2023 NASCAR

[Yespage]

Daytona is Daytona, playoffs or no playoffs. Indy 500 was Indy, CART or IRL or IndyCar. Monaco, Indy, Daytona, these are marquees. Winning them means something important. And heck, past Long Beach, I don't think IndyCar has any other Marquee sites, well maybe Laguna Seca. NASCAR, it is Daytona, Talladega, probably Charlotte for the 600. Winning those races means something, playoff or not. Winning anywhere else, it's good, but it isn't marquee.

Now, if the owners would improve the paddock at Mid-Ohio and get IMSA back there. That road course isn't marquee, but it is an awesome place for watching a race.

 

[SamCdbs]

When the announcers spew about the playoffs in February at Daytona, the 500 no longer special.

Understand that the Frances were going to "take on the NFL" with their idiot idea. And, they have driven 2 of 3 fans away.

You don't take on the NFL. Or the NCAA. You understand that fall races are going to be lower rated, but still profitable, and accept that.

 

[Yespage]

The 500 is The 500. It is the race of the season. Winning Daytona ensures sponsors.

Too bad Indycar went NASCAR at the end of their 500 today. Oi! Thankfully no one hurt, especially Kirkwood and O'Ward.

 

[Yespage]

Restart 600 had some issues beyond rain staying at speed. But thankfully the last 25 or so laps remained green.

 

[Yespage]

Well, as everyone knows, NASCAR was at LeMans today/yesterday for some 24-hr event that has been going on for 100 years apparently. The Chevy Camaro (which was the hybrid-less hybrid) finished 39th... and one of the last cars that actually finished to finish. Despite the subtle dig, just finishing LeMans is a pretty big deal. Jimmie Johnson was one of the drivers. The 13+ km course is a tad bit longer than the average American racing track. Ferrari won, with Toyota just over a minute behind. It was three times that until the Ferrari hypercar (yeah... probably could have a better name) on its last pitstop decided to give the owner, crew, drivers, etc... a communal heart attack and require a reboot. But it rebooted and got off and won.

Corvette won the GTE AM classification.

 

[osu1991]

Jimmie Johnson withdraws from this weeks race after in laws and nephew killed in murder suicide in Muskogee, OK. ☹️

 

[Yespage]

That is absolutely dreadful.

I'm confused regarding a detail on the police at the scene.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found Jack Janway dead in a hallway near the front door. While removing his body from the house, officers heard a single gunshot from farther inside the home. Other officers entered the home and discovered the bodies of Terry and Dalton Janway.

???

They hadn't secured the premises first? That has to be wrong, right?

 

[Yespage]

Nothing about Shane van Gisbergen? Funny how this was funny at all. NASCAR has always seen the road course drivers come up in road course driving. Add in some bad weather?

The guy raced in Aussie Supercars, which is evolving into a small force. Scott McLaughlin raced there and is doing quite well in Indycar these days with Penske.

 

[SamCdbs]

An IMSA driver won an IMSA race. Move on.

 

[Yespage]

An IMSA driver won an IMSA race. Move on.

Actually, it was a race car driver won a race car race.

 

[SamCdbs]

Yeah, IMSA is a form of motorsports.

Just not as popular as NASCAR.

Sadly the powers that are mismanaging NASCAR don't realize that, in their headlong pursuit of bankruptcy.

 

[Yespage]

Yeah, IMSA is a form of motorsports.

Why do you keep saying IMSA? The guy races Supercar in Australia.

Just not as popular as NASCAR.

True, of course, smoking is popular too.

Sadly the powers that are mismanaging NASCAR don't realize that, in their headlong pursuit of bankruptcy.

I had no idea that NASCAR owned IMSA until very recently when I learned of that at Mid-Ohio. Seems an absurd pairing. Hopefully "staged" racing won't happen in IMSA (or Supercar). Though I have no idea why staged racing would occur on a street or road course.

 

[SamCdbs]

Why do you keep saying IMSA? The guy races Supercar in Australia.

The phrase among motorsports commentators is "IMSAization". Turning NASCAR into something like IMSA. A street/parking lot/infield of a proper oval race in a car with nothing stock about the car beside a sticker that says "brand X" is IMSA. NASCAR is something else. Of course a driver from an IMSA like series won. If the NHL played a game on grass where the goal was to advance a spherical ball forward by running and passing, I would expect an NFL team would win that day. But its not hockey, no matter how much the NHL calls it hockey. And what went on in Chicago isn't NASCAR, no matter how much NASCAR says it was. The fact that an unknown ringer from the sport it actually was won is all the proof of that we need.

