The engines start back up this weekend with the Busch Clash. Will you be watching?
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When the season starts, there’s about 5 or 6 guys that have a chance. By the 4th of July it’s down to 2 or 3. If your guy is one of the chosen, it’s worth watching. Otherwise it’s boring as hell.I have watched NASCAR since the early 80's as my dad used to race dirt cars and was a big Petty fan. He was the one who got me into loving racing both NASCAR and dirt. I have also been a Jimmie Johnson fan since his rookie year so I will watch this year to see his last year but honestly they product better improve drastically or this may be my last year of keeping up with it.
I’ll watch the duals (I assume they’re still on), both Daytona races, Bristol at night, and bits and pieces of a few others. I used to watch all of them. Sad.
Jimmie is my guy too. Hope he can get into the championship race this year. Wonder if they’ll do the old rocking chair gifts and stuff for him.
Agreed. Toyota and Ford have been leaps ahead of Chevy the past couple of years.I just hope to see some other guys have a chance this year. Honestly if you weren't a Stewart Haas, Gibbs or Penske team you had a very small chance of winning. The Chevrolet cars have pretty much been crap for 2 years.
Agreed. Toyota and Ford have been leaps ahead of Chevy the past couple of years.
Yeah I think you may be right. There's no doubt that Toyota is throwing big money into R&D.There are 43 entries for the 500. Of the 43 cars entered 19 are Chevy's, 17 Fords and 7 Toyota's. I would assume due to a smaller number of cars Toyota can throw more money and R&D at their teams which would probably be the big difference in their dominance. This may also be why NASCAR is trying to get Nissan, Honda or any other manufacturer involved to help spread it out so Ford and Chevy can do the same.
I miss the days of the Gatorade 125's running during the day and Daytona 500 finishing during the daylight hours. Under the lights is what we have the summer race for in late August now.
Absolutely man and can remember going into the NASCAR store at the local mall during this time of year just with overall excitement of a new season. Miss the days of merchandise being sold in more locations than online or at the track.
While we are on things we miss I miss tracks that were not like all the others. I wish North Wilksboro, Rockingham, Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and Riverside were still on the schedule and not so many 1 1/2 mile cookie cutter tracks.
Would be great to get back to those tracks too. With the field shrinking over the past few years the excuse of too many cars on short tracks is irrelevant. These tracks are the backbone of what made the sport so successful.
Riverside can never be restored unfortunately like the others, turned into a huge mall and a housing complex.
Dale Jr has been apart of a clean up crew for North Wilkesboro for iRacing simulator. Maybe they will restore it enough to see NASCAR return with a future shake up in the schedule after their deals with Bruton Smith's tracks end.
Need to get back to the Rock. It's depressing seeing the state that track is in. Asphalt cracked, weeds growing around the garage area stalls.
Nashville Fairgrounds has a new track promoter and as of last December, negotiations with the new mayor in Nashville have gone well.
Nazareth Speedway may not have Cup history but it has significant racing history as a dirt track. Hosted events for IROC, IRL,CART, Truck & Busch Series
Went to Wilksboro twice. You had to just park on the shoulder of the 2 lane road that went to the track and walk a mile or two to get to the track. Anytime I watch a documentary on Woodstock with the cars just parked on the road it reminds me of going to Wilksboro.
I have so many 1:24 die casts I had to at one time rent a storage unit. Have a back room for storage now that I moved back to KY that is full of my diecasts that aren't displayed.
That's awesome, what is it like to get the hot passes? Do you get about every driver you seek or is it more about luck.
That's really awesome man! Appreciate you sharing your experience with us. Love to hear experiences like that. I bet Talladega gets hectic with the fans on Sunday morning everywhere. Which drivers have you gotten an an autograph from?
It would be nice to get Johnson to sign a car in the last chance this year to get it. I had not been to a Cup race until Ky last year and did not know what to do to meet drivers. In 06/07, Ricky Rudd followed by Terry Labonte came to the Carl Casper's Auto Show in Louisville. I have a picture and a signed car with them.
It is mostly a wide variety of drivers I have cars from. Even from some I don't pull for but I like paint schemes, i.e. Robby Gordon. Great paint schemes at RCR but would never pull for him as a driver. Predominantly my cars range for drivers from the era I grew up watching and respected like Darrell Waltrip, Dale Sr/Jr, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte, Ernie Irvan up to about Kasey Kahne/Ryan Newman. After that, once your childhood heroes get old and retire, it's hard to get an allegiance to the new guys outside of Chase Elliott & Kyle Larson so my collection is slowing down fast. Most of my cars came off of ebay years later, gotten a lot for less than $20, some less than 10 on the less famous drivers.
Who do you collect most in your die cast selection?
Quite an impressive list of drivers you met and received an autograph from! Especially from the King himself, Dale Jr and Newman is my favorite driver since '02. Have always heard NASCAR has the best fan interactions from the athletes to the fans. Thank you for sharing your experiences and information on what to look out for.
