What if stock cars were stock cars?

[JamesHigdon]

I was reading through the new NASCAR Latemodel rules additions and reading people’s comments about different aspects and the same thing occurred to me that always does...why not just make them stock cars? There are rules about which ancient engine is or isn’t allowed, which cars that are no longer made are allowed and how those FWD cars are supposed to look like “latemodel” and on and on and it’s all nonsense.

I think we could “fix” stock car racing easily; by fix I mean allow middle class people back into racing, draw fans back in and draw manufacturers back in.

1) Cars allowed are Camaro, Challenger, Mustang and other RWD cars. Toyota would have to use a Lexus RWD car, Nissan could use Infinitis, Kia could use their new RWD car, Hyundai, etc.

2) Must be based on street car originally supplied with VIN. Take a street vehicle, put a modern cage in it with a fuel cell and that’s a racecar. 

3) Any naturally aspirated engine allowed under 6.4L; engine make must match vehicle make. Turbo 6 and 4 cylinders allowed. Doesn’t have to be the original engine for that car so a truck engine can be used in a car but over 10k have to be made per year. This means every manufacturer has a street engine that works. Engine must use factory block, heads, intake, crank and rods. Turbo cars must use factory turbo and would be boost limited to 15% of OEM. Machine work limited to “rebuild” machining meaning no angle milling, no crank lightening, etc.

Why wouldn’t these rules work? Why wouldn’t this allow cheaper cars to be built but also draw more people’s interest into racing? What would you do different? Am I overthinking this and the current rules are fine?

[HiTech]

looks good on paper .would not work for long .soon someone would be crying we need something to help getting our car faster .and it starts all over again ..modify here a tweak aloud there .....

[JamesHigdon]

Why wouldn’t it work; it did once already before? People say all the time “I wish Stockcar Racing was like it used to be” but no one has made any effort to actually curtail the costs at the top levels of short track racing. Make latemodels affordable & you’ll have more of them which means bigger purses which means more cars, more fans, etc. You fix the upper level class and I bet the rest would follow suite; or we can keep trying what we know won’t work.

[HiTech]

Racers buy nature are always looking for that edge and no matter the rules some company can help them get passed that rule an still be considered legal . like one brand of pistons could be and are 1 gram lighter than the other brand cost more but as a racer if it will give me just a tad of an edge ill spend the extra if I can afford it and some can  1 gram times 8 sounds good to me . that leaves the guy who cant afford it on the outside and adding enough of the outsides he parks it .THAT is what happens now  , the only way to contain that is you have to tear down that motor or car from top to bottom and local tracks wont do that anymore . racers have gotten to the point you take it apart you pay for my gaskets mister track .hard enough to find a good tech man who knows each part and by  model of car chosen by that racer ..I have been around racing for well over 50 years and I have never seen any track be able to accomplish this feet . wished it could happen . .. you could start a class that way but it would only last a short time before someone ventures out with that 1 gram ...not saying it cant work anymore  if it ever did but it will take so much to accomplish it and cost just to a track could not be covered ..go back to your no one has made the effort to actually curtain the cost . every track starts out trying to make a class affordable and fair . . the honor system does not work . I talk to bob labonte in the 70s why was terrys car so fast it was that one gram, he taught me that you can beat the system ..racing will never be fair and no two car are alike .

[NickHolt]

Some racers simply just want to participate, go fast and have fun. After a while most of them come to the realization that they will need to invest a bunch of money, time and effort if they plan on winning. More often than not, the price tag is too high and they drift away from the sport.  There are a few of these guys who put their thinking caps on, gather some friends around and come up with a plan to be competitive. Most of the folks in this category are decent folks who are a pleasure to work with. I call them the backbone of the sport. 

