2013 NASCAR Thread

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That is my first NASCAR race courtesy of Race Rewind and if all races are like that then I am in for a treat. I need to get my eye in which will come in time but first looks is that Danica didn't do as badly as people thought, though I think nearing the end I think it was naughty of DP to run as close to Greg Biffle as she did, and I felt Busch in the M&M's car was very unfortunate to have as many issues as he did whilst Biffle did very well I thought and was always in with a shout.
 
Whatever will women be able to do next?

It's the fact that I have not seen a news story yet about the ACTUAL result, both for 2013 and any previous Daytona 500. I'm not a follower of NASCAR and this is the first I've been aware of it's timing, but only because she was on TV at work constantly and I wanted to see why. I thought she had won the race, then realised it was still running!!!
 
Toronado
They also didn't do the split screen properly either. In IRL it's a 50:50 split, but on the race 3/4ths of the screen were ads and the race was shoved into a small box in the corner. It's like the worst of both worlds; and I'd rather have less commercials where I don't see anything than more commercials where I can barely see anything.
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Don't forget the Sprint 20 Laps to go countdown, the Coca-Cola in-car camera views, and the pit stop review brought to you by Goodyear. Also, Chevy, Ford, Ford, Toyota, Chevy, Chevy, Toyota, Ford (in no particular order).

To be fair, it wasn't that bad a race, but here's to a few more passes on the next go-around.
 
Reposted from Jayski....... shame they did not include a Danica count:
Total number of commercials: 138
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 76
Number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 123
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 63
Number of 'Side-by-Side' commercials during race broadcast (split-screen): 15
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 13
Number of times Fox utilized 'Side-by-Side' commercials during this broadcast: 4
Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 42
Total amount of time these brief promos take during broadcast: app. 5 min. 20 sec.
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 1:10 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 4:39 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 209
Minutes of race broadcast: 142
Minutes of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 66
Minutes of 'Side-by-Side' commercials (split-screen): 8
Number of times Danica Patrick was NOT referred to as a driver (leading many to wonder, "Then what DOES James Franco think she does?"): 1
Number of stealthy whispered conversations between a rookie and a veteran (leading many to wonder, "Perhaps he's telling her that, of course, she IS a driver?"): 1
Number of missed restarts: 0
Number of 'mystery cautions' (debris not shown): 2
Total race brdcst time 142 Total comm. brdcst time 66
 
If I've done the math right. 66/209 = 31.5%.

Nearly 1/3rd of the race coverage was advertisements. One thing I've never understood (and yes, I'm bringing football(soccer) into this) is that soccer is shown on TV (ESPN2, FOX Soccer, etc) continuously because there's no stop in the action until the half is over, then they show some commercials between highlighting the last 45-48 uninterrupted minutes of play time depending on how much stoppage time is had. Even hockey is this way unless there's a faceoff after a goal is scored or other brief stops in play happen and even then it's one brief 60 second ad break.

Why the hell does racing have so many commercial breaks when it's not a caution/safety car period?

And yes, I realize it's been this way for years with American TV since it's what I and all Americans have had to deal with.
 
And of course those 66 minutes don't count the 3/4ths of the screen "side by side" for 8 minutes, and the 5 minutes used on various promos.
 
Eh, I'm ok with the side-by-side, but the way they executed it was terrible. Indycar coverage is much better with their side-by-side as it's literally side-by-side instead of 2/3rds screen space for commercial, blank space filled by advertiser's logos, and one tiny 4x3 ratio peephole of race coverage.

Also, they could learn from Indycar in that regard. One ad-break an hour is full screen commercials while the rest of the breaks are side-by-side.
 
FireEmblem10
No. Most of the stands are down, the track is still intact - I drive by the thing every 2 weeks.
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Didn't they cover the racing surface with dirt to keep people from running their vehicles on it and move the grand stands and stuff to the other tracks?
 
Yes, they did cover the track with dirt and sent the grandstands to Watkins Glen. Sad that I never got to see any races there, that track looks like it held some interesting races.
 
Thought I'd have a read up about this Nazareth speedway. Well I say read up I mean look at a few pictures. Is it just me or does anyone else find old, dis-used Racetracks really eery and kinda spooky. It just amazes me how places like that used to be filled with such energy and now they're nothing more than broken up track and a few overgrown trees. Kinda sad really.
 
R0ssingt0n
Thought I'd have a read up about this Nazareth speedway. Well I say read up I mean look at a few pictures. Is it just me or does anyone else find old, dis-used Racetracks really eery and kinda spooky. It just amazes me how places like that used to be filled with such energy and now they're nothing more than broken up track and a few overgrown trees. Kinda sad really.
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The more I read that, the more I pictured North Wilkesboro Speedway in NC.
 
MustangRyan
The more I read that, the more I pictured North Wilkesboro Speedway in NC.
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... To google! As you may be able to tell I know pretty much nothing about NASCAR and the speedways haha.

Edit: Completely agree with you.
 
