re: It’s been a few years and I still hate this NASCAR ticker

NASCAR received a big blow after Dale Earnhardt was killed.

I actually haven't been back to a racetrack since I ran my last race. I have friends living in the Charlotte, Mooresville area that are still involved that I talk to a lot but I just haven't been back to a race.... I guess I worry it will be hard to go back. Ive been over to Barbers Motorsports Park and watched a few races out there, but not a Nascar race.

It all depends on how much testing you do. We would usually do more testing for Daytona than Talladega but we would spend between $100-$150k to run a speedway race. They always cost more because you had to have a specialized car and engine package. Talladega was close to home so we usually had a lot of sponsors and help.

We didn't have as big of a tire bill at speedway races because tires weren't as big of an issue. Probably around $10k a race for a speedway race and $15-$20k for some of the intermediate tracks. I was on a deal with Hendricks for a few years to use their engines and I was able to get technical help. I paid $25k a race for engines (which was much cheaper than other teams paid) but I got a primary engine, a engine for the backup car, and a spare if we ever needed one. I also got a one of Hendricks engine tuners for the race to get the car through technical inspection and tune the engine during practice, he would also take care of any post race tear downs. It was actually much cheaper that way than it was to own my engines. We had engines for testing and set up but I always got my race engines from Hendricks. Robert Yates built them when I first started and was running Fords.

I have seen you race a few times. I used to help a couple of guys that ran the old All Pro Series. I spent many Saturday nights in Montgomery. I have a good friend that I am sure you know that is still in the business. He started out changing tires for Frankie Grill. I think Jeff Purvis was driving for him then, Booby Gill after that. I think the last I heard he was working in driver development for Michael Waltrip.

My uncle is Bobby Ray Jones, his shop was right across the road from Frankie’s. I raced against Purvis and Bobby Gill when I was running Southern All Stars. I grew up with Frankies son Augie. He is a few years younger than I am. I always thought very highly of Frankie Grill, he was one of the smartest car builders around... still is. GARC

This is a great thread. One of best races I went to was at Montgomery, 1992ish. Spent most of the time at NC, SC, Ga tracks.

What turned out as a typical bash NASCAR thread has turned into an awesome trip down memory lane for some of us older guys.

Been following stock car racing since the early 80's and what's happened to what was once the #2 sport in the world judged by attendance is just shameful.

The causes are so complex, and the solution will be as equally complex.

My take:

Pure talented racers were pushed out by pretty boy hopefuls looking to have the next Jeff Gordon fricking ruined the talent base. Think about it. Kasey Kahne pushed out Terry Labonte, David Ragan pushed out Mark Martin, Kenny Irwin pushed out Ernie Irvan, the list goes on and on and on.

Teams chose these pretty boy hopefuls instead of people that could win damn races.

Also, the quest for "parity" (looking at you car of tomorrow) made the product on the track absolutely horrendous. That fricking COT was responsible for at least 5 of Johnson's "championships". The damn car would look like a crab going down a front stretch damn near sideways but going "straight."

Getting rid of the North Wilkesboros and the Rockinghams of the schedule RUINED the racing. Who the frick wants to watch them play follow the leader with a car going sideways down the straightaways at 1.5M tracks 24 out of 36 races?

Next, NASCAR has no bad boy anymore. Due to too much sponsor influence a drive can't speak his mind anymore. As popular as Dale was, there was just as many fans that hated him. He'd put people in the wall to win and then get out of the car and tell Big Bill France how fricking stupid the rules package was that caused him to have to put someone in the wall because stupid aero rules wouldn't allow him to pass fair and square.

Tony Steward genuinely tried to fill this role but NASCAR and his sponsor fined him every time he punted someone to win or spoke out about stupid rules to the point where Smoke finally said "frick it" I'll just own the teams and racetracks and piss on all this political shite.

Same thing has happened with Kyle Busch. Kyle is probably the legitimately talented race car driver in the lasts 40 years and he can barely speak his mind because of stupid political correctness shite.

Basically, NASCAR can't get out of their own way trying to get out of the hole they put themselves in trying to be "inclusive."

frick that. Give me 200K loyal drunk hillbillies over 80K millenials that are casual followers that are simply looking for something edgy to do.

What are your thoughts carguy?

Good post but I genuinely don't think Kurt has the raw racing talent that Kyle does. I honestly think Kyle could take an Indy car with a competitive team and win.

I think Kahne was a victim of karma. He showed his arse to get out of a contract with Ford that wanted to slowly develop him so sign with flash in the pan Evernham team and the results speak for themselves. Evernham was more interested in his ginger truck driving hook than developing his team and making sure his drivers weren't doing meth.

Martin Truex is a great example of the path that Kahne "should" have taken. Sometimes developing talent takes time.

Sorenson, Ragan, Yeley, JPM, Gilliland, many others were great examples where a few seasons in the lesser series would have exposed whether they were real drivers or not. The Dillon brothers are a great example of this. You put Carl Edwards in that 3 car and they instantly are contenders for the Cup.

The whole thing is just a mess.

I started racing go karts at age 9. I had more fun doing that and racing late models than I ever did racing in ARCA or Nascar. It became more of a corporate atmosphere. I spent more time at golf tournaments and events than I did at the race shop. I guess that’s fine for most of the drivers now because most of them couldn’t tell you the difference in a lug nut and a sway bar....... damn I’m old


Get off my lawn!

NASCAR needs a lot more diversity in the schedule.

Only a handful of tracks deserve two dates. Most do not.