Agree. Once Nemechek chrome-horned him for position and then had his fender at the turn, that was the end of the "rubbin' is racing." That extra left turn from Nemechek into the grass is what NASCAR ought to come down on. It's really quite amazing how the track attendance and viewership for NASCAR has just dropped off the table. A burst bubble that may never recover.
Tell me about it. In the early 00's, I could name every driver, his number, his crew chief and the owner of the car. It's strange, because nothing has really happened to cause the numbers to dwindle - it's not like they had a strike (no driver's union to strike, one of the few un-unionized professional sports); it just seems like less and less people care. Part of it, I think, was a focus for a time on diversity and family fun, rather than on hard-ass race winning. But it feels like the sport kind of lost momentum when Dale Sr. died. Then Johnson went on a crazy win streak, so you always knew who was going to walk away with the championship. Now that Gordon has retired and Dale Jr. might be forced into retirement due to brain trauma, I don't see any younger guys coming up that people are really excited about. As diehard of a fan as I am, I can't tell you who won Rookie of the Year at any point in the last five years. And it's not just television that's not watching; looking at the turnouts at some tracks is appalling. I don't think the Brickyard 400 (at Indy) had more than a thousand people in the stands. Good friends were there and they said that it was +100* in the blazing sun, and no one could stand the heat. They have really bad timing for some races in terms of seasons, and they're screwed if it rains. It's too bad, because it's traditionally been my favourite sport. It's getting eclipsed by NFL and UFC.
Yeah, it's a combination of things like that. Dale Jr burst on the scene as most popular, the economy was booming, big TV contracts were getting signed, etc. But then several things happened: as you point out, Mr. Vanillla started winning consecutive championships, those drivers which tied the old school fans to the new generation died or retired, the tracks waaay overpriced their tickets, and the economy went in the toilet. I've been to Darlington, Atlanta, Charlotte, Talladega, and Martinsville, but I haven't been to a track in 4-5 years. (I used to go to the Fall Atlanta race, but they don't run that anymore, and I'm usually on vacation during the Spring race.) I'd rather watch it on TV than pay $125 to sit in the sun.
I think a lot of it came down to the generic looking cars, as well. If they went back to a "you can buy this on the showroom floor" style of racing, where brands actually matter (rather than just be a different decal pack on the same chassis and body), I think you'd tap into more of that "Mopar for life" crowd. It's almost become too slick for people to really enjoy... it's a marketing driven science, and you have to feel like you can go out and root for the underdog that represents what you drive.
Yeah, and I think some of that has spun off from the attempts to make it as safe as possible. They went that way a little bit this year, with dropping the spoiler height and changes that allowed handling to factor in more, so the more skilled drivers could separate themselves. They need to do more of that. I think they need to do a bunch, of BIG changes. Go crazy. Add another road course to the schedule. Remove the restrictor plates at Talledega, but add an S-curve down the back stretch. Let them run rain tires. Really tweak the gas tank size to tire hardness set ups, so pit strategy & timing becomes a big deal each week. Have a "Fire Drill" race on the schedule with something like, the driver has to get out of the car during at least one green flag stop. And, he or she has to shoot three targets or something.
They're evolving. http://www.wistv.com/story/33031369...it-sought-in-midlands-suspicious-persons-case
Want me to watch every single race? Add water. Have them race in the rain, and hell, add randomly triggered water sprinklers to the race. Add water and a road course? I'm their newest, biggest fan. This Nationwide race in 2008 is my all-time favourite NASCAR event.
Here's a great article by my favorite journalist about NASCAR's identity change over the years: http://www.jimgoad.net/pdf/entertainment/nascar.pdf Fun fact: Smokey Yunick is one of my personal heroes.
I don't know what The White Moose Cafe is, where it is, or who runs it. But whoever does is the king of the fucking universe. I'm dead.
The second you apologize to those fuckheads, you lose. They won't accept it, and will still relentlessly hound for more grovelling. But as long as you don't give in to their demands, they stay the whiney loser minority where they belong. That place recieved rebuttal posts all day from "offended" people and every single one of them were told to go fuck themselves. A masterpiece.
They are the same place that last year had a whole lot of vegans get pissed off at them after saying they had to give 24 hours notice for any meals without meat. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/f...afe-owner-BARS-vegans-fury-Facebook-post.html That was fucking hilarious.
The guy sounds awesome but a bit like a sociopath. I get pissing off vegans, they want to get treated like a special class. If a restaurant doesn't meet your food needs go somewhere else simple enough, don't demand to be accommodated. Reading the article he said he'd shoot vegans if they came into his place and then in an apology said he wouldn't shoot them a much easier way to knock them off is poisoning them? I'm all for dark humor especially between friends, but that comes off a little creepy.
And now they're arming themselves: "A woman told Forsyth County sheriff’s officials that a clown wielding a machete tried to lure her into the woods " http://myfox8.com/2016/09/06/2-more-clown-sightings-reported-in-the-piedmont/
I give it no more than 5 days until one of them is shot, especially now that there are reports of one carrying a fucking machete. I'm honestly shocked that it hasn't happened already, but I imagine this will be the breakpoint.