The Truck Series & Road Courses

[Markfan]

Not to disrespect anybody. Can someone please explain to my why NASCAR "is going down." I have no clue what they mean/ saying.

My opinion:
-Drivers have become more reckless
-The competitive need has been lowered by lucky dogs and wavearounds, which makes it less demanding on drivers trying to stay on the lead lap throughout the race
-Caution-free races have gone from being a legitimate possibility in nearly every season to being beyond the impossible
-A points reset makes the drivers less competitive, since they don't have to be racing as well as the points leader to be right up with them with 10 races to go, the presence of wild card positions emphasizes this even more-so. For example, Tony Stewart's top 5 total was the 3rd lowest in cup history for a "champion", while the only two that had lower totals did so in half as many races.
-The COT doesn't handle nearly as well as the older bodies did, resulting in less passing opportunities and making rough racing much more risky
-Said COT was as far from "stock car" racing as an automobile series could get
-The points system has been dumbed down
-The Nationwide series has gone from having a relatively unique schedule to being nearly identical to the cup series, resulting in the cup drivers murdering it in their spare time
-Having cup drivers earn 0 points in the Nationwide series weakens the value of it's championship. Carl Edwards' performance in the Nationwide series was nearly quadruple of that of Ricky's. Ignoring cup driver points isn't the answer, they need to have their Nationwide schedules limited, instead.
-The truck series is just starting to get back to it's roots by adding Road America. It was a short-track, intermediate and road course series at first, with an emphasis on vehicle durability rather than speed
-The Rookie of the Year award is no longer credible
-The Shootout entry requirements from 2009 to 2012 were absolutely awful

Fact:
-Viewership has declined since about 2008 (this includes television viewership)
-Sponsors are pulling out of all series due to a decline in viewership
-Due to the decline in sponsorship, the amount of quality rides have dropped and the non-quality rides are forced to start-and-park
-Entry lists have declined due to the lack of sponsorship
-Large teams, such as Roush, Childress and Hendrick, are some of the few teams that are capable of producing their own engines without doing themselves in, resulting in the majority of lower teams being satellites. This wasn't the case before, as teams were much, much more independent in the past.
-There has been a noticeable increase in cautions, due to both mystery debris and increased recklessness by the drivers. (For example, from 1995 to 2003, there was at least one cup race per season that had 2 or less cautions, but since the chase era started, that has yet to happen again)

 

[Cheeze]

Just chiming in about the "Short tracks would kill small teams because of tore up racecars" thing: The Start & Park teams would still start & park and the ones that could afford to race would race, it's as simple as that. It dosent matter what the size of the track is...

 

[Sgt Slaughter]

My opinion:
-Drivers have become more reckless
-The competitive need has been lowered by lucky dogs and wavearounds, which makes it less demanding on drivers trying to stay on the lead lap throughout the race
-Caution-free races have gone from being a legitimate possibility in nearly every season to being beyond the impossible
-A points reset makes the drivers less competitive, since they don't have to be racing as well as the points leader to be right up with them with 10 races to go, the presence of wild card positions emphasizes this even more-so. For example, Tony Stewart's top 5 total was the 3rd lowest in cup history for a "champion", while the only two that had lower totals did so in half as many races.
-The COT doesn't handle nearly as well as the older bodies did, resulting in less passing opportunities and making rough racing much more risky
-Said COT was as far from "stock car" racing as an automobile series could get
-The points system has been dumbed down
-The Nationwide series has gone from having a relatively unique schedule to being nearly identical to the cup series, resulting in the cup drivers murdering it in their spare time
-Having cup drivers earn 0 points in the Nationwide series weakens the value of it's championship. Carl Edwards' performance in the Nationwide series was nearly quadruple of that of Ricky's. Ignoring cup driver points isn't the answer, they need to have their Nationwide schedules limited, instead.
-The truck series is just starting to get back to it's roots by adding Road America. It was a short-track, intermediate and road course series at first, with an emphasis on vehicle durability rather than speed
-The Rookie of the Year award is no longer credible
-The Shootout entry requirements from 2009 to 2012 were absolutely awful

