Nascar

Wingboy

Wingboy

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Tv is on in my family room.Wasn't paying attention to it because i am on the desktop checking mail etc.But then i hear an engine.Oh,it's that stuff.Sounds cool tho i think (wtf,it's an engine making noise) It's the speed channel and a wrapup of the weekends go round stuff.I watched it for a few minutes because there has to be a reason that millions of people do the same.
Why don't they put a big hill on the front part?Or maybe a jump?
I still don't get it.
 
Half the people in the world are below average intelligence.
 
There's actually more to it than just nailing the throttle and turning left at the end of the straight. I was Crew Chief for an all-Army CASCAR (the Canadian equivalent of NASCAR) race team back in the early 90's, racing mostly at Barrie Speedway, and it was damn near a full time job in itself just keeping the car competitive every weekend. It may seem pretty lowbrow on the outside, but there's a fair bit of technology and, yes, strategy involved.
 
NASCAR is a southern American form of racing and that's where the core audience is. It's history originates from the moonshiners who hopped up their cars to outrun the lawmen. Eventually they started racing their "stock" cars on dirt tracks at fairgrounds and the seeds of NASCAR were sown. Canadians don't have that historical context therefore NASCAR racing is nowhere as popular up here.

NASCAR in the late 60s to mid 70s was pretty cool. Those cars still had more or less stock steel bodies. Watching the big Dodge Chargers running close to 200mph is an awesome sight. Without tire technology to match the horsepower, spectacular crashes were a regularity. And that's another appeal to the sport.
 
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I still appreciate the skill involved of seeing 40 cars nose to tail at 200mph at Talladega, or a 1/2 mile Bristol night race . If you think the grid is full with only good old boys turning left you'll never understand this type of racing.

What's been more exciting to watch this year Nascar or Moto GP ??
 
got an offer back in 2008 to go down to the Nascar race at the Michigan SuperSpeedway so the wife and I said sure

seeing it live is something else....you could hate racing of any kind and it'll still blow your mind seeing 43 cars side-by-side nose-to-tail coming at you at 200mph

sat right between turns 3 and 4....and seeing these guys coming outta the corner every lap going sideways and getting right up on the wheel to save it and not crash was seriously impressive

Dale Jr won the thing (hasn't won since) and the crowd of 200,000 went completely nuts

it was a real fun time and a hell of a spectacle to see in person....Nascar has their act together so the whole day went real smooth getting in and out of the speedway etc

put it on your bucket list...cause while they try hard to make it into good TV... it's really something to see live
 
82Seca750 said:
it was a real fun time and a hell of a spectacle to see in person....Nascar has their act together so the whole day went real smooth getting in and out of the speedway etc

put it on your bucket list...cause while they try hard to make it into good TV... it's really something to see live
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Yeah, I agree. It may be WWF on a racetrack, but they're quite something to see in person. I figure I'll see one of the big Nascar races before long..just to see it..and they say if you're any kind of sports fan, you should go to a big college baseketball and football game in the States.
 
invictus43 said:
they say if you're any kind of sports fan, you should go to a big college baseketball and football game in the States.
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My parents lived in West Lafayette close to Purdue. They said the sound from the football stadium during a game could be heard through the whole neighbourhood, and the town went mental every March. That said, listening to Darryl Waltrip speak causes brain damage.
 
FullMotoJacket said:
My parents lived in West Lafayette close to Purdue. They said the sound from the football stadium during a game could be heard through the whole neighbourhood, and the town went mental every March. That said, listening to Darryl Waltrip speak causes brain damage.
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I can hear the tards at every Tiger Cat home game - the stadium is just down the street. That's where the real brain damage comes from (and the odd nasty old ladder) :D.
That being said, I could listen to Dee Dubya all day long. Not enough wholesome people like him on the planet. Then again, Kentucky is one of my favorite States.
Hope you caught his lap as a passenger at Bathurst on Saturday - it was a thing of beauty.

As a kid, in the early 60's, I'd sit in front of the old black & white on Saturday afternoons with my fingers crossed watching Wide World of Sports, just hoping that they would show some footage from the NASCAR race.
At one time, it would take 3 weeks, just to see 5 minutes of racing - that made my week.

