can we agree the xfinity series -truck series was much better 15 years ago?

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jasn88cubs

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It's not nostalgia talking

Light on cup drivers, Went to tracks that the cup series didnt go to

ORP, Nazareth, South Boston, Chicago Speedway

Unfortunately those days are long gone and wont be back
 
And a lot of things are better than they were.

With that on the table, I agree the two lower tier series were more interesting 15 years ago. There were competitive drivers capable of winning a championship regardless of the visiting Cup drivers. There was a greater variety of tracks, with a greater percentage of them being tracks the Cup series didn't visit. I recall one season when the Trucks visited three road courses. The Trucks quickly gained the reputation as the series to watch for beating and banging, aided by the short tracks they ran and the relative safety of lower speeds. Heck, they ran the first several seasons at Daytona without restrictor plates.

On the other hand, many of those old tracks couldn't be brought up to today's safety standards, and the Truck series had a scheduled 'halftime' non-competitive caution for the first few seasons.

But I do miss Hornaday, Sprague, and Skinner beating on each other.
 
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The same can be said for the Cup series. Everything was better 10+ years ago.
 
15 years ago? 10 years ago was better. Memphis, IRP, Milwaukee, Montreal, even Nashville was kinda cool.

Somewhat unrelated: Why did THE guys to beat in the truck series...Skinner, Hornaday, and Bodine all disappear into thin air (at around the same time too)?
 
The past always seems better than it was and the present usually seems worse than it is. Until you look in the grandstands.
 
Xfinity Series was better in most aspects. I think the Truck Series has more talent now but the tracks were certainly more interesting.
 
ReturnTrip said:
I'm a bit surprised the truck series hasn't folded.
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I don't think it would be a bad thing if it did. Getting some of that truck talent in the Xfinity series and getting more stand alone events would help each series. Each series desperately needs a stronger identity. The Busch series had that up until the mid 00's. I think more stand alone events creates more buzz for each event. If it was me the Xfinity would only visit each Cup track once.
 
Xfinity Series is redundant. If you get rid of anything, get rid of that. It's a watered down, boring version of the Cup series. The Trucks have (had?) their own identity and the racing is usually great, even to this day. Can't say the same for Xfinity. 90% of the Xfinity races over the last several years have been total snoozers.
 
2 Sweet said:
Xfinity Series is redundant. If you get rid of anything, get rid of that. It's a watered down, boring version of the Cup series. The Trucks have (had?) their own identity and the racing is usually great, even to this day. Can't say the same for Xfinity. 90% of the Xfinity races over the last several years have been total snoozers.
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Good point! I didn't think of it like that! I use to like when the Busch Series ran the V6's! They sounded like swarm of bees at Nazareth back in the day!
 
To me, the best passing and close racing now is the Truck Series. I really enjoy watching those teens get it on. The young guns are the future of this sport. The Truck series really lets them show their stuff. Lot of talent in that group.

As far as the Exfinity series, yawn, I DVR and fast forward most of them. They need to go back to IRP and forget the Indy track for sure.

I really watch them when no Cup drivers are in the show, then it is really good.
 
NasNYG567 said:
Talent wise the Truck Series is the best it's ever been imo.
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I could not disagree more. The reason is the truck series has become the place where rides are bought, its dominated by people and families with money that have some kind of inside connection to a sponsor, ala, john wes townley, spencer gallagher, cole custer, and pretty much everyone else. The reason is there simply isn't sponsors willing to step up and purchase a full season. The reason johnny benson, skinner, and hornady left the series is there simply wasn't money to run them. it was at about that time that the guys who got there on performance left the series. Its been changed with ride buyers. KBM and BK racing are no exceptions. Just like jr motorsports had to hire sadler and algairer. Jr motorsports didn't want these guys if they had sponsorship themselves. in fact Jr running these guys is counter to the entire reason he stated for owning the team. when there are ride buyers in the series your not getting talent that got there by exceptional performance. So no the talent is the least we have ever had there.
 
Yes and unfortunately baseball golf and most other sports have remained the same or grown a little
 
aunty dive said:
Eric Jones, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek et al are among the least talented drivers in the history of the Truck Series.

Gotcha' ...
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look what equipment they are driving, that is the other thing I didn't mention. along with sponsorship is a huge equipment disparity in the series. a drunk arangatang or the hauler driver for that matter could drive a KBM truck into the top 10. eric jones has either been in a KBM truck or a gibbs NW car. These cars are so much better than the rest of the field its not even funny. gotcha,"
 
^ What series doesn't have a big disparity from the front of the field to the back?

All your posts are the same. None of them make sense. Auto racing runs on money whether you like it or not.
 
I miss the tracks and the drivers. Ten to fifteen years ago I viewed the Truck series as kind of a catch basin for veteran has-beens so to speak. Guys who got washed out of Cup but still had a lot of fight. Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, Johnny Benson. The young talent in the trucks today is super talented, yes, but I feel like the races were a lot more fun to watch back in that time. I miss Terry Cook, Bobby Hamilton (RIP), and Rick Crawford. And there were some young guys too. I remember how awesome it was watching a young Carl Edwards in the 99 Superchips truck get his first truck win. And then Ricky Craven was in that truck later on, I thought that was pretty cool. I mean it was just completely different.

