I used to be a huge NASCAR fan. That changed with the implementation of an "even playing field". Used to be you could glance down the track and see if it was a Ford, Chevy, or Pontiac coming at you, now you have to see which automakers' decals are pasted to the front grill. If one manufacturer is winning to often the specs change to favor the competition, same with drafting effects (sometimes weekly as I recall), all in the name of keeping the sponsors happy. The entertainment factor has also ruined racing. I enjoyed watching Cale or Richard taking a three or more lap lead... only to blow a tire on the last lap or get tangled up in slow traffic. That was racing... The Petty Pontiac with the rear wing, the Ford's of David Pearson and Awesome Bill of Dawsonville, the Monty Carlos of the Darryl's, etc.... I remember the cars, the drivers, not the sponsors, that was racing, a cold one or three and a bag of salty hog-rinds in garage with Dad trying to get a good picture on the old Zenith, the smell of oil as tune-ups were done during commercial breaks .... I miss the days of real NASCAR racing.
If SOH had a Like button, I'd hit it.
Those were the days I worked NASCAR Grand National. It all started to spool apart in 1985. That was the year corporate greed and NASCAR's own greed entered the picture. Gone were freelancers like myself, membership to NMPA (National Motorsports Press Assn.) went from $75.00/year to $250.00/year and the following year (1987) went to $500.00. GREED! Only the corporately owned newspapers and radio and TV media could afford prices like that, close the little man out. The sport has not been the same since. It has been a steady rise in ticket prices, dumbing down the sports, politicking the drivers, writing their own spin for the talking heads, who use to be real race car enthusiasts like Chris Economaki and Charlie Harville, not some spiffed up TV sports announcer (think Chris Myers and Allen Worstwick) with some ex-dumb-ass driver or crew chief doing color. Drivers belong in the cars, crew chiefs belong to team boxes, neither belong in the booth. In the old days, technology was called cheating, but that's how the sport improved. When the Woods Bros. went to Indy, they learned a thing or two from USAC open-wheelers. They introduce dry sump oil tank in the rear of the car and cut-off valves should a line get severed, which kept the oil in the tank and stopped oil fires in wrecks. Dumb ass Bill France banned it for 5 years until someone was killed in an oil fire explosion, then proper heads were put in order and now, as it had been for years in Grand Prix and USAC, this safety device is standard on all stock cars. That's the big problem, NASCAR has continued to give its fans antiquated racing on a top level basis. Why they just introduced Fuel'Injection this year, they were the last major race series to go to all-disk brakes.
I have said it before and I shall reiterate it today, NASCAR Sprint Cup is the largest rip-off in Motorsports other than F-1. Like Wombat, give me the bikes any day, You cannot screw up bike racing.
Sunday, bored, not gonna watch Indy league either, thought the racing is better than Cup racing, as it just more panache than NASCAR. Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart is the only true spirits of the old NASCAR driver left and every time they pull and old NASCAR move, Brian France paddles their hinnies. In short, NASCAR Cup racing sucks!