NASCAR 2016 NASCAR Discussion Thread

Yes.

 

Agreed. And to expand on that, Harvick also won the Busch championship in 2001, the same year Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman picked up their first career Busch series wins.

2002: Greg Biffle won the championship before the season finale, Scott Wimmer won the final two races of the year, and Hank Parker Jr. captured his final career victory.

2003: Brian Vickers holds off five other drivers to capture the Busch Series championship, and Kasey Kahne, who struggled during his first year with Akins Motorsports, wins the season finale at Homestead. Best year of the Busch Series, IMO.

 

I don't know what I'm more impressed with: Jimmie Johnson winning his 7th championship, or the fact that his car actually cleared the post-race tech inspection.

Also, heartbreaker for Kyle Larson: He had the best car on track almost all race long.

 

That Ken Squier tribute to Johnson winning his 7th championship though.

 

To some extent.

2001 started off terribly for reasons all of us know. Gordon had his last dominant year. Rudd and Jarrett might've had something if their engines would've held together. Dodge's first year with Marlin getting them the win at Michigan. Junior winning the Daytona night race. Robby Gordon somehow winning New Hampshire. Craven getting that first win at Martinsville. New tracks on the schedule which were awful.

2002 had that wacky ending to the 500. Bill Elliott winning Indy. Marlin had the points lead but took a big hit at Richmond and an even worse one at Kansas that I think ruined his career. McMurray's shocking win. Mark Martin had a shot at winning a championship but Stewart ended up taking it. Johnny Benson holding off Martin to win Rockingham.

2003 had Craven/Busch finish at Darlington. Ricky Rudd's "yap-yap mouth" comment pointed at Harvick at Richmond. Winston's last year of sponsorship. Most importantly, Kenseth winning just one race early but held the points lead for just about the entire season. NASCAR decides this was unacceptable and they created the "wonderful" Chase system that we have today.

 

I don't understand why people hate Kyle Petty. Can someone elaborate on this?

 

OK, Not trying to start a war, but I want to know. See, I didn't follow the sport like I do now, and I had no exposure to outside opinions for a few years later. What did people say about the points racing back then, or did they? All we do is about it now, but I don't know if fans did so when Gordon was unreachable and Kenseth made it look easy.

 

Ironically, the late Benny Parsons was in the commentary booth for NBC that year and he won his only Winston Cup Championship by winning one race and running consistent the rest of the season.

 

It's either complain about someone possibly running away with a championship under a traditional system or a system when an entire year's of work is thrown out the window because of one race.

My biggest beef with the Chase system is that one of the few things that hasn't changed much is the tracks that they run. What's the point of being any good at any of the non-Chase tracks, especially with the current setup? Heck, if you're not great at Homestead, then you'll never win a championship.

 

Yeah I agree. I have several friends that are hardcore dirt track racers, we all used to be pretty big on watching NASCAR, now we hardly ever talk about it. Any chase format with the Crap shoot that is Talladega in it, is an absolute joke to begin with.

It was fine to begin with, some years it didn't come down to the last race, and that's how it is in almost all racing. When someone was consistent all year long, they deserved to run away with it.

It turned into a money thing, trying to get more fans, and they lost fans because they tinkered with it and messed a good thing up IMO. That and the naming 15 sponsors everytime they do interviews now, it's just not the same.

 

Looks like he's retiring or leaving for another team next year?

 

Hes a bit of an ass, and speaks as if he was actually successful, but I respect him.

 

Yeah I can see that lol

 

Fixed. Oh and on that bombshell, sayonara 2016 thread!

 

After taking a bit to simmer down, I can't say the season ended all that badly. The racing was good - better in the beginning of the year than as of late - and the low downforce was what these cars needed.

Still bummed for Byron in the truck series, but even the points show he wouldn't have won. Maybe if that engine held up, but alas.

Same story for Erik in the Xfinity series, but his season was pretty meh. I don't think his team was 100% with him this year, and you can't win 'em all. I'm sure both these guys will be on to bigger and better things soon enough. Pretty cool to see Suarez win, though, and I can be happy with that. As I said yesterday, quite an improvement since Daytona in the spring of 2015.

The biggest crack this weekend was the #18 not being able to go back-to-back. After seeing all the Facebook comments about being a "Part-Time Champion', I would have loved to see him win again, just to shut everyone up. Still, I think he's matured quite a bit in the last two years, and he's proving to be a serious title contender.

And finally, as much as I've hated Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole, I'll give credit where credit was due. They were extremely under preforming midway through the season, but somehow, and they always do, they managed to get it back together and come out on top. I think we can all say we still hate this format with a burning passion. Maybe if it wasn't for the Chase, I could find more respect for the guys that dominate the season. We'll probably never know at this point.

Crossing my fingers for another strong year for JGR next year.

Until Daytona, thanks for the @banter everyone!

 

Yeah, I'm really liking this format.

Kill me.

 

Steve Letarte is getting salty with everyone on Twitter that miss the old pre-chase format lmao

 

Well there's a reason he's in the both now soooooooo......

 

Some great "Friends" you have there, Jimmie.

 

Few comments:

- The chase format from 2004-Present is a joke and should be blown up. This will never happen and the Chase will always be apart of the sport so along with every fan in the world and myself we must get over it (Even though its tough and may never get over it) !! In the old format a guy clinched the title in the last few races. So what? He deserves it because he was the best all season. That`s like saying "John Doe has the highest GPA in the class by a landslide and is lined up to be the class speaker and that`s not fair or exciting so lets lower his GPA to the same as everyone else and start over".

- The Chase was designed because the causal fans lost interest by years end. Not the diehards who eat, sleep, and live racing.

- In a more realistic perspective, If they are going to have a Chase I believe the current Chase is the best format for the most part. I would alter a few things. I would give the driver 1st in points after 26 races a 1st round bye and a small amount of bonus points for round 2. I would allow the winning bonus points from each race carry over, including bonus points for a win in a round. Lastly I would make the Chase 12 races and not 10. This way each round can be either 4 rounds of 3 or 4 rounds of 4. 1 race deciding a title is insane.

- Either way I love NASCAR and always will.

 

TV ratings for NASCAR finale show huge decline

The message continues not to register with the upper management.

 

ok... WHAT?!

 

Bunch of boneheads. Almost dumber than F1's current higher ups...and that's saying something.

 

And Brian is pleased with these numbers, lol

 

With the current design, NASCAR made the first 26 races all but irrelevant. One win and even Buescher can make the Chase. Barring injury, you know drivers like Jimmie, Harvick and the Gibbs stable will be in the 2017 Chase. The races that are relevant has to compete directly against the NFL and the MLB playoffs and I know I watched the races far less come September.

If I had the power, I would go with a straightforward solution. Eliminate the Chase and simply state that the championship will be decided by a driver's top 26 races in the season. In other words, a driver can miss time due to injury or have bad luck and they can have those finishes dropped off with stronger finishes. Each race will matter. Teams can try winning through consistency or gamble for wins knowing that they have mulligans to fall back on.

 

Anything but this **** system.

 

If I heard correctly, WWE is having the same issue, and like the muscleheads in Connecticut they continue on the same path and refuse to face facts. People who enjoy sports still watch on TV. You can have any number of streaming options, but if it's on TV those people will watch it, even if it's Fox's IMSA "coverage". These people are delusional. They have no clue how it all works anymore. Bill Sr. had to build it, Bill Jr. built it into the juggernaut, Brian is trying to mimic the Costa Concordia!