My Yearly NASCAR Watch

[sdot]

I just finished napping/watching the Daytona 500. I watch it every year for some retarded reason. It started raining and they cancelled the end of the race so that was anticlimactic.

I think my dislike of nascar is sort of like how people can't watch baseball. To an indifferent watcher nothing really happens until a crash and even those arent exciting anymore.

Until next year...

[HuffNfeffeR]

I used to be totally into it, until it become what could only be described as ubiquitous. It just got to the point where it was just annoying.

I watched today too. I used to say that there was never a sleeping medication as powerful as the drone of the cars and Benny Parsons' voice.

I probably stopped being a regular watcher/follower about 2000 or so, about the same time I moved here. Now I watch parts of about 3 or 4 races a year. Daytona, the Charlotte 600, and probably the Bristol races.

[displacedeerfan]

Benny Parson's dead.

[prestonco]

Feb 15, 2009 22:41:37 GMT -5 displacedeerfan said:

Benny Parson's dead.

overdosed on the sound of his own voice

[displacedeerfan]

I think it was cancer from 35+ years of free Winstons.

[ratsafari]

I've never watched a race. My brother is just the opposite, watches every damn one.

[Kenneth]

I forgot about the race yesterday. I usually watch the Daytona 500. I was a big NASCAR fan when I was younger. Then Dale Earnhardt died, and I haven't ever gotten back into it.

[HuffNfeffeR]

Feb 16, 2009 10:29:21 GMT -5 Kenneth said:

I forgot about the race yesterday. I usually watch the Daytona 500. I was a big NASCAR fan when I was younger. Then Dale Earnhardt died, and I haven't ever gotten back into it.

Do you have a "Gone but not forgotten - 3" sticker on the back window of your El Camino?

[marylandeer]

I have the "3" with the wings on it.

I remember bartending in Morgantown on the Sunday of that Daytona 500. We were watching the end of the race and when he wrecked, the guy I was working with said "good...I hope that fucker dies". Then an hour later they are reporting that he died. That guy felt a little bad about it at the time.

[HuffNfeffeR]

Feb 16, 2009 11:56:23 GMT -5 marylandeer said:

I have the "3" with the wings on it.

Well yeah, but that is classy. And looks awesome on the back window of your robins egg blue celica.

[matt]

I try to watch it, but the coverage seems to have become even less tolerable than normal. I mean, the shots they show are either too tight or too wide...either its too far away to see whats happening, or its just a camera on the ground that is shaking as the cars fly by...while the talking heads dont bother to talk too much about what is actually happening.

It seems like they used to actually follow the cars in a better way so you could see the racing.

[ratsafari]

Feb 16, 2009 11:28:15 GMT -5 HuffNfeffeR said:

Feb 16, 2009 10:29:21 GMT -5 Kenneth said:

I forgot about the race yesterday. I usually watch the Daytona 500. I was a big NASCAR fan when I was younger. Then Dale Earnhardt died, and I haven't ever gotten back into it.

Do you have a "Gone but not forgotten - 3" sticker on the back window of your El Camino?

this time of year always allows me to tell my only NASCAR story about the guy who worked for us. Always complaining we didn't have OT work for him and how poor he was. Well when Earnhardt died they had a bus trip down to his garage in NC. He took off work without vacation since he used up all of it already and went on the trip. My brother told him to watch out for the bus of the driver that tapped Earnhardt's car. He shed a tear on the spot. We all laughed.

[IMG Public Relations]

I've been a fan since 1985, but in the last few years my fandom has been seriously challenged. If people like me are questioning the series, there's a Big problem.

There have always been better funded teams throughout history, but the power consolidation has never been as tight as it is today between Hendrick, Roush (I remember when these two teams struggled mightily early on), Gibbs, and Childress. Evernham/Gillette/Petty/whatever-the-next-name-is isn't conistent enough, the other Toyota teams suck, and Chip Ganassi is always going to be an open wheel guy. It's gonna be real interesting to see how Stewart-Haas fares this year and the next few.

Well before the current recession, the smaller teams were having trouble finding sponsors. Some of that was the obvious questions about making the show, but NASCAR itself was sucking up some of the sponsor dollars for companies who wanted to be the "official _____ of NASCAR."

