NASCAR 2023 Season Thread

[infrared41]

1 hour ago, AnPheitseog said:

Street races arent going to suddenly make me start watching NASCAR.

 

Exactly and racing F1 cars at Daytona isn't going to make me a start watching F1 races. The two series exist in entirely different worlds.

[See Red]

I used to be a big proponent of more road courses in NASCAR until it actually happened and now they make a giant mess of every one I've watched since then.  I don't know... I guess the cars are just too durable or the back end of the field just isn't good enough?

[The_Admiral]

On 6/28/2023 at 10:01 PM, CDCLT said:

I think the Chicago Street Race has the potential to be the coolest race NASCAR has ever put on - I don't have high expectations for the racing itself but NASCAR racing in the heart of the third-biggest city in the country is incredible. They're literally right next to skyscrapers at some points! I'm hoping that this does what the races in LA are doing - exposing NASCAR to a new audience and forging new pathways in new markets. I can't wait for the race.

 

The prevailing attitude in Chicago is not "gawrsh, fast cars by skyscrapers" but rather "this is the stupidest idea anyone has ever had."

[The_Admiral]

Why are there two hard turns kitty-corner from each other? They're going to get someone killed.

[dont care]

43 minutes ago, the admiral said:

Why are there two hard turns kitty-corner from each other? They're going to get someone killed.

Because “neuw fanz will think it’s ” and not let’s put these cars on tracks actually designed for them and stop pushing your core fan base away.

[8BW14]

The Chicago race will definitely get eyeballs out of curiosity. NASCAR is not F1. I used to be the biggest nascar fan in the world, but I’ve fallen off as my favorite drivers as a kid retired and they’ve changed so many rules. I’ll agree that nascar is generally not good on road courses and this course does not look conducive to big heavy “stock” cars. This Chicago street race will be the first race I’ll tune in to this season just to see the spectacle, but I don't expect to see good racing. If we get anything more than a 200 mile parade, I’ll be surprised. Reeks of “Steve Buschemi with a skateboard and backwards hat.”

[dont care]

1 hour ago, 8BW14 said:

The Chicago race will definitely get eyeballs out of curiosity. NASCAR is not F1. I used to be the biggest nascar fan in the world, but I’ve fallen off as my favorite drivers as a kid retired and they’ve changed so many rules. I’ll agree that nascar is generally not good on road courses and this course does not look conducive to big heavy “stock” cars. This Chicago street race will be the first race I’ll tune in to this season just to see the spectacle, but I don't expect to see good racing. If we get anything more than a 200 mile parade, I’ll be surprised. Reeks of “Steve Buschemi with a skateboard and backwards hat.”

I recorded yesterdays race until it was ultimately postponed. It was just a parade with the only passing being the first couple turns after a restart. Otherwise no one could get a run to make a pass in an actual passing zone. Iracing has shown this would be the result to 3 years now. Why nascar was so hell bent on this when you have a legitimate track where you can actually race on an hour out of the city. 

[See Red]

What a disaster this weekend is for NASCAR.  The racing yesterday was kind of a processional and there doesn't appear to be any great places to overtake on the circuit but it seems like the weekend would've been a success if not for the rain.

[Sykotyk]

Much preferred the Coliseum thing over city street racing.

 

Instead of all the turns having two long straight aways and then two, one block turn arounds would've been cooler. Get those cars up to speed on a good half mile to 3/4 mile run. 

[infrared41]

On 7/1/2023 at 12:30 AM, the admiral said:

 

The prevailing attitude in Chicago is not "gawrsh, fast cars by skyscrapers" but rather "this is the stupidest idea anyone has ever had."

 

Which happens to be the correct answer.

[infrared41]

8 hours ago, dont care said:

Why nascar was so hell bent on this when you have a legitimate track where you can actually race on an hour out of the city. 

 

Because when people who don't give a flying about NASCAR say that more road courses would make them more interested in the sport, NASCAR actually believes them.  All the years of racing at the Chicagoland didn't make Chicago a NASCAR hot bed, but now a gimmicky street race is going to do the trick? Please. This is entire thing has been an exercise in stupidity.

[infrared41]

On 7/1/2023 at 12:00 AM, See Red said:

I used to be a big proponent of more road courses in NASCAR until it actually happened and now they make a giant mess of every one I've watched since then. 

 

Every time a new road course is added to the schedule, my reaction is "I'll be free all day on that Sunday."  Just my opinion, but NASCAR on road courses sucks. I honestly think the only reason NASCAR fans still tolerate Watkins Glen and Sonoma is because they've been on the schedule for so long. Earlier in the thread, someone said that the Chicago gimmick aimed at trying to get suburban elitists to watch a redneck sport street race has gotten the most interest in NASCAR since Indianapolis in '94.  Sure, maybe as a sideshow, but once they've seen the sideshow, they're done. The reality is that the race with the most interest among actual NASCAR fans was easily the return of North Wilkesboro - a mile and a third oval track. And it's not even close. NASCAR needs to stick to what it's good at and it's good at four left turns.

