2017 NASCAR Discussion threadNASCAR 

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MustangRyan
The push to go from regional sport in the southeast to legitimate national interest was great, back when the corporate money was flowing in at crazy high rates. Now that the influx of money has slowed to a crawl, the cost of going from the race shop in Charlotte to the race tracks in Texas, Phoenix, and California is substantially more expensive than heading over to race at North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, and Atlanta. Obviously, they are never going back to old dilapidated facilities or reducing the number of races, so NASCAR and the teams are going to have to think about other ways to cut costs. At some point, it will become about the survival of the sport.
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All NASCAR has been doing for the past ten years though is getting that impossible fanbase that they dream of, that frat boy from Cali fanbase that won't ever exist no matter how hard they try. The vision of the sport is now so mangled beyond belief that I doubt NASCAR will be able to stay one entity in the next 20 years.

Reducing the amount of races would be budget suicide for them due to all the TV ads and such, the ad revenue, sponsors, promoters etc, and they're locked in by contracts with track owners to have their races there. Of course they can move dates but they can't do much else. It's sad, the amount of potential the sport had in the 90s and early 00s made it seem unstoppable.
 
AMPMROCKETFANN
My guess is Hendrick and Chase wanted it last year when he took over the ride but NASCAR, for reasons known only to themselves, only cleared it right now. Kinda like how TS values his drivers' input on numbers.
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No, RPM told them they could take the 9 if they wanted to, and they didn't.
 
Suzumiya
it's true though. I dunno what nascar wants but they just want whatever fanbase that doesn't exist at all. they on LSD sometimes
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It's the same sort of chicken and egg scenario that Indycar is facing in terms of the audience it wants.

It's pretty much set in stone at the point that the numbers that both Nascar and Indycar were pulling in the 80's and 90's are pretty much unattainable to any sports league barring the NFL, nevertheless motorsports. Motorsports has become a niche market, and considering the sports landscape, where in the summer months I can flip on a baseball game (and in the case of Canada, the CFL) plus golf, tennis and the like, is staggering. That doesn't even begin to include the later parts of August and early September, where NFL preseason starts, and that's when everybody tunes out. I mean, for god's sake, the PGA is looking to move the PGA Championship to May and compress it's schedule so it doesn't have to face off against even pre-season NFL.
 
Very nice!
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Blood Eagle
NASCAR's fanbase is one of the biggest barriers to it's growth.
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NASCAR's fanbase really isn't any worse than any other fanbase. Hell, F1 is the biggest racing series in the world and the fanbase is full of elitist snobs that look down on every other series.

Gerarghini
Daytona Day was something else
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Brought to you by the same minds behind Digger. :lol:
 
Suzumiya
All NASCAR has been doing for the past ten years though is getting that impossible fanbase that they dream of, that frat boy from Cali fanbase that won't ever exist no matter how hard they try. The vision of the sport is now so mangled beyond belief that I doubt NASCAR will be able to stay one entity in the next 20 years.

Reducing the amount of races would be budget suicide for them due to all the TV ads and such, the ad revenue, sponsors, promoters etc, and they're locked in by contracts with track owners to have their races there. Of course they can move dates but they can't do much else. It's sad, the amount of potential the sport had in the 90s and early 00s made it seem unstoppable.
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Well, uh, NASCAR's already going down in a ball of hot fire, and chasing away fans and sponsors anyway, might as well go for it and hope someone like Liberty Media can catch them later on.

Suzumiya
it's true though. I dunno what nascar wants but they just want whatever fanbase that doesn't exist at all. they on LSD sometimes
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Blood Eagle
NASCAR's fanbase is one of the biggest barriers to it's growth.
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So in short, NASCAR wants fans that don't look like human debris to normies and lo and behold, they can't get new ones as their old ones begin to trickle out. Sounds like they have Harley Davidson syndrome. It's not looking too good.
 
Clip from Race Hub once again talking about the change to cup drivers in Xfinity:



The more I hear about this, the more stupid I keep thinking it is given that NASCAR is more or less chasing sponsors away and with this move (as much as people don't like Cup Drivers in Xfinity or trucks), they might as well be preparing to tell us they're killing off the lower series. We've already got two trucks teams now gone (Red Horse Racing months ago and BKR at the end of the season). When will we start seeing Xfinity teams shutting down? Imagine the struggle a small team like the one Jeremy Clements drives for trying to survive with far less sponsors in (many of whom drawn in by Cup Drivers). Its amazing they still exist.
 
