“Dick Trickle”??!! You’re kidding, right? Isn’t that the first symptom of gonorrhea or syphilis or something?
I’m a NASCAR fan checking in to bring enlightenment to the masses. First off, not all NASCAR fans are “ignorant toothless rednecks,” as seems to be the popular stereotype in the media. In fact, studies indicate most NASCAR fans are college-educated and are in the middle to upper-middle class. I personally have been a NASCAR fan for over 15 years (I’m 19) and I am currently a student at the University of Kentucky and an honor graduate of my high school. I’ve also been attending races for over 10 years.
The basic concept is simple. 43 drivers compete against each other at high speed while completing a specified distance (typically 500 miles.) The cars are (loosely) based on street cars, specifically the Ford Taurus, Dodge Intrepid, Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix. Each car is equal in length, weight and engine displacement, and must fit a set of templates taken from their street car.
Qualifying for each race is conducted in a two-lap best time format, with the fastest cars starting at the head of the field. 36 of the 43 cars make the field based on time, and “provisional” starting spots are awarded to the remaining 7 cars based on season points standings.
The race begins with a rolling start, and continues under green flag conditions unless an accident or debris on the track creates a “caution,” or yellow flag situation. Under the yellow, cars reduce speed and line up behind the pace car until the situation is corrected and racing can continue. Once the total number of laps is completed, the race ends.
During the race, it is necessary on several occasions to conduct pit stops, where tires are replaced, the car is refueled, and adjustments to the car’s suspension and handling can be made. Damaged cars are also repaired. A pit stop can be made under green flag conditions (at the risk of losing a lap to the field,) or under caution after the pits open.
After each race, each driver is awarded points in the season standings based on their finishing position. The winning driver receives 175 points for winning, and points values decrease through the field, with the last place driver getting 43 points. Bonus points are awarded for leading a lap (+5) and for leading the most laps (+5).
That’s the basics. I can answer any questions anyone might have, if necessary.
No. More like, “son of that guy who is dead that is with god.”
Great response, brianjedi. That’s about 1000 times the explanation I’ve received in total in the last 10 years. Quick question:
Is that per lap, or 5 points for anyone who lead a lap at any time?
Munch, that’s a one-time bonus.
Example: Driver A leads lap 1. He gets his lap-leader bonus, and is then passed by Driver B. Driver B leads back to the line and gets his lap-leader bonus. Driver A then retakes the lead, but does not receive another lap-leader bonus unless he leads the most laps and picks up those points.
The maximum number of points a driver can earn is 185 (win+lap lead+most laps lead.)
Also, lead changes only count at the start-finish line, so a driver only gets the bonus for leading at the line.
Tell me they don’t do 900-some laps at Bristol…that’d be dizzifying I’d think…
(Bristol = .533 mi/lap, and the shortest track on the circuit, I think).
Garfield226, no, it’s 500 laps at Bristol (and Martinsville). I actually go to the spring race at Bristol, and trust me, 500 laps is more than enough, even at 15 seconds/lap.
Another middle class 21 year old male NASCAR fan. I’m a college graduate working full time at a hospital and part time at Ace Hardware who doesn’t know all the drivers or races, but still I enjoy to watch a NASCAR race over just about anything else that comes on television.
[Triumph the Insult Comic Dog]
No, no, I’m sorry. The correct answer is “Who gives a shit?”
[b[Cisco**, forgot to close your tag there. That should have been [/Triumph the Insult Comic Dog] after that, right?
Other than that, you made a good post…FOR ME TO POOP ON!
Any interest in me doing an “Ask the NASCAR Fan” thread?
I happen to prefer CART. NASCAR is too hick for me.
(Championship Auto Racing Teams)
Also, here
Well, Brianjedi composed a great little summary, so I’ll just add some editorial comments. In the realm of auto racing, NASCAR is considered technically crude: the cars are front-engined, rear-drive, normally-aspirated V8’s with (for racing) rather narrow tires. IOW, fairly backward compared to the high-
revving, mid-engined, turbocharged exotica of F1, and by all reports a real handful to drive smoothly. OTOH, the rigorously strict technical limitations result in arguably the most highly equalized and competitive racing in the automotive sport. Generally out of each field of 43, 10-15 cars have a realistic chance of winning, and on the Daytona and Talladega superspeedways, where carburetor restrictor plates limit engine output, cars often run in packs of 30 or more. This year so far, in ten different races, there have been nine different winners.
From a personality standpoint, NASCAR drivers have long had a reputation for being more down-home and approachable, not to mention considerably more colorful, and sometimes just off the wall, than those in most other racing series. The series has long been dominated by good ol’ boys who speak bluntly in accents thick as molasses (although this is no longer really the case), and everyone who’s been around the sport for awhile remembers that the first live telecast of the Daytona 500 ended with two drivers duking it out in front of the main grandstand.
In the end, while many may be put off by the NASCAR machine’s reputed ‘genius’ for marketing (which was founded mostly on the idea of selling advertising space on every available square inch of car, driver and track), the close competition, the personalities involved, and the relative unpredictability of each finish, are, IMO, what has made the sport so popular.
El_Kabong, I agree that NASCAR isn’t exactly “high-tech,” but that’s part of the fun for me. I watch some F1, and the pervasive technological aspect of it takes the fun out. Racing should be about passing, not who can buy the best equipment.
Close finishes are a big reason why it’s exciting, too. The Darlington race where Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven were literally wheel-to-wheel at the line for one of the closest finishes ever, and every NASCAR fan was on the edge of their seat watching it.
Oh, and angelabaca, CART stands for Curiously Absent Race Teams to me, because they couldn’t get a full field if they got people out of the stands to drive.
32 replies to a thread about NASCAR and nobody’s mentioned moonshine yet?
