2009 NASCAR running thread

75. Tops.

 

62.

And kleeda, I get that. I never claimed the racing there was great. I just said I loved the hell out of it. I just don't think that having 427 races a year on mile-and-a-halfers is "great" racing either.

Hell, I'm not sure what great racing is any more.

 

Well, they built all those 1.5 mile tracks because !Surprise! once upon a time they featured great racing. Atlanta is legendary, Lowe's is, well, Lowe's. Texas? Phenomenal when they worked out the early kinks. There have been five races so far this season on so-called 1.5-mile cookie-cutter tracks. We have run 23 races. News flash: The tracks ain't NASCAR's problem.

 

Hence my last line.

 

Keep all the existing short-track races, and for the love of Tebow bring back North Wilkesboro for at least one race per season.

I know, it'll never happen.........

 

It was closed in 1996.

 

Just know that blaming the 1.5 mile tracks for NASCAR's woes is the worst piece of horse crap the fans have ever latched on to.

 

Oh, I don't BLAME them. But I do think there's more of them. The short tracks are three very different styles of racing. If there were more restrictor-plate races, I'd shout that down too. Just too many interchangeable tracks for my taste (though I have always liked Texas).

 

And then there's New Hampshire........ *puke*

 

NHIS is not a track that produces memorable races, as I can testify from long personal experience. But NASCAR loooves it. It is a cultural icon for them-the triumph of their sport as far away from its roots as possible. That is, proof even the damned Yankees like it.
I do not think it is a bad thing for a touring sport to distribute its events over as much of the U.S. as possible. The PGA Tour should have a regular stop in the Pacific Northwest, for instance.

 

One hundred percent correct on the last two items. I have no standing to speak on the first item and will defer to IJAG's expertise in this area.

Michigan and its many flat clones are cures for insomnia. Horrible for stock cars.

 

Fuck North Wilkesboro.

Take a race away from Fontana and go back to Rockingham.