Re: Hey Doug are you a \"superstar\"?
Bloody hell John, I begged you no. Now you've gone and done it...
DISCLAIMER: I will try very hard to refrain from any comment which could be construed as a personal attack. However, this is a topic that gets me all riled up, so if I offend you in anyway (besides my deep undying hatred for stock car racing) John, please accept my most humble apologies. I have nothing against you or NASCAR fans personally, I just have no respect or interest with the "sport" you hold so dear.
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Turn on the TV tomorrow - you'll see NASCAR on a road course.
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You have to give them a little credit for even trying, but the sport's attempt at road courses has been laughable. I watched a few minutes of Watkin's Glen last year, and I literally fell off the couch laughing at these guys try and handle a road course. They were practically jumping the rubmle strips on a few of the corners, and you could tell most of them were having a tough time. To illustrate my point, take the idiotic "Tradin' Paint" event that took place at Indy a few weeks ago. They gave Jeff Gordon a shot at driving the FW24 (Williams/BMW's entry in F1 this year) around the Brickyard. ROFLMAO! They were doing the oval at Indy and Gordon couldn't keep it on the track. Montoya (Juan Pablo) did just fine in the NASCAR, in fact he was only +1.1 seconds off Gordon's time. Of course it's totally irrelevant because it was a) an exhibition and b) the OVAL at Indy.
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You'll also see the fast growing commercial commodity in the sports world today. Admittedly Formula 1 cars are cool and exciting, but not very popular in the US. I wish they were, as I like all forms of racing.
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OK, now I am a little ticked. The reason F1 doesn't have a following in the US is
because of NASCAR. If Speedvision and all the other networks are all packed with NASCAR programming then where's the time for F1? If you erased NASCAR completely I promise you F1 would be just as big here as it is in the rest of the world. It's why America is so great, choices. If American's have the choice between watching home town boys driving American cars (how that's entertainment is beyond me) and watching foreigners driving foreign cars around foreign tracks (we just got the US GP back) then it's a no brainer which sport is going to be more popular.
Formula 1 is, imo, the highest form of auto racing but that is not my reason for hating NASCAR. I simply cannot, will not, and do not devote any of my time watching or reading about auto racing which involves oval tracks. Plain and simple, that's not competative racing. Assume your not a top money winner, you will not have the best equipment, which means you will not qualify as high, which means when you start at the back on an oval track, barring technical failure of everyone in front of you or a miracle, you have ZERO chance of a podium finish. In "true" (again, my definition) motorsports all teams have at least a shot at a podium. For example In MotoGP (the motorcycle world's version of F1) there is a relatively new team called Proton. They do not have the funding of the powerhouses (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Ducati) and as a result they have a medicore, at best, piece of machinery. Jermey McWilliams rode the [expletive deleted] out of it and placed 6th, which althought isn't on the podium, is extremely good for a small team like Proton. I challenge you to convince me that NASCAR takes more driver/team talent, technical ability, and engineering skill then any of the other forms of racing I've listed above (MotoGP, F1, ALMS, WRC, Enduro).
Still not satisfied? Then check out a replay of MotoGP @ Catalunya (2003)*. When's the last time you saw Dale Jr. spin out and recover from mid-pack to place 2nd? That's one race, this one season. I won't even talk about the epic battles of the past. Epic NASCAR battles? You mean a whole race when they can go the full distance and
not hit each other? Oh wait...that's probably never happened. Sorry, that got ugly.
*Anyone interested I have the whole MotoGP season on my hard drive and will be more then happy to give you access to my FTP
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It used to be that NASCAR was a bunch of rednecks driving in circles and spitting tobacco on each other. Times have changed. You need to move with the times
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So tobacco is outlawed now?
