NASCAR - afraid of the rain.

[Wee Willy]

Wee Willy, Where did you find that shirt, ...it's Great!! I want one!

Try this: Boring Tshirt Clicky

Or this: 'Nother Boring Tshirt Clicky

And remember...wear it often & wear it proudly!

W2

 

[Wee Willy]

Devil's advocate here, There have formula one drivers that could not cut it on a nascar track. That being said, I can't think of anything that lasts 3 plus hours that I could sit and watch. oh, and todays race was shortened by rain.

Hold it there chief. There is no F1 driver worth his salt that would change his ride for a NASCAR ride (unless they were being dumped from the sport like Juan Pablo who had [has?] a particular talent for routinely taking out both he and his own teammate). Go watch Tradin' Paint again...the one where Jeff Gordon and then F1 pilot (driving for McLaren) JP Montoya swapped rides. Jeff says it all when he rolls in grinning from ear to ear and says "I sure got the better end of this deal." Indeed he did.

I do not know of ANY NASCAR driver who has ever had the right stuff to make the move to F1. Want to see the best of the best driving the most amazing 4 wheel machines on the planet along challenging courses? Don't look for it around Taladega, Fontana or Charlotte, you won't find it there.

With that I patiently await the firestorm, confident in my position.

W2

 

[TCMike]

Devil's advocate here, There have formula one drivers that could not cut it on a nascar track. That being said, I can't think of anything that lasts 3 plus hours that I could sit and watch. oh, and todays race was shortened by rain.

Hold it there chief. There is no F1 driver worth his salt that would change his ride for a NASCAR ride (unless they were being dumped from the sport like Juan Pablo who had [has?] a particular talent for routinely taking out both he and his own teammate). Go watch Tradin' Paint again...the one where Jeff Gordon and then F1 pilot (driving for McLaren) JP Montoya swapped rides. Jeff says it all when he rolls in grinning from ear to ear and says "I sure got the better end of this deal." Indeed he did.

I do not know of ANY NASCAR driver who has ever had the right stuff to make the move to F1. Want to see the best of the best driving the most amazing 4 wheel machines on the planet along challenging courses? Don't look for it around Taladega, Fontana or Charlotte, you won't find it there.

With that I patiently await the firestorm, confident in my position.

W2

No firestorm here....I'm not one for bashing...just stating why I like the other side of the coin better.

F1 is definatley a different animal, but you don't see NASCAR drivers switching because there isn't as much $, or opportunity in it. Many driver's have tried, and failed after comeing over from open wheel. The last success was Tony Stewart, But Montoya is finaly getting the hang of things now in his 3rd? season.

The fan base for F1, Indy, and moto gp combined still don't add up to NASCAR's. Must be something entertaining about it. People watching is definately interesting at a NASCAR race, and some like the fact that the cars somewhat resemble a normal car instead of an unobtainable open-wheel car. There are definatley some boring tracks on the schedule, such as Fontanna, Michigan, Homestead. I would like to see a couple more road courses, and shorten the season by about 4 races.

I blame my fondness for NASCAR on the damn MN Vikings. If you old guys remember back to what I believe was Randy Moss's first season.....the Vike's were on fire....but f'd up in a playoff game against Atlanta, in what looked to me like things were rigged. I still watch them once in a while, but started watching NASCAR, because it's on tv every week, and I don't have any problem with haveing a handfull of faves instead of being vested in all one team. The other raceing series don't get nearly the tv coverage, so I didn't get in to them much. I actually just got the speed channel back,(not poor, just a cheap bastage when it comes to certain things), so maybe I'll give the other series a whirl again, I think they show them on there once in a while.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. If you Nascar haters don't like it thats fine, but be adults, and don't bash just to build your own ego up, or because of sterotypes of it. If all it took to be a NASCAR driver was to be able to make a good left turn, everyone would be enterring a car in the show to try to get the big prize/sponser $$$. A decent driver can make more than most any of us could dream about in our lifetime, in just one year.

Everyone's got differring oppinions on lots 'o issues, that's what makes the world go round. Can we all agree that the FJR is the best damn sport touring bike on the market though?!?!?!? If not....get the hell off this board! Just kidding.

 

[caryt]

Nascar..for guys that can't drive sports cars..they gota have something do race.

 

[marcusorelius]

That nut who was runnin from the law on cnn in dallas today was quite a driver! (got t-boned by a truck)

 

[Wee Willy]

Good info Mike. One correction required tho'...

The fan base for F1, Indy, and moto gp combined still don't add up to NASCAR's.

This holds only in the US. When last I looked, the #1 watched sport in the world was football (soccer to us) based on # of viewers. A close #2 was F1. Both were far in advance of NASCAR, which barely made the list.

F1 has not caught on like NASCAR here even though the "formula" is far more sophisticated, impressive and difficult to master. Based on my experiences, I tend to contribute this to an ignorance about what is on display, both in the cockpit, and on the pit lane. You could say the same about a series like the American Le Mans races. 4 markedly different classes on track simultaneously, each racing their own type and trying to stay out of each other's way. Really exciting racing with top drawer drivers (many with F1 experience) and remarkable machinery. The big P1 prototypes can routinely turn 4+ g's in anger. Road racing's where the men and the boys separate.

Anyhoo, fun stuff.

W2

 

[Mooseonagoose]

D'ruther watch the guys that race riding mowers than NASCAR, ...even they turn both ways.

 

[MotorToad]

The fan base for F1, Indy, and moto gp combined still don't add up to NASCAR's.

