I've enjoyed 90% of this year's races. Vegas 1, Kentucky, most of Dover 2 and Talladega were boring but other than that it's been at least decent. Several races from this season are top 10 of the decade.
I believe this is a by-product of the points system nascar has created and the media not being able to focus on anything other than Harvick, Kyle Busch and MTJ.
Well said, FL. I've been thrilled with the quality of the racing over the last two years. Most complaints about aero push are just habit rather than an objective assessment, at almost all tracks. They are lazy, and wrong, and harmful to the sport... just contemplate what Nascar has given us instead for 2019.
All they need to do is alternate the rear spoilers for different tracks.
They are doing that with changes to the front end of the car, much larger under pan to take away the aero voodo parts advantages the mega teams have developed for the front suspension pieces, and I believe different sized aero ducts will be used at some tracks. Different sized tapered spacers to change the horsepower will be used depending on the size of the track. Actually way more tuning the car to the different sized tracks than back in the day. Should work better than the one size fits all they are using today. No in car track bar adjustment should change things up a bit also. Cars will be plenty hard to drive.
Sounds good to me. I am not one who thinks the more speed the better. The racing during the best years only had about 650 HP, poor tires and not much adjustment during the race.
Better drivers went faster and did more passing. DE and JG knew how to move cars out of their way.
Naw next year will be fake! It will all be about getting a good run and the draft ! It will be terrible.. it’s only about 10-15 % about driver now that’s it! Next year will be 2-5 % it will be terrible.. I know now when I watch a race it’s really not about the driver it’s more about the crew chief and that damn car.. but sometimes u get a tiny bit of driver in a race just a tiny tiny bit but next year man it will be all about the runs u get off people and so on nothing about the driver will even matter anymore and that’s crazy watching a damn sport where the person controlling the object doesn’t even matter they are just there!
The biggest thing is they trying to put patches on the problems instead of just taking the money and fixing it !!
I agree, and that's why if the mile and a half races next year look anything similar to the All Star race, I'm not watching or attending anything over a mile without right turns except the Daytona 500.
Yes!!
OK, you are the boss and have the money, what are you going to fix, how are you going to fix it all the while making everybody happy?
looking it up, their average speed for the race was 160 and the pole speed was 174
@StandOnIt, I think you present very good counterpoints to those who are concerned that 2019 rules will make the cars visibly slower. I believe most viewers will quickly acclimate to the absolute speeds they are viewing, within the relevant ranges we are talking about.
I pay no attention to average lap speeds in deciding whether the racing is good or not. For the last five years or so, I have focused on the *difference* between peak top speed and minimum valley speed as a key measure of degree of difficulty / car control skill...
2015 Rules: Enter at 200... lift and glide down to 188... stand on the gas again... average speed 195. That is relatively easy.
2018 Rules: Enter at 218... brake hard, rotors glowing... apex at 158... feather the gas seems like forever... finally stand on it... average speed 195. Much harder, separates the contenders from the pretenders.
This is why I favor low downforce and high horsepower. 2019 will be even easier to drive than 2015 in terms of car control. Nascar found the key to good skill-based racing on the fast tracks... and then threw it away. Were they stupid? Were they force by an ignorant, dis-interested public? I don't know which..
What you are saying in essence is that drivers like the Allisons, the Petty's, Waltrip's Yarbourgh and Earnhardt weren't skillfull at those speeds. Ok
I'm not saying that. Those guys were not WFO lap after lap. They had to lift, brake, feather the throttle. They had to drive to go 174, but in 2019 it will be droning around WFO. We're not bringing back 1980's cars with 1980's suspensions, handling, and tires.
Nah its ok, just give me a Readers Digest Version of whats wrong and how to fix it.
I think they will still have to brake, feather on the mile and a half tracks deep in to a run provided they have Goodyear construct a tire that wears a little faster
They have already said that it depends on how you trim out the car for speed or handling while doing the tire test. They have adjustability. Fast will probably be loose.
Right where Jimmie Johnson wants it to be.
Right at the beginning of this clip Hemric talks about the adjustability of the car. The track was far from how much slicker it will be compared to the test. it was 55 degrees
Some people don't like racing and probably have never driven anything that races. Therefore they think 200+ mph is just great and anything slower can't be any good.
Yeah, this. The cars back then raced and handled that way because they were designed under the knowledge constraints of that era; i.e.: were not nearly as efficient as the cars of today are. Now they are being artificially hamstrung well below their capabilities. Those cars of yesteryear definitely weren't glued to the ground and didn't have a big honkin' spoiler to induce drafting either. I can assure you they didn't handle how a 2019 Cup car will regardless of how average speeds compare.