NASCAR Survey

Much has been said of the NASCAR racing these days. That the racing is boring. That the new car makes the racing boring. Personally, I am a die hard fan. I started watching in 1996, and I was hooked on it my first race. I continue to watch all the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Along with the NASCAR Nationwide Series races and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. Why? I guess because I just love watching racing.

In 2001, at the end of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt lost his life after smashing into the wall while blocking. One year before that, Adam Petty lost his life while practicing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Busch Series race. That same year, Kenny Irwin did the same thing while practicing for the Winston Cup race in NHMS. The result that year was to put restrictor plates on the Cup cars to slow them down. Jeff Burton led all the laps. Not exciting racing, if you weren’t a Burton fan.

When Earnhardt died, NASCAR was forced to make changes. Their Research and Development department went into overdrive, trying to figure out what to do. All the tracks in NASCAR now have SAFER barriers, instead of concrete walls. For the best for safety reasons. So, when the car hits the wall, some of the energy is absorbed. They all have to have Head And Neck devices, along with their helmets. When Earnhardt crashed, he had an open-face helmet and his safety straps were not properly installed. Now these things are mandatory.

NASCAR went a step further and built the Car Of Tomorrow (COT). The driver is not right next to the door and there is more protection for him. However, all cars are created equal and teams get fined if they don’t comply to the templates. The COT doesn’t handle as well as the cars used to. So, some say the racing is boring because they can’t pass.

So, what I want to find out, is what makes a good race, as opposed to a boring race? In my opinion, racing is exciting. Just by definition. But I want to know what others think is a great race. Is it the spectacular crashes that draws fans? Is it more exciting to see one car crash out another to get by? Or is side-by-side racing exciting? I realize follow the leader is not exciting. And it seems that with the new car, the leader takes off and no one can catch him. I think, if that is the case, the new double-file restarts will cure that.

Case in point. Taladega. The racing all day long was three-wide. I thought three-wide was exciting. But what made the headlines was the spectacular crash at the end. Would it not have been as exciting if Carl had raced Brad to the finish line line, instead of blocking and crashing himself out? And Daytona. Was the ending better because Kyle blocked and crashed himself out and into everyone else? Couldn’t he have raced Tony to the line to be a great race?

Another thing. Is the quality of racing dependent on how well or poorly Kyle Busch does? Personally, I like the race better the worse he does. Do the fans watch the races to see Kyle win? Or, are they not watching any more because he did so well last year?

So, NASCAR fans, what, in your opinion, makes great racing? The crashes? Your favorite winning? Kyle winning or not? Or do you just not to watch because Earnhardt is no longer racing? Is it the chase that keeps you watching? Is it the excitement of the chase and everyone telling you who is where all through the race? What do you think would improve racing? Please leave me a comment. I really want to know.

Brought to you by Sheila Hawley

NASCAR Comment

Hello race fans. There is no NASCAR Sprint Cup race this weekend. So I will not be posting a Race Review. But I’d like to share with you what I like about NASCAR and why I started following the Sport.

I’m not very athletic. I can’t hit a ball to save my life. I can ski, but only do well on the good beginner/easy intermediate trails. When faced with moguls I tend to get down the hill on my behind! It’s only fun when you can get down the hill. I never was someone to watch sports, either. Something better was always on, in my opinion.

But in 1996, my now husband took me to a friend’s house (Gary) to watch a Winston Cup race. I don’t remember which race it was. I was captivated. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I was told I had to pick a driver in order to watch the race. I had heard about the Indy 500, but that was Indy cars, not NASCAR. I had heard about Richard Petty and the famous #43 STP car, but he was no longer racing. So, who to pick?

I saw a beautiful red, white and blue #88 car and picked that. (8 is my favorite number) It turned out to be Dale Jarrett. Everyone said that was a good pick. As I watched, I fell in love with racing. And I also fell in love with my pick. The most popular driver was, of course, Dale Earnhardt. He was aggressive and many times crashed cars out to get by. I didn’t like that. I liked to see racing, not crashing.

As I watched more and more races, I decided to stick with my first pick, Dale Jarrett. He raced. He passed cars to get by. And NASCAR became my Passion. And Dale Jarrett my driver. He won that first race, by the way. He’s now retired and I have to find a new favorite. His style of racing was what drew me to him. And kept me chearing him on.

Through the years, I’ve liked several other drivers. Not because they make daring, aggressive moves, but because they race well. I watched Dale Jr. race with Matt Kenseth in the old Busch Series. That was fun to watch. I never liked Jr.’s father because he let it be known that if you didn’t get out of the way, he was going to make you get out of the way. And that, to me was not racing. I liked Jeff Burton in the #99 Exide. Again, because he raced instead of crashing someone else out. I liked Matt and Jr., but I collected Matt as one of my favorites.

