Who among us does not like Nascar?

I have no interest in NASCAR though. Watching corporate logos go in a circle for a couple hours is not my idea on entertainment.

I don't notice the sponsorship of basketball and baseball so much (though I hate selling the naming rights to city/state-financed stadiums), until the owners are dumb enough to plaster logos on uniforms. I'd probably be more turned off if I saw them live more often.

I don't think the gearhead factor is that big anymore - the 'cars' they race (Monte Carlos, Ford Tauruses or whatever the new equiv. is) aren't very cool. I'd say the chance of a wreck and the general bumpin-and-grindin is the major drive behind watching the sport.

You could say the same about bullfighting and rodeo.. although the degree of visual "wow"-ness associated with a crash can be seen as disturbingly obfuscating of the tragedy thereof... although this is something people *outside* the sport get more excited about when they see it in the news while those into the sport actually get sad about, I'd gather.

And I stress "I'd gather". Again, I've never even sat through a car race on TV once in my life... so I'll defer to the NASCAR people here instead to explain this.

I can see hardcore fans disliking wrecks (even while unconsciously liking the danger), but the casual fans who make up most of the audience are looking for excitement, which is served by crashes, and something that's often missing from F1.

I have no interest in NASCAR though. Watching corporate logos go in a circle for a couple hours is not my idea on entertainment.

Me too and me too.

I do get a kick out of some of the old footage circa Lee Petty. Some drivers would be in convertibles.

is there any cultural phenomenon that doesn't have naysayers like that? cf. the yakuza, black metal.

That said the best race last weekend was F1, especially the last lap. From a purist's perspective F1 is probably the most interesting class, but to anyone who doesn't follow auto racing it has to be the most boring. It's all strategy and technology, barely any passing. Speed here in the USA has some great announcers, even if they are Coulthard haters.

Does Depends have a NASCAR sponsorship program?

In the meantime, my brain balks at the idea of auto racing as a sport, because it doesn't seem to demand physical strength or endurance. However, I probably here am subscribing to a high-rockist concept of sports.

I haven't watched a whole lot of NASCAR for the last few years, or racing at all, for that matter. I'll watch the road course races and the restrictor plates, and occasionally Bristol, but that's it. NASCAR is suffering from the same problem baseball did in the 70s: every facility is the same. That, and there should be more than two road races.

Formula 1 has been abyssmal for quite a long time now, with exciting races coming 3-4 times a year in between long droughts where the winner leads 69 of 72 laps and has a 19 second lead on the competition. This year is slightly more exciting than others, because there's a different face with a commanding points lead instead of Schumacher. The IRL and CART both race some terrible street circuits (Detroit? yuck) and bad ovals, and really, they shouldn't even run ovals (sans Indy) due to how incredibly dangerous it is for racers and spectators. I love WRC, but that'll never get any interest in America, seeing as its all in a time trial style rather than actual "side by side" racing. Drag racing is really loud, but not horribly interesting. The other, smaller series basically are in the place of community theater or high school football for local entertainment.

On the whole "people watch it for the accidents" - Yeah, that's something people who don't watch or have interest in car racing say. Its akin to "people watch boxing for knockouts" (because Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard were so good at that), "people watch football for the violence," et al. Trying to understand why people like to watch cars go around a track in circles or freeform shapes is no different than trying to figure out why people like to see other people try to hit a stick with a ball or throw a ball through a hoop.

Most importantly, why?<

I should actually respond to this too.

Basically, it goes like this; throughout the history of racing, team owners have looked for ways to make money in ways other than merely the race purse. After all, there's no guarantee of winning, and no guarantee of getting paid. Unless you scratch someone's business on the side of the car. There's always been sponsorship in motorsport; whether it be factory teams at Le Mans or Indy, or some car dealership on the Beach in Daytona, to Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America having a Shell symbol emblazoned on the side. The Winston Cup and other major sponsors were the first to enter around the 70s (Pepsi, Levi Garrett, Budweiser, Wrangler, etc), and the number and types of sponsors has changed as the sport moved outside of its traditional southeastern US roots to a national audience.

The management of NASCAR itself also tries to cater to its audience, which is, for all intensive purposes, the Red State America (TM). Taking points away from a driver for cursing on national TV isn't a whole lot different than being threatened with banishment from the game for complaining about referees, so really its not NASCAR that has itself changed; its everything. Hell, ever watch Premier League? I have a strange hankering to get a wireless deal with Vodafone, all of a sudden...

Does Juan Pablo Montoya count?

