Sports

[deepwaterdotter]

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@LonestarBabs wrote:

I was a big NASCAR fan for many years but when Earnhardt Sr died that was it for me. Haven't been very interested since.  At one point in time I was building a house in the Lake Norman NC area near where the teams had their shops -- you could actually hear them tuning engines sometimes. Many of the drivers and crews lived in the area.

But when #3 left, I did too.

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But "#3" has been resurrected in the personage of Austin Dillon, a great young driver with a promising future.  Richard Childress is keeping the memory and fame of The Terminator alive!

[LonestarBabs]

@deepwaterdotter   Nope. Austin Dillon's not going to do it for me. Only one #3.

[Group 5 minus 1]

Remember when Dan did these shows on Friday evenings?

[sfnative]

@gardenman@hckynut

I've been an ardent NASCAR fan since 1992, rarely missing a televised race.  Prior to that, watched lots of Formula 1, and attended many races in Norther California, especially those at Laguna Seca Raceway.  When I met my to-be husband, we were both in college and his part-time job was doing engine jobs on British 4-bangers.  He brought me into his garage "shop" and taught me so much about everything he did.  Before I knew it, he had me assisting him re-building engines and trannies.

Fast forward to this season.  I am totally & thoroughly disgusted!!!

Now they have the cars taking what I call "potty breaks"  every so many laps and they call them segments.  For crying' in the beer!!!  Just award the points and let the race continue!  Then yesterday Kyle Busch had another juvenille tantrum due to what was really just a "race thing."  Came away from that fight with a bloodied forehead and his mouth wasn't looking so good up close.  Then, today I read in USAToday that NASCAR probably isn't going to penalize either of those drivers.  Excuse me?

That did it.  Now we've got potty breaks and drivers in fist fights (Kyle with a record so long for instigating on and off track stuff) with NASCAR doing nothing about it- Well, I've just watched my last race and they've lost me as a fan.

Just as I dropped the NFL as a fan with all the knee taking, I'm dropping NASCAR as well. 

[gardenman]

Potty breaks is a good way to describe the segments. I don't know what the bigwigs at Nascar are thinking, but they keep moving farther away from their roots. Attendance is down. Viewership is down. They're just killing the sport. I'm a member of the Nascar fan council and I'm very blunt in my assessment of what they're doing wrong, but I'm not sure they listen. They're becoming the old IROC series and that's not good.

[HappyDaze]

AMEN @gardenman!!! My husband and I talk about this all the time. I miss the old NASCAR races although I do appreciate and agree with the safety measures. I mean, no more bump drafting even! And yes, all the restrictions and lack of variety in cars has made it very vanilla. Ugh. 

Did you hear the newest thing they are considering?? Hold onto your hats....they want to make the cars quieter so that people can chat easier during the races. I'm not kidding. If that happens, that will be the last NASCAR race I watch and I've been a diehard fan since I was a little girl. 

[hckynut]

Hi Rebecca @sfnative,

Think you may have read my several posting saying I starting drag racing, the legal way, on NHRA sanctioned drag strips when I was 16, way back in 1955. Here in Nebraska, in Lincoln atvan Air Force Base/in Kansas City at a former AF base/Iowa at a former AF base.

From there when I had more money and experiences, I raced around the whole Midwest for many years. When "sponsors" became the thing, to be competitive, you needed to have someone(at least I did) help footing the bills $$$$. It was me getting a 2nd job or finding a new hobby? I chose the latter, still racing, but using 

[sfnative]

Hi John,

My husband and his buddies in high school (he graduated in '62) used to pool their resources and go to the auto junk yard and pick up a $50 what he called "junker."  They'd take it to whoever had permission from their folks to park it in the driveway to then take it apart, buy replacement parts and retreads when they could and when the car was street-ready, they'd enter it in local drag races.  Strictly speaking, these were so very not organized under the auspices of NHRA or any other drag racing organization, but rather groups of San Mateo County teens crazy about speed.

Fortunately, his knowledge about engines continued and he reached out to British 4 cylinder cars.  We've had our share of them and rebuilt all of them.  We did purchase a 1965 3500GT Maserati with a Scalietti body, which he rebuilt and was the most exotic car we owned.  On the occasion of our 30th anniversary some years ago, we sat down and made a list of all the cars we had owned during those 30 years: it turned out to be 42.  Of course, most of those were purchased to turn around and make a profit through rebuilds, some of which also included body and interior work.  Worst work was always electrical under the dash(!) and old British rubber lines in cars earlier than '65.  We love our cars in this house.

(My car of choice to drive in, which my back has always appreciated, are the 4 Sedan de Villes and 1 Fleetwood Brougham we've had.  One ot the Sedan de Villes saved our lives, when a drunk, driving 70 mph plowed into us while we were stopped in traffic on 101 south of San Jose, CA.  Without all of that steel surrounding and protecting us, we would not be here, so said the California Highway Patrol.  Our Cadillac was totaled, the drunk driver hauled off to jail, and the Highway Patrol simply rolled that guy's Plymouth Duster down into a ditch to get it off the highway.)

[gardenman]

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@HappyDaze wrote:

AMEN @gardenman!!! My husband and I talk about this all the time. I miss the old NASCAR races although I do appreciate and agree with the safety measures. I mean, no more bump drafting even! And yes, all the restrictions and lack of variety in cars has made it very vanilla. Ugh. 

Did you hear the newest thing they are considering?? Hold onto your hats....they want to make the cars quieter so that people can chat easier during the races. I'm not kidding. If that happens, that will be the last NASCAR race I watch and I've been a diehard fan since I was a little girl. 

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Nascar's just become too regulated. I don't have a problem with the safety rules, but that should be pretty much where the intense rule making ends. Their micro-control of everything these days has turned Nascar into more of a scientific experiment to find the best driver of a specific type of car, set up a specific way than a sport.

Now you need some rules and guidelines, but Nascar has now gone too far, way, way too far, in the control side of things. Their answer to everything now seems to be "We need a new rule for that." No. You don't. The rules and rule changes are suffocating the sport.

[deepwaterdotter]

As a life-long Ryan Newman fan, I have to post that I am beyond happy.  If ever a talented driver was due for a win it was the Rocketman.  It's been a long time in the wilderness, but you done good today Ryan!