Seems right to me. And I'll throw in my bit on an attempt to answer the original question. I was raised in North Carolina, where NASCAR is big (Junior Johnson and White Lightning, so naturally...). I worked construction every summer I was in college and the guys I worked with were really into to NASCAR specifically and cars generally. Lunchtime conversation priorities were 1. Cars 2. Food 3. Guns 4. Women. Car conversation involved not just NASCAR, but their own work on their own cars. These guys were major gearheads, after 8 hrs in 100 degree heat and 95% humidity on a treeless, clay/sand work site they'd head out to the parking lot and listen to each other's engines (I mean standing around with the hood up, pointing and talking), then race each other home. (Many of them were Lumbee Indians who had an hour long commute back to Red Springs, where they'd then have to work their 100 acres of tobacco or peanuts or whatever.) NASCAR clicks with these guys because it's got a direct connection to their lives--the cars on the track have the same look and brand as the ones they drive. I'd bet the way they relate to Ford, Chevy, etc. is not all that different from an English fan's longtime love affair with his home club.
F1 is an sheer impossibilty to crash without getting out the race. NASCAR was designed for crashin. People who watch F1 watch it for the speed.
Well isn't that the exception? A whole bunch of people all around the country support the Yankees, yet some of them might have never been to NYC. The Yankees are the most supported team, but if you go to Boston, Chicago, or St. Louis, it'll be tough to find Yankee fans.
you call me stupid, and then use the exact same argument I gave. NASCAR is circles...I don't care how much you can shove and bump and knock cars out of your way, its left turn after left turn. Exactly why I consider the other motor sports mentioned, sports and not NASCAR, the finesse. It takes a lot more skill to constantly slow down, take quick turns, accelerate again, repeat process, that left turn left turn, preseve gas, bump the other guy. Just a word of advice, don't call someone stupid if you're going to agree with them.
The past few years, my best friend has come up from Austin to see the yearly NASCAR race over at Texas Motor Speedway, and although I'm not much of a NASCAR fan (or even a auto racing fan), I'll go with him. If you're there in person with a rooting interest in one driver, then it's a lot of fun. You follow your driver as he's going around the course and you can watch him pass, getting passed, and occasionally swapping a little paint. And if you're a big fan, you can rent a radio (or bring your own) that'll let you listen in on the conversations between the driver and the pit crew. They even sell fliers with the radio frequecies of all the drivers. People tell me that it's pretty interesting. Anyway, I'd say if there were one racing circuit that I favored more than the others, it's probably NASCAR. It's competitive, I can relate to the cars racing out there (even if the Monte Carlo that Dale Jr. drives has nothing to do with my wife's Monte Carlo), and the drivers have a more working-class vibe to them than CART or F1.
In F1, I rarely see passes and Ferrari seems to win every race. In NASCAR, you have a different winner every week because there are over a dozen teams that have top quality programs. Since all of the courses are different, the different strengths of drivers are tested. Driving Bristol or Dover is nothing like Atlanta or Daytona, not to mention Watkins Glen. NASCAR overall tests more driver skill than F1 where the races are won in the garage.
rally racing takes more balls than NASCAR. and talent too. id like to see NASCAR drivers drift through hairpins, take corners which are alongside the edges of cliffs, and battle road/track conditions which can range from asphalt to mud to gravel to snow to dirt to ice and the elements as well. and F1 is much more technical than NASCAR. you have to be kidding me if you think otherwise. just look at the racing lines you need to take. in NASCAR its pretty straight forward, in F1, lines are precise, and need to be met. one inch either way (in Rally as well) and it means a wreck. and as for not bumping, well, in an F1 car that is just idiotic. theyre open wheel. you CANT rub and race in those things. NASCAR is just like driving fast through rush hour traffic in any big city. not that ballsy, not that difficult. i see tons of people (hell, i do it myself) do this every morning driving around the beltway. cutting in front of someone with an inch to spare. granted its not on a banked curve or at an extremely high rate of speed (not that doing it at 65 is slow or anything), but its the same principal. i KNOW most of those people wouldnt be able to navigate Monaco at the speeds the F1s do, or take that nasty little turn at Laguna Seca. i will say, however, that the cars NASCAR uses have no right doing the speeds that they do. but they still dont hold water to F1 or IRL/CART cars.
oh, youre talking about F1 circuits then... they are all COMPLETLEY differant, not just a slight variation of a ring or an oval with turns which are slightly more or less obtuse than normal. check out the layouts of some F1 circuits here... http://www.ferrarinews.com/tracks.htm
Open-wheeled racers look better, too, IMO. Nascar cars look cool, I admit, but not as cool as Indy or F1. I'll say this: It (NASCAR) looks like it'd be fun to try, in an I-285 sense, but I can't get into it as a spectator sport. And it does give the impression of having more rednecks in its fan base than some other forms of auto racing- whether they're any more or less racist is probably anyone's guess.
