Rate The Season

I thought it was a pretty good season,heartwarming to see Bobby Labonte's #18 team get back to Championship form and have a couple of wins as well.glad to see Terry Labonte get His first win since Texas race in 1999,also good to see Bill Elliott find victory lane for first time since 2002,what a win by Ricky Craven over Kurt Busch in the first Darlinton race,the only win by Pontiac this season btw,but very exciting win nonetheless.
I hated the months of August & most of September for Jeff Gordon's woes,as before that He was firmly entrenched in a strong run at the Championship,but 4th in final point standings isn't that shabby :lol: Hope He takes the first Nextel Cup in 2004. ;)
Matt Kenseth will make a great Champion and representative of this sport IMO,so quiet,well spoken,residents of Wisconson can be proud of Their Champion ;)
This was a season of era's ending,no longer the Winston Cup Series(1971-2003) as it'll become the Nextel Cup Series in 2004,Pure/Union76/Unical fuel(1952-2003)replaced by Sunoco in 2004.
No more Southern 500 Labor Day weekend races at Darlington,the new date for this event just wont be the same IMO,there's a lot of tradition lost there.
Nice to see Homestead track with its new improved variable degree banking,hopefully the tire problems will subside with more races there & more time to work with the tires,still better than that 6 degree banking anyday IMO. ;)
I didn't mean to rattle on,sorry :eek:
 
not very good the "aero issues" are killing this sport. The so called young guns IMHO are a bunch of spoiled brats, i couldn't believe my ears when i heard some of these guys {and you know who i am talking about}tell their spotter to ask so and so to move over so they can pass. cookie cutter tracks, baaa, the rock losing a race and boring fontana getting a 2nd race for me to sleep through. no more darlington on labor day, no more winston cup now we get Nextel BFD !!! i don't even own a cell phone and dang sure ain't going to get one now. all and all i think i am losing my fav sport. this season sucked !!!!!
 
"Aero" is a word I don't ever want to hear again. I want to see the drivers determine the outcome of racing, not the amount of downforce on the front of the car.

There were some bright spots this year, but not many.
 
It was another great year! Another year with an Outstanding Winston Cup Champ >> 2nd year in a row we have had a great Champion!!!!
 
It was ok, but not great. Too much aero push, questionable changes, and a very bad year by my man. Martin and WAllace felll off the face of the earth, though Elliott and Terry rose up to replace them. In terms of the quality of racing, I'm looking forward more to next year:

Liiiink

One thing they didn't mention was the tightening of the tolerances on the templates, which will also reduce downforce on the big tracks.
 
Um, it was so-so. About a 6

The season began with the Daytona 500, it started to look good, but when the race was cut short, it just sucked. Then thank god we had some good races at Atlanta, Darlington and Talladega a few weeks later to make up for it. This year a lot of changes really happened in the sport that will take place next year, like Nextel coming in, Sunoco replacing 76, just goes to show that the sport is changing and I for one think those changes are great to the sport, promoting it to a level where Winston couldnt, for example; Winston could never be mentioned in video games, hardly in commercials or reach out to the entire family.

Anyway, enough of that. I for one am glad that Rockingham is being replaced because the last few races there, except for the February '01 race were horrible and it shows because from what I saw on the television, not even all the seats there were filled. Hopefully next year, NASCAR manages to remove some tracks (cough, cough Loudon, Martinsville IMO) and put more exciting races in it's stead or actually branch out to other parts of the country where NASCAR hasnt already. However, a lot of tracks that I used to vehemently dislike are starting to show some signs of good racing like Phoenix and Dover etc.

Other than that, the season wasnt that good but at the same time, the season wasnt bad.
 
IMO,it would be a great shame to lose any short track events,there are only 6 of these events now,I'd prefer to see a couple more short track events,to replace the 2 short track events lost with North Wilkesboro,also would love to see 1 or 2 more road courses as road courses really seem to bear out a driver's skill IMHO ;)
 
I have all kind of mixed feelings.

On the plus side, I think this year has paved the road to one of the closest and most anticipated manufacturers battle for next year. Unfortunately, the Ponchos won't be there...give it a couple of years and Toyota will be there.

I've enjoyed the added dimension of the fuel mileage that some teams were able to achieve and how that opened the door to more possibilities.

I hated to see the fall of the Ford teams, but it was something that hhad to happen sooner or later given their current situation.

