Jason

Hmmmm...

Todd Z

Just WRONG in every way. Makes me feel better that MS was the highest paid athelete on the planet!

John Shiels

more "Rednecks" as you call them watching all around the country. With the money there many are moving to that side of auto racing. Open wheel here is just fragmented and hurting for sponsors and viewing audience unfortunately.

Restorod '79

I believe it's really quite simple. Mile and a half track, unobstructed view of entire field, regular guys in regular V-8 cars. There's a show coming to a town near you! Mid-way like atmosphere. It's made for the masses. Them boys done good gettin' er done!

F1 and the like are so sophisticated, big dollar, and foreign, that the common man cannot relate. It wasn't that long ago that them good ol' boys was racin' cars you could buy for yourself.

Oh yeah-- There's lots of crashin' and tempers flare! That sells!

John Shiels

I went to a Daytona race last year. I enjoyed being there. I got goose bumps as the pack passed by. Nothing like TV. So called Redneck fans I saw were very polite even though they all had their favorites and yelled about it. One guy drunk but funny. I'd rather be there in Daytona than in Shea stadium with a bunch of animals cursing in front of kids at a game. If I had a child there I would be in a brawl for sure. If that is Rednecks I'll hang with them vs most of my fellow NYer's I see at public events.

They have the crowds and sponsors, so follows the money, so follows the drivers. Not my favorite form of racing but I would go again.

az55

Take:
1 part Roller Derby
1 part World Wrestling
1 part Soap Opera
1 part Mardi Gras
1 part Hollywood Hype
1 part car bodies resembling cars
Add:
a little country
a little rock and roll

Sprinkle liberally with Large Marketing Dollars.
Serve hot over TV.
People will gobble it up!!

Now, if we could just get more road courses, even I would watch!

Cheers from Arizona.

Jason

And I'm one of them.

Mark_Milner

There is only one class of cars on the track. The guy in front is the winner, plain and simple. That is unlike SCCA, where the guy in front is winning the XX class, the guy in 6 spot is winning XY class, the guy in 10 spot is winning XZ class, and so on.

Drag racing recognized that long ago and created bracket racing. It took a long time for anyone to understand why one guy got a 4 car head start, but they all instantly understood the first guy across the line is the winner.

I doubt you ever see the big road racing crowds again with few exceptions.

John Shiels

people are paying huge dollars at NASCAR for tickets and I guess they don't want to see the car for a brief moment each lap. They were talking about more road courses. How many do they get at the Glen or Laguna vs. an oval?

ghoffman

My wife grew up in Boston and her Dad took her to Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics games. When I met her she would not even think of going to a NASCAR race, because she thought it was "a bunch of Rednecks", even though NHIS is 1/2 hour away. One day she called me from work and someone had tickets to go to the Cup race and did I want to go? She said she would go if I wanted to (I think she was just being nice). We tailgated before, and she (we) had a blast. Tony won, smoked everyone so she became a Stewart fan, and called her Dad and said it was way more fun than any of the above games she went to. Bottom line, it is fun when you go and Loudon is a one mile track and you can see everything from the stands. Is it racing? Hell yes, and the teams are mega-dollar professional level.

Cape Cod Bob

John,
Ya got that right!!
Same foul mouth (non-rednecks) here at New England sports events.
Only concern is that these bozos start attending NASCAR events.

Bob B.

Too Tall Bob

Maybe Bourdais needs to try his hand at NASCAR too!

MattB

For $1.3 mill I'd make left turns!

folsomlarry

NASCAR does a far better job of marketing than any other racing series, although it does seem to be overkill on the SPEED channel. Maybe the biggest single sporting event in Northern California is the NASCAR race at Infineon every year. They put on a great show on the road courses, full grids, lots of noise, and only one class as been like someone else stated.

I grew up hating NASCAR and thought the only race of the year worth watching was the annual Gurney win at Riverside. Now if I were young and wanted to make a career racing I would be headed in the dreaded NASCAR direction, unless I came from a very wealthy family so I could be a road racer.

Larry

Steve49841

Most people like a circus, to me that's what NASCAR is. Simple minded racing for simple minded people. I guess I really don't care except the crap is sucking the wind out of everything else. I'm sick of turning on Speed and getting hour after hour of NASCAR drivers wives favoite home decore ideas. I think the best evidence that NASCAR is the spawn of satan is that some woman actually DO like it! (I know I'm going to burn for that one). It's the Walmart, the professional wrestling of auto racing and that appeals to a certain kind of person. For me, I'll take Road America any day.

Cape Cod Bob

As IMUS would say...
"THIS BOY NEEDS A CHECKUP FROM THE NECKUP"

AU N EGL

and sponsors TOSS MILLIONS AND ZILLIONS of Dollars at these simple redneck folk.

and to think it all came from running shin.

VetteDrmr

Ah, nothing like the comeback of the elitist

Which none of us could watch on TV anyway without NASCAR footing the majority of the bill.

Where in the world do you think the TV money would come from if not from NASCAR? When was the last time you saw SCCA nationals on TV before NASCAR starting funding the majority of SpeedTV?

Steve49841

I think you're right, even my brother gets up and walks away when I start ranting about NASCAR. I even wear a shirt that says "too dumb for polo-too smart for NASCAR", just to **** people off. Please help me!

AJRocketeer

Lets see, lets try 2001, and if that isn't good enough how about 1999.