2021 NASCAR Big 3

[NaBUru38]

I still think that Cup and Xfinity should do heat races on Saturday (60-80 miles Cup, 40-60 miles Xfinity), and a feature race on Sunday (200-300 miles Cup, 150-200 miles Xfinity).

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

If they want something like stages, just do heat races; that's what they're after anyways. It would be great at short tracks especially. 30 lap / 12 car heat races with the possibility of a one off local dude trying his luck. Last chance qualifiers followed by the main event. I'd cozy up to the TV on a Saturday night for that!

Ask and you shall receive, well for Bristol dirt at least. 15 lap heat races to determine the starting lineup, 4 races to be run on Saturday. 250 lap race on Sunday, and yes there will be stages.

https://racer.com/2021/02/26/heat-ra...-bristol-dirt/

[belt driven]

The chase is bogus. As of a few yrs ago Nascar said the champion every year would have been the same w/o it. I don't think so. One year Harvick had a 295 pt lead going into the chase. Before the chase, he could have skipped a race and finished 25th in another and STILL had the points lead. Even a hothead like him drives a bit different with a big cushion.

For the record, I hate the front chicane at Daytona. Nascar claims the cars would be going 210 at the braking point for turn 1 w/o it. So what. Aren't they all supposed to be RACING drivers?

I attended the 24 '91-'95 and have watched nearly all available coverage for the last 20 years. I have observed 2 things: Rarely does an hour pass w/o a RACING driver blowing the bus stop. Rarely is there a restart w/o a RACING driver going too deep into turn 1.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

, and yes there will be stages.

So f-ing dumb.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

You sir should be in charge. Daytona 500, World 600 great. The rest 250-300 miles and no more than 2 hours, and go STRAIGHT THROUGH, points at the end.

Hell I would even go with no practice except a couple tracks on the calendar, allowing for tracks of similar makeup. Roll off the trucks Sat morning, quali after GN guys go out and let's race. Could even run everything Sat and Sunday. GN quali morning, Cup around noonish, GN race, Cup race Sunday afternoon and done. Trucks when applicable can filter in and allow Friday running as needed.

Are the Trucks still an appeal to fans? I'm not sure. A NASCAR "sprint" series using either cup or grand national cars with races less than an hour with no pit crew needed could work I think. Same for a road racing only series for stock cars (perhaps NASCAR and IMSA could co-sanction that). I think those would appeal better than ARCA or Trucks.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by belt driven

The chase is bogus. As of a few yrs ago Nascar said the champion every year would have been the same w/o it. I don't think so. One year Harvick had a 295 pt lead going into the chase. Before the chase, he could have skipped a race and finished 25th in another and STILL had the points lead. Even a hothead like him drives a bit different with a big cushion.

For the record, I hate the front chicane at Daytona. Nascar claims the cars would be going 210 at the braking point for turn 1 w/o it. So what. Aren't they all supposed to be RACING drivers?

I attended the 24 '91-'95 and have watched nearly all available coverage for the last 20 years. I have observed 2 things: Rarely does an hour pass w/o a RACING driver blowing the bus stop. Rarely is there a restart w/o a RACING driver going too deep into turn 1.

They don't want their precious Cup cars be seen to be outpaced by GT4 cars. I wonder if anybody has estimated what the Cup cars lap times are at Daytona without the pit entrance chicane? Anybody know this?

[S griffin]

It just shows that NASCAR should stick mainly to ovals. Nothing wrong with a few road courses, but they would be less distinguishable to other race series if they used them all the time. Quite frankly running ovals with chicanes hasn’t worked and should never have been done in the first place

[Alfisti]

Many things posted here I'm sitting here nodding my head and saying yup.

NASCAR cars are pretty crap on anything other than an oval. Keso said that the other day and he is right in my opinion. However, watching talented guys having to work hard to get a big heavy blob around a race track is entertaining. So I would like some non oval tracks, but would be disappointed if ovals weren't say 75% of the meetings.

Silly chicanes I don't like at the best of times. A NASCAR Cup car is not a little go kart, so a chicane is always icky.

Shorter stage free races are the way to go for me. Big long races for the prestigious always been that way things like the Daytona 500 and Coke 600. They would be more special by being stand out long races, just like say Bathurst in Supercars.

I do think practice and qualy are good things, but to keep costs down make 'em much shorter. Say 1 hour track time for practice and another 1 hour qualy session. Do 'em on the day of the race so Cup cars only run Sunday, xfinity Saturday.

The Chase has and always will suck. Harvick is my champion from last year. I do love Chase, but in any sensible world old H was the man over the full season.

[rustyfan]

Crazy restarts in the truck race at LVMS last night, hopefully we'll see something similar in the other races.

Also, if you want to get a taste of what it's like driving on the Bristol dirt there have been some other cars trying it out - here's an onboard video from a Late Model:

https://youtu.be/Bx-zm92TbcI

Looks pretty darn cool, can't wait to see NASCAR hit the track.

[belt driven]

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

They don't want their precious Cup cars be seen to be outpaced by GT4 cars...

Too late.

Last fall at the Charlotte Roval, the Xfinity cars got 2 dry laps in before rain. The rest of the race was at least damp.

The IMSA GTLM/GTD race started on wets: the whole race was either wet or frog drowning. Fastest lap was only 2 mph slower than Xfinity dry.

[S griffin]

NASCAR needs sorting out and soon. They've tried doing new innovations like 'oval road courses', but it hasn't worked. They should concentrate mainly on the ovals and try and make the racing less gimmicky. Other series like Indycar and IMSA are doing just fine. Time NASCAR took it's head out of the sand and went back to basics

[chernaudi]

Well, we had 15 years of Brian France screwing things up. It wouldn't surprise me if it takes years to fix all he screwed with.

[tux]

Normally I avoid watching these 1.5 Mile tracks because they used to be pretty boring but whatever they’ve done is really good. This has been very exciting, it’s like Daytona for the first 10 or so laps of a restart.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by tux

Normally I avoid watching these 1.5 Mile tracks because they used to be pretty boring but whatever they’ve done is really good. This has been very exciting, it’s like Daytona for the first 10 or so laps of a restart.

Yeah the restarts have been wild and very entertaining.

Great to see Larson picking up the win. I had a feeling his talent combined with Hendrick material would be a winning combination.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It just shows that NASCAR should stick mainly to ovals. Nothing wrong with a few road courses, but they would be less distinguishable to other race series if they used them all the time. Quite frankly running ovals with chicanes hasn’t worked and should never have been done in the first place

I disagree with this. The tracks are not the problems. Its the stages, the "playoffs", the way they handled the Bubba Smollett debacle, and the lack of star power amongst the recent crop of new drivers. Think about it, can you name a genuine star in NASCAR whose rookie year came in 2010 or later? I can only think of 1...Chase Elliott.