PAPosse

Maybe some tracks (or the businesses they partner with) need to work on their marketing. What’s the issue here?

Thanks for the link. I haven’t read it all yet, but its very informative. I am hoping the cars will still have the throttle response and handling that will allow the cars to seperate some so we don’t have Daytona and Talladega every week.

Shortening races is on the table, as well as a schedule overhaul. Of course, nothing can be done until the 2021 season when the track contracts expire. Listened to NASCAR radio this morning and it seems everything is on the table. Schedule could be reduced and compacted down to 28-30 races. They most likely will keep the Daytona 500, Charlotte 600 and Southern 500 where they are on the schedule and at those distances. Everything else is flexible. This isn't unprecedented, it's just been a very long time since there has been a major overhaul. Yeah, the increased likelihood of "The Big One" at every track is not appealing to me at all. I think with a combination of the plates, errr spacers, and different downforce packages it may not be as bad as Daytona and Talladega, but only time will tell. Atlanta chews up tires, so the driver will still have an influence on what happens. One of the crew chiefs was on the radio and they said the entry speeds into the corner were 20 MPH lower, but speed in the center was about the same or a little faster. It all has to do with when the driver gets back on the gas and how the car is handling. Like I said, I'm willing to give it a chance. If we were going in to this season with Brian France still in charge and everything else being the status quo, I wouldn't even be interested. All that said, I agree we need to go out and support the local tracks...

But then the cars would all be exactly the same....oh wait.

Probably something to do with the investment teams have already made. Also, if it doesn’t work, they can adjust the size of the spacer or abandon it without the teams scrapping two sets of engines. Just a couple theories that may or may not be correct.

I've been meaning to ask you guys what you thought of the new pitstop rules being implemented at the Snowball this year. In short, you cannot gain (or lose) position during yellow flag pit stops anymore. For me, this is one of those cases where I can understand why, but I really don't like it. It seems there should be another way to regulate it....as if you can't use anyone who was on a crew in the top 3 divisions, or something like that... As always, it comes down to money. https://www.shorttrackscene.com/2019/01/27/snowball-derby-pit-stop-rules-change-debate-spills-onto-twitter/

I'm trying to keep an open mind with NASCAR this year. Don't worry, I'm not going all Tiny.....errr, Toyotatim here ;-). NASCAR is not what it once was, and never will be again. There are many reasons for it that have been discussed a lot here. Listening to radio interviews and reading some, the drivers seem optimistic because the new leadership (Jim France) seems to be more hands on. He is back at testing and practice sessions, working the garage and talking to the participants. Maybe there will be some changes on that front. I've felt they need to slow the cars down for awhile now. They are working to do that. Will it result in "better" racing (whatever that is)? Maybe. While "no more restrictor plates" is a little misleading, I'm willing to give it a chance. A light bulb went off in my head when I was watching a NASCAR East Late Model race from New Smyrna on MAVTV. There were 19 or 20 cars in the field, and 11 of them were teenagers. At least one was only 15. At one time this was a division drivers aspired to as the first touring step to get to Cup - or thinking back to the All-Pro late models, this is at least a version of it. The days of doing it the "hard way" are long gone. That's not to say these kids don't work to get there or don't have some talent, but they definitely have money behind them and that's the most important thing nowadays. It just seems like ever since Jeff Gordon came along at such a young age, everybody is looking for the next young superstar while bypassing much of the talent. Just look at the truck race and Infinity races - there seemed to be some young kids way over their heads. I think this hurts the product as much as anything. The young kids with money move up so quickly now that there is no time to establish much of a regional fanbase. I pull for Stewart Friesen in the truck series because he's from back home, he's super talented and can drive most anything. But at 35 years old, his age is working against him.... As usual, the real season starts with Atlanta.

So she missed 5 cars?

She had position on the inside, and wasn't given a whole lot of room. I would chalk it up to one of "them racin' deals". Of course, had she been on the outside someone would say she came down on the car on the inside. Rarely is an incident 100% a single-driver's fault. Unless we're talking about Danica, of course.

Or at least build a separate wing.

I liked in the interview how he said Menard just came down on him, then when they rolled the “tape” he just stumbled on his words. I agree he messed up - it wasn’t intentional, but he did screw up.

That's just collateral damage.

Wow. Just.....wow. I am too young to have ever seen him race, but I know he was very popular in my neck of the woods.

We’ll disqualify you if your car is 3/1000ths of an inch too low, but go ahead and punt the leader out of the way going in to turn 3. We’ll let that stand.

The crazy thing is that it wasn’t really THAT long ago it was pretty well cleaned up and operational. Mother Nature moves in quickly. I am really glad I got to see a couple of races there.