do you feel like i do
ryan
Sunday August 24 2008, 10:42 AM
SINCE nascar has taken the road to find new fans and forget about the old fans this is my question to you the members of racersreuion. this sport at one time had many drivers who could win on any given day. the nascar of today have only a few drivers who will ever cross the finish line. to me the day that you were allowed to have so many teams under one owner. i guess you could sau it like the yankees the biggest payroll but in this case not the best team. dont you miss the day in nascar when you have 10 to 15 drivers who could win a race. today only a few drivers win and then add to the fact alot of them get caught cheating so where is the competion. i think alot of drivers who win may not be as good as some drivers who will never win just because of what i call a unfair playing feild. i think alot of driver who are fan favorites are not good drivers at all. i think some would rather do a stupid commerical instead of wanting to be a better driver. nacar has alway been a sport that you want to push to get ahead but the guys of today just stone cold cheat. then all the heads of the team of course had nothing to do with it, can nascar be fair if a car owner has 3or4 cars and buys the best drivers. i just wish i could see a race where bobbie allision, cale, petty,tim richmond,bill elliot,geoff bodine. harrygant were all on the track because then you had drivers not teams that would win a race,
You are definately among like-minded folks here, Ryan. It has always been really hard to outrun money in racing. Now it is impossible. I did an interview with Paul Lewis Thursday about what it was like to compete back in the day with the facory backed teams. The independants back then had a tough time, but there were still some of them who could use their driving skills to out duel the big money drivers....just as Paul did in 1966..(or '67...my memory sucks). He ran 2nd at Bristol one week...then the next week in Maryville, Tn he started last and won. All the top drivers were there, but Pauls set-up and drivnig skills put him in front on that dirt track. Thought this was a good place to add that bit of racing history and give recognition to one of the great drivers of racing's past.
It's not cheating......unless you get caught! We've all heard this one, so many times, it's a part of the NASCAR mindset. The infamous phrase was literally developed and voiced by the grandaddy of all NASCAR mechcanics, Red Vogt. Who, (also) incidentally, coined the acronym.......N.....A....S.....C....A.....R.....(national association for stock car auto racing) only to be left behind the door and under the bus when the power was being doled out in Daytona's "Streamline Hotel" in December of 1947.Red, (like Hubert Westmoreland the mechanic on Glenn Dunaway's winning and illegal Ford in the first 'strictly stock' race) was a moonshiner's mechanic before becoming a racing one. As "modified" stockers were the predecessors of the strictly-stock/GN/W-Cup, Red and his fellow wrench-turners, had a difficult time adapting to the mindset of anything being AND remaining "strictly stock". Really, they found it impossible not to tweak this and that, and ultimately...........make 100 changes and if they catch 50 of them, you are still 50 ahead! That's pretty much been the NASCAR landscape for a very long time, and there's a right fair chance, it just might continue. No matter how corporate-friendly and politically correct NASCAR trys to be, the Red Vogt mentality will remain. It is, what it is.
A little known but interesting fact that surfaced in the aftermath of the FIRST annual "Southern 500", Labor Day 1950: the winning Plymouth, as everyone knows was driven by Californian, Johnny Mantz, (who) after partying all night, the night before at Myrtle Beach, swallowing a couple aspirins and diving into the Horry county surf, scurryed back to Darlington for a date with destiny. AND, as is emblazoned on the Plymouth's front fenders,........"maintained by Hubert Westmoreland" (the SAME Hubert Westmoreland of Glenn Dunnway fame)What's NOT too well known was the Plymouth's owner: William H.G. "Bill" France.AND, that's not all, the shock absorbers on the #98 were suspect and questioned as to their "stock-ness" and, therefore, their state of legality. All protest were disallowed. Gaa-aw-leeee!
Well put Ryan! I was involved in NASCAR with the old Late model Sportsman division at Beltsville and Manasas ( LMS is now Nationwide and before that Busch) from 73-81! it was fun and then NASCAR (ASCAR) went for the buck and the bang and threw awya the oyalty of their old fans! BUT us old-timers hold on to the memories forever!