From NASCAR-info.net:
brianjedi & El_Kabong, as a fellow NASCAR fan, I would like to thank you for your intelligent, lucid, and helpful answers.
Some of the other posts clearly show that the France bashing continues…(NASCAR fans will get that, trust me).
There’s nothing else I can add, as I just saw the thread, and you seem to have answered the OP completely.
plnnr, good response, too. Very funny.
Ringo, I didn’t mention it because I saw no need to. The whole “bootlegging” connection is severely overplayed, and has become much bigger than it actually was.
I read that entire “history” you quoted from, and to be honest, I wasn’t too impressed. It has some questionable statements (nitrous oxide a “high-tech fuel”?) and seems poorly-written. No offense, though. I’m just really particular about giving people accurate information about NASCAR so the old stereotypes will die.
(On preview, thanks, Casey1505. I try.)
Another die-hard NASCAR fan checking in. College educated, 100% geeky, bilingual, 51 year old, female. Not what “outsiders” consider a typical fan. So, what’s the appeal, you ask?
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It’s fun. Consider it in the same class as bowling–who cares if it’s deemed low class, it’s fun. Each week we get to watch all the competitors. There’s skill, there’s chance, there’s excitement.
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All of us enjoy it. We got hooked one afternoon when I was flipping TV channels, stopped on a NASCAR race because the phone rang. In walks Mr. as_u_wish, glances at the TV, “Oh, I didn’t know you liked racing.” Grabs a beer, sits. In walks my pre-teen daughter, sees a driver (who she insists must remain unidentified), “Oh, he’s cute. Wait, is that an m&m’s car, they’re adorable. Hey, he’s got Cheerios on his car…” Pulls up her stitching project, sits. In walks pre-school son. “Wow, what a cool crash. Are there any green cars? What’s an Interstate Battery.” Sits. That was it–the whole family, in one room, enjoying one thing. We didn’t have that with football, baseball, golf, soccer, Barney.
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The history and personalities are colorful and interesting. I find golf boring on TV–but I assume that is because I don’t know a Tiger Woods from a Jack Nickalous (sp?), or one course from another. Easy enough for me to say “What’s so great about grown people chasing around a little white ball.” NASCAR is exciting for me precisely because I do know Dale Jarrett from Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Burton from Jeff Gordon; Childress Racing from Hendrick Motorsports. I do know Bristol from Watkins Glenn. I can appreciate Matt Kenseth’s exceptional pit crew and the changes in the sport now that you must use the same engine for qualifying and racing.
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NASCAR is accessible. We can get to races. We can watch the new stars develop in the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series. Once a year Matt Kenseth drives at a little local track and we get to talk to him.
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Racing can be enjoyed on many levels. You can just kick back and wait for crashes. You can watch the various drivers’ strategies. You can listen in on conversations between the crew chief and the driver. You can enjoy the soap opera qualities of sponsorship.
To each his own, of course. The Onion has wonderful T-shirts that say “The Sports Team From My Area is Superior to the Sports Team from Your Area.” Perhaps they should make one that says "The Arbitrary Competition I Like is a Sport; the One You Like is Stupid.
F1 cars are no longer turbocharged.
The field looks pretty full to me. And personally, I find cars that turn right as well as left to be far more interesting…
Another long time NASCAR fan checking in. (I’ve been watching it for as long as I can remember, which dates back to my young childhood days in the early 80’s.) I agree that brianjedi and El_Kabong wrote wonderful, thoughtout posts, as well as Ringo foray into the beginnings.
As to what the allure is, I can only answer in terms of what it is for me. I’ve been around NASCAR my whole life. My father is a huge NASCAR fan and was a mechanic by trade, so I learned early and learned often. Much like you’ll find NASCAR racers in generation after generation of families, you’ll also find it in the fans. It’s almost as though it would be unthinkable for me NOT to be a NASCAR fan, it’s that much in my blood. It’s hard to imagine a Sunday without a race. 
Another part of it is that it’s so much more than it seems. The simplified version is “It’s a bunch 'o rednecks turning left at 180 mph for 500 miles.” Well, yeah, one could look at it that way. But there’s also the physical skill of trying to maneuver a car around the track at as fast as you can trying to avoid 42 other drivers who are doing the exact same thing, working on pit strategy, keeping an eye on the weather (since NASCAR doesn’t race in the rain), along with a host of other details.
It’s also very much a team sport. A driver couldn’t go out there and run their car for 500 miles without a good crew chief who makes the decisions (along with the driver) on when to pit, what modifications to make on the car, and try to get the pit crew to do this all in as quick of a time as possible. (Depending on what they’re doing, it averages anywhere from 12 - 20 seconds.) I’ve seen good drivers do badly under not so good crew chiefs and good crew chiefs unable to pull a win out with a less-than-talented driver.
You’ll also often find drivers that drive for the same car owner and will do a little more to help their teammate win than they would any other driver in the field (And you do see a lot of backstratching during the race between teams. It’s usually all bets being off in the final laps, though.)
It’s really a very rich, very exciting sport for more than the accidents. Personally, it’s better if you can be there than just watching it on TV. (Though I’ve got to admit I like the short tracks like Bristol better than the Superspeedways like Daytona. I like being closer to the action, able to see what’s going on without the need of binoculars.) When you’re at the track, the excitement of the crowd is infectous. You can watch whatever you want to watch on the track. (I’ve seen some good battles in the back of the pack when, upon coming home and watching the tape of the race, I’ve found the camera was focusing on the leaders.) It’s just an all around good time. Just remember to bring earplugs. The short tracks get really loud.
Yes, but my biggest NASCAR question is WHY 43 CARS??? Yes, I did see the entry above about 36 on time, and 7 on points standings, but why 7? Why an odd number? Odd numbers drive me crazy!