Not watching Daytona this year

[Unchainme]

Sorry, they've lost me as a fan.

I've disgusted with the lack of southern drivers out there. They had personality and made the races entertaining. Also, the fact that they tried to mainstream it to the point of making me want to puke, Why are there races out in LA where no one gives a rats ass, yet places like Rockingham no longer run races or Darlington gets them cut back? Also, the hell "The Sprint Cup" and "The Nationwide Series", the hell is that shit? When I watch a NASCAR race, I want to see products advertised that I'd see sold at the local country gas station, not products that fucking soccer moms and their accountant husbands use.

Also, the drivers, as I mentioned before, all come off as soul-less robots. Can the IRL drivers please stop migrating to this? Juan Pabol Montoya, I love you, I was a HUGE fan of you in the IRL, in fact, I want you to come back, you were so fun to watch! But, you don't fit my expectations of what I want to see on Sundays.

Now, onto the non-IRL racers, the current crop, is in sad straights. Again, when I turn on the tube, I expect to see some backwood southern hicks race like mad to win, I don't want to see some upper-class guy from California and Connecticut driving like somebody's who's late to work. Is there anyone from the current crew I like? Sure, Ryan Newman, Kurt/Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart seem to have some personality to them, and seems like that if you dropped up into 1995, they would fit in great with that batch of drivers, but they make up very little of the crowd, that's not who my little rant is directed at.

Someone like Jimmie Johnson winning all the time is the epitome of bad for the sport, and the fact that the guy is being called "great" in time of a more watered down and pussy-fied version of NASCAR and couldn't hold Earnhardt or Petty's helmet. Also, did I mention he's boring to watch races and that he has zero personality?

Sorry to go off on a rant like that, but my god, I wish NASCAR would go back to it's roots and not try to become so mainstreamed.

[kwame k]

Yikes....come on let us have it, don't hold back now

NASCAR hasn't been remotely entertaining in God knows how long.

It went downhill after Dale Sr died.....sad to say but the old....end of an era, applies to NASCAR. I'm all for safety and all that jazz. It just seems like the technology took over and everyone wants the most modern and precise cars but failed to realize what made racing great. Not knowing what the fuck these crazy Red Necks were going to do next and anyone could win a race.

Why not just put in an auto-pilot and see who has the best car, for all the driving they do today. The driver seems secondary to the car....you have a bad car, your days is done. Use that excuse on the old boys who drove 30 years ago and they'd of kicked your ass....

You're right, it's all gloss now.

I want good racing......I want to see Cooter and his cousin Skeeter in the pits, spittin' chew, smoking cigs......cans of PBR on the wall in the pits and cursing about why old Bessie ain't running right. I want to see those boys scraping up the paint. Dirty driving and pay backs all in one race, with no fines because that's racing.

I want racing not fucking mathematics...the damn thing looks like a Ballet. NASCAR was started by bootleggers for Christ's sake

This shit they have now is like American Idol for upper class Hillbillies.......

[Unchainme]

Agreed on the point of the Earnhardt dieing being the end of the grand era of NASCAR, I mean there was a couple of good races following that, but after that it just really wasn't the same.

I've got no problem with a couple of Alan Kulwicki's in the field, but again, I don't believe that it should be overly compliticated scientific type of affair. In the NFL or any given league, they have a nice balance of the simple keys to winning something and the more complex methods (take example, Bill Belichick and his teams of the past decades and say, a team like Pittsburgh's smash mouth defense)

NASCAR doesn't have that, it's become a boring tamed scientific affair.

[78/84 guy]

Nascar ended when Toyota entered the picture !!! And the last great Daytona race was the one Dale died in. Talladega is still fun. They ruined Bristol when the repaved it !!! There are 7 or 8 great cars driven by the same guys every week and the rest of them are to pass up !!

[twonabomber]

the weekly rule changes are dumb. so a Chevy wins three races in a row, the Ford guys get butthurt and cry to the France family, and the rules get changed? what kind of shit is that?

[BigBadBrian]

I stopped watching (that is, when football season didn't coincide) when Neil Bonnet and then Dale Earnhardt bought the farm.

Something just turned me off of the sport. I still glimpse at the tube when a race is on, but not like I used to.

[chefcraig]

The sport has been on life support for almost a decade now. Consider this: When (in your lifetime) have you seen commercials attempting to sell tickets for a Bristol race before last season? Sponsors who do not want the slightest hint of controversy tarnishing their product have created a situation where the blandness of the driver's personality is a selling point. The cars (and the drivers themselves) are little more than corporate billboards, shilling the latest marketing scheme the company has come up with, and instantly making a one race paint job that is reproduced on toy cars that are sold as an instant "collectible" to the fans for extortionate amounts of money.