NASCAR is in real trouble, as the TV deal gets pushed back, and back and back. It has driven away 2 of 3 fans it once had, through idiocy like this. It needs real leadership change.

 

[Partysox]

This is not Nasar but I watched [ Thursday Night Thunder ] on ESPN, A lot of present and past Nasar Indy car drivers, Some very good racing in my opinion.

 

[SamCdbs]

This is not Nasar but I watched [ Thursday Night Thunder ] on ESPN, A lot of present and past Nasar Indy car drivers, Some very good racing in my opinion.

SRX, which ESPN has rebranded under its old Thursday Night Thuner name after 2 great years on CBSSN, is the rejoinder to all the useful idiots that enable the Frances in their IMSAization and other destructive changes to NASCAR.

The excuse making goes something like NASCAR has to IMSAize because the traditional fanbase is going away. Well here comes Tony Stewart and SRX and, nope, we never went anywhere. NASCAR is what went away.

 

[Yespage]

So Preece is spun out by a bump from the trailing driver, into an awful accident... and there is no talk about how the contact could have gotten him killed. It is like the 1920's to 1950's for care of drivers worldview in NASCAR.

 

[Yespage]

SRX, which ESPN has rebranded under its old Thursday Night Thuner name after 2 great years on CBSSN, is the rejoinder to all the useful idiots that enable the Frances in their IMSAization and other destructive changes to NASCAR.

Ain't nothing like IMSA in NASCAR. If anything, IMSA fans were scared to death of NASCAR'ing up in an actual racing series.

The excuse making goes something like NASCAR has to IMSAize because the traditional fanbase is going away. Well here comes Tony Stewart and SRX and, nope, we never went anywhere. NASCAR is what went away.

What went away was the ability to have competitive racing. Indycar managed to make it work via appropriate courses and tire design. NASCAR keeps trying to make things work, but they can only race unlimited on tracks that are boring as heck to watch racing on. So NASCAR fans are so stuck in the past, demanding racing on tracks that NASCAR can't race competitively on because people will die if they remove the restrictions on the engines (which is why Indycars haven't raced in most of those places).

 

[SamCdbs]

What went away was the ability to have competitive racing.

You mean when they incorrectly CHANGED the engine rules. Yep. Change is bad.

. NASCAR keeps trying to make things work, but they can only race unlimited on tracks that are boring as heck to watch racing on.

Tracks the were not "boring" before all the CHANGES. Yep. Change is bad.

So NASCAR fans are so stuck in the past, demanding racing on tracks that NASCAR can't race competitively on because people will die if they remove the restrictions on the engines (which is why Indycars haven't raced in most of those places).

Yes.

Talk about people stuck in the past. Baseball fans. They want a game played on a diamond where the purpose is to advance runners under complex rules about hitting and pitching. Football fans. They want a game played on a rectangular field where the purpose is to advance the ball in a physical brawl. Hockey fans. Want a game played on ice with sticks.

NASCAR had a formula that worked. Racing back to the caution. Drivers based on merit, with personalities because they did not usually get there until they had lived many adult years as regular people. No spotter dependence. Cars with a relationship to stock. Engines that were stock based, and thus had no need of restrictions. Proud to have its fan base from where its fan base came from, proud to serve that niche. And no idiotic "playoffs" that produce a totally random "champion" and which make who WINS THE RACE every week, the important thing.

Yep. Stuck in the past. When the sport had 3 times as many fans.

 

[Jimbo]

Ain't nothing like IMSA in NASCAR. If anything, IMSA fans were scared to death of NASCAR'ing up in an actual racing series.

What went away was the ability to have competitive racing. Indycar managed to make it work via appropriate courses and tire design. NASCAR keeps trying to make things work, but they can only race unlimited on tracks that are boring as heck to watch racing on. So NASCAR fans are so stuck in the past, demanding racing on tracks that NASCAR can't race competitively on because people will die if they remove the restrictions on the engines (which is why Indycars haven't raced in most of those places).

NASCAR Fans are Not Stuck in the Past, NASCAR IS ...

 

[Yespage]

It's playoff time which means NASCAR fans are sobbing about how there is a ridiculous playoff.

Meanwhile at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, no playoffs, but a lot of IMSA fun (NASCAR technically owns IMSA). Rising sun made for incredible lighting for this pic I took at the exit of turn 2.