Without NASCAR, the carnage on our roads would be ten fold. Their safety mandates are way beyond comprehension, and it trickles down to the **** boxes we buy and drive. 190 mph ---> zero, in a split second, and these dudes climb out and walk away.....boogity boogity, boogity......
 
I asked myself the same thing about wrestling a long time ago. I'd stubbornly watch an hour here or there asking myself; why... why! And then I had an epiphany. Sports are just soap operas for men. It's about the personalities and relationships more than anything.

NASCAR is like that, where the relationship between drivers is played out in front of the audience in the form of race strategy. There's a lot of southern social norms that are used to judge drivers. Loyalty, standing up for yourself, paying your dues, respect for elders, being genuine, spirtuality... in the eyes of fans, these codes of behaviour all manifest themselves during the course of a race and the fans relate to the fate of the drivers according to how they fall in line with their values.

The seemingly slow, droning repetitive motion of the cars circling the track is a metaphor for the fan's lives. It's refelects the pattern of their work, family, leisure time, and the relationships that slowly unfold therein. This is how they relate, how almost every sports fan relates to their sport.

At the same time there is always the car side of things to appreciate. These are very sophisticated machines within the restrictions of the rulebook. And as has been said already, TV doesn't do justice to the speed, noise, power of the live show. These are the more immediately appreciable aspects of the sport that initially attract fans, until they start to identify with the interpersonal, 'soap opera' side of the sport, which will keep them interested in the long terms, usually for at least one driver's generation.
 
If they put an engine in it and try to pass another guy I will watch it. Nascar, drags, lawnmowers, hydroplanes, doesn't really matter.

My Mom was dragging me to Delaware, Pinecrest, Flamboro and the CNE speedway from the time I could stand, its her fault really.
 
Gary said:
That being said, I could listen to Dee Dubya all day long. Not enough wholesome people like him on the planet. Then again, Kentucky is one of my favorite States.
Hope you caught his lap as a passenger at Bathurst on Saturday - it was a thing of beauty.
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I watched Bathurst. The run down the mountain @ Panorama makes the Corkscrew @ Seca look like a straightaway..........and I hear Depends®™ is offering him a five figure deal after his ride-along. :)

Gary said:
boogity boogity, boogity......
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What were we talking about again?

Jens and the McLaren boys stopped by Panorama after the Aussie GP this year for a day of hooning. New lap record, of course.

[video=youtube;x4XVF3jJL5Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XVF3jJL5Q&feature=related[/video]

And from the chopper.

[video=youtube;6YDDFgtXRBU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YDDFgtXRBU&feature=relmfu[/video]
 
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And if I was going to go for beers with an ex driver, it would be David Coulthard. He was on Letterman before the Canadian GP a few years back. Letterman asked him to tell the audience something about F1 that they wouldn't know. He thought about it for a second, and said "You can't fart in the corners. The G-forces are too high. You have to wait until your on a straightaway to squeeze one out." Priceless.
 
FullMotoJacket said:
And if I was going to go for beers with an ex driver, it would be David Coulthard. He was on Letterman before the Canadian GP a few years back. Letterman asked him to tell the audience something about F1 that they wouldn't know. He thought about it for a second, and said "You can't fart in the corners. The G-forces are too high. You have to wait until your on a straightaway to squeeze one out." Priceless.
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He makes a better commentator then a driver. I think he found his calling. Likable guy though.





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FullMotoJacket said:
My parents lived in West Lafayette close to Purdue. They said the sound from the football stadium during a game could be heard through the whole neighbourhood, and the town went mental every March.
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Yup, exactly. Like, Michigan gets something like 120,000 for a football game! That's crazy. Must be quite something.

FullMotoJacket said:
That said, listening to Darryl Waltrip speak causes brain damage.
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Nascar, I'd like to go to Rockingham or Charlotte..that'd be cool. DW DOES cause brain damage. Or at least makes you think either you or he has it already...
 
I told a buddy of mine I'd watch the last 40 laps of a race....I got to 15 and there'd been 2 cautions for dust on the track and the same guys draft/pass/draft/pass/left/left etc. The competition is great but there's no way I can watch the same 4 corners for 3-4hrs.
 
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