I watched ASA and had favorites there. I watched Hooters Pro Series and had favorites there. I also watched This Week In Dirt on TV and noticed the name Kasey Kahne. He always finished in the top three! And I watched the Busch North Series and had favorites there.

My husband Ray and I compete in every race we watch. His favorites against my favorites. When I first started watching, Gary with Earnhardt, and Ray with Ken Schrader had a bet going with each other. Who’s ever driver finished better won the bet. $5. Ray usually lost. They wouldn’t let me get in because I was new. The next year I also couldn’t get in. They didn’t think I’d stick with Jarrett. But I did and he won seven races in 1997. In 1998, they let me in on the bet. The winner got $5 from the other two. I, with Dale Jarrett won over $300 competing with Dale Earnhardt and Ken Schrader. In 1999, DJ won the Championship. And there was no more betting!

I loved Winston Cup racing. It was the best. Brian France, Jr. took a Southern Sport, and with RJ Reynolds’ Winston brand made NASCAR what it is today. Beautiful racing. Then along comes son Brian. Winston was replaced with Nextel. Nextel signed a ten year contract, but after only a few years Sprint bought Nextel, and it is now Sprint Cup.  And after the 2003 season, Brian decided NASCAR needed a play-off to keep the fans watching while football was going on.

I hated it. Play-offs were for sports with divisions. NASCAR has 43 cars competing every week. How does a play-off fit into NASCAR? But they shortened the season to 26 races, instead of 36 and made the last ten races the Chase for the Championship. The media loved it. They start talking about the Chase contenders with the first race of the year! However, the fans don’t care for it. So it isn’t doing what NASCAR wanted it to do-get more fans to watch during football.

And now the media darling is Kyle Busch. He’s touted as having so much talent and can win in anything he gets into. I personally, don’t see the talent. For him, it’s Checkers or wreckers. And in my opinion, that’s not talent. He also is a sore looser. And blames everyone else when he doesn’t win. Not a very good racer. The fans don’t care for him, or the way the media shoves him down our throats. He doesn’t race. He crashes out the competition. Thankfully, he also crashes himself out.

NASCAR will always be something I will watch. Because it is beautiful. I just wish it could go back to when there was no Chase. And the best driver that year won the Championship. Instead of the driver that was best in the last ten races.

Brought to you by Sheila Hawley

NASCAR’s Top 12

Finishing the 2008 season in third place is Roush Fenway Racing’s #16 Greg Biffle. Greg is the only NASCAR Sprint Cup driver that had a chance to become the only driver with a Championship in all three NASCAR top Series. He won the Rookie of the year in the Craftsman Truck series, and went on to win the Championship in 2000. He then went on to the Busch Series, was the Rookie of the year and became the Champion in 2002. Greg was not the Rookie of the year when he came to Cup racing. But he has a chance to be the Champion in 2008. He finished second to Tony Stewart in 2005.

Greg started the Chase in ninth place. And promptly won the first two Chase races at New Hampshire and Dover. And finished third at Kansas. However, he crashed out at Talladega and finished 24th. In the last six races, his worse finish was 18th at the finale at the Homestead-Miami Track. He held on to third, but was not close enough to contend for the Championship.

Greg did not make the Chase in 2006 or 2007. In 2008 he had three DNF’s (Did Not Finish) but was never out of the top 12 to get into the Chase. He started the Chase with four out of five top ten’s and finished the Chase with four out of five top tens. If Greg can perform better next year, and get some wins before the Chase starts, he will once again be in contention for the Trophy.

Brought to you by Sheila Hawley

Visit my site: http://www.ilovemynascar.com

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For more NASCAR news

NASCAR Nationwide Series, formerly Busch Series

Yesterday I mentioned more on the Nationwide Series. So, here’s my take on the new Series. This second tier of NASCAR has been around for twenty-six years, all of those years, Sponsored by Busch beer. Next year Busch will no longer Sponsor the Series. It wasn’t really clear (at least to me) why they were bowing out. But the highlight of the Season was finding a new Sponsor.

Subway Restaurants was the front runner most of the year. But there was the “exclusivity clause” that got into the way. See, the Sponsor of the Series is supposed to have exclusive rights to any and all advertising. That means Subway would be the only fast food chain that could have logos on the cars in the Series. And there were too many fast food chains already on cars in the Series. So to make Subway exclusive, all the other fast food chains would have to go. But Nationwide Insurance came along to Sponsor the Series. And there was only one other car out there Sponsoring an insurance car. That being the 7 car of Mike Wallace. Whose car is Sponsored by GEICO. The 7 car can have Geico as a Sponsor only next year. And then they will have to find another Sponsor.

