How is NASCAR interesting?

Question

Now I'm not bashing here, but I'm asking for a good answer to that question. I don't see a strategy behind it. There was a time when the racing was about the car. You see the race over the weekend, come monday you goto the dealer and buy the exact same car. Now theres new specs which will make every car the exact same down to each bolt (16 races in '07 and 26 in '08). Now thats excluding the decals and engines (and also the drivers). Now it isn't even about racing cars, its an endurace test. Who can hold it and sit in a 100+ degree car longest. The cars they race are no where near stock. My Taurus never came with a V8 and I'm dang sure it was never rear wheel drive. NASCAR fell apart IMHO because of the advertising dollars it gets (Do I have free speech? No I need $40K to put what i want to say in a 2x9in square on one of those body panels). One team with 16 cars, give me a break. Now don't disclaim me as a hater, I took my time to explain my view, I would hope you could do the same

I think each team should have a budget thats regulated and let them do what ever they want to the cars. Then you'll get some interesting races. On top of that if they ever started to use 'stock' cars again maybe Ford wouldn't be so bad in the hole, it might give them some motivation to design cars worth building.

so for those of you who actually answered my question, it not about the cars to you? maybe thats why you guys and f1 dun get along. i love gp. watching an aston martin roll over some of those hills, give me goosebumps. i could care less who's driving, i just wanna hear those engines scream past.

Answer 1

Good view point to your question.
The win on Sunday buy on Monday is in name only now.I drive a Chevrolet and my favorite team use Chevrolet,but this is more coincidence.
I am from the school that started watching NASCAR in 1960.At that time you could go to a race and see a Chevy Belair or Impala in the same race Ford had a Fairlane or a Galaxie you get the picture.Today it is a cold roll of steel punched out to make a car with a decal that says Chevrolet or Ford.Maybe the headlight decals are for that style car.
Fans have changed.Fans always have liked racing now the fans will "spill drinks" on you if you are not rooting for the same as they are(happened at Talladega last fall).Someone "keyed" my van right over the sticker of my favorite driver,and stuck a sticker of another driver on my window.
Fans today are not fans of the sport in general.They are not fans of a manufacturer.They are "fans" of one driver.If something happens to him it is the fault of 42 others?
I go to watch a race that the best driver that day wins.If it is my favorite then great if not well theres next week.I don't curse and make obscene hand jesters because my favorite lost.I don't make cruel remarks about fans of othe drivers.
I have friends that don't take their children to races anymore because of this very reason.
I still watch the RACE.I pay my money to watch a RACE.I am not there to see just 1 driver,nor am I there to get drunk.If i wanted to see a bunch of belidgerant drunks I would go to a bar.
Yes all your points are well taken,but there are still some true die hard RACE fans out here.

Answer 2

I sort of agree about the car issue. It's turning into IROC seems like. Pretty soon it won't be just the wing, it'll be the whole car that gets issued. I'm taking for granted some of the things you mentioned are a little tongue in cheek. Like the V8 engine thing. Mainstream consumer demand brought that change around in car models. Not too many people want/need a 300+ HP car with gas at $3/gallon. Course, you forgot to mention that unleaded gas is still being tested this year, how long since you put leaded gas in a car?

But overall, it would be sorta cool to be able to buy a car that is at least mostly like one on the track. I don't need a spoiler or the super low bumpers or anything, but maybe if the profiles were a little more similar more cars would sell.

Then again, can you fault NASCAR for making it more "driver/team" oriented versus car oriented? Probably easier to promote the series. Most people are driver fans anyways today. Me? No way I'm on the Toyota bandwagon, even if they actually make more cars in America than Ford. (Canada/Mexico plants) How many people followed Waltrip and Jarrett like sheep to toyota though? That's driver loyalty.

And you do have free speech. For free you can say you will not buy such and such since it's on so and so's race car.

Answer 3

I agree. There should be a money limit and car limit per team. The strategy really comes into play planning pit stops and car changes.

