NASCAR - 43 qualifiers

My guess would be yes there will be a race with less than 43 cars. They have been talking recently about how the extremely high costs of maintaining a NASCAR Nextel Cup car has forced some to only run a few races or none at all.

It seems like there are fewer 1 and 2 car teams each year, also. With the bigger multi-car teams, they can split costs of research and development and share testing results. They also said the weak economy has resulted in fewer companies willing to pay out the money it takes to be a sponsor. Without a corporate sponsor, the teams run out of money fast. This has contributed to the recent trend of dumping a driver if they don't have immediate success. Nobody wants to sponsor a loser.

 

i agree that it might happen. Even established drivers such as Jeff Burton have had trouble getting sponsors. The sport (while adding a few new regular drivers) has also lost several over the past year or two, including Bill Elliot to semi-retirement, Jerry Nadeau to injury, and Bobby Hamilton and Johnny Benson to lost rides.

It was sad Sunday to see the "field fillers" trying their best but knowing full well they shouldn't be there. Joe Ruttman finished one lap before he was disqualified for not having...a pit crew! Poor Kirk Shelmerdine made it 19 laps for succumbing to driving too slowly.

 

IMO the rules have become ridiculous. So much effort to force "parity" has created a situation where the cars are so identical that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to make a car a few hundredths of a second faster. I'd like to see it go back towards "stock" cars. Yes, I know that true "stock" is not possible due to modern safety concerns, front wheel drive, etc. But, some suggestions:

1) Stock body templates, with a maximum allowable square area for additional spoilers and air dams.

2) Engine requirements: factory stock blocks, naturally aspirated (carburators), displacement limits, factory stock valve train configuration (pushrods, 2 valves per cylinder). Lift other restrictions and let a little ingenuity and engine talent replace multi-million dollar engine programs.

3) Slow the cars on superspeedways with restrictions on down force and/or tire performance, eliminating the need for restrictor plates.


Just my opinions, might make things more interesting and less expensive. Money is ruining the sport.

 

Here is a link to an interesting article related to this topic: NASCAR denies recruiting field-fillers

 

Safety is a fact of life and always will be, but if you want real stock car racing, even you are off the mark.
1. They should all be FWD.
2. Only the largest engine offered should be allowed. This is usually a 3 to 4 liter V6.
3. The body should come from the manufacturer and not a private body shop. Remeber when they drove cars that actually looked like something most people drove.
4. Use of current automotive electronics including computers and fuel injection.
5. Use of pump gas and NOT racing fuel.

Talk about saving some money and reducing cost as well as relating again to the common fan, this would do it.

 

We did see several field-fillers though...Shelmerdine, Ruttman, Hillenburg, Bellmont...

 

Things still haven't changed... the field fillers still arrive and make some laps and collect $50-60,000. Makes me wish I had a used race car!

After Bristol - heading to Texas... NASCAR continues to shoot itself in the foot. Dale Jr. is quoted as spinning on purpose in order to stay on the lead lap, yet John Darby (NASCAR rep) says there's no evidence that Jr. spun on purpose! No harm, no foul. Unless you're Rusty Wallace who was trying desperately to catch Busch and didn't need a yellow flag.