Why Nascar Sucks

A few quotes from an article linked to my MSN homepage...

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby says the lower part of the front bumper “will be universal.” He adds the goal for 2011 is to offer the manufacturers “more real estate” for brand identity and to make the cars more appealing to fans/consumers but at the same time not lose the “current aero signature” that NASCAR has reached through research and development.

“We have a new lower nose that the Cup garage will run in 2011 that’s a lot sexier than what we have now,” Darby said. “It helps eliminate the metal rods, the splitter braces. It has a little more shape to it that will allow the manufacturers to, through the use of graphics, which they’ve been so successful with, to really make the Cup cars a lot nicer looking in the front.

"The canvas we had for the car today was basically from the cowl forward and from the out forward corner of the headlights kind of into the windshield,” Suhy said. “The fenders, the lower (valance), the sides, the tail, the deck lid — all that stuff is pretty common."

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/Could-Pony-cars-be-in-NASCAR-Sprint-Cup-future-061510-?gt1=39009

Why not just get rid of the headlight decals and give 'em even more advertising real estate?

mistanfo wrote: Why not just get rid of the headlight decals and give 'em even more advertising real estate?

Um duh... because then the fans would forget they are based off of stock factory cars.... OH WAIT.... nm :)

As long as they don't lose the “current aero signature” that Nascar has worked so hard to achieve.

plance1 wrote: As long as they don't lose the “current aero signature” that Nascar has worked so hard to achieve.

God forbid.

the current lower nose is "universal", they are just changing it to get rid of some of the "ricer-ness" from the braces on the splitter. they already got rid of that stupid rear wing in favor of the more traditional spoiler, which was a good place to start. currently, the different brands all have different upper noses, hoods, and rear quarter windows. they aren't stock sheetmetal, but they are different from brand to brand..

personally, i think they should model the cars after the Australian V8 Supercars- or at least NASCAR of 20 years ago- and use mostly oem sheetmetal over the current Cup chassis. but that's not gonna happen. but they are starting to talk about getting away from the carburetor and going to fuel injection, which is a good thing.

There are soo many more reasons I hate NASCRAP. But that mentality is up there.

just imagine how fun the wrecks would be with real sheetmetal?

ReverendDexter wrote:

plance1 wrote: As long as they don't lose the “current aero signature” that Nascar has worked so hard to achieve.

God forbid.

They're only thinking of the fans/consumers

The COT would still look like a dirt modified trying a bad impression of a street car, even without the splitter.

splitime wrote:

mistanfo wrote: Why not just get rid of the headlight decals and give 'em even more advertising real estate?

Um duh... because then the fans would forget they are based off of stock factory cars.... OH WAIT.... nm :)

The fans have no problem remembering that the cars are not based off factory cars. Seriously this sort of insulting, elitist BS needs to stop. It only makes you look like a worse moron than those you are trying to be insulting towards.Stock is stock in NASCAR the same way Production has evolved into fiberglass tube frame replicas in SCCA road racing. So please, STFU until you have a clue.

DrBoost wrote: There are soo many more reasons I hate NASCRAP. But that mentality is up there.

There are a lot of reasons to hate elitist sports car fans, but your mentality is up there. How often do you have to take a tissue to your nose to stave off the bleeding?

I don't watch NASCAR for one reason most of the races are simply ovals and well that is boring to me. If I want to watch brightly colored shapes going round and round in a circle, I would flush skittles down the toilet. It is the same reason I can't be bothered to watch most of the Indy races.

Chris_V wrote:

splitime wrote:

mistanfo wrote: Why not just get rid of the headlight decals and give 'em even more advertising real estate?

Um duh... because then the fans would forget they are based off of stock factory cars.... OH WAIT.... nm :)

The fans have no problem remembering that the cars are not based off factory cars. Seriously this sort of insulting, elitist BS needs to stop. It only makes you look like a worse moron than those you are trying to be insulting towards.Stock is stock in NASCAR the same way Production has evolved into fiberglass tube frame replicas in SCCA road racing. So please, STFU until you have a clue.

the upper series of NASCAR is no different than what you see at any local oval track around the country- the IMCA, NASCAR, or WISSOTA "late model stock cars" that run at any of the thousands of tracks around the country are no more "stock" than the Cup or Nationwide cars that are on tv every week. the people that pay for the tickets and go to the track and most of the people that watch at home know what's what.

I'm still working on it, but I have a theory about all that NASCAR hate. Are NHRA Pro Stock cars stock? No, not really, but people don't seem to have a cow about them.

