What's your unpopular NASCAR opinion?

Formerjackman said:
The thing is, the unlimited horsepower from the era you are speaking of was less than the limited horsepower we have now with the 750 package, and if you figure in the weight reduction and aerodynamics of the newer cars, even the 550 package produces faster lap times. You MIGHT have a point about bias ply tires putting on a better show, but if we are talking "stock cars", when was the last new car produced with bias ply tires? 40 years ago? Same deal with the carburetors. GM for instance used their last carburetors on 1990 Cadillacs with the Oldsmobile Pushrod V8. The Holley Carb that was legal for NASCAR use dates back to about 1955.
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I was referring to HP that was available before the recent or current rules package.
I just made it too ambiguous or misleading with the time lines when I wrote it. The old tires was early 90s and before, I should have articulated better.
Running carburaters would have been my lowest priority, I would have been better off stessing HP and tires only.
 
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I'm happy there's no longer an ESPN Thursday Night Thunder. And no TNN ASA, WOO, Knoxville Nationals ....
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Everytime I see posts like this these, I have to ask, "If Petty, Yarborough, Pearson, etc had the opportunity to install power steering, cooling systems, disk brakes, fitted seats, do you think they would have turned that gear down?"
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I think Petty was the first with the cooling system but he was no young gun.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm pretty sure neither said, "Don't put that sh!t on my car. Having it will make me less of a man."
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I think it helped Richard stay in the car another season or 2.
Was it Rick Mast that had to retire because of the carbon poisoned air.??
 
Unpopular opinion. Andy Pietree was the best booth announcer these last 20 years.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Formerjackman said:
The thing is, the unlimited horsepower from the era you are speaking of was less than the limited horsepower we have now with the 750 package,
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1970 Alabama 500, April 12, 1970

Pole speed: 199.658 mph

Supposedly 425 HP according to the hood. 4000# car, bias tires, no power steering, 5" minimum ground clearance, factory stock chassis platform (they did allow the hybrid half chassis, factory front stub joined to a the factory unibody at the firewall for the Ford Torino/Fairlane, Mercury Montego, and tube for the Mopar's to reinforce the front assembly. The cage then tied it all together, but the floor pan had to be stock.)....yet they still pushed those tanks to within a whisker of todays state of the art no stock, stock cars.

By the way...I know we cannot go back in time, but we do not need to jump out of the realm of what NASCAR began with. Run the stock body Mustangs and Camaros...even maybe the Challengers, but this boy racer crap is just not close.
 
OldTimer said:
Supposedly 425 HP according to the hood. 4000# car, bias tires, no power steering, 5" minimum ground clearance, factory stock chassis platform .... Run the stock body Mustangs and Camaros...even maybe the Challengers, but this boy racer crap is just not close.
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You want the stock body and chassis, but the radial tires and power steering (both stock) are 'boy racer crap'? You're confusing me.
 
Tandem racing freaking sucks horribly.

Somebody tell me how tandem racing takes more skill than a regular plate package?
 
AuzGrams said:
Tandem racing freaking sucks horribly.

Somebody tell me how tandem racing takes more skill than a regular plate package?
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If you consider how many can do it and do it right it should give a hint about the skill required.
I am no fan of Clint but he was one of the few capable yesterday.
 
Team Penske said:
If you consider how many can do it and do it right it should give a hint about the skill required.
I am no fan of Clint but he was one of the few capable yesterday.
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Maybe it's selective bias & bad memory, but I see more races involving tandems having flips, cars getting stuffed into the fence, crash derby's than regular pack races ever have lately.
 
Unpopular Opinion: The idea of having a couple resets aka "playoffs" isn't a terrible idea if NASCAR would get away from A ) Homestead Bowl | B ) Bloated 16 Cars | C ) Win & You're In
 
Charlie Spencer said:
You're confusing me.
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Apparently not too hard to do (could not help that)...but, to clarify, the aero adornments are what I refer to as "boy racer". Get rid of the side skirts...use stock profile fenders, "A" pillar, and quarter panels...cannot stand the faux front of the vehicles....might has well run RC cars or that goofy fake internet racing game stuff.
 