We probably have some of the same diecasts with those drivers. Took some pictures of what I had displayed and got delayed, had fix a shelf on one of the display cases. The QVC For race fans only rotating display cases are cheaply made. Definitely agree Lionel has gone down hill. It's not the good days of Action Elite or Team Caliber.
It was the best! Sure wish it was those times again. NASCAR at their peak in popularity. The shelf is fixed now and got some help taking/uploading these pictures in an online gallery.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/1bq24jup4/
That’s impressive.It was the best! Sure wish it was those times again. NASCAR at their peak in popularity. The shelf is fixed now and got some help taking/uploading these pictures in an online gallery.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/1bq24jup4/
Yep, I agree. Too much sponsor involvement happened or whatever you want to call it happened in the mid to late 2000’s and turned these guys vanilla. Now I feel like NASCAR realizes this and is trying their best to get some personality out of these guys.Thank you man, my goal was to get the older drivers like Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett etc before my time through the guys grew up watching. IMO, late 70s through about 2003 were the good days of NASCAR when the sport had personality. There might be some old school NASCAR fans here who witnessed the years before that. Newman is still my guy but I have a feeling he's next to announce retirement after Jimmie Johnson. Elliott, Larson and DiBenedetto seem like pretty good guys in this next era. Feel like the days of collecting are over unless there is a special paint scheme/throwback that will catch my eye. Can't see myself stacking up on a bunch of Alex Bowman or Christopher Bell cars for example.
You're exactly right. NASCAR was there own worst enemy when it comes to that. Taking away the personality and having to implement "Boys Have At It" again. Of course politics involved with sponsorship like you said. Can't step on anyone's toes.
When Ricky Rudd stepped away after '07, he hit on cost control getting out of hand in NASCAR. It used to be not so uncommon to get the random wins from the likes of Bobby Hamilton, Ricky Craven, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip or Steve Park from 2000-10. If my memory serves me right, Haley & Buescher were the only 'unexpected' ones of the past decade I could remember unless Almirola at Petty counts.
Blaney is a good one. Happy to see the sons of former drivers watched racing carry on the family lineage. Have to admit though as a die hard Newman fan since 2002, Talladega in October broke my heart. Took a couple race weekends to fully get past that one knowing wins don't come often for Ryan like they did in 2003. Would like to believe Roush could build off last year with Newman making the playoffs and Buescher getting the #17 ride elevating that team to another level but they aren't close to the Roush Racing of Martin, Burton, Kenseth, Biffle, Busch and Edwards. Hopefully I'm wrong but doubt it.
That was a tough break for Dale Jr there. Would have been another "Crown Jewel" victory for him as they call the Coke 600. Always been partial to Dale Jr too. Happy he still comes back for Xfinity races once a year.
By the end of that race, Newman had more than enough of Daniel Suarez. Had incidents at the Brickyard and Darlington with him on track. One thing I have noticed too the older Newman has gotten is being more blunt and to the point. Especially with the remarks about Tony Stewart at Darlington in '16. The announcers all the time and people on social media get mad at him for racing too hard and even so a lap down. Letarte called him out on this on an NBC show a couple years ago and Newman politely told them it's in his contract to pass cars and not give up track position. It may be anal to most of his competitors and race fans but I rest easy knowing Newman gave everything he had each race. If it was there driver, they wouldn't want them giving up spots either.
Completely agree with you there!
Always wanted to get into that, even registered an account last September but the setups on the car is where it starts to get over my head.
Newman certainly is the hardest to pass in NASCAR and all the drivers know it. Which he should and does wear proudly. That's one thing I that gets me, is drivers bitching about someone not letting them go. It's called racing for a reason.
I did say he is a great driver just not a smart driver. He has awesome skills.In his defense, he has been in garbage equipment since leaving SHR and does not have top tier equipment to catch back up to the field. Pit strategy throughout the race is the only way he is going to find himself get a top 10-15 in Roush equipment. Otherwise, you saw what Stenhouse and Bayne did in the same equipment on 1.5 mile tracks. Nothing. Let's be honest though, Newman fan or a hater. How many could have honestly drove the #6 or any RFR car into the playoffs? The only other (Stenhouse) was let go and got in on wildcard restrictor plate races. The real experts in the broadcast admit he overachieved last year.
I remember when Newman burst into NASCAR He was winning polls and driving the wheels of his car. I expected he was going to be the next big thing.You do make an interesting point about his level of education. When he first came up to the Cup Series until right before the change to the COT, I thought his engineering degree would give him an advantage for certain as it did Alan Kulwicki in his time. With the sport as huge as it is now, the education level of guys in the garage area has only expanded since the good era when Kulwicki raced his way to a title without a win. He was so hands on and a perfectionist. Newman is only one of many educated guys in the garage of today's NASCAR world.