JamesHigdon

So...I’ve been waiting about 2.5 weeks since TX tracks started racing with fans in the stands to see what came of it. I haven’t heard of a single person getting sick from being in the pits or the stands? Has anyone else heard anything? In most of the country tracks still can’t have fans and may not be able to for months; surely with that kind of restriction in other places many-many people must be getting sick here from going to the track?

This has 1979 Daytona 500 written all over it; every other sport is canceled, everyone is stuck at home and NASCAR has a captive audience for a long race.

New plan; everyone order Hazmat suits. San Antonio is about to shut down (the colleges have, the school district are literally meeting right now) so this coming week will be quiet. I propose cleanup Tuesday, practice Wednesday and racing Thursday at SAS. The purse will be easy; 1st in every class gets a case of TP, 2nd gets a gallon of hand sanitizer, 3rd gets some Clorox wipes and the rest of the positions get N95 masks. 50/50 drawing will be done with bottled water. Who is in?

Couldn't agree more; I've had racing on in the background all week while I worked and watched it on my phone when I wasn't busy.

I know it’s super cute and hip to talk about everything that’s wrong with racing but for tracks that will put in the effort and put together good shows the crowds have literally never been bigger...even for NASCAR sanctioned races...even at short tracks...even in the winter...even during the week during the school year. https://speed51.com/new-smyrna-thrilled-to-death-with-huge-monday-crowd/

I was pretty hesitant to get on board with the new NBC Track Pass just for NASCAR stuff but they’re running A LOT of short track racing including all 9 nights of the World Series of Asphalt Racing live from New Smyrna Speedway starting tonight. You download the APP onto your phone, smart TV or fire stick/Roku, etc and get 4-5 short track races a night for the next week. The NASCAR Roots package is $2.99 a month and includes short tracks, ARCA and extra NASCAR coverage. The broadcast quality is far better than Speed51 or FanChoice and so far the streaming has been flawless. Between this and RaceonTexas I think it’s pretty well covered!

I don't disagree with that and I personally felt the same way for years but after seeing what CoTA does for the grass-roots racers it didn't make sense to me anymore. I don't like Jerry Jones but I'd support my kids football team if they played there.

Yea and when the owner posts on facebook one day "screw all the nonsense I'm buying a boat" everyone will act surprised. Racetracks a racetrack, we need to support them all.

They'd have to get rid of the splitters, may even tow the cars in on open trailers. Seating at the track would be irrelevant, that kind of race would make all it's money on TV and maybe it would force NASCAR to invest in some of the tracks that made it what it is. Hell, Brian probably spend more on blow in a year then it would take to repave all three tracks!

I’d love to be able to hold a grudge but COTA is an opportunity to experience a kind of racing we’re lucky to have around here. My opinion is worth exactly what you’re paying for it but boycotting a local multibillion dollar track isn’t any better for the sport than boycotting the local dirt track because you don’t agree with all the choices they’ve made or don’t like the owners. I support the racers having a place to race, kids being able to experience the events and keeping racing alive regardless of my opinions of the periphery.

I still call my wife if I’m working late on a Saturday and ask her to tape the Busch race for me...she reminds me it hasn’t been the Busch series in more than a decade and we’ve never owned a VCR 🙄

From my perspective you’re being too literal; at I37 you don’t have everyone diving into the pits under caution to change tires for a performance advantage. Yes there are “live pit stops” but not in the way NASCAR means; live pit stops in the vast majority of local short track races are for damage. I can’t recall multiple cars ever pitting for fresh tires at I37, CTS, HMP or CCS when many cars where in the pits and time was of the essence. Maybe I’m forgetting it but even at SAS I don’t recall green flag pit stops for tires and fuel, I’m only 34 so maybe it was before my time? Eliminating live pit stops saves money, makes racing more affordable for small teams, puts the race back in the drivers hands and makes races like Eldora viable. As far as why NASCAR wasn’t running smaller tracks pitting cars was certainly given as a reason not to run smaller tracks and anything that can be done to eliminate barriers for smaller tracks is good. If someone at NASCAR isn’t looking at tracks like Rockford, Slinger, Winchester, Kingsport and the like and thinking they need to be at those tracks then they’re missing the boat and THIS change makes that possible.

I figured someone with roots in local tracks would like this; makes the races more about the drivers and less about who can buy the best crew. Would live pit stops make 30 car purestock races at I37 any better...don't think so!

Maybe I'm in the minority but I think it's a good change; people have been bitching for 20 years NASCAR needed to "go back to it's short track roots" and this makes that easier. Many of the tracks we'd like to see NASCAR races at don't have the room to pit 30-40 cars and going to old-fashioned pit stops makes it easier to justify going to smaller tracks. I don't really get excited about watching guys change tires but if this makes it easier for smaller tracks (more dirt tracks, maybe some 3/8 or even quarter mile tracks) to get on the schedule I'm all for it. My favorite NASCAR races of the last few years didn't have live pit stops; Eldora, the lower divsions racing on the back stretch at Daytona, etc.

Yes, thank you.