They can change the geometric angles of the car to help lap times. They can change air pressure by as little as 1/2 pound to get better turning. The driver is strapped in so they can't even see to pass.

I thought the same way until I went to a live race. if you get a scanner and hear the strategy play out, then you might think differently. You only hear a fraction of what the drivers talk about on the tv.

Answer 4

Let me start by saying that my family has always been NASCAR fans, in some form. It was always on at my grandparents house. And later, after I got into it, it was always on at our house. Actually, I started in High School buying the Rusty Wallace Miller Lite shirts. Because he was a Ford driver at the time & that made my family happy & it was a way I could wear an alcoholic beverage shirt to school & no one said anything. Then my Sophomore year (1997/1998) I had an English teacher who was a die-hard Dale Earnhardt Sr fan. So, I started watching the races to see where Sr would finish, to try to gauge her mood on Monday's. From that I became hooked and have been religiously watching NASCAR races since the Daytona 500 in 1998. And in fact I have become the biggest fan in our family & have turned my mom into more of a fan than she ever has been. I am also the reason she drove 1100 miles, one way, to Homestead in 2006 for the last race of the season. And the reason that for the last 2 years we have driven 800 miles, one way, to Daytona in July. And I am also responsible for us going to the Oct race in Atlanta now (will be there this weekend, so I am counting it as well) for 4 years in a row. So, even though my original interest in NASCAR was purely superficial, it's now as real as it gets.

Answer 5

Good point and I'm glad you explained your views. I am still a nascar fan, but am finding myself getting very bored watching races. Unless you go in person, that changes the whole experience. And you are right, the cars look very little like the ones you and I drive.

I get asked this question all the time, and I usually counter it by saying, ok, how exciting is it to watch 10 guys running up and down a basketball court trying to throw a ball through a hoop. Or watching guys play keep away, (football).

It just depends on how into a sport you are. That's one of the things that make this country great, is freedom of choice

Answer 6

I have been watching nascar for about 12 years. The older races where 10 times better then they are today....for alot of the reasons you stipulated.

It took me over a year to get into Nascar. When my husband and I first got together. Everytime he watched a race I would do that nagging thing that alot of women do. I would say but they just go around in circles for three hours...what's the point? Turn left....and they turn left again...again ....and again...too dumb to make a right turn. But after being in the same room and watching the pre races and getting to like some drivers....I got more into it. I think most people aren't in it or watch it just for the race alone...I think it's because you start to get to know the drivers...LOVE one, like some, dislike some, HATE others....and all together that is what makes me watch it.

Answer 7

Have you ever tried to race on I77 @ 90miles per hour to someplace 5 or 600 hundred miles away and make it in less time than before? It's not easy to keep your focus (not to mention look out for the fuzz) but of course, pro racers don't need to worry about this. Maybe it has something to do with the powerful (and darn it--off limit) machines. It's almost every man's dream to wish that were him screaming around the track at over 180mph's. Wouldn't you?

Answer 8

Nascar is interesting because you get lots of side by side racing ,little bit of rubbing occasionally spinning someone out for the win, much more interesting than F1 in F1 it`s more like follow the red car.
F1 is to dependant on Aero design , in Nascar you get it`s both car and driver skills.
where else can you go and get 43 cars all within a few tenths of a second in speed.
Nascar is one of the biggest sports in north america and still growing.

Answer 9

I really don't have an answer. but I've been into Nascar since I was like three years old. My grandma and grandpa were still farming and my dad helped out sometimes with plowing and planting the fields, and i remember buying this little Dale Earnhardt car, and my mom brought me out to the farm and my dad just got done plowing the feild, and i showed him the car, and he said that it was cool and you know that little card that always cames with the car well the 1995 schedual was on the back and we whatched the races and I've been a Nascar fan ever since.