R0ssingt0n
Thought I'd have a read up about this Nazareth speedway. Well I say read up I mean look at a few pictures. Is it just me or does anyone else find old, dis-used Racetracks really eery and kinda spooky. It just amazes me how places like that used to be filled with such energy and now they're nothing more than broken up track and a few overgrown trees. Kinda sad really.
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Yeah, there's something fascinating about them. There are complete websites and books written about them like this one;

http://books.google.nl/books?id=Svo...QWHu4HoCw&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
I guess I didn't know that about Nazareth - kinda hard to see from a moving car. I knew they got rid of the stands, but didn't know what they did with them or that it's covered in dirt now.
 
I remember hating Nazareth in the old NASCAR games, just so hard to pass cars there.
But aye, never saw a race there so not going to judge it on an EA game made 8 years ago.
 
I quite loved Nazareth, Reminded me of a backwards Pheonix. I was untouchable everytime I raced there, something about it just felt right.
 
Ridiculous how there's tracks like North Wilkesboro and Nazareth just sitting there rotting away, but instead we get tracks like Kentucky, and Kansas, and Vegas.

That and NASCAR no longer races at Milwaukee (although Road America replaced that in the Nationwide series), or Pikes Peak, or Nashville, or Memphis, or Gateway, or Indy Raceway Park (I forget what company sponsors it now).

Of course, the problem with all the tracks mentioned, except IRP, is that they aren't in major markets or they didn't have loads of seating.
 
GTPorsche
Ridiculous how there's tracks like North Wilkesboro and Nazareth just sitting there rotting away, but instead we get tracks like Kentucky, and Kansas, and Vegas.

That and NASCAR no longer races at Milwaukee (although Road America replaced that in the Nationwide series), or Pikes Peak, or Nashville, or Memphis, or Gateway, or Indy Raceway Park (I forget what company sponsors it now).

Of course, the problem with all the tracks mentioned, except IRP, is that they aren't in major markets or they didn't have loads of seating.
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Exactly. And weren't the tracks also not well attended? People only miss the tracks that are no longer there it seems.
 
Blitz24
Exactly. And weren't the tracks also not well attended? People only miss the tracks that are no longer there it seems.
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Hard to get fans to tracks you don't do promotion work for. At that time NASCAR was shifting it's focus to being the series it is now, while forgetting/abandoning it's roots.

I'd say Nazareth needs to be revived, just for the shear purpose of the IndyCar series. They're missing the big sales pitch that Nazareth is the Andretti hometown. Michael stepped in to save Milwaukee, I'm surprised he hasn't done the same for Nazareth.
 
GTPorsche
Hard to get fans to tracks you don't do promotion work for. At that time NASCAR was shifting it's focus to being the series it is now, while forgetting/abandoning it's roots.

I'd say Nazareth needs to be revived, just for the shear purpose of the IndyCar series. They're missing the big sales pitch that Nazareth is the Andretti hometown. Michael stepped in to save Milwaukee, I'm surprised he hasn't done the same for Nazareth.
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Nazareth and not too far from it was Flemington, which was unique as heck. Truck Series lost more tracks in the past 20 years than it currently runs on I believe.
 
Blitz24
Nazareth and not too far from it was Flemington, which was unique as heck. Truck Series lost more tracks in the past 20 years than it currently runs on I believe.
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19 Current tracks, 31 former tracks if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Hadn't heard of Flemington. Looks like it was a short track version of the original Homestead.
 
GTPorsche
19 Current tracks, 31 former tracks if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Hadn't heard of Flemington. Looks like it was a short track version of the original Homestead.
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Think a small version of UK's Rockingham.
 
MustangRyan
The more I read that, the more I pictured North Wilkesboro Speedway in NC.
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Try driving by it! It still has the huge Winston Cup Series on the side of a building that faces the highway. It's odd but as spooky as they are, they still draw me to them.
 
True, it does resemble Rockingham more than the original Homestead.

Looking at the 31 former Truck Series tracks...

Flemington: Demolished
I-70 Speedway: Closed
Louisville Speedway: Demolished (Quite the unique looking track once it was extended)
Mansfield: Closed(?)
Memphis: Closed, except the dragstrip
Mesa Marin: Demolished, being replaced by another oval on-site scheduled to open this year (edit: looking at google earth, there wasn't anything resembling a track as of 8/2012)
Nazareth: Closed
North Wilkesboro: Closed, for the 2nd time
Portland Speedway: Demolished

The rest are just not on schedule or are used for other things now.
 
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Plus, the Busch/Nationwide series also used to visit smaller local tracks like Hickory (NC) and Myrtle Beach (SC). It seems that the small market short tracks got abandoned pretty quickly. It makes the fact that they still race six times at Martinsville, Richmond, and Bristol seem like a small miracle, especially since only Richmond is not a small market area.

It still sucks that Darlington is down to one race per season, while Rockingham (NC) is off the Cup schedule completely. Rockingham/Darlington/Wilkesboro used to account for six total Cup races per season, and now it's just one race a year. These tracks were small, but at least they weren't just more Charlotte clones, like the tracks that eventually replaced them.
 
I remember going to the races during Rockingham's last Cup usage. A lot of the people looked very disappointed at the fact that it was coming to an end.
 

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