... replies, and the vast majority of them pine for a simpler time when men competed with simpler tools. And yet almost nothing is mentioned that is actionable . Sorry, but "Make it 1978 again" is not actionable. We decry the inevitable evolution brought about by the spirit of competition. A task worth doing is worth doing well. Competing in Nascar races is a worthwhile task, and yet we hate that the drivers and teams do their best to be successful.
We liked the suspense created by poor reliability. Blown motors and other broken parts mean races are lost, but we hate that the teams worked and innovated to do a better job. Weird.
We want fewer rules and more room to innovate. But we hate engineers and the innovations they have brought. Also weird.
We love the close finish of the Daytona 24 Hours, but we ignore the wave upon wave of BoP revisions to manipulate it, including literally dozens of adjustments AFTER qualifying last year. And we also ignore the 22 full course cautions that consumed nearly half of this year's race, including two in the final hour.
I fully understand looking over the history of Nascar and having a favorite era from the past. I get that. What I don't get is the next step beyond that, vowing that because that favorite era is gone, everything that came after is crap and deserves nothing but disdain.
To me, Nascar's hook is competition between drivers and teams on the racetrack. Hard edged, brass knuckle competition. It's always been prominent at the front of the grid, and continues unfettered today. The field has never been deeper in quality entrees. And the championship format has never rewarded winning as much as now, so I can live with it despite the needless complexity and the regrettable winner-take-all finale at Homestead.
note the first few words of Lews post omitted to focus on
actionable.
There are several areas that could be improved upon if there was a desire.
The points: There will never be a perfect system that everyone agrees upon. Rewarding both Winning and Consistentcy rightously is an elusive goal.
I would just like to see the resets go away or the chase elimination. Races should be good enough as stand alone items anyway.
Cup races are long enough to make perseverance a great story, and the journey itself is a great story. The all or nothing is a headline item, but it isnt the body of work. The simple truth is that without the debri cautions we would still have some run aways, they would not be as big as the 80s or 90s. But it would still be a huge significant reality, if they didn't do the flagrant debri cautions.
There will always be cars that had a great race if they finish in the top 15. It one of the beautiful things about lining up 40 cars to go after a single checkered flag. When one of the big contenders has some bad luck and looses a few laps, it should be costly and get no mercy. I want to see that driver fight his way back with as few sanctioned assists as possible.
I realize that there will always be unavoidable cautions, and it will upset the natural flow. I can accept those for being a natural part of racing. But they shouldn't be encouraged.
And they are, it is an undeniable reality.
Am I talking about the chase, or the cautions? Actually I am trying to talk about something bigger, and thats would be the mindsets that dont get racing. Primarily Nascar cynical add-ons, to prop up something that doesn't need the crap. A Degradation is the best most accurate description in my opinion.
It takes a cynical mind to willingly purse making restarts the most contested and biggest item of the race. A designated crap shoot were drivers will even slow down on the pit exits because starting 3rd is better than starting 2nd.
And the chases biggest drama in recent years has been the fisting the air fights on pit road. And they talking heads cover the Springer crap too like thats the greater drama. You will get the its Chase Elimination crap repeated hundreds of times but very little Xs and Os about the actual race itself.
Even when they get an eventful last few laps at Homestead like they did in November, it still leaves a ridiculous aftertaste. If Nascar had let the race play out Edwards would have won the title, and I write that as a Chevy fan that was thrilled with who got the trophy.
Still the same the car that should have won didn't and it was the result of Nascars cynical mindset: Cause just letting a race play out aint good enough anymore.
Last of all please note these are actionable items that could be corrected, in short they are mindsets. There is a reason why people say Brian doesn't even like racing, and it goes much deeper than being MIA on sunday.
He is a leader that obviously doesn't believe the racing alone is worthy.
And the masses will not respect the product anymore than the man or Nascar does himself.
