So Long, NASCAR

Here are my five reasons to dump NASCAR:
1. Clone of Tomorrow
2. The Chase
3. Toyota
4. Restrictor plates
5. Too many rules
So long…

And I Got To Drive...

This is in response to the letter from a NASCAR fan (12/12/07) listing “10 Reasons To Stay Home.”
As a former road-racing driver, I didn’t realize it was so expensive to be a spectator at a stock-car race. I wonder if you know that you could be driving instead of watching at a sports-car track.
The last race I drove, in 1998, cost almost $150 less than the last NASCAR race you watched. Let’s say, for the momenth, that your ticket was free but that you paid $100 to park and $300 for a motel. At Blackhawk Farms, I paid a $145 entry fee to the Midwest Car Council. That included track time and paddock parking for three vehicles — my Saab tow car, my Formula Ford and a single-axle open trailer. It cost me $36 to stay at the Econo-Lodge in Beloit, Wis., they let me plug in a battery charger for my tow car, and I had a great night’s sleep.
The only extravagance was $14.40 for the two extra gallons of 150-octane gasoline that I would need for the 80-minute race. I had lunch at the concession stand at the track. I think it was a cheeseburger, Coca-Cola and potato chips for $3.50. Then, there was the gasoline to drive from Detroit to Rockton, Ill. — about $25. Before I left home, I paid Averill Racing $35 to change the gears in my head.
So, for $258.90, I had a wonderful race in the rain for 80 minutes, the engines barking with every downshift, my competitors’ rain lights glowing merrily in the mist and the ambiance of a nice, friendly Midwestern track. I finished fourth in my class, thanked the guy who helped me re-fuel and drove home being careful to give Chicago a wide berth. I’m sure these costs are higher now, but not that much. When you paid over $400 to go to a NASCAR race, they didn’t even let you drive.

Suggestions For NASCAR

I have been watching NASCAR racing since the early 1960s and I feel that if a team wants to race in the Busch Series, they should do it with the new drivers — no Cup drivers. No more than two cars per team.
I also think that they should make some changes in the Cup series. Three cars for each team. No moving owner points, so a new driver can get into the race.
Change The Chase system! Take the restrictor plates away and let’s race like they used to.

NASCAR’s Foreign Invasion

I heard the news about the death of the Craftsman Truck Series on Pearl Harbor Day. This is the final battle in a war thousands of race fans have lost, and a shot was never fired. In 2007, we have seen the death of the Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series and the end of the NASCAR racing as we knew it. Invaded by Japanese trucks, then cars, and overrun with foreign drivers, Brian France has sold out, like so many other Americans — he surrendered without even putting up a fight.
I was born in 1953, and my father was a licensed NASCAR driver in 1955. We represent a couple of generations that lived to see the birth, growth and untimely death of the sport we invested our lives in. We have subscribed to National Speed Sport News for as long as I can remember, and I have never written in before because it seemed obvious that no one really cares about what a couple of generations of hard-core race fans thought. I cannot let today go by and not give a voice to the thousands of casualties in this battle that we have lost. We are not dying quietly; we are making ourselves heard through the plummeting TV ratings, the obviously empty seats seen every Sunday and the lack of our life support that it took to keep NASCAR growing. At the end of this year, the machine will be unplugged, and Brian will continue to stand alongside the corpse in total denial.
We grew up watching the fastest American cars and drivers qualify for each race with no guarantees other than it would always be great to watch. You could identify with and relate to the names of the cars and the drivers. I am tired of hearing the argument that many of the Japanese cars are made in America because the profits, like so many jobs, are being shipped overseas. I could go on, but I will not. We were taught not to whine. The war is over, and we have lost. We thought we won in 1945, but that was just the start. It has taken 62 years but the foreign invaders have finally taken over.