OldTimer said:
Apparently not too hard to do (could not help that)...but, to clarify, the aero adornments are what I refer to as "boy racer". Get rid of the side skirts...use stock profile fenders, "A" pillar, and quarter panels...cannot stand the faux front of the vehicles....might has well run RC cars or that goofy fake internet racing game stuff.
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airplanes need to go back to two wings
 
OldTimer said:
1970 Alabama 500, April 12, 1970

Pole speed: 199.658 mph

Supposedly 425 HP according to the hood. 4000# car, bias tires, no power steering, 5" minimum ground clearance, factory stock chassis platform (they did allow the hybrid half chassis, factory front stub joined to a the factory unibody at the firewall for the Ford Torino/Fairlane, Mercury Montego, and tube for the Mopar's to reinforce the front assembly. The cage then tied it all together, but the floor pan had to be stock.)....yet they still pushed those tanks to within a whisker of todays state of the art no stock, stock cars.
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That 425 HP number was the "rated" horsepower of the equivalent street car, which in itself was a lie most of the time. The race engines were quite a bit north of that. Also keep in mind that that 200MPH speed was taking place at Daytona and Talladega. Every place else, they were running 30-40 MPH slower than they do today. It takes right around 600 horsepower to make even a sleek street car body go 200 MPH.
 
AuzGrams said:
Maybe it's selective bias & bad memory, but I see more races involving tandems having flips, cars getting stuffed into the fence, crash derby's than regular pack races ever have lately.
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I think most of those bad moves were caused because of the manufacturer designs (lately)
as well as some very stupid drivers wanting to see past the left side of the target car.
Even an old fart like myself knows you can't push at that angle
 
Formerjackman said:
they were running 30-40 MPH slower than they do today.
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The cars weighed 3,950 POUNDS...compared to 3,400 POUNDS...drastic difference on a track where you had to slow the momentum going in and getting it back coming out. Also keep in mind the wheelbase of those cars were over half a foot longer, that requires additional transition time....slight as it might be, but believe either Bud Moore or Ray Nichels came up with the 1/4 second difference on a mile track. That is when NASCAR and USAC had a parting of the ways. USAC started to allow small block pony cars with 108" wheelbase...compared to the 116" min in NASCAR at the time, but with a big block.
 
Formerjackman said:
Also keep in mind that that 200MPH speed was taking place at Daytona and Talladega. Every place else, they were running 30-40 MPH slower than they do today. It takes right around 600 horsepower to make even a sleek street car body go 200 MPH.
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True. In the 60's the Hemi was putting out 750 HP on speed runs but ran a much slower 180 instead of the 205 they were running at Talledaga this year.
 
Formerjackman said:
That 425 HP number was the "rated" ⁰horsepower of the equivalent street car, which in itself was a lie most of the time. The race engines were quite a bit north of that. Also keep in mind that that 200MPH speed was taking place at Daytona and Talladega. Every place else, they were running 30-40 MPH slower than they do today. It takes right around 600 horsepower to make even a sleek street car body go 200 MPH.
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I remember a Mercury that David Pearson drove for Wood Brothers in 70s. It was huge and I would think to myself he might as well race a school bus.
 
Unpopular opinion: Stage points have drained the elimination excitement from the playoffs. Guys like Kyle Busch with finishes of 37th, 19th, 19th, 6th, and 2nd have no business auto-piloting to Miami for a chance at the title. It's no wonder Jimmie won five in a row.
 
ReturnTrip said:
Unpopular opinion: Stage points have drained the elimination excitement from the playoffs. Guys like Kyle Busch with finishes of 37th, 19th, 19th, 6th, and 2nd have no business auto-piloting to Miami for a chance at the title. It's no wonder Jimmie won five in a row.
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It's not the stage points, its the playoff points and the dominance of the 18 in the regular season, as it should be IMO.
 
ReturnTrip said:
Unpopular opinion: Stage points have drained the elimination excitement from the playoffs. Guys like Kyle Busch with finishes of 37th, 19th, 19th, 6th, and 2nd have no business auto-piloting to Miami for a chance at the title. It's no wonder Jimmie won five in a row.
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I have no problem with 'regular season' performance giving a team a leg up in the playoff through all rounds.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Stage racing isn't bad but would be much better if they stayed green between stages. But television, y'know?
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I don't like forced yellows but I remember years ago probably during the JJ years I wanna say, a lot of people bitched and complained (a lot) about racing getting strung out and then NASCAR would throw those phantom yellows.

I'm not the biggest fan of 2 guaranteed yellows and less strategy, but at least they're being more transparent the past couple years.
 
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