First year watching Nascar and what is your favorite season in Nascar since you started watching?

kymartin6 said:
Great post Greg!!!!!!!! I grew up in the Holman Moody/ Petty days also....... like you.... read everything I could and watched what was televised..... recall in '65 when Richard went drag racing...... my interest waned in the late seventies / early eighties...... Bill Elliott was the main reason I was brought back into the fold.......
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Man, did you have to bring that up? That really pissed me off, when Richard went drag racing. That still pisses me off, LOL.
 
Seems 98 was a popular year to get into the sport same forwas honestly 2001 with the most memorable everybody banded together after Dale's death. It also seemed to Mark the rise of the Young gun era Harvick Ku Busch Newman & Johnson all debuted that year. 2001 was a rollercoaster year that really separated one era from the next
 
Greg said:
1971, I started listening to the races on the radio. I was 9 years old and got to hear Petty win the Daytona 500. I played the MRN on the big Philco console stereo. The thing was probably 5 foot wide, and I wanted to hear it loud enough to hear the race while still playing like a 9 year old boy would. So everybody else in the family got to listen as well.
So my dad got me a transitor or walkman radio for my 10th birthday. A gift for him too, for $21 he got his naps back.

Friday Hassler got killed in one of the twin 125s.
It was all Petty blue back then before STP. Bobby Allison in the Coca Cola machine. I remember Donnie Allison started driving for the Wood Brothers, they were fast but I think they only won once together. Pearson was in between the Holman Moody years and before eventually going to the Wood Brothers.

Cale was between running Indy cars and eventually coming back to drive for Jr Johnson.
But Charlie Glotzback was in the Jr Johnson Chevrolet, and the Chevy program was just really getting cranked up during my first memories.

Bobby Isaac in the K&K Dodge. James Hylton, GC Spencer, Elmo Langley Soupy Castles, Wendall Scott, Marty Robbins, Bill Dennis, Dick Brooks, Jabe Thomas, DK Ulrich, Ed Negre, Coo Coo Marlin are a few names that they routinly discussed.
Buddy Baker, and even Buck Baker still raced in some local Grand American races.
I remember hearing the Riverside race when Mark Donahue in the Penske Matador.

The MRN crew respected the drivers, they talked about Joe Weatherly with the highest respect. I did not have a clue about him, but I knew he was someone important because of the respect they still had.

Tiny London.... They did a lot of 10 lap run downs during the coverage back then. They would go through the running order and call out were Tiny was running. The announcer would say Tiny Lund-and whoever was running behind him. Well I just heard Tiny London....
Tiny ran at a race in a Grand American car at my local track Greenville Pickens Speedway . He drove a Camaro and had the 200 lapper won, until blowing a head gasket late in the race, glad I got to see him run back in the day.

But I have to admit most of those memories are nostalgic. I was a real nerd about it, and mentally drinked every racing tid bit I could find. But it was very piece meal, a few glimpses with a million pounds of my imagination.
The newspapers would post some race pictures, and I would build a whole mental database on the the little nuggets.

Peter Gregg won the Daytona 24 hour race, they posted a picture of him taking the checkers. And I would build an entire mental framework work about those races off the scant information.

Petty's Darlington wreck 1970 I think, he flipped forever with parts of him hanging out the car. I learned about it from the Greenville News paper, they posted several images, it had the freeze frame effect. I played it over and over again in my mind, while never having really seen it.

The Grand Prix movie, I still hear them and the RPM odometer zinging, and then busting loose at Monoco. If it were on TV tonight, I would still make time for watching the opening Monoco sequence. It was riveting, about as good as.... well you know.
When a freind of a friend went the race and bought a program back, seeing that program was an incredible find.

