2018 NASCAR Discussion threadNASCAR 

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Blood Eagle
It's the same reason slack jawed commentators like DW, Jeff Burton and Jr are in the booth. It's a southern sport and is downright impossible to shed that stigma. So how do you keep the core fanbase while also trying to attract new fans who don't fit the description without southern fans feeling alienated? It's a really a predicament that NASCAR is in.
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Said southern fans are even more sensitive to change because they’ve already been alienated by pretty much every other aspect of modern society. And I know. It’s hard. But I still think it has to be possible. They’ve also lost about 70% of that “core fanbase” already, so they also have to figure out how to get the old fans back in addition to new ones. New ones should be most important though since so much of the fanbase is over 50 years old. I just think they have to concentrate on people who like other forms of racing and cars in general rather than just “sports fans”. Since a ton of young people love cars, but very few love NASCAR.

Racing in general is declining on popularity, but the difference between something like F1 or sports car racing and NASCAR is that change and upheaval have always been part of the game, whereas NASCAR is the opposite.
 
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bloodyboyblue
Said southern fans are even more sensitive to change because they’ve already been alienated by pretty much every other aspect of modern society. And I know. It’s hard. But I still think it has to be possible. They’ve also lost about 70% of that “core fanbase” already, so they also have to figure out how to get the old fans back in addition to new ones. New ones should be most important though since so much of the fanbase is over 50 years old. I just think they have to concentrate on people who like other forms of racing and cars in general rather than just “sports fans”. Since a ton of young people love cars, but very few love NASCAR.

Racing in general is declining on popularity, but the difference between something like F1 or sports car racing and NASCAR is that change and upheaval have always been part of the game, whereas NASCAR is the opposite.
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I think their best bet is new manufacturers to join. Give them some sort of incentive. An all out manufacturer war would be great.
 
Blood Eagle
I think their best bet is new manufacturers to join. Give them some sort of incentive. An all out manufacturer war would be great.
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The main issue with that is the manufacturers don't want to commit the resources for starting up a whole new operation, like FCA deciding to not bring Dodge back in. They're going to want an established top-level team that can shoulder at least part of the cost of the engine program and other development costs, and there just aren't many of those left in NASCAR anymore, let alone ones looking to jump ship to an untested manufacturer.
 
http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/25145510


PLANO, Texas -- Martin Truex Jr. says he won't change the way he races following Sunday's finish at Martinsville Speedway. At least for the most part.

Truex took several laps to get by Joey Logano with minimal contact, but Logano executed a bump-and-run over the final two turns to pass Truex and win the race. Truex, who finished third, felt the bump was cheap, although even his friends have said Truex was too nice in that situation.

The 2017 Cup champion said Thursday that if he gets to the championship race at Homestead, he doesn't plan to change his driver code.

"It depends on the situation and who it is," Truex said prior to a Toyota employee day at the corporate headquarters. "I wouldn't just wreck somebody to win a championship, just like I wouldn't wreck somebody to win a race.

"It might be cool for a couple of hours. In 20 years, you are going to look back and say, 'Did I really win that race or was that cheap?' Some people might be OK with that."

But what about the old saying that a driver would wreck his parent to win a race?

"Somebody would," Truex said. "They're not me."

Truex said he has received many texts this week, including from his good friend Dale Earnhardt Jr., telling him that he is too nice on the track.

"I am who I am who I am," Truex said. "I race how I race.

"You just can't have one race not go your way and completely change everything about yourself. Hindsight is always 20-20. I would do it differently right now [at Martinsville] if I could do it, but I can't. I will just put that in the memory bank for next time. What else can you do?"

As far as texts go, Truex said he also exchanged a few with Logano.

"I texted him [first] -- let's get that straight," Truex said, in an effort to make it clear that he initiated the conversation. "He wouldn't have probably said nothing if I hadn't texted him.

"What would you think he'd say? ... I just wanted to see what he'd say. And he said exactly what I thought he would -- defending himself."

While Truex said Logano wouldn't win the championship following the Martinsville race, he indicated he won't take Logano out like Matt Kenseth did three years ago at Martinsville, where Kenseth, nine laps down, drove Logano into the wall.

"I don't see myself following Kenseth, but things have changed between us, I tell you that," Truex said.

His experience and the reaction also has changed his approach for Martinsville in the future.

"The only thing I could have done different was knock his [butt] out of the way with two or three laps to go and drove off," Truex said. "I didn't do that. I thought I had kind of set the precedent that we were going to race hard for it and we were going to do it the right way. That was my first mistake.

"[I'll race people] mostly on how people have raced me, and obviously if I get in that situation again at Martinsville where people see what happened at the end of that race as being OK, then I would probably go ahead and do that."

Truex said he has received no criticism from his team for the way he raced.

"Nobody has told me that I had to do anything different," he said.

The one thing Truex doesn't want is NASCAR to try to legislate whether Logano's move was legal. NASCAR has said that its racing is a contact sport.

