Walk me back from the edge

I have a mancave. It has a flat screen tv in it. I stay busy while the race is on and take a look when I take a sip. It's probably the only way I'll watch from now on. The mancave is 30 by 52, its heated and air conditioned, drywalled.... very nice. i wax/clean my truck/cars/atv's on Sunday afternoons etc........ Wood projects etc...grill some burgers... What I have a problem with is the nascar rule book, it's thicker than a Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia, but if you win they dont throw it at you when you have a violation. Stage cautions seem to take way too many laps, probably to fit in all the commercials. 7 laps when there is no wreck to clean up after is too much. for the most part, i can watch if i have something going on, just to sit down and watch, I'd be a little disheartened myself.
 
I am pretty much the same. I started watching this year more than ever and really tried to get back in to it. But I aside from 5-10 minutes of the Michigan race I have not even bothered watching any since the coke 600 and before that not much at all. Everything runs its course I guess time to just give it up.
 
I actually gave it a go last week for the first time since Talladega, as I love the road courses. But when that fake caution came out, I just couldn't keep watching. It still legitimately pisses me off. Having fake stoppages on a road course is even more sacrilege than on an oval, I think. I would say that the only way to save this sport is to give up on it for now. It is so far from what it was for it's first 60 years as to be unrecognizable. If enough of us leave, stop buying souvenirs and tickets, etc. maybe a new racing series will spring up that will give the fans what they actually want. I don't think NASCAR can ever recover from this stain on the record book that is the fake cautions in my mind. So I'd say join me in walking over the edge. There's plenty of legitimate racing out there in IndyCar, F1 (never thought I'd have to say that), along with short tracks and local series.
 
Excellent answer to a question that wasn't asked, at least not by the OP.

On the other hand, I think @JohnHill addressed the question very well, at least for me anyway.

Hopefully you're not the guy who gets the call when someone is threatening to jump off a tall building . . . :rolleyes:
Hopefully you can realize the difference between metaphorically abandoning a form of entertainment with no consequences vs. literally committing suicide.
 
So am I reading this wrong or are you advocating for suicide here?

I really don't think any harm was meant and believe the "Jump" comment was an off the cuff remark in response to the words "talk me off the ledge." For those of us that have been touched by suicide any kind of flippant remark regarding it can be hurtful in the same way some one person telling another that they are "off their meds" which is saying in no uncertain terms that the person is mentally ill. I don't think any of us want to worry about having to be PC but I know I could do a better job with the words I use.
 
Forget about the championship, watch each race as if it were two heat races, and a main event. As a race fan, as long as they line them up, I will watch. I don't really care for the changes they have made in the last ten years, but I have enjoyed watching William Byron come up through the ranks. Yeah he got screwed on the truck championship last year, but I no longer care about the championships. I care about watching someone come into the sport without any hype, and succeeding. I don't have a favorite driver in cup, haven't had one in a long time. This guy makes me want to watch. It might be that you only need one good reason to watch, If you can't find one, it might be time to find another form of racing. No need to make yourself miserable. If that is what it does to you, you might be better off, by walking away. The race is the thing, it's why we watch.
 
Watch a Moto-Gp race ........ like the one Sunday that had 105 thousand screaming happy fans !!! no stages ........ no gimmicks ......... just hard racing. I bet that nobody left that race whining. I love racing and will gravitate to whatever racing series provides the action. Nascar killed it with the stage racing ........ I didn't even watch Sonoma but instead watched 5 hours of all three Moto-Gp series. I am happy as I can be ........ no great loss.

MotoGP the ballet of motor racing i love watching
 
I have a mancave. It has a flat screen tv in it. I stay busy while the race is on and take a look when I take a sip. It's probably the only way I'll watch from now on. The mancave is 30 by 52, its heated and air conditioned, drywalled.... very nice. i wax/clean my truck/cars/atv's on Sunday afternoons etc........ Wood projects etc...grill some burgers... What I have a problem with is the nascar rule book, it's thicker than a Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia, but if you win they dont throw it at you when you have a violation. Stage cautions seem to take way too many laps, probably to fit in all the commercials. 7 laps when there is no wreck to clean up after is too much. for the most part, i can watch if i have something going on, just to sit down and watch, I'd be a little disheartened myself.
That's a big ole' man-cave!
 
