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The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
Wow... could it really be..?? Some history in 2008 By: Jeff Findley 10/24/2008 The year 2008 will be remembered as a history-making year. Either the first African-American president or the first female vice president in American history will be elected in November. The worst economic times that some of us have ever seen happened this year. The United States hit an all-time high in gasoline prices in 2008. And 2008 will produce the first three-in-a-row winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in 30 years. Yep, turn out the lights, the party is over. Jimmie Johnson sewed up the cup championship with his win at Martinsville last Sunday. The three straight cups would mark the first time in NASCAR since Cale Yarborough pulled the trifecta in 1976-1978. Entering the race, he held a 69-point lead over Jeff Burton. After dominating the field last week, he left southwest Virginia with a 149 point lead over Greg Biffle with only four races remaining in the chase. Johnson doesn"t need wins, doesn"t really even need top-fives or top-10s over the last four races to cruise to his third consecutive championship. If he keeps the fenders on the car and doesn"t string together a few 30-something place finishes, he wins going away. But I would be willing to bet that he wins again before the season ends in Miami on Nov. 16. Kinda takes the excitement away from the remaining four races, but if there's wheels rolling, I"ll be watching. It"s looking more and more like we might be back down to three manufacturers competing in NASCAR racing fairly soon. The signals coming from General Motors and Chrysler are pretty strong that a merger is in the works. Well, call it a merger, but GM would buy Chrysler from Cerberus Capital Management, the privately held parent company of Chrysler. If that happens, all indications are that a deal could be announced in the next 10 days, I have a hard time seeing Dodge continue as a participant of the sport. One of the biggest reasons for a deal like this is the expense savings realized by GM via synergies between the two companies. Having two brands spending millions on race teams does not meet that objective. Currently, the four Dodge teams are Gillette Evernham Motorsports, Ganassi Racing, Petty Enterprises and Bill Davis Racing. Of those four, the only team that will seemingly be the same next year as this year is Gillette Evernham and the rumors are that GEM is close to making the switch to Toyota for 2009. Ganassi, Petty and Bill Davis most likely will all either merge with other teams or be sold to other teams. Or all three could merge with each other and form one team while driving a different brand of car. If Dodge exits the sport, how long would it be before we see another manufacturer make its entrance? With the success of Toyota this season, how far behind is Honda? Or Nissan? Or how about Hyundai? The 33rd and next race on the schedule is the Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This is a super fast track that has produced some outstanding finishes through the years. I pick Kevin Harvick to take the checkers this Sunday at the track that produced his first cup victory in 2001. |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
I seriously doubt Honda would ever get into NASCAR. From what I've read about their racing strategy, they enter a program with the intention of dominating it. With all the restrictions NASCAR has on manufacturers, I don't think they'd want to get involved.
As to Hyundai, do they even have any manufacturing plants in the U.S.? |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
None of it really matters any more. They killed Nascar when they went to the stupid chase format and then added the tombstone with this ridiculous COT or it that Junk of today? I have been a rabid Nascar fan for over 45 years and the last few have been absolutely the worst pile of crap that they have stuck the name Nascar on..oops excuse me, Sprint Cup.
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RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
Yeah, brucer, I gotta agree with you. Today's NASCAR is worthless. I'd rather go to San Antonio Speedway anymore and watch the stock cars there. At least they're real cars!
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RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
Don't really matter anymore who builds the car.....it's all a decal package on cookie cutter bodies....
NASCAR will survive, as it's weathered "bad" times in the past...but yes it will not be what it is today....but then it hasn't been "Stock" car racing for many years. When NASCAR approved of two door versions of the Taurus and Charger, when the showroom had only four doors...and allowed rear wheel drive on the race car when the factory cars were all front whell drive...the idea of "Stock" car racing became a mute issue...To bad because we will never see any "special bodies" such as the wingcars, and fastback Monte Carlo (to name but a few) ever offered to the general public....Times have changed and with it NASCAR..... |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
Yes NASCAR isn't racing "stock" cars anymore, but it is a much safer sport these days. Alot of the changes took place because of the deaths of such stars as Dale Earnhart, Adam Petty and Neal Bonnett. Same thing has happened in Drag racing as the "Pro-Stock" class is running Chevy cobalts with V-8's in them and the car doesnt have a V-8 option.
All of these changes are made to make the competition more equil and keep costs down. I know it isnt true to the sport we all grew up loving, but it is still racing and I will keep watching it . |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
ORIGINAL: RoswellGrey As to Hyundai, do they even have any manufacturing plants in the U.S.? |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
In my opinion NASCAR lost its way a long time ago when they stopped racing the cars that they were sponsoring. The point of no return in my view was the moment they let Toyota join NASCAR. In my view the only way to return NASCAR to their former glory is by making the manufacturers run the actual models they are sponsoring with no modifications. Many will say that isn't fair since only Dodge and Chevrolet have V8 models, but the way I see it this will put Toyota into decision where they will have to decide how import this is to their image compared to the PR damage that they will have to pay the environmentalist community.
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RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
I think you"re on the right track RLSH... sounds like we are of the same mind for the most part on this... ;) |
RE: The end of NASCAR as we know it..??
Thank you. I think the truth of the matter is that ever since they have put things in a glass tube, people have become bored with it, then angry when Toyota came in. The only way to solve it is go back to your roots. I want to see the best efforts using current technology, not technology from the 80s and before. If I wanted to see that, why not just watch reruns of old races? This adds pressure to the manufactures to make their products more competitive in the normal market and is more likely to chase out Toyota as it could cost them their brand image to their customer base to produce a car the necessary way to compete.
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