Thoughts after watching Eldora & Indy

SpeedPagan

SpeedPagan

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So, I think it's time we admit something to ourselves, and admit something that NASCAR doesn't want to admit. Stock car racing isn't for tracks like Indy or really any track larger than 1.5 miles. That's because stock car racing used to be a short track sport.

The early days of NASCAR saw drivers competing on dirt on short tracks throughout the Southeast of the United States and it produced some of the best racing at the time. I think once NASCAR became popular in the 90s and had a huge influx of fans, they've moved away from what the sport really was about, which is why we get boring races like Indy.

Hel, the cars themselves should tell you that they weren't meant for tracks like Indy. Don't get me wrong, I love the Gen6 cars, NASCAR is def. moving in the right direction with the Gen6. However, they're not exactly aerodynamic enough to take advantage of a track like Indy. F-1 cars are built to be aerodynamic and fast, which is why they produce better racing at a larger track. The "boxy" shape of the stock car also causes aero-push problems on these kinds of tracks.

So what's my solution? Honestly, save for Daytona and Talladega, get rid of any tracks that's longer than 1.5 miles. The only reason I say keep Daytona and Talladega is because they're a staple in NASCAR schedule. However, I would get rid of both of their second dates. Daytona can still have the Daytona 500, but that's it and Talladega can still have one of it's races.

I'd also replace some of the 1.5 mile tracks with dirt tracks. There's gotta be more than one Eldora out there. Get in a good mixture of Superspeedway, short tracks, dirt tracks and some 1.5 miles track and you'll see fans fill up the stands again and the TV ratings going up.
 
Don't see it happening. The France family (ISC) owns Michigan and Fontana. Pocono is as close as they're going to get to the New York market, and despite it being called a snorefest and nobody buying tickets, Indianapolis does get marginally better TV ratings than a lot of summer Cup races. It's a TV driven sport now.
 
Speed and Kevin are both telling the truth, but there are no easy answers, to lasso technology, and media, and keeping the growth is an impossibile dream.

I would just like to see more short tracks, but that wouldnt necessarily reset or guarantee sucess. Our eyes are getting older too, nothing stays the same or is quite as thrilling..
 
Not going to happen. As I see it, they aren't going to mess with cup. They MAY take a look at the truck race on dirt. The TV ratings weren't stupendous, if they were, and it beat out Honey Boo Boo, you could bet on more trucks on dirt and real quick. But that didn't happen. I think they will do it again next year, see how it does, but unless they get a really high rating, they aren't going to change much. Eldora didn't help them or hurt them, it did ok and was something different. If they started racing on dirt a lot, the new would wear off pretty quick.
 
Ehh, it will never happen, and I wouldnt want them to be eliminated anyways. I wouldnt mind booting Texas of the schedule for one race and replacing it with Rockingham, but booting all the cookie cutter tracks is overkill.
 
KevinWI said:
Don't see it happening. The France family (ISC) owns Michigan and Fontana. Pocono is as close as they're going to get to the New York market, and despite it being called a snorefest and nobody buying tickets, Indianapolis does get marginally better TV ratings than a lot of summer Cup races. It's a TV driven sport now.
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Yep. Unfortunately, the two types of tracks with the smallest viewership are road courses and short tracks, so it's hard to see NASCAR moving more dates to those kinds of venues. It could be argued that that's partly due to those tracks typically being in smaller and less recognizable markets, but until NASCAR puts a short track in a large market it's hard to really say for sure. I highly doubt that will happen anytime soon.
 
Captain Coyfish said:
Ehh, it will never happen, and I wouldnt want them to be eliminated anyways. I wouldnt mind booting Texas of the schedule for one race and replacing it with Rockingham, but booting all the cookie cutter tracks is overkill.
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I never said boot all the 1.5 miles track out of the schedule, just some of them, give us a little bit more diversity with the tracks.
 
StandOnIt said:
Not going to happen. As I see it, they aren't going to mess with cup. They MAY take a look at the truck race on dirt. The TV ratings weren't stupendous, if they were, and it beat out Honey Boo Boo, you could bet on more trucks on dirt and real quick. But that didn't happen. I think they will do it again next year, see how it does, but unless they get a really high rating, they aren't going to change much. Eldora didn't help them or hurt them, it did ok and was something different. If they started racing on dirt a lot, the new would wear off pretty quick.
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It was the tenth-best Truck race rating ever for SPEED, so it did very well. SPEED has had full coverage of the Truck Series since the beginning of the '03 season so at the very least it beat out two season openers at Daytona. That's remarkable.

I do agree they shouldn't start overloading the schedule with dirt races now, because that will quickly wear away the novelty of it all. That would be similar to what they did with night racing and what the NHL is about to do with the Stadium Series.
 