Pretty much every other series manages to have a development ladder without top tier drivers coming down to party. I see no reason NASCAR can't do the same. It could even be argued that removing the Cup drivers could help smaller teams find sponsorship as they won't be constantly overshadowed by the Cup drivers.

I will also say that I'm far more likely to watch Xfinity-only races.
 
Kyle effectively ruined it for everyone being that much better in trucks and xfinity. Viewers are down(from what they used to be), sponsor dollars are down, don't be surprised if the next TV deal is worth half this one, is on MAV TV, and is even more commercial heavy.

I have a question on these retro schemes. Are they all really that good, or is it nostalgia taking over? The car in question is Chase's car, based on Bill's first car, but thinking about old NASCAR games it applies there too, Junior Johnson's #3 in Thunder 2003 for example.

Edit: Matt Tift- Out on lap 1...way to go guys.

E2: Ty Dillon spins on lap 9. This is gonna take a while.
 
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The truck series and Xfinity series would be fine if they just stopped pretending to be a national series and went back to their roots. Since we're in Darlington this weekend, let's run an actual throwback and use the 1992 Busch Series schedule, making sure to rarely race in the same town as the Cup schedule on the same weekend, with exceptions for Daytona, Charlotte, and maybe Indy (we'll be at IRP/ORP, though!). Let both series run identical schedules, racing at the same tracks together each weekend, to help draw in larger crowds. I would have both series practice and qualify on Friday, and then race on Saturday, making a race ticket twice as valuable to fans in attendance.

Assuming that most of the race team shops are located in the Charlotte, NC area, the furthest tracks raced at in 1992 were in Florida, New Hampshire, and Michigan. They ran at a lot more local short tracks in places like Lanier GA, Myrtle Beach SC, Hickory NC, Rockingham NC, Orange County NC, and Dublin VA. They also ran at many of the current tracks that aren't too far from home, like Darlington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega, Richmond, Bristol, and Martinsville. There were a few races that were further away, but on the whole, the schedule was still fairly local. Most of the tracks were smaller (lowers need for aerodynamics R&D), and it was a very productive feeder series.

Yes, there were still Cup drivers running back then, with Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, Mark Martin, Harry Gant, Darrel Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Ernie Irvan, Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip, Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte, Rick Mast, and Morgan Shepherd all showing up in the race results for that season. At least by splitting the schedule away from the Cup series, you would be able to help reduce the number of active Cup drivers in the grids.

Reducing the schedule to be more regional would help reduce costs, as would racing on short tracks vs the larger speedways. Combining the schedule of both the lower series should help reduce travel and logistical costs for the teams that operate in both series. It should also encourage owners in one series to potentially join the other series, since they are all going to all the same race tracks at the same times. At the very least, it might help a few really small teams consolidate their efforts in an attempt to stay afloat.
 
Flipped over to the truck race, noticed the 19. Seems throwbacks aren't limited to Darlington this weekend.



EDIT: Aaaand the 19 hits the 33 hard to steal a win at MoSport, which seems to be the ONLY way anyone can win is by screwing over the leader on the last lap.
 
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If guys are willing to pull moves like that to get into the chase, then they better be ready to be taken out of it with a similar move.

Passing someone actually takes talent to do; flat out dumping someone is just wrong, I don't care who you are. The Clements incident last week was okay in my eyes, because both drivers lost time, and it genuinely was an accident. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, but seriously, if you can't pass someone without taking them out, you don't deserve to win.
 
Leadfoot530
If guys are willing to pull moves like that to get into the chase, then they better be ready to be taken out of it with a similar move.

Passing someone actually takes talent to do; flat out dumping someone is just wrong, I don't care who you are. The Clements incident last week was okay in my eyes, because both drivers lost time, and it genuinely was an accident. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, but seriously, if you can't pass someone without taking them out, you don't deserve to win.
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I'm with you. The Clements-Tift one looked like Tift didn't get into the corner well and tried closing the door on Clements, while Clements (possibly seeing the same thing) was making an effort to slow down his car when wheel hop showed up and assisted both of them around. Cindric drove a sledgehammer to the back of Grala with no hesitation. He's definitely Keselowski's type of driver.

EDIT: King Richard got black flagged :lol:

E2: Blaney got slapped, Bayne just lost it, and AJ got screwed. Also, Is it that dusty all the time? It's like watching parts of 'Days of Thunder' again.
 
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Had Hamlin not screwed up his entry to pit road, he'd have something for Truex. As it stands, he might be too far back to reach him, though.
 
I just don't want to see a caution spoil this battle to the end, like it did at the Brickyard.
 

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