If i could have really seen it all then, would it have been as good as my imagination? I don't know, I would just say to the young folks to enjoy the good times now, you only get it once. Make the most of it, don't let no one deny you, it is a big friggin deal, it is your time. I think it will be the sweetness for you one day too.
Celebrate it.
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I listened to hockey on the radio a lot as a child and no matter what WGR in Buffalo always had a medium pitched humming noise regardless of whether it was on an older tube model or the modern transistor variety. Listening to Wolfman Jack on WLS from hundreds of miles away was a treat as was hearing all the different commercials for products or companies I'd never heard of. I remember well hearing of something called a "tasty cake" when listening to WCAU from Philly.

My mind's eye was always busy imagining what was going on in the studio, at the arena or on the track through the crackling airwaves and careful adjustments were made regularly to the tuning nob in order to hear things from far away as best you could. The world seemed smaller and more innocent then and the cheerful optimism of youth abounded.
 
Good thread... earliest memories would be 87ish I remember the 3 Wrangler car a bit when my dad was cheering for Earnhardt on Sundays. First real season I was old enough to know what was going on was 1993 I was 9 years old, Jeff Gordon and the DuPont Car. So my favorite seasons were 1995, 1996,1997, 1998 ( especially, 13 wins. Jeff vs Mark Martin was awesome) and 2001. Most frustrating was 1999 with Ray leaving, 2000 was equally frustrating Bobby Labonte was tough. Most heartbreaking was 2004, 2007 and still hurts my heart 2014 ( I don't think I'll ever be able to cheer for Dipsh*t)
 
My dad sponsored a car at the 1/2 mile dirt track in a small town when I was a little kid (he had a Plymouth dealership at the time). Years later the only racing I could see was the Wide World of Sports which only showed racing once in awhile. There was a period of about 15 years I didn't follow racing, I had other interests. It wasn't until cable came to my neighborhood in the late 80s that I started watching NASCAR on ESPN and I've been mostly watching since.

I can't pin down one year that I liked the best. My memories blend together with things like Kulwicki winning the championship on the last lap of the season, the Petty 43 in a really bad wreck, yelling at my TV when Earnhardt wrecked Labonte in Bristol - for the second time, Busch and Craven in one of the closest finishes, Earnhardt's 500 win driving down pit road, and Ambrose with Kez and Kyle in that amazing finish. And there have been things that made me cry.

I remember the days when ESPN tried putting cameras is different places on and in the car, even on the pit crew. The days when the driver only had to thank one sponsor and tell you what he really thought about the race - or wreck. I've been a fan of a lot of drivers; unlike being stuck with local ball & stick teams I can be a fan of several drivers (one of them is bound to do well) or adopt a different driver it I want. I've been a fan of some drivers throughout their career and some drivers I like-dislike-like-dislike depending on the good and bad of their actions. And occasionally I try to follow a back marker.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I listened to hockey on the radio a lot as a child and no matter what WGR in Buffalo always had a medium pitched humming noise regardless of whether it was on an older tube model or the modern transistor variety. Listening to Wolfman Jack on WLS from hundreds of miles away was a treat as was hearing all the different commercials for products or companies I'd never heard of. I remember well hearing of something called a "tasty cake" when listening to WCAU from Philly.

My mind's eye was always busy imagining what was going on in the studio, at the arena or on the track through the crackling airwaves and careful adjustments were made regularly to the tuning nob in order to hear things from far away as best you could. The world seemed smaller and more innocent then and the cheerful optimism of youth abounded.
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LOL......Funny you mentioned WLS........ I laid awake most every night listening to them..... It had to be at night because that was the only time a skip came in....I still recall like it was yesterday that guy with the deep voice...... ''SUNDAY!!!! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!!!!!!!! At beautiful U.S. 30 Dragstrip in Oswego Illinois''....... We could sometimes.... (very rarely) get a skip from Little Rock Arkansas...... Beaker street......
 
kymartin6 said:
LOL......Funny you mentioned WLS........ I laid awake most every night listening to them..... It had to be at night because that was the only time a skip came in....I still recall like it was yesterday that guy with the deep voice...... ''SUNDAY!!!! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!!!!!!!! At beautiful U.S. 30 Dragstrip in Oswego Illinois''....... We could sometimes.... (very rarely) get a skip from Little Rock Arkansas...... Beaker street......
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Happy memories indeed!
 
