2020 NASCAR Thread

I went to Williams Grove years ago. It was a local 410 race and it was more of a color piece, but it seemed like it was fun. NASCAR should be going to places like there and Eldora if they’re serious about dirt racing. I assume teams will just convert an old beat-up short track car for the weekend?

 

Or maybe

- Go back to real stock cars.

Supertight regulation and restriction of safety specifications. No body modifications except for safety. But no restriction at all on engine modifications. Wanna run a blown 427 V-8 against a twin-turbo W12 against a 500-watt electric? Giddy up. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. And might bring more manufacturer money back to the sport.

- Cut the season schedule in half. Or by at least a third.

- Go back to the original season-long points model.

- Combine the lesser xfinity and truck series into something that doesn't siphon off money and interest from Cup racing.

 

How has wider gaming availability impacted betting on NASCAR? Is there anything they could do to make it legit enough to bet on?

 

Road courses are awesome. Fans say they want close racing? Well, there it is. Much bigger challenge for the drivers.

I’d put dirt on Martinsville before Bristol, though. Or Richmond. Or maybe put dirt on North Wilkesboro, but it has structural problems.

 

Agree that road courses are awesome.

But NASCAR stock cars are incredibly ill-suited for running them.

And dirt at Bristol shapes up to be a clusterfuck of F1-at-Indy-2005 proportions.

 

I'm a little curious how they're going to get all of the dirt off at Bristol. That doesn't sound like a very fun job.

 

More money? There’s already plenty, and none of the Chrysler brands are coming back. In fact, they may never get involved in motorsports development again. Honda is perfectly happy with where it is on the IMSA DPi side of NASCAR along with its longterm IndyCar role, and no other manufacturers are even rumored to be thinking about coming into NASCAR.

Do you want NASCAR to use FIA GT4 or Touring Car regulations? Because that’s what you said in your first bullet point.

Do you want Strictly Stock, or do you want 1972 Can-Am rules? You can’t have both “real stock cars” and “crazy-ass engines rules,” and no sane driver would get in a car like that.

 

Earth-moving equipment for the main job, then water on the banking will take care of the rest. Won’t take long.

NASCAR has been running road courses since 1954, and the cars back then were even more ill-suited for running them. These cars are fine on road courses.

I’d kind of like to see the current Trans-Am series cars on short tracks and maybe Pocono and some shorter intermediates, but it’d be insane to try them at Daytona Beach or Talladega.

 

I think NASCAR in general has bled money for years as its audience shrinks and costs skyrocket, and that fully funded single sponsorships are rarer and rarer. Even for the mega teams.

All of which is happening at a time when cars are of less and less general interest to young audiences. I've seen the audience research and the core viewers are aging out. NASCAR is heading back to its regional, niche roots, whether it wants to or not.

So crazy suggestions about hot-rodding cars off the showroom floor is where Bill France started. Thus, I don't think it's out of line to suggest atomic racers vs rotary engine supercars. The question isn't why? The question is why not?

Adding Tesla or Aston-Martin or Bentley or Mercedes to the list of NASCAR manufacturers couldn't hurt, and might even help.

As to whether or not a stock car can run a road course, sure. They can. But I'd rather watch a car with more power weighing half as much run those tracks. Which gets us to this, and back to why not?

 

and leads inevitably to this, which I endorse 110%

 

I kinda figured that. Was mostly thinking about the compacted stuff at the bottom layer and wondering if they'll be able to get it all completely out of the racing surface. Has Bristol ever done this before for other events?

 

With all of the road courses next year, I'm hoping they'll bring back some of the road course ringers. I always loved it when Boris Said would randomly pop up with a Top 10 finish at Sonoma and Watkins Glen before disappearing again.