[dont care]

I was able to turn it on and it’s exactly what I expected except I turned it on right when they said “yea we are going to shorten the race by 25 laps which totally :censored:ed Christopher bell and others. Next thing I saw was the whole track get blocked by a 2 car spin. Then the rest has been a parade with the only passing being when a guy inevitably misses a turn and goes into the tire barriers. This race is a farce.

[infrared41]

And a ringer wins the race. Perfect.

[dont care]

52 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

And a ringer wins the race. Perfect.

I will say he was the only one that could pass today. He is incredibly talented. Still was a wreck fest

[infrared41]

53 minutes ago, dont care said:

I will say he was the only one that could pass today. He is incredibly talented. Still was a wreck fest

 

The moves he made were impressive as hell. Dude made Haley look like a rookie when he passed him for first. This cat can flat out drive. It was really cool to see, but I don't think it's exactly the flex NASCAR social media is making it out to be. He made full time Cup drivers look like fools. I can't imagine anyone in F1 would be celebrating like this  if Kyle Busch won in his first ever attempt at one of their races. Great story and fun to watch, but I also think it made NASCAR look a little silly.

[See Red]

I was cheering for that guy but I'd agree it's not a good look for NASCAR. 

[mcj882000]

Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man longing for the simpler-seeming times of my youth, but as someone who got into NASCAR in the late-90s but fell out of it after about a decade, I've come back and watched a race or two every few years or so, but I just can't get myself back into it; I want to like it, but I just can't. I look at modern NASCAR and I just can't help but think it looks and feels... artificial. The drivers and their white-meat personalities feel fake; everyone drives hyper-aggressively in their oversized, state-of-the-art, 6-figure-valued race cars, which makes the race-day drama feel fake; the stages forced cautions and overtime make races feel fake; and the playoffs make the championship feel fake.

None of it feels special to me anymore; it used to be that blowout race or championship wins would make the closer battles that much more impactful, and the occasional off-track disagreement or even fight would heighten the drama as the season goes on - heck, a brawl in the infield literally helped NASCAR go national - but now every race is a nail-biter thanks to stages & overtime, every championship comes down to 4 guys in the last race whether they're actually the top 4 in points or not, and there's at least a half-dozen spats, heated disagreements or out-and-out fights every single season, so it just all comes off to me at least as contrived; artificial; fake. It's just become a different kind of Sports Entertainment, and worse yet not a single bit of it has moved the needle in a positive direction long-term; their ratings, attendance and overall relevance have been in free-fall for at least 15 years. 

I can't help but notice the contradiction in their goals with the playoffs, too; they clearly want wins to matter in the long run, and they would like it if the guy who wins the most races wins the title, but they also want every season to be like 1992, while ignoring the fact that in 1992 the champion was an underdog Underbird who won 2 races all season upsetting two 5-win powerhouse drivers by mere race positions. (And again, ignoring that 1992 was special for a reason, a reason they have now taken away entirely.) You can't have it both ways, and we've seen that with some of the playoff results we've gotten. (Heck, Matt Crafton won the Truck Series playoffs a few years back despite posting 0 wins all season; the system isn't even that good at doing the thing it's intended to do!) The ironic thing is, they used to have a pretty good balance; wins did matter, but consistency mattered even more - it was fair. But now a white-hot driver consistent all season can have 2-3 bad races in the fall and that's it for his title bid, or a guy misses a third of the season but still wins the championship, and everyone gets P.O'd about it. They sacrificed fairness for entertainment, and now we get neither.

I very much get the impression that NASCAR is extremely insecure about being "the sport of dumb hillbillies watching cars go in circles for hours", based on the decisions they've made with the sport. "Look at the clean-cut, corporate-friendly drivers we have!" "Look at how close these races & championship battles are now!" "Look at all the road courses we run on now!" And it's all to appeal to an audience that will never be into stock car racing, who are not willing to see it as more than just "dumb hicks driving in circles". It's one thing to try and appeal to a casual audience, every major league/franchise/IP does that nowadays for better and for worse; after a while it starts to feel like NASCAR is sacrificing their diehard fans in an attempt to court an openly hostile audience, and it's gone about as well as you'd expect it to.

Edited July 3, 2023 by mcj882000
I was still rolling so I added another paragraph lol

[Dalcowboyfan92]

He was flat out better than everyone. When you're two full seconds faster than the leader, it's not a matter of if you'll catch them, but when.

 

Haley drove his heart out. He got lucky the first time because a caution came out. He did manage a crossover to get the lead back, but the amount of talent, combined with the rocket ship was too much for Justin, or anyone else for that matter, to overcome.

[Glover]

Yesterday's race wasn't great, but I generally love the road course races. They're some of the tracks I look forward to most each season. But I am a Chris Buescher fan, so that definitely helps since he is usually competitive in these races.