2008. the year of kyle busch.
-switched to gibbs
-weekend sweeps
-burnout, bow, and wipe tears celebrations.
 
halfway into 1995 was when I started watching... 1996 has gone on to be my favorite season to keep looking back at, probably nostalgia pushes that for me. Rusty Wallace has always been my all time favorite...
 
lol, most of you guys make me feel old...
Back in the 1970s I used to watch NASCAR on ABC's Wide World of Sports - used to drive me crazy because they'd show a few laps (and rarely anybody other than the leaders), then switch to figure skating or something else that I didn't care about.

Finally in the early 1980s I was out of school and they started showing full races on TV so I watched them live or taped them for later. In the late 1980s I moved where the series sponsor was based and could drive to several tracks as well as get immersed in the culture since many NASCAR teams were in the area. Funny how seeing a driver around, like Mark Martin or Bobby Labonte, was so commonplace that we got jaded...

I think my favorite year was 1992, because the championship battle was tight until the last race ended and Alan Kulwicki surprised everyone by showing that talent and perseverance could still beat the deep pocket teams.
 
kymartin6 said:
LOL......Funny you mentioned WLS........ I laid awake most every night listening to them..... It had to be at night because that was the only time a skip came in....I still recall like it was yesterday that guy with the deep voice...... ''SUNDAY!!!! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!!!!!!!! At beautiful U.S. 30 Dragstrip in Oswego Illinois''....... We could sometimes.... (very rarely) get a skip from Little Rock Arkansas...... Beaker street......
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I could get WLS "IN Chicago" at night, and WNOE in New Orleans in High school hanging out at the drive in at Ft.Smith Arkansas. That was the first time I laid my eyes besides in magazines on a race car was when I went with my older cousin to U.S. 30 drag strip in Gary Indiana.
 
Been watching since 96 but my favorite season was probably 2002. The points championship was straight forward, the cars designs, the perfect balance of old school Nascar and modern Nascar. Veterans like Mark Martin, Bill Elliot, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett vs the young up and comers Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Dale Jr. High car counts and good mix of drivers from top to bottom. Car designs and sponsorship like the Looney Toons race were exciting.
 
Greg said:
1971, I started listening to the races on the radio. I was 9 years old and got to hear Petty win the Daytona 500. I played the MRN on the big Philco console stereo. The thing was probably 5 foot wide, and I wanted to hear it loud enough to hear the race while still playing like a 9 year old boy would. So everybody else in the family got to listen as well.
So my dad got me a transitor or walkman radio for my 10th birthday. A gift for him too, for $21 he got his naps back.

Friday Hassler got killed in one of the twin 125s.
It was all Petty blue back then before STP. Bobby Allison in the Coca Cola machine. I remember Donnie Allison started driving for the Wood Brothers, they were fast but I think they only won once together. Pearson was in between the Holman Moody years and before eventually going to the Wood Brothers.

Cale was between running Indy cars and eventually coming back to drive for Jr Johnson.
But Charlie Glotzback was in the Jr Johnson Chevrolet, and the Chevy program was just really getting cranked up during my first memories.

Bobby Isaac in the K&K Dodge. James Hylton, GC Spencer, Elmo Langley Soupy Castles, Wendall Scott, Marty Robbins, Bill Dennis, Dick Brooks, Jabe Thomas, DK Ulrich, Ed Negre, Coo Coo Marlin are a few names that they routinly discussed.
Buddy Baker, and even Buck Baker still raced in some local Grand American races.
I remember hearing the Riverside race when Mark Donahue in the Penske Matador.

The MRN crew respected the drivers, they talked about Joe Weatherly with the highest respect. I did not have a clue about him, but I knew he was someone important because of the respect they still had.

Tiny London.... They did a lot of 10 lap run downs during the coverage back then. They would go through the running order and call out were Tiny was running. The announcer would say Tiny Lund-and whoever was running behind him. Well I just heard Tiny London....
Tiny ran at a race in a Grand American car at my local track Greenville Pickens Speedway . He drove a Camaro and had the 200 lapper won, until blowing a head gasket late in the race, glad I got to see him run back in the day.