"There doesn't need to be rules on that," Truex said. "That's just a huge can of worms to open that up. Then you get on judgment of whether it was on accident or purpose.

"That would be a big mess. We have enough rules as it is."
 
bloodyboyblue
The only new blood there is are people like JayOTT though, since race fans aren’t too numerous around the globe like they were back in the day, and most of them regard NASCAR as a joke. Not entirely due to the wrecking people, but also the playoffs and artificial drama which I always complain about. The vast majority of the people wrecking each other has been due to the artificial conditions NASCAR has placed on the competitors. Back in the golden age of NASCAR (90’s and 00’s), I can think of what, less than 5 instances of someone blatantly wrecking/spinning someone (not the same as bumping someone) for a win, one of which (Rudd and Allison at Sonoma) actually resulted in disqualification. Now it happens like 5 or more times a year across the 3 series. I agree with Jay that purposely wrecking people isn’t racing (I’m talking about things like the last few truck finishes at CTMP) But minor contact is part of racing, and the bump n run is part of NASCAR, and that’s the way it should be.

Still, get rid of the playoffs and the drama, and the racing will be cleaner and “better”. And people will start looking at NASCAR as “proper racing” again. Since BTCC and Rallycross and V8s have a lot of rubbing and chaos as well and they’re respected. It’s mostly the gimmicks that have sealed NASCAR’s doom as “entertainment”. Like look at the thousands of people on GTPlanet who all vaguely like “racing” and how few watch or have an interest in NASCAR. These are the people NASCAR needs to be courting. They need to saying “hey, we’re serious racing, but side by side and some rubbing”, not “hey, we’re like baseball or football but with cars” like they have been.

Also, I agree that Bill Elliott had limited personality. When you think about it, most of the old drivers didn’t have much going on off track past the accents. It’s mostly that they just didn’t all say exactly the same programmed phrases in every interview and seemed like real people.

Really though, compare the homogeneity of NASCAR drivers to the homogeneity of country music singers and songs. Same audience, what a coincidence.
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Thank you!
 
New Chevrolet bodies for Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

Camaro SS updated to 2019 facelift.
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Silverado updated to Silverado RST
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Dylan
New Chevrolet bodies for Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

Camaro SS updated to 2019 facelift.
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Silverado updated to Silverado RST
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Silverado is not bad looking. Actually more svelte than the truck its based on. The Camaro on the other hand, is another example of why NASCAR needs to rethink its chassis construction/visual style. Another case of a factory front clip jammed on a blocky spec body.
 
If the street truck looked that decent, I'd be a major improvement...in my mind, anyway.

Going to the Cup race with my father, how's the race forecast? Actual competition or a drawn out game of two-ton leap frog?
 
AMPMROCKETFANN
The Camaro on the other hand, is another example of why NASCAR needs to rethink its chassis construction/visual style. Another case of a factory front clip jammed on a blocky spec body.
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The current trend of "make the grills as big as possible" really has done NASCAR no favors in the looks department. Hopefully their relationship with the Aussies results in adopting something like their mother chassis setup.
 
Watched the race on delay again, not a bad race. Impressive run by Harvick.

Bringing that kid on track for a selfie and giving him the checkered flag was pretty cool of him.
 
In case anyone missed it, Jimmie Johnson had to start the race at the back of the pack for failing inspection. Problem is, he only failed it twice. Rule is 3 fails and to the back you go. Mistake was caused by a miscommunication between officials. NASCAR is taking the blame for it, but since the race had started by the time the mistake was caught, there wasn't really anything they could do.
We can probably expect some changes for the final two races because this is absolutely unacceptable.
 
Blood Eagle
Harvick found to have an illegal car and assessed an L1 penalty and a loss of 40 points. This is huge. Both Crew Chief and Car Chief suspended for the next 2 races aka for the final 2 races of the season.

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2018/11/07/kevin-harvick-team-penalty-texas-40-points/
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At least he’s going to Phoenix so it could be worse. He’s still 3 points above the cut line and he very rarely finishes outside of the top 5 there barring some sort of mechanical problem. He just needs to hope one of the 5-8th place points guys don’t win.
 
bloodyboyblue
At least he’s going to Phoenix so it could be worse. He’s still 3 points above the cut line and he very rarely finishes outside of the top 5 there barring some sort of mechanical problem. He just needs to hope one of the 5-8th place points guys don’t win.
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Yeah he owns Phoenix but it has a new configuration now than it did earlier this year. Not much of a difference but it's something. The car will also have to be 100% legal after the race as well so there's that too lol
 
Blood Eagle
Yeah he owns Phoenix but it has a new configuration now than it did earlier this year. Not much of a difference but it's something. The car will also have to be 100% legal after the race as well so there's that too lol
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The racing surface is essentially the same. They just moved the pits and the start/finish line (as well as some off track stuff like grandstands and garage buildings).
 

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