The Beginning of the End...
I've been reading many of the Blogs out there and it seems to me that there are a lot of folks that are a little bothered by what NASCAR has become. Where did they go wrong? Was this avoidable? Can this caliber of racing continue at this present course? I will take a shot at this, but don't be too harsh with your responses.Where did they go wrong? Kindda hard to pinpoint, but for starters let look back to the early 70's first. Big cars on bias ply tires. Very few big sponsors. No such think as a team Engineer and a bare minamum of employees, just enough to get the cars ready for the next race. Sounds very elementary. The racing was a little different, fewer teams that were a threat to win and the reliablity of the cars was much less. I think we all saw there was room for improvement. Then along came Winston. The exposure over the next several years created a huge rise in popularity, even drawing the attention of TV. TV soon saw the interset and started showing more and more. As the numbers watching grew, so did the interest of sponsors. At first, many fell in love with the excitement of racing and wanted their products seen by the growing mass. Then the compitition began to grow and the dominate teams lost their advantage and began to work harder to regain what they once had. This is when the need for more money began to grow at a more aggressive pace. I think this is one big problem; $-MONEY-$. Another thing that comes to mind is "AERO". Aerodinamics, in my mind, has destroyed racing at this level. Downforce, drag, push, dirty air all are ways to say that the driver is no longer the most important element of the team. The cars are so dependent on air. What happened to the days when a driver could still win at Daytona and Talladega with a car that had a little body damage? The 1979 daytona 500 is a prime example. Donnie Allison's car was damaged earlier in the race and still nearly won the race.Was This Avoldable? The short answer is No. It was one of those things that evolved slowly, and was believed to be a step in the right direction. Everyone wanted to put on the best show possible for the fans. The flow of money was a welcome sight to all involved. With the sponsors money the teams ran better and the compitition grew little by little. This attracted bigger and bigger companies who wanted in and the number of fans grew as well. The auto companies have nearly always found a way to be involved and soon all were fighting to have their product in victory lane. To get there the teams needed money. It was a double edged sword, the money and help from the manufactures made the racing more competitive and more exciting to watch, but it also forced the teams to find a way to out-do the compitition. This is when the specialist and Engineers became necessary and this was an unanticipated need for every team. It happened slowly, it was unrelenting and it began to take control of the sport.Can this caliber of racing continue at this present course? I think the answer is Yes and No. Sure NASCAR will continue and many more new fans will find the product entertaining. But for the lucky ones who had the chance to witness NASCAR racing in a much purer form, todays events fail to excite us the way we remember from 20 plus years ago. Maybe this is just part of the evolution that effects every sport out there. As the 'Old Guard' begin to tire of what they see as a lesser product, new fans come along and are hooked by what they view as the most exciting thing going. And this cycle continues and never ends. Fans who love what they see today may very well be as upset as we are now in 20 years. But I bet there will still be some form of NASCAR at that time. They have the ground work for a sport that can go on for many more decades. The love of cars, compitition, speed and excitement along with the element of danger and this can go on and on. NASCAR must start to look at what they have now and look back and where they came from and be determined to get back to it's roots. They are falling victim to the same issues that nearly destroyed Indy racing. Chasing the Almighty Dollar and ignoring the growing turmoil is not a dead end street, but the sport can become a lesser entity, and with that the interest and the desire will drop to a point that the product will not be worth the effort to get emotionally involved. May it Rest In Peace.Whats your thoughts
hey bumpertag, i agree completely, the evolution of this sport from the days of driving the car you'd race with, to the "corporate" product that we now see today, was pretty much inevitable. while anybody would agree that parts of that evolution were necessary; especially with innovations in technology, the paramount advances in safety for all, and changes made in the spirit of competition, I feel that it was the influx of "cubic dollars" from corporate sponsorships for the teams and sanctioning body is probably the biggest factor in the changes that have been made in the last 30+ years. the past few years i have been increasingly discouraged with the nascar rules changes rule changes: there is waaaay too much political correctness, too much media-saturation, too many sponsorship plugs in interviews(the last thing i would want after i just wrecked my racecar is having a microphone shoved in my face and then rattle off 23 sponsors while trying too mask the fact that I am extremely p*ssed off right then), too many interviews, this insane quest for parity, and the biggest thing I hate- that danged double-yellow line rule!! with this year being the exception(some good races this year!!), the product has been lukewarm and a bit cheesy. but like the forever-fan that i am, i will continue to watch evry week, what the future holds, well, we'll have to wait and see, just tune in!! great post, bumper!! see ya, g