Me personally, I am as big a fan now as I was in 1990 when I started watching. There are things I miss about the old days. I really don't mind the chase/playoffs. They make things exciting. I watch sports to be excited. I see a lot of people whine about the broadcast, but I'm just glad to be able to watch all of them. From 1990-1996 I only got to watch three races(CBS broadcasts over antenna) a year. The rest I had MRN which was still great. I really don't have much to complain about(outside the Xfinty series) The only difference for me is that over the last 15 years or so, NASCAR does take a backseat during NFL season.
 
Me personally, I am as big a fan now as I was in 1990 when I started watching. There are things I miss about the old days. I really don't mind the chase/playoffs. They make things exciting. I watch sports to be excited. I see a lot of people whine about the broadcast, but I'm just glad to be able to watch all of them. From 1990-1996 I only got to watch three races(CBS broadcasts over antenna) a year. The rest I had MRN which was still great. I really don't have much to complain about(outside the Xfinty series) The only difference for me is that over the last 15 years or so, NASCAR does take a backseat during NFL season.

Great post as it adds a whole new perspective as it is easy to complain about the things you don't care for in a broadcast but what if you can't get the program at all? I was in that situation in the early 80's as I moved to an area that was not served by cable as it stopped 500 feet down the road from me so I was stuck with ABC, CBS and NBC and some rabbit ears. I lived with that for about a year and then I got a 12 foot satellite dish and had more programming than I knew what to do with.

It is great that you have been able to maintain your fandom and haven't bailed out as there is still good racing and races no matter how hard Nascar tries to botch things up. I am looking forward to Kentucky, Bristol and Martinsville and am hoping there will be some other good races too.
 
My interest in Nascar has also decreased. I've never gotten back into trucks and xfinity after giving up on watching when they became a 2 or 3 hour close up of KB's car/truck. Cup they screw around with rules constantly. That said, my interest in racing itself hasn't decreased. I watch as much F1 and Indycar as I can, and I pay more attention to them than I used to. They've kind of flipped; Nascar used to be the primary series' that I watched, with open wheel being secondary.
 
Hey, if that's what makes him happy, more power to him. I spent 10 or 12 months on a classical music site a few years ago, trying to see if it was something I might be interested in. Turns out there wasn't.
 
I like the stage racing and the current crop of up and coming drivers has the full range of talent and personality including guys like William Byron in Xfinity coming up. Great time to be a fan.
 
This is a topic that I've thought on a lot recently. And it's one that I think is relevant as well.

Also just to be clear in this post I'll be referring to not just me but friends and family.

Fellow NASCAR fans... I've almost reached that point. I can't take much more. I'm a multiple decade die hard to the bone fan. I've hated just about every change but I've stayed on for the ride all the way.

This year has been different though.
I've payed even closer attention this year than I have the last couple years. I really wanted to give stage racing and Monster their fair shot.

What I've found is this... no matter how much I want to love and adore my beloved NASCAR I just can't. And now I'm just not sure i can take anymore. This will sound like a terrible and senseless argument but I've been through similar situations. Watching what NASCAR has become is like watching a close, lifelong friend slowly die of some sort of illness and I'm helpless.

Maybe no one will respond but who knows...

The point of this long post is this:

Talk me down from the ledge... what is there to keep me in NASCAR going forward. What positives are out there....



I'm with you 100%.

Nowadays, more entertaining than NASCAR, are the "younger" (Millennials?) fans that think this is exciting racing and us old timers should shut the 'ell up and be satisfied with the NASCAR we have.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahacrash! (Laugh my butt off while rounding turn 3)
 
Stay off social media. Places like this will suck the life out of you.

My experience with social media has been good and places like this are educational, enlightening, fun, entertaining and don't come close to sucking the life out of me. Different strokes for different folks.
 
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