So, the Busch Series is still alive with Nationwide as the Sponsor. I’m glad that’s all taken care of. But in my opinion NASCAR needs to take another look at this series. It used to be a Series where newcomers learned how to drive these big stock cars. There were Series regulars racing every week. And there were up and coming drivers headed for Cup racing. Until last year, a Series regular always won the Championship. If something isn’t done, no Series regular will ever again win the Championship. Making Martin Truex, Jr. the last of the Series Champs in 2005.

Last year there were seven Cup regulars who ran both Series all year. And, of course, a Cup driver won the Championship. Kevin Harvick won last year. This year Carl Edwards, a Cup regular, ran away with the Championship. I say no duh! A Cup driver and crew will always do better than a Busch driver and crew. But this will be the new Nationwide Series in 2008. I say if you want your car to win the Championship, get yourself a Nationwide Series driver. Drivers shouldn’t be allowed to go for both Championships.

The Nationwide series is supposed to be the second tier of NASCAR racing. And Cup drivers should be allowed to compete in some races. It’s good for the tracks and fans. Cup drivers draw fans to the track. Nationwide drivers get to compete with the Big Guys. Cup drivers get to go out and have fun trying to win the few races they enter into. But putting a Cup driver into a Nationwide car for every race defeats the purpose of the Series. In no other Sport do players go back to the Minors and compete in all the games.

So now NASCAR wants to not give points to drivers in the top 35 in Cup points. And I agree with that. Tony Stewart maintains he should be allowed to race in any Series of his choosing. And while that may be valid, I have to wonder if maybe he’s getting a little rusty and needs to maybe prove to himself that he can still win. That is what the Minors are for. To make you better so you can compete in the Majors. Right?

I’d like to take this whole thing a little further. Teams have Nationwide drivers in all their Nationwide cars. No Cup driver should be allowed to win the Nationwide Championship. Cup drivers can compete in select races, but not every race of the season. And in those races they decide to compete in, I say they should all start from the rear. They should qualify on time to get in and to get a good pit stall. But they should all have to start from the rear according to where they qualified. I say that would be a great race. Watching these Cup veterans race their way to the front.

So there’s my take on the new Nationwide Series. I hope it goes back to be a learning place and a Series with regulars competing every week. More like the Craftsman Truck series. Cup drivers compete every now and then, but it’s mostly Truck drivers competing in Truck races. And a Truck driver winning the Truck Championship.

Brought to you by Sheila Hawley.

Visit my website. http://www.ilovemynascar.com

End of NASCAR for 2007

    Well, racing fans the NASCAR Season (both of them) is over for 2007. And I must say, I sure am saddened by it. No more coming home after work to see who qualified for the race. (more on that in a minute) No more NASCAR Now. No more Busch Series practice, qualifying and racing. Next year it will be the Nationwide Series. I’ll write more about that tomorrow. No more Craftsman Trucks on Speed. And especially, no more Cup races this year.

From February to November you can find me in front of the television all weekend long. What will I do with myself on weekends now? Now I’ll have to catch up on things! Oh, my! I think that will last until about December. And then I will be in NASCAR withdrawal. And I will have to dig up some races I have on tape. This year hasn’t been very good for me tape-wise. I have Direct TV. And while I’m not paying Time Warner any more, I’m not able to get the major channels. I have to rely on the Local Channels to see the races. But I can’t tape them from the Local channels. I have the Busch Series shown on ESPN2 and the Craftsman Trucks shown on SPEED. But I was only able to tape the Cup races shown on TNT and ESPN2. And the majority of them were on ABC. NASCAR may have made a great television deal, but I don’t care for the deal.

So there are some things that I don’t like about NASCAR any more. Ever since Brian France took over. One of them is having races starting so late. I find myself having to stay up all night watching TV. Not that I mind, but I’d rather be watching races on Sunday at noon. And qualifying is not at a good time for me. When it starts at 3:00, I’m still at work. SPEED used to show qualifying at 8:00 for people like me. But that didn’t happen much this year. And I hate not knowing who got in and who didn’t.

I keep a notebook on NASCAR. I start the weekend with qualifying. All the cars (or trucks) that are entered in order. With comments on new paint schemes, or who is in a new car this week. And it makes me very unhappy when I can’t see what is going on. I’d like NASCAR to take a look at what the fans are doing. What we’re watching, and when we’re watching. The ratings are going down, but NASCAR isn’t worried about that. Maybe they should be. In my opinion, they are going after the football fans at the expense of the fans they already have. The football fans watch awhile, but go away.  I personally don’t watch football. I’m a NASCAR fan.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the new Nationwide Series. Some thoughts from a die hard  racing fan. And maybe after that I’ll give my opinion about the state of NASCAR.

Visit my site. http://www.ilovemynascar.com/