And no one seems to notice that the quality of the competition (you know, the actual racing itself) blows chunks all over the dashboard. Three teams are involved at this point (Hendrick, Gibbs and Roush/Fenway), with Hendrick holding all the cards. With the death of Dale Earnhardt and "Quaalude Jimmy" Spencer relegated to an endless pre-race tv program, the sport has lost it's only remaining mavericks. (Sorry, Kyle Busch is not a headstrong competitor. He is no more than a whiny, self-absorbed little child that has been indulged for so long that he expects the world to revolve around himself. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.)

This season NASCAR will be starting races around 1PM and backing off rules that have lead to breakthroughs in safety, encouraging the drivers to mix things up. When a sport has gotten to the point when it has to institute common sense starting times for the races to begin and encourage it's drivers to behave recklessly in order to get the public's attention, you know the sanctioning body has lost the plot. The bigger question is how could things have gone so terribly wrong in order to get to this point to begin with?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I'll watch it, although not intensely, after the Pens game is finished....

It's the time of year when there isn't much on as an alternative.... Even the Olympics, for me anyway, the hockey doesn't start until Tuesday....

[Unchainme]

I'll watch it, although not intensely, after the Pens game is finished....

It's the time of year when there isn't much on as an alternative.... Even the Olympics, for me anyway, the hockey doesn't start until Tuesday....

March and April is when the real fun starts.

March Madness
The NBA Playoffs
The beginning of baseball
The NFL Draft

I have a lot invested in the first two, as both of my teams are looking pretty damn good at this point.

[kwame k]

This season NASCAR will be starting races around 1PM and backing off rules that have lead to breakthroughs in safety, encouraging the drivers to mix things up. When a sport has gotten to the point when it has to institute common sense starting times for the races to begin and encourage it's drivers to behave recklessly in order to get the public's attention, you know the sanctioning body has lost the plot. The bigger question is how could things have gone so terribly wrong in order to get to this point to begin with?

The cars can go faster than what's safe in some cases......something has to be done to put the driver's skill ahead of the car's technology.

I'm not talking restrictor plates here because restrictor plate racing is nothing more than gas and brake discipline.

[Unchainme]

I am somewhat reluctantly watching the Busch series (FUCK calling it the Nationwide series, sounds like a 12 year old girls go kart series) pre game right now.

Geeze, is Danica the only driver running today or something? the way ESPIN is covering things you'd think it was.

I know, I'm a hypocrite, but I'm just a bit curious.

[kwame k]

I am somewhat reluctantly watching the Busch series (FUCK calling it the Nationwide series, sounds like a 12 year old girls go kart series) pre game right now.

Geeze, is Danica the only driver running today or something? the way ESPIN is covering things you'd think it was.

I know, I'm a hypocrite, but I'm just a bit curious.

Same thing happened with Junior.......the guy would be running in last place and all coverage was on him....the poor bastard that won the race would be all excited and ready for his big interview....and it seems the interviewer's first question would be, "So what happened to Dale Jr today?".

I had pit passes to a Busch race several years ago and that was a blast. We were in the pits for practice and you could damn near hop the wall and hand the guys a 9/16th wrench and work on the car with them. There was like no restrictions as to where you could go.....for the no names that is.

The other thing I saw there was independent cars there racing. Guys pulling in with their homemade cars and trying to qualify. That's what's missing in the sport......the grassroots guys that could come in and race and you didn't need a thousand fucking sponsors/millions of dollars to race.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Busch/Nationwide is a joke.... Make a rule that the Cup drivers can't drive in it, I might watch....

[ZahZoo]

I will say the COT damn near turned it into an IROC snooze fest but it's getting a little better... Still feel like they could retain the safety aspects but give more freedom in body styles and aero aspects.

Having been a fan since the 60's as a kid... the sport has definately gone thru cycles. But back then far fewer races were televised so it was more of an event for those of us not living in the south. I do remember it getting boring with always Petty, Pearson or a Yarlboro always winning. Then the sport took a jump when Earnhardt, Wallaces, Waltrip and all were in their prime.

I think a toned down a lot when the money, sponsors and television got huge. It takes millions to run a team and corporate sponsorships moved into more mainstream markets. Plus the racing technology shifted way beyond a true "stock" car...

I think the new nationwide (Busch or Grand National) series will pick up with the new car they're developing. It could breath new life with more "stock" body styles and take the competative advantage away from Cup cars/drivers by forcing a unique car element that doesn't just have watered down Cup technology.

I do think it's good that NASCAR has backed off some of the rules and let the drivers sort it out on the track. Last year's Talledega race was a total farce and still ended up a terrible crash-fest. If they let the drivers personalities and competative natures rule... the racing will get better and for what the sport needs is some more bad boys and rivalries to emerge... that's really what's missing...

[Unchainme]

Busch/Nationwide is a joke.... Make a rule that the Cup drivers can't drive in it, I might watch....

My idea is that you only allow 5 Winston Cup drivers, cap it in a way, the top 5 who have the best time get to qualify for the race

That way, you get to the ability to devolop more new talent AND allow fans to still seem some drivers that race on Sunday.