The series in your head would be entirely dependent on OEMs funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into it, which isn't going to happen. They don't need NASCAR to sanction events in order to continue the development of battery life and charging times. You act like it's mandatory that OEMs would have to participate in the series and be forced to improve, when in reality they would take their ball and go home as it wouldn't be economical.
I get it, with coal miners. It would be tough to make that adjustment, especially if you come from generations of coal miners.
They're putting together an EV series to keep OEMs baited into using NASCAR as a marketing platform. You don't seem to be able to separate the marketing and technical development side of racing and NASCAR.
And IF it did work the way populists think, we would run out of oil pretty quickly.
That isn't cynical, it's real. NASCAR is 100% a marketing powerhouse. Yes, Henry Ford won with Sweepstakes in 1901 or whatever and auto racing was considering a mark of how excellent the machine was at one time. Those days are long gone.
www.endurancewarranty.com
Name me one single innovation that road cars have taken from the gen 6 or NextGen.NASCAR Technology Makes Passenger Cars Safer
Today's production passenger cars have borrowed several innovations from both stock car and Indy-style racing.www.livescience.com
Innovations From Racing That Found Their Way On Our Roads!
Auto racing is more than a sport. It's a testing ground for innovation. Your car and a racecar have more in common than you know!
And yet manufacturers spend money publicizing vehicles with only the names in common with their consumer counterparts, including vehicles like the SS that were only available in limited numbers. By your logic, is that money that would be better spent in other ways?
You are speaking factually about a series that does not even exist yet.
Yes, and I'll cite how we haven't had a new OEM join the sport for almost 20 years now, which funny enough coincides with the internet targeted marketing era.
Thanks. At least you're consistent.
At least my argument is based on the reality of what NASCAR is and not some pie in the sky version of what a fan thinks it should achieve.
What are you talking about? Are you not aware of Formula E or Extreme E? Electric racing has already existed for years. But NASCAR as a sanctioning body is not and never has been a hotbed of cutting edge engineering that contributes to the greater good of society. The France family has one objective and that is to sell tickets and sell advertising. You're barking up the wrong tree if you want NASCAR to provide a proving ground for road-relevant breakthrough tech. That has never been a remote priority or mission of the sanctioning body.
Why on Earth do you think they need NASCAR to accomplish this and can't push EV tech without an on-track arms race? The arms race here would be in profit to be made from consumer sales, and they don't need NASCAR to advertise that they have the most range now, or the quickest charging.
Agreed, but selling tickets and advertising hasn't been the manufacturers' goal. Their goal has been to sell cars. The sponsors and TV partners' goal is to also to sell advertising. The teams are out to win races and hopefully turn a profit. Everyone involved in the process has different goals and ways to accomplish them.
How do you know that NASCAR is even developing much of anything? They can contract out a spec battery and motor and be done with it.
Same reasons manufacturers around the world participate in all forms of racing. Publicity. A showcase to demonstrate superiority over competitors. As you noted earlier, racing may not be the best way to spend an advertising dollar, but marketing campaigns are built around multiple interfaces. If you can combine R&D and publicity, why not?
I agree with you. Publicity. The NASCAR vision and objective has never been about R&D for the OEMs though and that doesn't serve their product. They put rolling billboards out there in a way that keeps them appealing to their current OEM partners and they make sure that no one billboard gets too far out ahead of another one. That's their product.
The teams and owners continue to make less and less money while NASCAR continues to make more.
The OEMs went for spec everything else and even had a common body template once upon a time... It is about having your name on those billboards on track, and having a chance that on some weeks your billboard will finish ahead of the others.
I can't believe some people still act like it's the 1960s here, like sales and advertising haven't evolved.