Restrictor plates and common templates in the 90's were bad ideas, and this COT piece of shit is the worst idea ever. The safety features are critical, but having every car look and set up the same is a pathetic copy of IROC, and we know how popular IROC is.

The biggest issue, though, was the transition of power from Big Bill France & Bill Jr. over to Brian France. He has absolutely zero technical know-how about a racecar, and every fucking decision he makes never takes the actual event into account. He may well preside over a huge free-fall of NASCAR during the next few years.

[HuffNfeffeR]

My first job out of college was working for Bruten Smith. Humpy Wheeler's kid used to work with me...I used to see the drivers all the time, and that is basically how I got into it.

But it just isnt the same any more...for a host of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that they have removed the importance of Darlington, N Wilkesboro, and places like that that used to be the basis of the sport...

Charlotte looks like Texas which looks like chicago which looks like St Louis...is sucks now.

I am a southerner.

[marylandeer]

You rednecks get your NASCAR fix in today? Great race, even though it was 12 hours long

[displacedeerfan]

This redneck enjoyed it!

Too bad it was not the Daytona 501...Dale Jr could've caught him by Turn #1

[HuffNfeffeR]

I am a huge Danika P fan...I love NASCAR again.

[marylandeer]

I can't wait until she makes a big mistake and one of the guys has to decide to "punish" her by wrecking her....or just let her go because she's a chick

[IMG Public Relations]

Another year, another post to this thread. Kid wins the race in his second start ever, and he doesn't even get any points for the win.

[prestonco]

I watched about 3 minutes of the Daytona 500. Long enough to see a wreck from like 400 different angles. I switched the channel never to return after I found out they were playing basketball on CBS.

[HuffNfeffeR]

I watched the start...then also got interested in basketball. So I saw a couple of wrecks by flipping back, but I have lost the interest in NASCAR.

I was a fan back in the late 80s and most of the 90s until about 1999 or 2000 or so. Not so much anymore, probably havent watched a complete race since 2000 or so.

[IMG Public Relations]

I saw the first 35 or so laps, had a Cub Scouts thing, and caught the last 5 plus "overtime". Quite truthfully I don't regret missing the middle to late parts one bit, but I was glad I saw the end.

[sdot]

It put me right to sleep! Again!

[IMG Public Relations]

The championship is down to two drivers (Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart) separated by three points. It's going to be a good ending to the Chase.

[displacedeerfan]

Too bad the finale is at Homestead. They can pretty much stay out of each others way for the whole day.

The last race should be Daytona or Bristol, somewhere where the bitch can slap you.

[HuffNfeffeR]

I like Smoke...or at least I used to when I was watching NASCAR some.

I might watch some of it...probably not tho. I really have lost interest. I honestly dont even really understand the chase thing that well. It seems like its the same as the point standings used to be, but now its called the chase...or do the reset the points of the people that make it...sort of like some sort of playoff.

[IMG Public Relations]

It is sort of like a playoff. They take the top ten in points and two wildcards (cars outside the top 10 with the most wins) and five them a ton of extra points to elevate them way beyond the rest of the field. They then award more extra points to "seed" the teams based on the number of wins.

The first Chase race I really watched was Sunday, and even then I only watched the end. My fandom is not what it used to be.

[marylandeer]

Yeah, and the elevate you according to your rank before going into the chase, but not drastically, so if you are the #10 car you have to do better than the #1 car throughout the chase to win, but not drastically better. It makes it so everybody in the top 12 has a shot to win, but still doesn't out them on equal footing. Who really gets screwed (aside for somebody like 2 points outside the top 10 with no wins) is somebody who just absolutely dominated all year. You could have won 50% of the races and been so far ahead that nobody could mathematically catch you, but after the reset, you're almost even again.

I've always said the same thing as Rick regarding the last race. It shouldn't p be at Homestead. I guess that insures good weather, but that track sucks. I think it should be on a restrictor plate track like Talidega. That way there's always a chance for a big wreck that could wipe put somebodies' day. You could go in so far ahead that you just need to finish the race to win, and then not be able to finish.

[IMG Public Relations]

Is Scott napping yet?

Lots of parade laps today. Everybody running the outside waiting for the last 20 laps.

And this search function rocks.

[ratsafari]

4 years of NASCAR threads