I don't think it's out of line to say that people watch football for the big hits and hockey for the hits and fights too (or else ESPN has been completely wrong for 20 years). Basketball and baseball are low-contact/no-contact sports, so people watch for the big thrill there - a monster dunk or a monster home-run (also: bench-clearing brawls). The majority of people watching a sport, any sport, don't know much about it - they aren't hardcore, into the sport for its pure essence, etc..

Notice that the more weight he gains, the worse he does. By the time he hits 250, he'll be racing for Minardi.

Eep!

There's a huge difference, as I pointed out above. You can fine Jeff Van Gundy all you want, but his punishment won't actually affect the points earned during the game. It's not like Dwayne Wade can earn a technical foul for saying "shit" on camera, after the game.

This difference is what makes NASCAR seem so candy-assed.

using these shots as an example, I wouldn't say fat *yet*. But maybe by Malaysia.

I'd say telling him that if he does it again he'll be removed from the sport permanently is being slightly harsher than knocking off 20 points in an individual sport.

I wonder if something like this has ever affected tennis or cycling?

Was your point that F1 is physically demanding? I don't doubt that, but isn't the main reason why there aren't (m)any fat drivers that a car with less weight in it goes faster?
Racing around in an oval, making only left, banked, soft turns is lame.

Not interested, sorry.
Don't give a shit about wrestling, either.
-- The Sensational Sulk

I also tend to tie these things together, assuming you mean WWF or whatever fake wrestling is called now. Of course that's not to say they're equivalent, whereas racing is a sport that doesn't interest me but I can respect on some level, etc. etc. I just imagine there is a significant overlap in the audience/culture that, again, probably repulses me more than it really should.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Update_Obama_passes_on_NASCAR_sponsorship_0712.html

Samsung Instinct NASCAR application, as demonstrated at Mashable.

(video commentary by yours truly)

i got this guy for my parents' collection

http://web.mac.com/ben.gardner/iWeb/Site/Animals_files/P1000080.jpg

...

I was watching the driver view during practice and everything looked familiar and I realized I dropped many quarters into Indy racing at Coney last weekend and I was all I KNOW YOU, MANG

TS: Dover (or New Hampshire) + Mets-Phils vs. Richmond weekend + Mets-Braves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICi3kIzSIZg&feature=related

Got any questions for Casey Mears? I'm interviewing him tomorrow.

NOPE

yeah, who's his candidate?

I'll ask.

Got any questions for Casey Mears? I'm interviewing him tomorrow.

I suppose I'd ask him for his view on the cheating scandal with Joe Gibbs Racing. Also what he thought of Junior Johnson's reply at: http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=3548448

Also, is he going to race the 24 Hours of Daytona again?

Yeah, I'm totally going to ask him about the cheating. It's so blatant. I want to know if their attitude is like "LOL U BUSTED" or U Jerk.

Hey, good question about the 24 hours of Daytona, too. Thanks!

so why is McDowell still in this series?

i may be going to dover next weekend. how do i go about getting one of those scanner thingies? is there a kind to get? and what do i do with it? does it serve the earplug function?

http://thepage.time.com/mccain-pool-report-3/

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news;_ylt=AgFc04FXc_dVtMgcEScu94nov7YF?slug=bm-edwards091108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

On the subject of politics, Edwards had very strong opinions. When the subject turned to the current presidential election, he offered no direct endorsement of one candidate over another.

“People are smart, and they know the difference between what’s best for them and what’s not,” Edwards said. “I think they know who turns things around and who is telling the truth.

I don't cuz it preempted The Simpsons!!! Why is it NEVER the other way around?????? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....................

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dCpO-e3yyp0/TqlSidQ5WcI/AAAAAAAAAe8/0Cpvfxb3qyU/s400/tony-stewart-GC.jpg

Tony Stewart in high school.

surely some mistake!

wtf

The NASCAR driver known as "The Outlaw" testified Tuesday he believes his ex-girlfriend is a trained assassin dispatched on covert missions around the world who once returned to him in a blood-splattered gown.

"Everybody on the outside can tell me I'm crazy, but I lived on the inside and saw it firsthand," Kurt Busch said when his attorney, Rusty Hardin, questioned why he still believed Patricia Driscoll is a hired killer.

amazing

Lol rain delay

i saw that Ryan Newman crash and was worried it was gonna be some Russell Phillips shit but the dude walked out of the hospital today. pre-Earnhardt he'd probably be dead.

https://i.imgur.com/dLzS5qL.jpg

I don't like how much I like and appreciate NASCAR now that they banned the traitor's flag and Dale Earnhardt Jr. basically said "Black Lives Matter". As someone else stated, "You know you're living in the wrong timeline when the right-wingers get Harry Potter and the left-wingers get NASCAR."

Not the thread starter one might have expected.