Answer 10

The state of NASCAR today is a product of the historical and at times hysterical whinning from the Factories. After years of actual or percieved advantages by various factory teams which led to different and "innovative" engines and body styles being deemed illegal, the factories withdrew direct support.

Early in the 1970's, full factory support was virtually non-existant.

Along comes Banjo Matthews.

Banjo Matthews is the person most responsible for how current racecars are built, from the ground up. Only thing "stock" is the name. Banjo began the whole deal, by being the first to offer custom-built racecars that looked like whatever road car you wanted it to look like.

Cars built by Matthews won 262 of 362 NASCAR Winston Cup races from 1974-1985, including all 30 races in 1978, and four consecutive Winston Cup championships (1975-78). On many occasions, cars built by Banjo Matthews comprised over half the field.

Banjo ushered in the modern era, his cars were safer and the chassis was more reliable and cheaper to repair. With a Banjo car, you could salvage a frame by replacing the front and/or rear clip, hang new sheet metal and be ready to roll.

It was his innovations in the sport that permanently severed the remaining ties to the original "Strictly Stock" division and made the COT feasible.

Every winning car since, only resembled the car represented but in fact was not a Ford, Chevy or other.

When the Factories pulled out, everyone predicted the sport was doomed. It was not. Its popularity exploded due to the personalities driving the cars. The racing became more competitive, the action was intensified as the cars became more identical and recognition was given more to a driver than to the make of car he wheeled around the track.

Don't get me wrong as there are still plenty of fiercely loyal Ford, Chevy and Dodge fans. My point is they haven't been Fords, Chevys or Dodges for a very long time now.

NASCAR's popularity has always been driven by the personalities in the sport as in my Ford driver is better than your Ford driver.

There was a time when sponsorship of teams was highly limited to auto related companies and with all advertising, which is not protected free speech, you get what you pay for.

Try posting your "message" on a billboard along the highway for free.

Consider that through nearly 50 years of follwing NASCAR, my favorite drivers have driven virtually every make of car ever run in a NASCAR race, I'm not likely to run out and by a "big ticket" item like a car based on driver loyalty.

However, I am highly more likely to invest a few dollars here and there by buying a product or service that sponsors my driver's team. Hence the plethera of sponsors from Fortune 500 companies willing to pay millions of dollars to get their name before us. Most companies report a return on investment as fans buy enough products to offset the expenditure. I may even buy a product from a sponsor of an "enemy" team, simply because their investment allows me to watch every race, free of charge.

That fact alone should be enough to dispel any argument that the average NASCAR fan lives in poverty, bereft of financial or educational benefits.

If "Detroit" was not going to promote their cars via NASCAR, some forward thinking car dealers would. Enter Rick Hendrick.

Hendrick was always a pioneer in trying to gain an advantage within the "spirit of the rules" and was one of the first to have multiple cars.

The advantage was quite simply contained within the 3 "official" tests rule per car and with multiple cars, more research and development ideas and data could be generated in house. After all, a day of testing on an actual NASCAR track is far better than the few hours of practice before a race and infintely better than testing at a "ball park" facility.

If you want someone to blame for your dismal outlook on NASCAR, choose from Factories, Matthews and Hendrick, in any combination.

I have always found NASCAR interesting because of the men behind the wheel. It wasn't what they were driving that mattered to me but rather the driving, alone.

Edit for content based on askers latest input.

Now, I like cars that are quick and handle well and have never owned anything other than sports cars. I like road races and will watch many different series, including F1.

I like watching cars perform, but I'd rather watch 2 racers battle it out, racing each other as opposed to racing the clock or the track or have my favorite driver continually submit to superior technology. Your theory begs the question, "Would you watch computer program controlled cars, pilotless machines, purely based on whose technology is the best?"

If so, drone meet drone!

My love of NASCAR is bult entirely upon driver's interaction with machine, not the machine. I would pull for my driver whether he drove 2007 F1 Farrari or a 1948 Ford Coupe.

Remove the driver and it would be "adios amigo".