who knows. which would scare you more though, being in 1.) a rally car (a small hatchback), doing insane speads through a winding course which will include sharp turns, varying degrees of elevation (enough to catch some serious air on some 'jumps'), and on either side of the "road" are things like trees, cliffs, or fans, who are protected by nothing more than rope, if anything at all, where roll overs are a common result of a miscue, 2.) an open wheel, open cockpit F1 car or 3.) a stockcar, where you have things like that little plate on the roof (you know, the thing that pops up if the car spins, to prevent roll overs) to keep you safe, not to mention the fact that youre enclosed, and the car itself is rather large. i know i think the first two would definatly take more mettle. kinda like how itd be more ballsy to play goalie in hockey without wearing a mask or pads. and maybe money isnt all that motivates them, or are americans the only ones (for the most part) who can drive NASCAR "rigs" as you call them. its not exactly as international as rally or F1. and speaking of running for the big money, why arent all the NASCAR drivers out to do what schumacher has done, which is become the highest paid "athlete" in the world. you do know his worth, right? blows any NASCAR driver out of the water. glad to exceed your expectations. you know i try. and i do think that the skill sets ARE different. vastly different. NASCAR drivers drive on an ovular shaped track. they carry high speeds into the corners, and maintain a lot of it. there is no serious amount of braking or drifting or difficult apexing. F1, on the other hand, you need to know when to brake, how hard to brake, where the apex of turns are (which isnt exactly easy, especially in a long or complex turning sequence, i.e, not a long left), and there is also a great deal of strategy in the passing. granted its not the same jockying for position which occurs in NASCAR, but with fewer opportunities, not only because of the track, but the drivers, it makes things tougher than a simple draft and pass on the inside. yes, but as i mentioned earlier, there is more of a margin for error in NASCAR. if your several inches off your line, its not the end of the world. the end result is also usally less severe, especially in light of what rally drivers face. and since when can nascar drivers fly off hills? id say that rally and F1 also encompass those three skills, as well as a hell of a lot of strategic and track knowledge, which will vary a lot depending on the course. once again, mike, buddy, i try. we were thinking about doing a dale earnhardt experience at a bar my friend works at. splarg and i wanted to take down the hood of the car that his son drives (which was hung on the wall) paint it black, paint a 3 on it, smash it up, put some smoke marks on it, and itd be a wonderful thing to display. if anything, the high banked curves make the turning easier, and allow for more speed. but yes, F1 drivers would be out of their element. if im not mistaken, a few IRL/Cart drivers have tried to make a switch, and not done so well, or i maybe thinking of something else... and i think the handling would also throw them off, as with the need to draft. the speed isnt forigen to them, though, and i think they could acclimate themselves to these skills (and vice versa, however i still think that much more skill is needed to drive F1 or rally) right, until they need to take a hairpin or the drop at laguna seca or a square corner on a city circuit. F1 cars perform well on both ovular and street circuits, and from what ive seen when the stockcars did the street track, there isnt a comparison there. F1 owns them in that regard. mike, it seems like you get so fed up with the shit i say, i almost feel obligated to say id owe you a beer... but. i dont.
ill get the rest later, but firstly... youre doing to nascar what you say im doing with F1 and Rally. you puff up about NASCAR when i say its just a bunch of over modified metal boxes turning left and left and left yet again in front of 150,000 drooling rednecks who get drunk and bloated and bake themselves to the shade of a maine lobster in the sun. and as for puffing up about sports im not good enough to compete in, its fun to talk shit, thought thats what bs was all about, and as for sitting on the bench, im getting set up to play club rugby out here in MD, feel free to come to a match. ill likely be wearing the 12 or 13 shirt (note: those arent numbers youll find on the back of someone whose sitting on a bench at a rugby match, less theyve been subbed out) and as for school, i didnt fail out, i didnt have the money to continue attending. tough luck, yes, but ill be leaving soon enough. should be fun, ive already got opportunities opening up, just need a few months to get things sorted.
I thought that was CART and not F1, but maybe I'm wrong. And he never said anything about rally impacting concrete walls at 200mph? You're the one who said "NASCAR drivers could fly off a hill".
They are all different, but all feature the same mixture of borning turns and little passing. NASCAR features different size and different format tracks. Watkins Glen and a track out in California are road courses. Bristol and Dover are short track courses. I would love to see an F1 driver on one of those. Atlanta and Daytona are huge superspeedways, completely different from driving on a short track. New Hampshire and others are in between. All have different bankings, lines, surfaces, etc. F1 requires little to no skill. Races are won in the garage. The races are RARELY close. NASCAR seems to have a close finish almost every week and driver skill, not the engineers are usually what wins the race.
I'll watch NASCAR if I could ever find it on the damn boob tube. I swear it is always on a different station each week. I have some $$$ questions: 1) How many sponsors does a racer have? 2) How much does it cost to operate a team per year?
from now on, all of Mike Segrove's post should come with a disclaimer that reads: The viewpoints expressed within this post are only shared by those who reside in the great Nation of Oklahoma. Give me F1 over Nascar anyway. But Wipeout Fusion beats them all, bitches!
It should be on NBC or TNT for the rest of the year. Each car usually has a Primary sponsor & that is the name given car. Jeff Gordon drives the Dupont Chevrolet. Tony Stewart drives the Home Depot Pontiac etc. There are all kinds of secondary sponsors for the teams. Plus all kinds of sponsors for NASCAR & the individual tracks & races. They actually have a team of people that watches the tape of NASCAR telecasts & calculates how much time each sponsors logo appeared on the screen & how much that would have cost them if they had to pay for advertising. Its one of the big things that has pulled sponsors into NASCAR. I've heard it costs $3-5 million or more to operate a 1 car team in NASCAR.