It’s fun to be a new fan in NASCAR. It’s rough to be a traditionalist.
Many hardcore followers of “stock car” racing are angry, and the anger goes far beyond ticket prices, inflated lodging rates and traffic jams. In the unsanitized and downright wild era of drivers such as Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson, winning meant everything. There was no points racing, and there were certainly no corporate jets or palace-like motorhomes.
Drivers raced not only for fun and pride, but to pay the bills.
A tenth place finish meant defeat, not a productive “big picture” day that pleased the suits in the suites. There’s a reason why Richard Petty won 200 races. Petty had the resources and the horsepower, but he also the guts to actually go for the victory.
Granted, the competition in Nextel Cup has become much more balanced and deeper. Yet how many aggressive moves do fans now see? It’s been said over and over, but image has indeed become everything. It’s a shame many of the NASCAR newbies could never witness Turner power sliding his car into corner at a dirt rack and then emerging out of the dust in first place. Beating and bumping equals real racing. Not gliding around sleep-inducing cookie-cutter tracks, then relying on the gas-mileage calculations of a smooth-handed engineer.
While you would never know it from the NASCAR-licensed cheerleaders on television, the Nextel Cup game suffered a serious decline last season. There were empty seats, lackluster television ratings and bored fans. NASCAR fans want and crave more action, not contrived soap opera plots or gimmicks.
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Yeah those were the days…..bumping and banging. Now, fans go haywire when a driver makes contact with another. A good example of old school racing….Johnson’s door slamming on Stewart at Atlanta. As long as one driver doesn’t tear up the other driver’s car…it’s good racing. Driver’s are to blame too. All this give and take makes for boring racing. I wonder why the All-Star Open is so exciting? No points involved, you have to race for the win…not the “big picture”.
its all sad but true. especially with the introduction of toyota into this once great sport. what is wrong with these people. cutting classic tracks like darlington and rockingham in favor of buiding in new york and colorado? come on people. this is rediculous
if they would redo the rock and update the facilities, take north wilkesboro put new banking and a new surface make it a combination of richmond and bristol with new facilities and bring back our Southern 500, no one except sponsors wants a california race on labor day, but people equate darlington with old south redneck racing, which is really what made the sport exciting…
its hard to watch all these cookie cutter tracks. i know they are all slightly different to drive but to the fan they look alike. if they are going to build new tracks make them unique. add some more short tracks. id love to see them run the rock again. and let the drivers be themselves. needs to be more drivers like jr, stewart, and harvick that will say what they think even if its not what nascar wants to hear.
All that has said IS true! I am a die hard fan of any type of racing. That’s why I think that NASCAR should have a dirt race or two. Bring this stuff back to it’s roots. I’m sure the driver’s would love it and it would through a wrench in the whole cookie cutter thing!
Ohh… and go Smoke!
my first favorite driver was Bobby Allison (was about 8 and got to sit in his car at a local mall)…NASCAR is not the NASCAR I grew up with. Like Serg said..these new fans and some of the new drivers begin crying because someone is racing to win….
Oh…and GO 24
I couldn’t agree more. Tony is about the only driver who isn’t scared to do what he feels needs to be done. And even by the standards of 60’s and 70’s I would consider him tame.
yea nascar is gettin stupid now.they got too much money up their ass to really care about what the fans want. thats why theyre losin ratings. its goin to continue to drop unless they get rid of the car of tomorow and drop all the restrictions for “certain” sponsors, drop some of the boring 1.5 milers, bring rockingham back. or build the exact same track somwhere else thats easier to get to. 2006 was pretty good. lots of good racing side by side an stuff like that. what happens in 2007?? nascar fucks it all up so they can have more money in their pockets. nascar dont need all those engineers to figure that one out do they?? if you want to see good exciting racing, go to your local track on friday or saturday night. i used to watch races on tv all the time. now that i work for a raceteam, the tv races jus help me sleep.
Iused to go to races but then i would go if i got free tickets now your lucky if i watch it on tv. nascar is trying to build the sport at the cost of the fans that made the sport.
Prices are set by tracks not NASCAR.
As popularity grows in NASCAR, so does the politics. And this brings in more sponsors, and more money.
And as for the sport acting more like a soap opera, well that’s because the more money these drivers get
the more fame goes to their head. It’s sad to say some drivers get these big egos, which turns a race into
a boring event because of their drama. And over the years prices will rise for tickets and merchendise, but NASCAR has to understand
that they have to go a little easy on our pockets. Cause if it wasn’t for the fans, then there would be no,
sponsers, no money for the purse for drivers to win, and no money for a driver.Which means no toys for them, like
big homes, private planes, luxury RV’s. Well y’all get the picture. NASCAR needs to have a mind set like
they had back in the good o’l days.