But I have to admit most of those memories are nostalgic. I was a real nerd about it, and mentally drinked every racing tid bit I could find. But it was very piece meal, a few glimpses with a million pounds of my imagination.
The newspapers would post some race pictures, and I would build a whole mental database on the the little nuggets.

Peter Gregg won the Daytona 24 hour race, they posted a picture of him taking the checkers. And I would build an entire mental framework work about those races off the scant information.

Petty's Darlington wreck 1970 I think, he flipped forever with parts of him hanging out the car. I learned about it from the Greenville News paper, they posted several images, it had the freeze frame effect. I played it over and over again in my mind, while never having really seen it.

The Grand Prix movie, I still hear them and the RPM odometer zinging, and then busting loose at Monoco. If it were on TV tonight, I would still make time for watching the opening Monoco sequence. It was riveting, about as good as.... well you know.
When a freind of a friend went the race and bought a program back, seeing that program was an incredible find.

If i could have really seen it all then, would it have been as good as my imagination? I don't know, I would just say to the young folks to enjoy the good times now, you only get it once. Make the most of it, don't let no one deny you, it is a big friggin deal, it is your time. I think it will be the sweetness for you one day too.
Celebrate it.
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While reading your descriptions I kept hearing this song in my mind.

 
Started watching at this race (August Michigan) in 09.. so I guess 2010 is the first full season I watched.

Favorite season hasn't happened yet.. came pretty close last season though ;)

Really though.. Tony Stewart 2011 championship run was pretty amazing to watch. Still can't believe it was a tie.. poor Carl

It's a toss up between that and 2016.. 2011 wasn't as bitter sweet tho it was just badass and fun to watch.
 
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Thought about this a lot . The only thing I can come up with is 1982, the year
I saw my first NASCAR race(s) live. It took my racing passion to a whole new level.

As far as my favorite year watching the competition, there are just too many
memories of experiences that were great to pick one year.
 
StandOnIt said:
I could get WLS "IN Chicago" at night, and WNOE in New Orleans in High school hanging out at the drive in at Ft.Smith Arkansas. That was the first time I laid my eyes besides in magazines on a race car was when I went with my older cousin to U.S. 30 drag strip in Gary Indiana.
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My appolgies for not recalling correctly where U.S. 30 Dragstrip was.... for some reason Oswego stuck in my mind ...... I'm sure you are right..... it's been over 50 years since I heard that commercial on my transistor radio.
 
DIDIT said:
Been going, or taken to the races, since the late 50s. Favorite year hands down 1992. Worst moment April 1, 1993. Unbelievable.
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'93 was a terrible year....... not only Alan..... but..... then Davey....... I will never forget what Davey said after Alan's death....... ''I am so glad he won the Championship..... I will have many more chances... he won't........ ''
 
My father was a big Bill Elliott fan so I've been watching for as long as I could be propped in front of a TV. The first race I truly remember was the May '87 Talladega race when Allison flew into the catchfence. I remember when it happened, the delay and Davey winning. I think the reason I remember it so well is the fact the Flyers and Oilers were playing in Stanley Cup Finals that night. We had people over for the game but the race went long so everyone gathered around to watch the end first.

My favorite season was probably 1996. Rusty was still in a black deuce, Irvan returned to victory lane, Thunderbird was still around, North Wilkesboro was still on the schedule, Atlanta was "Atlanta" and no Texas.
 
1967 Motor Trend 500 at Riverside.

Dan Gurney in the Wood Bros #121 outdueled Curtis Turner and David Pearson. Turner was always on the edge and crazy fast but kept going off course and tore his car up but still managed 4th place in another Wood Bros car.

At the end only Gurney and Pearson were on the same lap, everyone else was at least two laps down.

What I'd give to see one more 1960s Grand National in real stock cars.....it will never be that good again.

 
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