Honestly, thinking about this makes me really put off to what NASCAR is in 2016. I still watch the truck races regularly, but I miss how it was say in 2003. And as far as Xfinity goes, man, I don't even know why I watch sometimes. It's the worst it's ever been. I miss the BUSCH series, when guys like Tim Fedewa and David Stremme were running. Man, things were so much better I just think about it now and wonder why I even watch the three major series at all anymore. I need to turn off the TV and head to my local tracks and recapture some of this old feel.
 
Can not stand kyle bush "stepping down" and stinkin up the show, Pretty much any gibbs cars for that much. I gave up on xifnintee, it aint worth watching at all. Trucks? same thing. In the past. loved to see Benson, Hornaday, Musgrave and all the trucks, loved that series better than cup for a spell..Once kyle put Hornaday into the wall on a caution and only got a 1 day suspension, I gave up on trucks. She's an untouchable piece of monkey spunk--- what a POS.
 
cheesepuffs said:
Honestly, thinking about this makes me really put off to what NASCAR is in 2016. I still watch the truck races regularly, but I miss how it was say in 2003.
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1st reaction:
Lots of things that seemed awesome when I was a child don't really appeal to me any more. Does that seem worthy of whining about? I don't think so. I've changed. And the times have changed. Either fire up your DeLorean and travel back through time, or accept that you don't have a time machine.

2nd reaction:
I used to really enjoy "Robot Wars" on TV. That was an awesome blend of chutzpah and wood shed engineering. There was an amazing array of robot weapons, some worked and others got destroyed.

But as time went by, the inevitable happened. The ideas that worked best got more developed, more refined, more lethal. And the other ideas faded away. The best engineers and best robot builders dominated. The stories of a postal worker and his son who dreamed up a killer robot and built it in their kitchen... well, stories like that disappeared.

And now we have a reincarnation. "BattleBots" on network TV. Lots of sophisticated engineering and construction, going head to head in a glitzy, over-produced prime time format. It was more fun when it was new and fresh and less dominated by engineers with big budgets. But that is the way evolution occurs. Things worth doing are worth doing well. It is the job of the competitors to get better. B!tch!ng about it does not change that.
 
3rd reaction:
For those who lament the demise of the old-time Busch Grand National series - a second tier deal with its own identity, separate venues, separate star drivers - rejoice that such a thing lives on. It is called World Superbike racing. BeIn Sports has awesome commercial-free coverage in the US (commercials before the green flag and after the checkers only). For those who don't have BeIn, the WSBK website has awesome streaming for a modest subscription price.

In motorcycle racing, MotoGP is everything you'd like F1 to be (but hasn't been in recent decades) in terms of competition. MotoGP is strong and healthy, and getting stronger and healthier each year. WSBK has a starkly different vibe, very much like the old BGN series, and could really use additional fan support.
 
The Craftsman SuperTruck Series is one of the reasons I fell in love with NASCAR. We always watched NASCAR but when the SuperTrucks raced at Tucson in 1994, it was something special.

The old NASCAR SuperTruck Series and the NASCAR Winter Heat Series were my favorite things. The winter routine in my house as a kid consisted of watching the Jacksonville Jaguars on NBC (back when they were a good team) and then the NASCAR Winter Heat Series on TNN Motorsports (back when NASCAR racing was good).
 
hidesert cowboy said:
look what equipment they are driving, that is the other thing I didn't mention. along with sponsorship is a huge equipment disparity in the series. a drunk arangatang or the hauler driver for that matter could drive a KBM truck into the top 10. eric jones has either been in a KBM truck or a gibbs NW car. These cars are so much better than the rest of the field its not even funny. gotcha,"
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I'll admit I laughed pretty hard when you said the semi driver could pull a top 10 haha too funny.

Seriously though there is some exceptional young talent in this series and the racing this year has been terrific. I do wonder if there is a bit of a logjam in talent trying to move up, right now the cup series is absolutely loaded with talent in both veterans and young stars, keeping the pond a little more stocked in these lower levels
 
*WEAVER* said:
I always enjoyed the Hornaday, Skinner, Sprague rivalry in the trucks, that was a good one.
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Used to follow all these guys too , along with Onion, Musgrave, Crawford,and a lot of others. They all could drive but none of them really fit the Cup look .They weren't pretty , 17 , and sponsor friendly. Don't think we will see drivers like them again.
 
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I definitely believe the original Busch or BGN series was better.
Companion events at places like Daytona and Charlotte were less common.
They ran at the local tracks like Hickory, IRP, and many other similar venues.

The Cup guys could run those races, but they didn't win as often because they were going to less familiar tracks. This is a fact easily demonstrated by sites like racing reference.

Now we have Nascars big box canned approach of running companion events for almost every cup race. The greater profitability and net receipts of a two or three event weekend should be easy to understand. It should also be a more logical option for Cup owners wanting to invest in driver development.

But everything has a cost and the canned machine just can't come up with enough schemes to replace the natural beauty and enthusiasm that once existed.
This weekend at one of Nascars supposedly most prestigious events is an obvious fly in the ointment. An disputable one.
The worst Xfinity GN race ever at the forsaken IRP or Lucas Oil Raceway would still be better than any Xfinity race at the Brickyard.

The old Busch series provided something that can't be calculated on a spreadsheet, but the loss is a real one.
The dull that will get inflicted upon a crowd that remembers IRP can't be denied.
 
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