Fans with "hot" passes have all access to garage and pits, just as long as they stay out of everyone's way. Had the opportunity once and it was an unforgettable experience.
Oh, I see... They used to broadcast about how open their paddocks were. Likely backfired when the paddocks got swamped with fans getting in the way and driving all the drivers and teams crazy. BHW
Nascar fix: Shorter races due to shorter viewer attention spans. 500 miles becomes 500km. Separate race stages buried forever. Stupid gas cans buried forever. Lug nut wheels buried forever and for the love of god get rid of the announcers that sound like a cross betweenf Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck.
I don't remember them being open. Last NASCAR race I was at was Pocono about 1996. You could get near the paddocks. I've advocated that for years. Maybe even a A heat and a B heat and then the top 10 cars from each in a feature. It would be better that Stage 1, 2 and 3 and would get the slow cars off the track for the feature.
Good suggestions all... Since NASCAR chose to follow the WWE route with regard to their competition and broadcast format, what they have now is the inevitable result. The only thing that keeps coming back is how back in the '80s and '90s, it was reported that the biggest spectator sport in America was professional wrestling and, of course, this was not lost on them deep in the fake wood panel walled offices in Daytonner. By all means, let's follow WWE's lead and bring in the most abrasive and obnoxious personalities (*coughWaltripBrotherscough*) to sit in the booth, get them all hopped up on Red Bull (or whatever makes them that way) and let them loose on the public airwaves for several hours every Sunday afternoon. The other offender was/is this guy Larry McReynolds who's southern twang drawl sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard after thirty seconds of his rambling nonsensical diatribes where he goes on and on for ten minutes at a time and ends up saying absolutely nothing with circular logic that really defies belief. Can NASCAR hit the reset button per these suggestions? IMHO, not really. They're too far gone now to go back and the slippery slope they've been for the past 30+ years has removed them from the grassroots sport that got them to where they were to begin with. BHW
Yes, I remember Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. Met them both, great gentlemen and ambassadors of the sport. Sadly, the commentators that the NASCAR broadcast networks have today are a far cry from those days. This, it may be said, is a plague across the broadcast sports spectrum including stick & ball sports where commentators think they're bigger than the sport they're representing. These days with the long, drawn out NASCAR events (two hours of pre-race hype, 4-6 hour race duration and endless post-race analysis), they feel that every second must be filled with mindless rambling nonsense which amounts to little more than bashing the viewers over the head with their endless blather. BHW
Where we go again with the finin' & suspendin'... This time, it's championship contender Harvick who's evident victory at Texas last weekend has been negated, points deduction, crew chief suspended and fined $75K. And, for what? After passing numerous pre-practices, post-practices, pre-qualifying, post-qualifying and pre-race inspections, it was found post-race that his rear spoiler was 200 to 300-thousands of an inch offset to one side. According to the official NASCAR announcement (that is), "A manufacturing tolerance would be ten-thousandths of an inch, not 300 thousandths of an inch. So yeah, absolutely 100 percent, no question, black and white. As black and white as it gets.” 300 thousands of an inch is as black and white as it gets? Where do they come up with this stuff? How does NASCAR even measure 300 thousands of an inch? Does one of those pit lane Bubba inspectors that oversees every pit stop suddenly spot that the spoiler is an eyelash width off-center? Finin' & Suspendin' per Racer.com: All of this has triggered NASCAR's "L1 Penalty" (oh no, not the dreaded L1!) resulting in Harvick’s AAA Texas 500 race win does not count as clinching a spot in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The team has been docked 40 driver and 40 owner points and crew chief Rodney Childers has been fined $75,000 and suspended for the next two races. Car chief Robert Smith has also been suspended for the next two weeks. All this means Childers and Smith will be on the properties of their sprawling North Carolina estates riding around on their Gators hunting and fishing with their high school buddies for the next two weekends. What is always amazing is, how NASCAR may issue a Draconian penalty such as this for something so insignificant but they'll allow cars that have been in race crashes back onto the track, bodywork mangled, dropping parts everywhere, little more than mobile chicanes and usually the cause of more cautions, etc. That's all perfectly okay evidently. https://racer.com/2018/11/07/nascar-clarifies-harvicks-penalty/ BHW
Maybe it will shut up all the idiots that have been screaming "rigged!!!" all year when SHR and Ford has been dominating. It's a BS penalty.
Yeah, and that raises another good point... If the race winning car fails inspection, they go through the whole usual spinning doughnuts, being handed the checkered flag and the Gatorade shower in Victory Lane, all the post-race hubbub, how is it that they're able to keep the race victory (including trophies, money, adulation, et.al.) but they're subsequently docked the race points, etc? The standard NASCAR line is that they don't want the ticket buying fans to be "cheated". Ironic because NASCAR has been cheating fans for going on four decades now with all their nonsense so this hardly stands up. It has been said that the most consistent thing about NASCAR is how inconsistent they are. Okay, maybe I said that. BHW
David Pearson passed away today. RIP, Silver Fox. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nascar-auto-racing/thatsracin/article221570795.html
Pearson was one tough old bird, a genuine legend. The only NASCAR race I ever attended was the 1976 Daytona 500 where he and Richard Petty collided as they came down to the checkered flag with Pearson emerging as the winner. BHW
The big finale this weekend at Homestead... How great will it be if Truex pulls it off again for Furniture Row on their last race before closing the doors on their program? I would be a real commentary on the state of things in NASCAR currently. BHW
Absolutely, score another one for the little guys. Ran across some of the XFinity race yesterday between halftimes of the football games. They sure run a high line at Homestead, perilously close to the wall in the turns, did they figure out that's the fastest way around or is that the best way to preserve their tires? Had to mute the thing though, the announcers are virtually launched out of a canon, how anyone can talk that much that fast it beyond me. They're all so revved up it comes across as completely phony. BHW
Having to root for Harvick since he's SHR and Clint must have upset God or something, but I hate this format more every year.
They really need to nix this Chase/playoff crap. How a man can have 8 wins and lose the championship to someone with 2 is beyond me.