I doubt I'll ever see numbers for this either way that I'd believe, but there's no way ever I'd believe that nsacar would have a tenth of the fan base of F1. World-wide, I'd expect MotoGP to have more eyes watching each race, too.
Having said that, popularity might be the worst possible way to rate things. (I like to think of a world where Oprah, The View, nascar, wrestling, and any

show that interviews the "contestants" during the show would be banned from Earth for being stupid. :-|

I've tried to watch other racing, and have found it boring. I find that most people that knock NASCAR, haven't really watched it enough to understand the who 's , and what's of it. I used to think it was boring too, until about 10 years ago. Gave it more of a chance, went to a few races, and now I'm a fan. Yes you do have to put up with the redneck factor that is still there, but fading.

Haha! I feel exactly the opposite. Everyone I know who races, follows racing, loves cars/bikes/scooters/etc. despises nascar. The friends I have that are fans of nascar wouldn't know a carburetor from a pushrod and probably wouldn't be able to tell if a head was iron or aluminum. Racing is racing, nascar is TV.

 

[Philip V]

They say runnin in the rain would be boring to the spectators!!, well I'd rather see them sliding and slippen around the track rather than watchin a bunch of parked cars for 45 minutes. I say mandatory pit stop for rain tires and let em rip!!

 

[wfooshee]

Without the NASCAR-bashing that I really want to do, I reiterate my previous statement that ovals just are not conducive to wet racing. None of the series that have both kinds of courses have run wet ovals, and NASCAR did run rain tires and wipers at Watkins Glen last year.

It has nothing to do with fan comfort or any of that nonsense. Have you ever driven past Talladega on I-20 during the race weekend and seen (and smelled) the camping areas?!??! Do you think comfort is on anybody's list of criteria????

It doesn't have anything to do with whether Goodyear (or anybody else) could make a rain tire that would work. Maybe they can, maybe they can't.

You just can't have packs of cars running together the way they do on ovals when the road's wet. Have you seen how close they are to the edge of the friction circle on a dry track? It takes nothing, just the tiniest nudge of aero wake off a spoiler to send those thing careening into the walls or the infield. You want to do that with reduced grip??!??!?! No way!!! And 160 to 180 miles per hour in spray, with visibility so bad you can't see your own hood???? I don't think so!!

Same logic could be applied to the Pike's Peak hillclimb guys. If they were real men they'd race downhill!!

 

[Patriot]

Same logic could be applied to the Pike's Peak hillclimb guys. If they were real men they'd race downhill!!

yeah, downhill, and in packs of 10 at a time :yahoo:

 

[double_entendre]

Best description of NASCAR I've read: "Watching NASCAR is like watching a bag of Skittles being flushed down a toilet."

Pretty much summed it up for me. *yawn*

Rancho

 

[RadioHowie]

As for golf being a sport (and thus golfers being athletes,) have you had a look at Tiger Woods's shoulders lately? Not somebody I'd pick a fight with.

Quick kick to his leg and he's done. No contest.

Talk about sports in the rain...why are baseball games called because of rain? Buncha pansies.

 

[FuzzyRider]

Best description of NASCAR I've read: "Watching NASCAR is like watching a bag of Skittles being flushed down a toilet."
Pretty much summed it up for me. *yawn*

Rancho

That's a good quote Rancho. My favorite quote comes from a friend of mine - "NASCAR is 'professional' wrestling on wheels".

 

[saread]

I do not know of ANY NASCAR driver who has ever had the right stuff to make the move to F1. Want to see the best of the best driving the most amazing 4 wheel machines on the planet along challenging courses? Don't look for it around Taladega, Fontana or Charlotte, you won't find it there.
With that I patiently await the firestorm, confident in my position.

W2

Mario Andretti notwithstanding, of course.

 

[wfooshee]

^^^^ Mario wasn't a NASCAR driver the way we think of a NASCAR driver. He drove everything he could get his hands on, open wheel, sports car, stock car, national, international. He only ran 14 or 15 NASCAR races, although one of those was the Daytona that he won.

 

[MotorToad]

Talk about sports in the rain...why are baseball games called because of rain? Buncha pansies.

I think it's because the pitcher has too much of an advantage. Wet ball == unhittable.

 

[AVGeek]

I attribute NASCAR's popularity to superior marketing (same reason as Harley). DMG was able to create a package that appeals to a large cross section of American TV watchers (notice I didn't say race fans!). I think true race fans seek out the series that most appeals to them.

 

[C&C]

'Different Strokes' as they say. I like most every kind of racing (NASCAR included, but probably not my favorite anymore). Racing in the rain (in NASCAR); probably only makes sense on road courses. I like F1 a lot, Motocross, and as mentioned a lot of others. Now, do you want my pick as the best drivers in the world, well arguably it's got to be the World Rally guys.

 

[saread]

^^^^ Mario wasn't a NASCAR driver the way we think of a NASCAR driver. He drove everything he could get his hands on, open wheel, sports car, stock car, national, international. He only ran 14 or 15 NASCAR races, although one of those was the Daytona that he won.

Oh, I guess I didn't get the message that qualified the term "NASCAR driver". Mario was as much of a stock car driver as he was an F1 driver. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that any success he had in stock cars was due more to his talent as race driver than the success he had in F1; which was completely related to having superior equipment.

I think Ken Schrader had the definitive quote the other day on why NASCAR doesn't race in the rain: "....because we race inside concrete walls." Fair enough. If NASCAR isn't going to race in the rain, the least they could do would be to schedule one race at Eldora and maybe one more at Syracuse. IMHO, a couple of dirt races would add considerable balance to the schedule.