Fact:
-Viewership has declined since about 2008 (this includes television viewership)
-Sponsors are pulling out of all series due to a decline in viewership
-Due to the decline in sponsorship, the amount of quality rides have dropped and the non-quality rides are forced to start-and-park
-Entry lists have declined due to the lack of sponsorship
-Large teams, such as Roush, Childress and Hendrick, are some of the few teams that are capable of producing their own engines without doing themselves in, resulting in the majority of lower teams being satellites. This wasn't the case before, as teams were much, much more independent in the past.
-There has been a noticeable increase in cautions, due to both mystery debris and increased recklessness by the drivers. (For example, from 1995 to 2003, there was at least one cup race per season that had 2 or less cautions, but since the chase era started, that has yet to happen again)

I would try to spend time proving some of your theories wrong, but I would rant myself into a ban.

 

[Markfan]

Speaking of Mexico. How come they stoped racing there?.

The drug wars and cartels make it dangerous for both the drivers and the fans that drive across the border to watch. Gruesome things happen to visitors there.

 

[MattSRD28]

^^^This!! Bring back the short tracks! It was hard watching NASCAR abandon it's short track roots for cookie-cutter tracks. North Wilkesboro and Myrtle Beach are prime examples to me because I've lived both places, but it's the same at Hickory, South Boston, and a few others. Really glad to see Rockingham back on the schedule. SAFER barriers and some basic upgrades to facilities and these places are ready to race, and certain to put on a better show than any of the newer 1 1/2 mile tracks.

The biggest problem the short tracks had/have is adequate facilities, largely due to lack of space. Bristol and Martinsville were by far the most pro-active in building facilities for the future, which is why they're still on the circuit today. Wilkes may have been the first to have a unified pit road, but that's where their innovation ended. Instead of investing in its future, the track owner sold out to owners of tracks that could accomodate Nascar's future. Remember that when NHMS started holding 2 races per year, they expanded grandstand seating and suite capacity.

Any short track that wants to facilitate a major Nascar national touring series needs to have adequate facilities, including SAFER barriers, 43 pit stalls, garage stalls, luxury suites, hospitality centers, media center, grandstand space for at least 80,000 fans, and parking space, not to mention adequate access to the track. Can South Boston claim they have this? Can Irwindale? Can Hickory? Can Myrtle Beach? No. None of them can. Until that changes, short tracks will mostly be a regional series feature.

My dream would be to see nascar at my absolute favorite roadie, Laguna Seca. To bad thats never going to happen. The corkscrew would just become a massive junkyard.

Mostly because no 3400lb stock car's suspension could ever dream of being able to handle that load. One look, and the shocks would go :surrender:.

 

[Hyperacti]

^ I still wanna see it happen though LOL. I don't care how much they have to slow down. There's space on the outside of the cork where the drop off isn't quite as bad. Put it in the drivers' hands and let them risk their shocks going over it, now that would be a fun race

I think Iowa is the closest we're gonna get to any new short (or short-ish) tracks in the Cup series. I don't know what's going on with Jeff's Niagara Falls project, & obviously Staten Island has become a no-go. There might be hope for Rockingham though, Trucks are a huge step.

The only other tracks you can really look at are the ones we just moved away from, like Nashville, IRP, and Memphis. I guess Pikes Peak still exists too, and obviously Milwaukee would be fantastic. But I think Nascar would rather allow teams to test at these tracks than put them on the schedule lol.

As for road courses, to me it has to be all about Austin. Hopefully the powers that be will let Nascar race there. I wouldn't be surprised if F1 pays the track to keep Nascar out. A Truck race would have the potential to draw as much attendance as F1 lol.

Also, what's the deal with Sebring? I know close to nothing about this track.