A Big Wake Up Call For NASCAR - 2017 Champion Truex Team Is Ceasing To Exist

[Jeff '79]

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/09/mar...nsors-struggle

Like many had said here , NASCAR is sinking fast.
When last year's Championship Furniture Row Racing Team totally quits NASCAR racing, the parachute is broke.
It's interesting to see the talking heads finally tip toe around trashing the "system".
As much as I don't like Michael Waltrip, he tweeted :

Listen people closely and I will tell why making a @NASCAR team work financially is nearly impossible. NASCAR stands for National Association for STOCK Car Auto Racing. The Stock piece of our name is gone. Bring back Stock and you might fix a broken business model.

The France's were too drunk to see the writing on the wall.
Get ready for the wicked hangover....

[Black94lt1]

Yep, stick a fork in it, it’s done! Tumor has Truex headed to Stewart Hass next year

[DAB]

in other sports, the team owners own the organizing league. the NFL owners own the NFL collectively, and hire a commish to run things for the benefit of all. he gets a fixed salary. likewise for baseball, basketball, hockey.

but napcar.... the teams own nothing except all their gear. decisions made by the league owner are made for the league owner's benefit, not the team owners.

on day one of the NFL year, each team gets a pile of cash from the split TV money. on average, it's enough to pay all your players. whatever you can make beyond that selling tickets, stale beer, rotten peanuts, advertising, etc. is gravy. right Mr. Jones?

but with the France's bleeding things dry, and letting teams fend for themselves, at some point, the money ends. oh, Brian has plenty, but there is none left to buy tires or pay a successful driver. it's hard to sell tickets to a race if there are no cars on the track.

they might figure this out before it's too late, or they might not.

not my problem.

[Datawiz]

Writing was on the wall in 2000 when they scored the TV deal. Been downhill ever since. Sad, cuz I enjoyed it.

[Mike Mercury]

[JRD77VET]

While it'll be sad to see them go, it's not the same racing series I used to watch. Now everyone has to have approved parts. Gone is the creative thinking to design a part to make your racecar better.

Gone are different manufacturers cars. Now it's one body with different decals.

Everyone is punished who speaks badly of the king and his kingdom.

I guess Brian France's alleged drug and alcohol abuse will take his monopoly down due to idiotic rules. He'll still have his pile of cash but almost all the other folks will be left in a bad way.

It may not be too late but it's pretty close.

[cptlo306]

Originally Posted by JRD77VET

Gone is the creative thinking to design a part to make your racecar better.

That's not exactly true. Teams have lots of engineers that work many hours trying to come up with creative ways to make their cars better. Sure, there are tons of rules but don't think for a minute that teams aren't spending tons of money looking for ways to design parts to make the cars go faster.

Originally Posted by JRD77VET

Gone are different manufacturers cars. Now it's one body with different decals.

Not entirely true either. The bodies aren't all the same now. Look at the front ends of each car and you'll see differences.

[RedLS1GTO]

Originally Posted by cptlo306

Not entirely true either. The bodies aren't all the same now. Look at the front ends of each car and you'll see differences.

The correct answer would be that it's all the same exact chassis with a different body sitting on top. When Chev went from the SS to the Camaro they cut the bodies off and put new ones on.

Regardless, the point of the original comment is still true. They may have bodies bolted on that show a slight resemblance to a Camaro, Fusion, or Camry but other than that there's nothing in a Chevrolet, Ford, or Toyota that even remotely relates to any of their street counterparts.

My only hope at this point is that they don't kill road racing as well.

[SubZero]

If I wanna see stock car racing I usually tune into
http://world-challenge.com/ or
https://sportscarchallenge.imsa.com/

[JRD77VET]

Originally Posted by cptlo306

That's not exactly true. Teams have lots of engineers that work many hours trying to come up with creative ways to make their cars better. Sure, there are tons of rules but don't think for a minute that teams aren't spending tons of money looking for ways to design parts to make the cars go faster.

Everything that goes on the car MUST be NASCAR approved. There are specs for what can be done with approved parts too.

Originally Posted by cptlo306

Not entirely true either. The bodies aren't all the same now. Look at the front ends of each car and you'll see differences.

The fun is long gone watching them race. Bullshit rulings and dousing of the characters ( making them toe the nascar is always right) has lost me as a fan.

[Grey Ghost]

Dad started taking us to the Daytona race in the early '70s. I can remember Richard Petty at the next table eating his breakfast beside of us. I can remember drivers in the hotel elevators. I remember them even parking race cars on the trailers in the hotel parking lots.

Someone once said you laugh at a comedian or joke because you can identify with it. It's the same for me and racing. I could identify with drivers back then or a particular mfg. that I liked.

I can no longer do that with all the drivers making multi-millions...win or lose. They don't have to win or place top 3 to make their millions. All they have to do now is show up for the sponsor events and run around the track until the race is over. No burning desire to win or have to win to eat and make mortgage.

I will go back to Daytona...but only for the memories of years gone by.

If I want to see real racing. I'll drive 15 miles to one of the local dirt tracks. Those guys WANT to and need to win.