Last 2 weeks of the Nascar season have been brutal to watch and my favorite driver even won one of those races. Last week in Kansas they had 3 cautions. At one point the leader had 8 second lead after green flag pit stops. The Texas race 2 weeks ago usually one of the best was a green flag race as well and only 14 cars (I think) finished on the lead lap. Many fans have been complaining that the races are unwatchable while the drivers say they like racing with no cautions and if all you like are crashes find something else to watch.
Well isn't that interesting the drivers don't like to wreak, well duh. Who says when they wake up man I hope I get spun today. I get where they're coming from today's Nascar is different than the day of the Allison boys beating up Yarbourough and Dale Sr. just giving Terry Labonte a little tap to let him know he was there. Today it's a business more than yestday. Me and Chris on Sunday tried to think of drivers who had fulltime sponsorship by one sponsor. We came up with 4 cars, the 2, 15, 55, and 56. The 55 has 3 drivers but Aaron's is the full time sponsor. Even the sports most popular driver Dale Jr. has 2 sponsors. The 3 most successful drivers Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon have split sponsorships. Last year Kyle Busch made the mistake or wreaking a guy in a truck race, got parked for a weekend by Nascar, M&M's took sponsorship off his Cup car the rest of the season. JGR Nationwide sponsor Z-Line Designs asked for Denny Hamlin to drive the car the final race of the season instead of Kyle. I guess my point is this with sponsors being so few and far between and unwilling to fork over tons of cash, you don't want to be known as the villian, especially if your sponsor happens to be a family friendly product, say candy bars, soda, or home improvement stores. Some guys can be dicks, Kevin Harvick because they have adult sponsors, but even then they don't want guys to retaliate when they f them over.
I think that's at the core of the problem, today's drivers are bitches. If you wreak me than I have no choice but to get you back. A few years ago Carl Edwards got turned by Brad Keselowski at Talladega at 200 MPH, his car went into the fence. That was on the last lap and was for the win, could Carl understand this no, instead he waited till the next year and in a race where he was laps down he took out Brad on the last lap at Atlanta when Brad was running in the top ten, not only that he did it at the dumbest part of the track. Why I tell this story is b/c Carl held a grudge over a pass for the lead on the last lap. If you can't handle getting turned for a win there is no way you could hang with Dale Sr. in the 80's or 90's. Today's drivers hold grudges and instead of going fishing on Monday like Sr. and Rusty used to do, they instead cry to the media or go on twitter and bitch about a guy, or in Jimmie Johnson's case cry to the media then deny it on twitter. These guys need to understand that sometimes you need to turn someone to get going, and racing "clean" isn't always entertaining, and the fact that me and Chris could argue who the bigger douche was. That's what sports are about hating someone b/c they beat up your team or your guy.
BUT, on the other end is this, if you only watch Nascar for crashes your watching for the wrong reasons, much like if you only watch hockey for fighting. I like good racing, where using the bumper is a last resort, not first resort. I like racing, not a guy pulling away in clean air, that is more the fault of the COT not the drivers. Another thing that could help is get rid of a few of the 1 1/2 ovals b/c that is where these boring races take place. Dega and Daytona have the big pack and a huge wreak could happen anytime. The short tracks require you to use the bumpe b/c they only have about a groove and half. You think the fans want 3 wide at a short track watch the Bristol race from last month, boring, so boring in fact today they were grinding up the outside lane making it impossible to drive on. Bristol fall race will only have 2 grooves and your gonna have to get mean to pass someone, and tempers are gonna flair good. I want competition not 8 seconds between 1st and 2nd place. I don't want a crash every 20 laps but 3 hours of green flag racing isn't fun to watch, and even though guys were moving back and forth Sunday Fox doesn't show that, they just let you know somebody has moved up 4 spots since the last yellow. I know the COT has a lot to do with this, as does money, but if people would just leave the race at the track, and not carry grudges we could have a lot better racing, and not so many naps.
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