On the other hand, there are those who will do whatever it takes to win.  Rules? Rules are made to be broken or bent. Expenses?  Don't matter to me, we've got deep pockets. And this goes for just about every class of race cars out there from GoKarts to Cup cars. At the bottom end of this group are those who don't know the meaning of the word ethics?  Ethics? What's that? Fair play?  Naw, that's old school.  They outspend and out-tech the competition and hire the latest racing guru to point them to the latest expensive trick of the week. And chances are that one of their favorite slogans is, "If you ain't cheatin, you ain't winnin." They spend a lot of time figuring out how to beat the system and scream bloody murder if they get caught or if things don't go their way.  It's always someone else's fault - the stupid track officials, the stupid track rules, or whatever other stupidity they can come up with.

And for reasons I don't fully understand, this bunch has more than likely has the track management in their pocket to some degree or other. 

Between the cheaters and the big spenders, the folks who just want to race, go fast and have fun don't stand a chance. And if the big money folks also have the unwritten support of the track management, ," that's all the insurance they need to make sure they look like winners. 

IMHO, cheaters, big spenders and desperate promoters have all played a part in bringing Texas asphalt racing to a grinding halt in Texas -  all from the inside out.

But we shouldn't minimize the growing number of external forces at work to cause promoters and track owners to step away. Noise pollution issues,  urban sprawl, sky-high insurance premiums, threats of lawsuits, pressure from environmentalists and the ever-increasing number of attractive alternative entertainment venues all play a huge role in causing the demise of asphalt racing in Texas.

There is also a more recent factor that is a work:  Social media attacks against the track, its management, its officials and its competitors. Facebook and other social media are full of disgruntled folks trying to make the track and its management look bad for one reason or another. In the old days, a pissed off driver would load his car, throw some track official the bird and head home to air his grievances to complain to his family and crew. Of course, they would all agree with him and bad-mouth the track to six or seven folks who might actually listen and nod their heads in agreement.  But these days when he gets home he gets on FB and Twitter and does his best to convince others - usually hundreds of folks -  that they need to boycott the track and join him in organizing a massive and self-serving bash fest.  After enduring an unending stream of these bash fests, promoters might well get to wondering if this racing thing is worth all the BS he has to put up with.  

I've been directly involved in Texas Stock Car asphalt racing for decades from just about every perspective there is in the sport and I'm convinced that a well-designed 3/8-mile asphalt oval with multi grooves and no walls in the turns can be successful in Texas. I'm willing to give it a whirl if someone with deep pockets and traditional values wants to talk this over with me. 

Nick

[HiTech]

Funny part nick  I have deep pockets  .just a bunch of blank empty hollow deep pockets .....good  part is we the team I work with strive to meet the rules as they are written ..and try to beat the ones with deep pockets full of green . to me beating them with what little we have to spend is a ton more fun ..and we can hold our head up . we darn near pulled off a championship with a car not near as good as others .we work hard at finding that little extra speed with hard work .lots of late night thoughts  lots of lets try this .you have seen our cars up front and close  and seen nothing special I bet you have wondered how does this car run as good as it does ..your class helped a lot ..

[RodneyRodriguez]

I'll help you too Nick.

[JamesHigdon]

I'm in too!

Ok; y'all have heard my idea so let me hear yours. I don't feel Latemodels as they are right now are sustainable long-term and eventually there just won't be any more G-bodies or second gen Camaros; whats next?

Someone comes to you and says "Nick and/or Rodney I've got money burning a hole in my pocket and I want to build a track somewhere between SA and Austin but before I sign any checks you have to give me a list of sustainable classes that we can run on a weekly (or near to it) basis that will encourage growth. I'd also like to have some bigger races so at-least one of our classes needs to be close to whats going on nationally. We don't have to have a ton of cars the first week we open but I don't want it to take five years either"

[arob]

Charger , Street , Pro Mod , Trucks .Sports Compact . Run heat races and no more than 5 classes. If you want to run more classes then drop a class for every new one you run that night.The class you drop would be the ones with the lowest car count at that time. Promod should only be dropped for Pro-Late Model. Another would be to run at least twice a month. Speaking as a fan that would be a format that would interest me.