Wooo-weeee now I want you to know thats a heap arguing you just started------B U T let me go get me a big orange drink and a moon pie,cause there were a heap of cars built with this kinda food stuffs setting around.Ok here we go,when I got started we were using 57 chevys,and yes i was one of the lucky ones that had a real shop to work out of,but it was also were my dads company worked on their trucks and equipt.but never the less it was o so nice,bob even had a rack he would put the car in to fab it,i think that would be a jig nowadays,but when he finished it was rigid as all get out--- everything was in house,no going to H/Moody or that chicken farmer for engines or such. Now i did get a few engines shipped to me from my uncle who had a chevy dealership in ks.but all else was built right there in house.Put it this way i could not take auto mechanics in high school cause teacher said it would be to no advantage to me soooo i took chemistry believe that--- anyway i took off after high school chasing that dream and was doing ok considering i had no crew to speak of---we were running 4 or 5 times a week all over the south so there was no breathers-----if you tore up well you loaded up and went home and done your best out between pine trees with comealongs to pull,beat and pry it back into some shape that looked right anyway---but it worked, sorta -----the first chevelle i built i found out them frames were not as tough as a 57 --it kinked on right side just under the right firewall----car went back to dads shop and them guys of dads put a 57 frame under that car over a weekend and it had a weird look to it ---dang thing sidetracked to the right but you know it handled so sweet----about that time i was chasing T.C.Hunt up in north ga on a night race and thats when i noticed his car sidetracked tooo----imagine that . but the point im making is we did it with nothing out of a dirty ole truck shop. i finally got a good car built and here i went trying my hand at the big tracks,but in the sportsman division and back then it was possible to tell a ford from a chevy or dodge ----no sponsor money,no help from the big three,no showup money,just hard work and more fun and memories than should be allowed---.by then i had gotten married and she was handling the money and would you believe it i was making money,enough to build a house and a shop of my own---well the 70's are here now and you got to watch where you run now because you got harold fountain--bobby allison,that dang D.W.and a guy named EARNHARDT showing up all over at the tracks,i done figured i didnt want to run with ralph earnhardt because he was erie fast so we started choosing where we went,my wife could keep up with the drivers pretty good so my work was easier---------but now came this money thing and everone had gotten fast,way fast,and cars were changing and now you are being told you got to adheire to these new measurements and weights and such,so i took my little self back to my roots and ran short and outlaw tracks where you could still make a living ===sorta anyway times were changing if you didnt have deep pockets well it was hard---hard enough that i parked it in the barn and did otherwise---------this could go on forever here on racing so im putting a period here for now until yall get me on another rampage but racing is what got me what i got today,independent racing,and im damn proud of it----------now thats memories
excuse me guys, i need to make a little grammatical correction on this, " the days of driving the car you'd race with" should have ended w/ " to the racetrack" ooooopss!!
good shot there greg with whats running on track today you could very well go to toyota and get a ford with a chevy rear and a dodge nose ughhhh that even sounds utterly "yuck"
I love this site! The opportunity to bounce ideas off other 'Long Time' fans and vent a little where we think it is needed is wonderful. Thank you all for your comments. Please keep them coming.
y'kow... it seems today, that NASCAR has just become sooooo "I.R.O.C."
A great job to all and you are all correct. But I long for the days that if Frank Warren or Ed Negre and Coo Coo or Tiny and countless others got to lead a few laps then it was a good day of racing no matter the out come. When the corner garage was the main sponsor or the local cafe and local watering holes were a big time sponsor and when racing was racing and the fans were the only ones that mattered. Will it ever return ? I doubt it.