OT: Any old school NASCAR fans here?
- Thread starter PearlSUJam
- Start date
Would enjoy watching late-70’s Grand National / Winston Cup series when they featured something actually resembling “stock” cars... good ol’ boy drivers with real personalities... i was watching the race where Cale Yarborough and the Allisons got in a donnybrook, on live TV, on the infield in ‘79... they werent faking it
Today it’s snooze-inducing spec-car garbage... polished manufactured drama garbage...
I’m a motorsport guy, but asphalt oval racing is for mouthbreathers
Today it’s snooze-inducing spec-car garbage... polished manufactured drama garbage...
I’m a motorsport guy, but asphalt oval racing is for mouthbreathers
I remember that race like it was yesterday. Those were the days. Today’s NASCAR resembles nothing like the old days.
Today's NASCAR is less about racing and more about advertising and endorsements.
Earnhardt wouldn't have had 7 championships had Davey Allison not passed away. That was shaping up to be a real rivalry. I quit watching when Jeff Gordon and the rest of the pretty boys were introduced. Sadly, that was the beginning of the end of NA$CAR.
Jeff Gordon IS the reason NASCAR got as popular as it did nationwide sir.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
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Seems like the Stewart incident really put the nail in it. Used to see NASCAR stuff everywhere; can’t recall the last commercial or ad for or involving a race or personality.
The stupid "playoff" format is a ridiculous process used to crown a season champion. Jeff Gordon would have seven titles under the old points system. I may watch a race if I have nothing else to do but I watch to see wrecks (hoping for no injuries) and then the aftermath in which the drama queens whine about the other guys.
The reality is without those advertising and endorsements, there would be no NASCAR. I've been to Daytona and there is no more breathtaking sight than 40 cars going 190+mph on 31degrees of banking 6 inches apart. There is a lot of real strategy involved with racing but some people are too involved waiting for a wreck to see it.
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I was never a big NASCAR fan, but I had a T-Bird like "Awsome Bill from Dawsonville" and spent a couple of years scaring my dear wife half to death. Using the old line, she would scream STOP TAILGATING THAT GUY and I'd say "I'm not tailgating Honey. I'm drafting."
Ah, yes. I had one of these. 1987 T-Bird Turbo Coupe in black.
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With dopey technical rules, today’s spec-car racing strategy has evolved into: don’t race hard for the first 450miles (hence the stupid four quarter/segment gimmick adopted a few years back) ...
Those empty grandstands I noticed last weekend say it all...
Agree. He was so popular and marketable that NA$CAR brought in 39 other Jeff Gordon clones and where is it today? Down the shitter.
Yea this is what ended my semi-interest in the “sport”. The points system made some sense to me but when they started the playoff and the chase for the championship (or whatever it was) I was done. Now a’days when I turn on a race simply out of curiosity I see there are multiple stage winners within each race and I don’t even have the desire to figure it out. Plus with the multiple yellow flags and restarts at the end of the race it really takes away any meaning to the preceding 400 laps.
We waited by his hauler for an hour after he won a long rain delayed race at Pocono back in the early 90's. That dick wouldn't even acknowledge the three of us were there, nevermind sign a piece of paper.
That reminds me of some of the great names such as Dick Trickle & Lake Speed.
No, not entirely true sir.
You can blame Bill France Sr. and Jr., is it for its' decline IMO.
Playoff format sucks!!
NASCAR died on turn 4 at Daytona in Feb. 2001. Hasn’t been the same since in many ways.
Wasn't Mike Helton in charge when they made that great decision for the "car of tomorrow"? So many bad decisions it's hard to count. But I still say it went to shit when they built all of the cookie cutter tracks and got marketable pretty boys to race at them.
They've tried to back track and bring personalities back and it looks like WWE. Pathetic.
The 'new' scoring/playoff format kept Jeff Gordon from winning two more championships. Sad!
unrelated to NASCAR, but my dad, uncle, and myself are leaving this morning to drive down to Charlotte for the Can Am World Finals at the Dirt Track next to CMS. The top 3 series in Big Block Modifieds, Super Late Models, and Sprint Cars which will sell out over a 3 night event. NASCAR may be hemorrhaging fans, but grass roots racing is thriving around the country in many different forms.
Short clip of last year's highlights
Short clip of last year's highlights
You’re criticizing Gordon for being a nice looking guy? He’s also short. You failed to mention that. But, do you think he’d have been any less of a driver/winner had he been racing in 1959? Winners win with the equipment provided.
Interesting--my experience could not have been more different.
Rusty, Neil Bonnett, and Jimmy Spencer came to Selinsgrove Speedway in the early 90s. Rusty and Jimmy couldn't have been more gracious with their time--took pictures with me, hung out, etc. It was a great experience.
NASCAR destroyed the sport when the screwed their southern fan base. They closed track after track in the south to move to big markets. The southerns turned their back on them after that. They need to go back to the small tracks in the south, remove restrictor plates, and kill the cookie cutter car.
Dale Earnhardt had Bill France’s ear, If Dale said that was a bad idea or utterly stupid it would not happen. NASCAR abandoned its core demographic with all the stupid playoff/stage gimmick racing.
That sounds like the douche I met.
Dover 88 - I was on pit road pre race, talking with a guy from Goodyear. About 5’ away was a group of drivers standing by a stack of tires prior to drivers meeting.
A guy, with his son and father walk up about 5 minutes before meeting started.
He’s wearing a Rusty T-shirt, ask if he would mind taking a picture with his dad. Rusty looked at him standing there beside him with a Earnhardt T-shirt on. Rolled his eyes, turned to go into the meeting, as he did he muttered, go ask him.
Complete dick move, by Krusty
Yep.
Tons of 1.5 mile tracks at the expense of places like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro.
I always felt that the short tracks brought out more personality in drivers than superspeedways and the 1.5-mi tracks. That's definitely an opinion, but the short track "feuds" with Rusty, Earnhardt, Mark Martin, etc. felt way more interesting than watching someone draft themselves to the front at Daytona, Talladega, or Michigan.
I was going to Dover about 10 years ago and noticed they were covering up huge sections of the stands with advertising banners then. The France family had better wake up or one day soon all the hard work of "Big Bill France will be swirling down the drain. Maybe the only organization I know where a handshake is as good as a written contract at times.
The hard work of Big Bill is already located at the trap under the drain.
To many tracks, to many races, handcuffing drivers killed nascar.
Remember when the penalized Dale Junior because his win at taledaga didn’t mean shit because his daddy won there 10 times? That to me was the beginning of the end.
Remember when the penalized Dale Junior because his win at taledaga didn’t mean shit because his daddy won there 10 times? That to me was the beginning of the end.
The geniuses are having trouble with attendance so what do they do? They schedule back to back Saturday/Sunday Cup races at Pocono for 2020. Are people going to attend 2 days of the most boring track on the planet? They are promoting it here on the radio like it's a good thing.
exactly this^^^^ they have to constantly talk about how it’s a freakin triangle and about how there is a tunnel under one of the turns Like it’s some once in a lifetime engineering accomplishment.
They actually first came to Jeff Gordon to tell him of their plans of change and to gauge his expression/thoughts/feelings about the matter sir.
He did not raise objection; the rest is history.
I wish Jeff had complained loudly and said NO but he is not that kind of person.
They would have listened.
One of my favorite bumper stickers at the time:
24 > 3 + 8
One of my favorites was an Earnhardt sticker that read: Don't like my driving? Call 1-800-328-7458. I won't tyoe out the translation, but you can figure it out.
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