doing, is making them lose their soul.

Although that sort of thing was already popping up when Richard Petty ran the Hemi-powered Superbirds. All the other manufacturers whined and the 'Birds got banned. It's just getting much worse now because the money is bigger.

[Robja]

I don't particularly care for the Chase points as it is now. I think that causes many to lose interest as does the COT. The thing I think has had one of the biggest impacts is the move away from the short tracks in favor of the big superspeedways. I much prefer watching the Bristol, Martinsville, Darlington and Richmond races. There is a lot more bumping and grinding which makes it more exciting

[clt_capt]

And don't even bring up restrictor plates...

[saltwaterbucks]

Junk the COT today and put the new Nationwide cars in its place............ Mustang, Challenger, etc......

Sorry I can't type that C_____ word...........

My suggestion: Nascar needs to can the preferential treatment that it has give GM for over 40 years........... Do they really think it was built with the playing field this unfair.......

Did I miss something.......... GM went bankrupt and I,I,I,I and the rest of America bailed them out............. just so Nascar can pack them some more ROFLMAO !!!!!!

[weekender]

seems they are trying to make the whole thing like IROC series, (how'ed that work out?) let's make sure everyone can play with the exact same toy so nobody get's their feelings hurt. And them restrictor plate races, who wants to watch "rope a dope" for 480 laps? There is definately something wrong with racing when the winning strategy is "ride around in the back till the last 20 laps of a 500 miler". My advice:
1. Jimmy, win all you can while you can.
2. Denny, you will win when you finish growing up, it might be a while.
3. Harvick, you whinney azz spoiled brat of a cry baby, go do something else.
4. Gordon, GET THE LEAD OUT!, at least one more championship.
5. Stewart, team ownership has helped you grow up, I'm impressed with the maturing process, keep up the good work.
6. Kyle, the BEST DRIVER out there, could be the champ if he could control his emotions, BUT HE CAN'T. Maybe he needs a cup team to go with the truck deal, it helped Tony.
7. The rest of the field.....just have some fun, you ain't serious about it no way.

one last thing: Richard Childress, the next time you get caught, just MAN UP!, the "wrecker excuse" won't cut it.

[Avenger]

And don't even bring up restrictor plates...

Well, if we're going to get into mechanics here let's be honest. How many rear-wheel drive, carbureted pushrod V-8 powered cars are in production today? "Stock car" my @$$.

When they came out with the restrictor plate it was supposed to be about the cars going too fast to be safe. There was also talk of going to V-6s and you know what? It would have been a good idea. Make the V-8s run with restrictor plates and let the sixes run wide open. Every team would have been running sixes and clobbering the V-8s. That would have made the transition more palateable, and brought them closer to the definition of "stock".

The other thing they should be working on is finding a way to safely dirty-up the aerodynamics without creating handling problems. Not only would it slow them down, it would bring back drafting and sling-shots which is part of what made it racing. Now it's just a train running around in circles which means the accidents collect more cars and you end up with these yellow flag finishes and the band-aid rule for that the green-white-checker mess.

'Taint racing anymore. They're just homogenizing the crap out of this thing to keep the money happy.

[Trojan Joe]

C O T and soft walls.....safety wise is the best thing that NASCAR has implemented, unfortunately it took losing the lives of some young drivers to figure out lessening the impact.

I do not even attempt to watch races at Kansas, Las Vegas or Chicago. Dont care about these cookie cutter tracks.

Never miss Daytona, Talladega, Darlington or the short tracks.

Personally I think the super-teams have caused a decline in the popularity. Really...there are 4-5 owners (Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs, Childress). It was more fun when you had 43 individual teams pull into the track.

It was also "fun" when you showed up to the track with 8 guys who worked on the car all week and performed the pit stops on Sunday. Remember when Junior Johnson was the jack man for his own team (I think when Cale was driving the 11). The Woods Brothers, the Elliotts, Bud Moore, Petty, and Alan Kulwicki tuning his own engine during happy hour.

[memory maker 4]

i used to follow it .. it does nothing for me now.. i still check the paper to see how gordon did,, what ended it for me was when jr was leading the daytona 500 a yr after his daddy was killed, he was complaining about losing his brakes and nascar stopped him and checked him out.. then i think it was 2 yrs after kurt busch was leading the points going into the last race at homestead and lost the right front wheel going in to the pits and kept driving to his pit.. nascar didnt do anything... it makes you wonder if they pick who will win?