IMO Nascar racing is the most popular form of motor racing , at least in North America . Dirt track racing has always been the poor cousin . And , up until very recently , road course racing in Nascar has been the red headed step child that nobody liked . To say that Nascar should completely change who it is because of the fun everyone had at El Dora is a little crazy .(no offence). I'm a Nascar fan , I love the superspeedways ,the road courses , the flat tracks , the short tracks ,and the mile and a halfs . I love the test of skill that each of these venues puts on guys like Juan Pablo and Marcos Ambrose . To win in Nascar , you have to be really good at every type of racing.
 
sloggie said:
This. You would have to start a brand new series to make what you suggest happen.
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The Hooters Pro Cup was kind of like that. I don't believe they raced anywhere longer than a mile. They had a lot of innovations that NASCAR later borrowed, like green-white-checkered and having a "postseason" in motorsport.
 
NASCRAP needs to EXPERIMENT a little.....Like making the INDY race a ROAD COURSE.....And for shytz n grynz run it in the opposite direction.....
 
MELROSEMAFIA said:
NASCRAP needs to EXPERIMENT a little.....Like making the INDY race a ROAD COURSE.....And for shytz n grynz run it in the opposite direction.....
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Nascar needs to stick with the program . No figure eights , no school bus jumping , no dirt tracks , just Nascar racing .
 
Well if I had the money, I probably would make a new racing series that would be more in line with what I think stock car racing should be like.
 
ted@economy said:
Nascar needs to stick with the program . No figure eights , no school bus jumping , no dirt tracks , just Nascar racing .
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Nascar racing ended when WINSTON left.....It's been NASCRAP racing ever since....
 
ted@economy said:
Nascar needs to stick with the program . No figure eights , no school bus jumping , no dirt tracks , just Nascar racing .
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Dirt tracks were a part of NASCAR for a long time. Pipe dream, but I think it'd be good if each of the three national series had one dirt track race a year.
 
Indy road course......in the opposite direction
Race2RoadCourseIndy.jpg
 
TexasRaceLady said:
As much as we'd like it to happen, you can't put the genie back in the bottle.
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I think it will happen...by modifying many 1.5's into something that needs to be driven rather than raced with rolling momentum. It wouldn't be all that hard to make each corner drastically different, or even put a quick esse's off of 2 and 4. Then teams couldn't make the car 'perfect' in all 4 corners and just roll away.
 
We were at Eldora and Loudon and enjoyed both races tremendously but the Eldora Truck race was the best race we've seen or been to in years, does that mean I think it should be cloned or copied, no it doesn't. I think there will be two dirt track races next year but I hope not, mainly because I like the uniqueness of this event. If there are more dirt track races it will get to be old hat, grow stale and in turn not be as exciting. I like racing and I particularly like attending the races and when my wife retires we are planning to attend and camp at every top tier Nascar race in a season. I have been to most of the tracks and the ones I haven't been to I know enough about the track and racing there that I know before I go what to expect, so by doing that I am never disappointed and always have a great time. We were at the Brickyard last year and enjoyed it tremendously, we were in the third row from the top under the overhang entering turn one and could see over 3/4 of the track and it was cooler out of the sun and our camping spot was just outside of the turn one gate in a Speedway Corporate parking lot. A racing experience is what you make of it.
 
ted@economy said:
Nascar needs to stick with the program . No figure eights , no school bus jumping , no dirt tracks , just Nascar racing .
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So you're saying that all the races they did hold on dirt tracks up until 1970 wasn't NASCAR racing?
 
VaDirt said:
So you're saying that all the races they did hold on dirt tracks up until 1970 wasn't NASCAR racing?
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I'm saying Nascar has evolved in another direction . There is plenty of dirt track racing in other series . I see no reason for Nascar to stick it's nose in there and perhaps try to steal that market . I see nothing wrong with Nascar's present place in the auto racing market .
 
I really don't see a problem with the racing. I like seeing strategy win races. I don't mind seeing people with clean air win over tires. Indy was kind of boring but it's still fun to watch to see who can pass on a track where its hard to pass and just wait to see how everyone's different strategies work out. I get what you guys are saying but a lot of you make it seem like the racing is a lot worse than it is. Even when you see someone get out and lead every lap (except JJ lol) it's still cool for me to see that that person has a car so much better or was able to work the race better that week than everyone else. I just like to think of all that goes into getting these guys the finishes they do regardless of how they get there. When a race is boring I go watch lap times and try to call passes before the announcers lol. I've never really been completely bored with a race.. except ironically the biggest race of 2013 the snooze fest 500... but still found it great to see how who could do what on the track and seeing everyone learn how they have to drive with the news cars and all that. Maybe the coverage and ratings could be better of course, and I guess that's where this all stems from... that's just my take on it. Also I wouldn't mind seeing a few more short tracks on the schedule but who wouldn't?
 
I just got home from a 3 week trip and I watched the truck race from Eldora last night and it was an awesome race. I would love to attend a race there sometime. But, I don't think I would want to see them run the trucks on dirt more then one or two times a year because if they did any more then that it would lose it's luster.
 
Nitro Dude said:
I just got home from a 3 week trip and I watched the truck race from Eldora last night and it was an awesome race. I would love to attend a race there sometime. But, I don't think I would want to see them run the trucks on dirt more then one or two times a year because if they did any more then that it would lose it's luster.
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good race wasn't it! Yeah I agree, dirt would lose it's luster if they have too many of them. I think they did a great job of specking out the trucks. Lots of teams used old chassis for the race so it didn't cost a lot to be competitive.
 
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