David S. Wallens wrote: I'm still working on it, but I have a theory about all that NASCAR hate. Are NHRA Pro Stock cars stock? No, not really, but people don't seem to have a cow about them.

my theory about all the NASCAR hate is that it comes down to the fact that most of their races are run on ovals (anyone can do it, right??? ask Indy 500 winner, CART series champ, and former F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya how easy it is to win on ovals in full fendered cars...) and are more popular in the USA than the next 10 biggest professional race series combined.

then there the elitist angle- people tend to look down on anything related to the South as being something only ignorant redneck hillbillies could possibly like.

novaderrik wrote: personally, i think they should model the cars after the Australian V8 Supercars- or at least NASCAR of 20 years ago- and use mostly oem sheetmetal over the current Cup chassis. but that's not gonna happen.

I couldn't agree more. I think ratings would jump if they were using "real" cars. The spec racer aspect of it now is snoozetastic. How rad would it be to see OEM-style sheetmetal with all the Nascar cladding, spoilers, etc? One can dream...

Fuel injection would be an interesting addition, though.

one thing that bugs me about NASCAR is the way they cover the post race- Robby Gordon is the last old school independent owner/driver and managed to pull off a second place finish at Sears Point today.

after the race, they interviewed everyone else in the top 10 or so and a few of the big names that raced like crap or crashed and finished back in the 30's so they could get their sponsors some air time, but never talked to the guy that got a hard fought 2nd place finish. Robby's car did get a lot of air time during the race and they talked about him a lot, but they never talked to him on camera.

novaderrik wrote: then there the elitist angle- people tend to look down on anything related to the South as being something only ignorant redneck hillbillies could possibly like.

stuff from the south isnt only liked by ignorant rednecks?

watching nascar is just as boring as watching drag racing. i get bored watching most any racing, i get my kicks from actually racing.

gamby wrote: I couldn't agree more. I think ratings would jump if they were using "real" cars.

How could the ratings jump? It is the most watched motorsport in the U.S.

NASCAR has learned how to make motor racing into a serious money making enterprise. Is it spec? Sure, so is Spec Miata. Spec makes the racing closer and more exciting. On one hand this board complains about F1 and how nobody races in it "It's just a parade" yet the close racing in NASCAR is silly and boring.

Oval racing might not be as exciting as road racing, but it's easy to show on TV and keep the action going.

Granted there are some things in NASCAR that start to concern me (random yellow flags to bunch up the group), but it's still auto racing.

People who hate on NASCAR for making money are like those kids in college when an independent band would make it big.

You know the type, "I USE to listen to BlahBlah, but now they're all corporate so I don't like them anymore" Usually the same album they were raving about 2 months ago just started selling well and now they are no longer cool....

Why is it bad to make a living racing cars?

-Rob

In todays race, I thought that last caution was unneeded. The # 12 spun, he got it restarted and was moving, then the caution came out. Jimmie needed a win on a road course. He would never have caught Marcus with out. Then Marcus stopped ?

I road race, and I run at the local short track. Short track stock car racing is one of the most difficult things in racing to do well, full of subtle nuances of car setup and control. Trust me, if you want to be a better road racer, your Saturday night short track will teach you more about trailbraking than taking every driving school in the nation.

I watch less televised Nascar racing now than I used to, but for personal reasons, not because of the quality of the show.

I sure do love watching them on the road courses- just like hippos on roller skates. Damn fast hippos, but hippos none the less.

Nascar + Watkins Glen = awesome.

iceracer wrote: In todays race, I thought that last caution was unneeded. The # 12 spun, he got it restarted and was moving, then the caution came out. Jimmie needed a win on a road course. He would never have caught Marcus with out. Then Marcus stopped ?

Marcus Ambrose stopped because his crew thought they had to play with the gas mileage by shutting off the car and coasting up a hill. gravity must work backwards where he comes from.. when he went to restart it, he didn't have enough forward momentum to start it by popping the clutch in gear- which caused the car to come to a complete stop- and the starters on those cars can be hit or miss when they are hot like that.

ignorant wrote: Nascar + Watkins Glen = awesome.

Plus a lot.

If they ran more road courses I would watch more. The only part of a roundy round worth watching to me is the last 20-30 laps on the short tracks. The super speedways put me to sleep.

Less traction would do a lot to make it more interesting. Make them slow down for the corners more and actually have to accelerate down the straits.