I am glad NASCAR did NOT fiddle with the rules (in Cup at least...though I think the Mopar boys got hosed in CTS this year). I hope for the same next year. Even if the Fords are as slow as they were this year.

They have to knock the walls down at 'Dega and Daytona. God I hate those wasted weekends...at least I get some work done around the house.

The Chevy teams did a very good job of capitalizing on a very good combination.

The Mopar teams did a very good job of gaining momentum for next year.

Maybe it's just me, but I am disappointed that everything but the race is what is actually taking center stage these days???

All in all, though, I enjoyed the season and can't wait for next year.
 
Overall, I enjoyed this last Winston Cup season (what Nascar fan couldn't?).

HOWEVER, I didn't like the petty (NOT Petty) rule changes, loss of the Southern 500, bad calls, tempers, and more were frustrating to me.

Let's lose 1 race at Louden and at least 1 race at ANY cookie cutter track, 1 each gone from the Plate tracks (or lose the plates), add more road courses and short tracks!

Mfgr really doesn't matter to me, and in fact even if my favorite driver drives a chevy, I respect consistancy......31 top 15s earned Matt the Championship.
I would go on and on, but...................Like Windsor, I have mixed feelings.
 
I forgot to mention earlier,that I'm so sad to see Pontiac losing factory support and leaving the Cup Series.I'm also saddened to know that Toyota wi;; be in Cup in a couple of years,not a popular decision with Me,but then My opinion doesn't count for much :lol:
 
Toyota's are Built in the USA by American people >>> So i guess they should be in Nascar! Its a free country last time I checked!

Kat >> Tempers are part of the sport! Can't stop an athlete from being upset in the heat of the battle! Heck this temper stuff is why a lot of people watch the sport! The Bobby Allison fight with Cale Yarborough is what started the push for TV coverage back in 79!
 
Originally posted by rajflyboy@Nov 29 2003, 08:35 AM
Toyota's are Built in the USA by American people >>> So i guess they should be in Nascar! Its a free country last time I checked!



Click to expand...
I am not thrilled with Toyota entering Nascar for a number of reasons. rajflyboy, they may be built in the U.S. but the profits go overseas. Time will tell how the Toyota entry affects Nascar.
 
Many Parts on Ford,GM and Dodge are built overseas also >>> So in the end all the vehicles now a days have some Foreign influence!

I do believe in buying American goods and services >> Its getting harder and harder to do that unfortunately!
 
I think Chevy stuff is built in Mexico...with all of the foreign made vehicles...and the fact that different parts of different vehicles come from all over not only the United States and other nations, wouldn't it help spread fans around the world? Think about how cool it would be if NASCAR and not soccer was the number one sport in the world?
 
Made in the USA doesn't really exist anymore, with very few exceptions. The contents of the cloth, leathers, parts, fuel, safety equipment, tires, and more originate in many other countries.
I am proud to have been "made in the USA" and not just assembled here!
 
As a whole I enjoyed the season (mainly because Matt won the championship), but there were things I didn't care for. I don't care for NASCAR letting some of these races turn into premeditated WWF matches, and then throwing the gauntlet down. Either have Vince McMahon run the show or control the situation better.

Most of the superspeedway races were boring as per usual. Didn't like Darlington losing the Labor Day race. And Nascar could found a better place than California for it IMO. Rockingham races were always fun to watch, but nobody showed up. And the place only holds 60,000...guess I can see why they lost a date. (Didn't help that ISC didn't stick any money into it).

I did like the rule change about not racing back to the caution flag. Not sure why they try to freeze the field instead of going back to the last lap completed like most local tracks, but I can see why it would be difficult to go back to the last lap completed since they count all the caution laps.

Not sure if I agee with Windsor's assessment that Mopar got hosed in CTS. Unless he is talking about the call against Ted Musgrave at Homestead. But at least Nascar is consistent at making the wrong call. (Brian Vickers at Texas). I heard the Speedchannel crew mention that the Silverado was at a disadvantage this year even though Travis won the championship & Dennis Setzer was 2nd. It's real similar to Matt in Cup, Travis had only one win & except for Matt & Kurt Busch...the Ford teams really struggled. Mopar led CTS in wins with 13, Ford had 6 & Chevy had 6 (two of those wins were Tony Stewart & Kevin Harvick). There was four Dodge drivers in the top ten, four Ford drivers & two Chevy drivers.
 
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