2008 NASCAR running thread

We had fun tonight debating what the equivalent of Kyle Busch in the booth would be in other sports.

 

Don't NASCAR fans ever get tired of wash-rinse-repeat cycle of multiple crashes in the last 20 laps? It's ridiculous.

 

Damn, I suck. Might want to check the skybox and make sure I don't have Kyle Petty winning the damn race.

 

Well, it's like they say.

It ain't racin' 'less there's automobile parts in your beer.

 

NASCAR. Fucking. Sucks.

(And that's not an indictment of the sport. Under neutral circumstances, I'd love NASCAR. But its officials toss syphilitic donkey salad.)

 

I'm going to find "they" and punch they in the sack.

Crash-fest finishes once or twice a year? Compelling. Damn near every race? Ridiculous.

 

That stupid green-white-checkered idea (and red-flagging races) has enabled drivers to be a lot more reckless because they won't screw up the show.

With fenders, guys get more bold (and stupid), because the likelihood of contact turning into a crash is minimal, and the likelihood of being hurt is also minimal. With no consequences -- including beer-can tossing fans upset about a finish under yellow -- other than a wadded-up racecar and losing a few positions, guys get more bold (and stupid) in an effort to gain an extra position or two.

When IndyCar had back-to-back yellow finishes, there was some muttering for g-w-c/red flags in that series. Tony George, I think, said the solution was "stop crashing." Pretty simple stuff.

As a product, NASCAR has gone steadily downhill and degenerated into racingtainment over the last decade or so, but survives because its core fanbase is a culture that is fiercely loyal to "southern" things (the three main tenets of which are country music, the stars & bars and NASCAR), and southern culture involves hero-worshipping. Loyalty + hero-worship = turning a blind eye to the absolute crap series that NASCAR has become.

 

It was a good race until, as Dale Jr. noted in his Hotpass postrace interview, people got stupid.

We thought we saw Junior signaling Bowyer that he was No. 1 late in the race ... imagining things?

 

Any conclusions? Now I've had a chance to think about it, Tony Siragusa and Joe Morgan spring to mind.

 

Yeah, I loved the race that ended at 11:10...when I needed 14 inches in by 11:25 and didn't know who had won. That's the great part of restrictor-plate racing...any other race, 10 laps left, I can at least have 12 inches of Kyle Busch winning in a shell. Daytona? Can't do diddly till the flag flies.

For the record, the winner was announced on TV before they ever announced it to us in the press box. Come to think of it, I'm not sure we knew until Kyle pulled into victory lane Thanks, NASCAR!

 

One other Kyle PETTY (got it this time!) thought:

World-class person, but ...

considering length of career, lack of success and family name, is he the worst professional sportsman ever?