Another season, another boatload of rules changes.
I’m not too enthusiastic about the whole “stage” thing. We’ll see, maybe it’ll grow on me.
The new car repair rule is simply nonsense, though. No more garage repairs. The team gets five minutes on pit road and cannot replace body panels. If that doesn’t enable the car to maintain minimum speed, that’s it, you’re out. I think this one is just stupid.
Here’s hoping for a good, clean, fun race!
NASCAR sure seems like they want to destroy racing as we know it. WTF is staged racing? And who thought this was a good idea? Was there a need not being filled that required this?
I’ve really lost interest since the who chase format. This doesn’t help things.
I think it’s cool that they’re trying something new with the stage system. Who knows whether it will work out or not, but at least they’re trying.
Regarding the need being filled: attendance and viewership is down. Watching cars drive in a circle for three hours is just not that interesting compared to other options available for entertainment.
The new rules have caused me to abandon NASCAR, but I was glad to hear that Kurt Busch got the win today.
Once I saw that you didn’t just get credit for “winning” that stage, but that they actually then throw a yellow, I immediately turned it off. WTFH, are they insane? :mad:
Adding stage points doesn’t do anything to help the fact that cars are still driving in circles for three hours. That’s what they do. They’ve always done that. It was good enough for Dale Jr’s father, and for his father before that, and it’s good enough for me.
You want to do something to make it competitive with modern entertainment? Do something like put a giant heavy beach ball in the track, and drivers have to ram it and then they get “power points”, which can be traded for position in the running order.
Or create a specialty car that is driving by a NASCAR official and it randomly rams other cars. And at times you can try to knock it out of the race, but other times hitting it will remove you from the race. And you get points for hitting it, but lose points if it hits you.
Or try giving the cars an option for more points by having them jump the cars over tanks with sharks in them.
I’ll go against the grain and say I kind of like the stage format. Although I’ve always been able to entertain myself sufficiently watching cars go in circles for three hours straight, I have to admit that in most cases, only the last fifty laps or so of any race are of any significance. The new setup attempts to get away from that and doesn’t strike me as all that different from breaking a game such as football or basketball up into quarters, with reset breaks in between.
I’m less enamored with the “five minutes of repair or yer out” rule regarding crash damage, but even here I can least see see the logic. Spending vast amounts of time and money repairing a car that can only serve as a rolling roadblock for the cars on the lead lap doesn’t seem to do anyone any favors (yes, I know that teams were doing this simply to gain a few extra championship points).
It is a bit sad to see the sport’s popularity dropping off a cliff; there are only 38 entries for the next race (at Atlanta) and at least six teams have no primary sponsor for the race. OTOH, the Daytona 500 was a sellout so I guess not everyone hates the new format.
My suggestion would be to replace some of the ‘cookie-cutter’ 1.5 mi. ovals with a few more road-course events and maybe a couple dirt-track races.
Hating the stages, but I think it’s because of the yellows after each. With electronic scoring, award the points but keep racing. Let the cautions happen when they happen. Don’t purposely bunch up the field (especially at a plate track) and expect “excitement” to come of it. All it does is facilitate wrecks, and that’s not what the fans want to see. Quit pandering to the “I only watch for the crashes” crowd.
Add me to the mailing list for the Five Minute Rule is Stupid Newsletter, please.
Well, I wouldn’t be sure of that.
Back when I literally followed NASCAR religiously (I knew where I was going to be every Sunday) I never read any sporting news. What I learned about rule changes, I learned during the race.
So I could have bought my tickets for the race last year and had no idea about the change, or if I did know, maybe figured that bit of stupidity wouldn’t invalidate the rest of the Daytona Experience. Maybe my tickets were part of a once-in-a-lifetime trip and I bit the bullet and went anyway.
Even last year, the stands have started to look very empty. PIR looks like they have even dismantled the back stretch grandstands.
That’s a good start, but I think we can do more to appeal to today’s hip, young sports fans. Each heat is four laps, with a 40 minute break between heats. You get points for every piece of your car that comes off, and crossing the finish line upside down scores double. The winner will be expected to spontaneously break his windshield with his helmet in the Safelite Auto Glass[sup]TM[/sup] Victory Lane.
We’ll call it Xtreme Stock Car.
We shouldn’t glorify those who commit domestic violence.
He was accused. That’s it. Delaware did not pursue charges for lack of evidence.
The legal standard of proof for a criminal conviction is incredibly high for a reason, but just because prosecutors didn’t think that the available evidence doesn’t meet that standard doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Nor does it mean that we’re obligated to abide by that standard in making our own judgments for our own purposes.
How about reckless/drunk driving? And being an asshole. Can we hate him for that? because that’s proven.
:rolleyes:
You realize that what you describe isn’t too far off from the Lucas Oil Off Road series, right? I love those races!
Ya know who else has been accused of domestic abuse, but never charged?
On a related note, I’ve never understood the draw of NASCAR. Friday night races at the dirt track? HELL YES. 3 mind-numbing hours of turn left turn left turn left PIT STOP? I’d rather sleep through golf.
I was going for Red Bull[sup]TM[/sup] Global Rallycross, with a soupçon of X Games Moto X Freestyle, actually.
Isn’t the accuser in this case the one who claimed to be a trained assassin and ended up being indited for stealing from a military charity?
I mean, believe what you want, but that accusation appears to have come from one person even less credible than Kurt himself.