NASCAR is back, part II

ok I guess I hadn't paid that close of attention to the races to notice that going on.

Too bad they couldn't have helped him not get wrecked at Talladega and Martinsville. He could be up at the top.

Oh well, it appears that Johnson is going to be the man this year.

 

No doubt. :BangHead:

 

This article nails it perfectly about everything that's wrong with Nascar.

 

Some of the things he says are "wrong" with NASCAR seem like great problems to have.

NASCAR is leaving its traditional tracks and going to new ones? That's GREAT! The sport is growing and is moving into new markets. The tracks that have closed were not selling out (Rockingham) or were so remotely located (North Wilkesboro) that they could not attract a crowd to pay purses that are competitive. Did you ever go to North Wilkesboro? I tell you if they tried to get 100,000 people into that track it would take til Tuesday to get them out! Once upon a time they raced at Bowman-Gray stadium too. It's sad that they left, but the sport could not have evolved and grown if they had continued to race there.

Toyota is coming into the sport? Toyota is on the verge of becoming the world's--THE WORLD'S--top mass producer of automobiles. The Toyota Camry is the #1 selling car in the USA. If you are NASCAR, you WANT them involved in the sport. That's a great thing!

The car of tomorrow? The car should be safer and it has the potential to allow the sport to do away with restrictor plates at Daytona and Talledega. Doing away with those plates will make the racing at those tracks MUCH better and it will take racing at those tracks back to what it used to be back in the good old days. I'm in favor of that!

Southern boys are not the dominate drivers any more? So what! The BEST drivers in the world want to drive in NASCAR! They are coming from Indy cars, Champ cars, Sprint cars, and even Formula One because NASCAR is the form of racing that attracts the masses and demands the most diverse driving talent to perform well at all of the tracks.

The TV ratings are down? So what? The two networks that are covering the sport are THRILLED to be involved (FOX and ESPN/ABC). They are paying BIG bucks to cover the sport because they can generate big ratings for their cable outlets and big bucks through NASCAR related programming. While the ratings on TV are not as big as the NFL, the number of paying customers through the gate dwarfs the NFL.

I read these articles about the doom of NASCAR and I think "What planet do these guys live on?" I think the sport is in great shape!

 

Trashing the Southern 500 and going to Fontana a 2nd time was not great.

I don't think for one second that the COT will allow the plates to go away. I hope I'm wrong. Where I really hope the COT comes into play is doing away with aero-push and we start to see real racing again, not the parades that we've been subjected to for years.

The author of the article cares about the manufacturer, but I stopped caring about manufacturer's years ago. Stock has had nothing to do with stock car racing for years. To me, another manufacturer means nothing more than more nondescript racecars.

Agree with the latter, but not the former. F1 puts at least as many in the seats (heaven only knows why) as Nascar does.

Regardless, Montoya isn't coming to Nascar for these reasons, he's coming for the money. Allmendinger isn't leaving Champ Car for these reasons either, he's coming for the money.

Great shape is in the eye of the beholder. When I see the racing, it does little more than put me to sleep.

 

Anyone think Johnson blows the championship at Homestead? What is his history at that track? What about Kennseths history?

 

I don't think there's any way that he loses the championship at Homestead. Jimmie didn't run very well last year, but he had a Top 5 in 2004. I expect him to run as conservative a race as he can.

With that said, Davey Allison went to the last race of the 1992 season with a 30 point lead, needing to finish 5th to win his 1st championship. While running 6th, which is where he needed to be since he had already led a lap, he got caught up in a wreck when Ernie Irvan got loose off of turn 4. (You might say that Ernie "swerved". :smilewinkgrin: ) Anyway, Davey finished 26th.

BTW, does anybody else remember that race? Out of some 2000 Cup races or so, that race is, arguably, the best Cup race ever.

 

That '92 race at Atlanta was a classic! I remember it well. It was Richard Petty's last race and the first one for this guy named, uh, let me see, um...Jeff Gordon.

Anything can happen at Homestead, but Jimmie Johnson should win the championship and deservedly so.

 

For as long as I can remember, one of the big debates in Nascar is whether the Cup drivers should drive in the Busch series or not. If Na$car, (or as a friend on another board calls it, NAPCAR), wanted to make sure the Cup drivers didn't run in Busch races, the answer is very simple. Run Cup and Busch races at separate tracks every week.

When the Cup series runs the 2nd race at California, send Busch to Texas instead of California. In other words, design the schedule so that it's prohibitive for the Cup drivers to run both races on a given weekend. If the Cup drivers want to kill themselves flying back and forth every weekend, let them.

If there was really an interest in making sure that Cup drivers didn't compete in the Busch series, this would accomplish that objective. I don't think it will happen for 2 reasons. #1, there's money to be made by maintaining the status quo. #2, Nascar doesn't now, nor have they ever, thought that the Busch series could stand on its own without the Cup drivers in it. Ultimately, #2 comes down to #1.

 

Seven races into the chase, I had four drivers in the position I picked them to finish. Now that the chase is over, I have none. Gotta take some Windex to my crystal ball!!!

Congrats to Jimmie Johnson. He came from WAY BEHIND and won. I like the fact that he challenged for wins in the Chase. That's the way it should be.

 

Yes, I was there. Bill won the race and Alan Kulwitki won the cup by leading one more lap than Bill.

 

Bob,

I have a question that you may or may not be able to answer.

Did you use a scanner at all when you were at that race? If so, did you happen to listen to Elliott's pit communication at all, especially around the last pit stop of the day?

A few years ago, I either read or saw an interview with Junior Johnson and he said that they were trying to tell Bill Elliott to stay out another couple of laps late in the race so that he would lead the most laps and get the most points, thus securing the championship. Junior claims that the team had trouble with pit communication at that very time and that's why Bill didn't stay out long enough. I don't know whether to believe him or not. I think that Kulwicki outsmarted him and I think that Junior doesn't want to admit it.

Can you shed any light?

 

Yes, I was pulling for Bill. When Dale spun coming out of turn 2, it allowed Terry Labonte to lead one more lap, which cost Bill the cup. As I recall Bill had bad communication. Junior had his radio blocked out so no one could listen and they think that had something to do with the problem. Tim Brewer and Bill were very up set, Tim said if Junior had not had their channel blocked, it never would have happen. And the problem with Flossie didn't help either, Junior, just had to play around.