I did not expect a video about NASCAR from an architecture channel I follow on YouTube, but here we are.
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Oooohhh. God … a nascar street race ahead of us ???
Great news james !
Yep, this weekend. Last year’s race was pretty cool with the skyline in the background at certain spots.
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Im glad i grew up in the hay days of nascar. Imo, late 70’s through the 80’s. I was young but loved the sport…a retired driver lived in my neighborhood Neil “soapy” Castles. Great man…he was also a stunt coordinator for several movies. I got to help out on a late model sportsman dirt car for a year…that was a blast. Carolina and Metrolina were fantasic.
Then it changed. I can’t put my finger on it…but the fun for me was not there. Then it changed again. Lots of young spoiled kids became drivers and then all the private jets…everybody had to have a jet. Then just it became spec racer cars. Then the stages. Maybe my Interest changed. It became a big business…it didnt seem that way years ago, and i guess it is big business now.
My brother in law used to be a pilot for DEI. Then went on to fly for Robby Gordon…i could write a book about him. Then Stewart/Hass and then to the airlines. I was just at S.Hass 2 months ago…a buddy does business with them and we walked both sides, F1 and high speed taxis…i mean nascar. Lol
I know for a fact most teams are not doing great Financially. I have a inside friend COO With The largest group, I don’t want to mention, And he even said Things aren’t so rosy. Imo…stop with the stages, put on big boy pants and race in the rain…do more road courses.
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Someone explain something to me…
These race teams that field pro teams… I assume this makes zero financial sense? Does one create a race team with the idea that it makes money or is this frankly, impossible? (Outside of your f1 results driving car sales / advertising revenues from tv rights etc).
Does nascar also pay teams like f1 does from the big pot of f1 revenues?
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I remember speaking with Bobby Dotter a few years ago and it usre sounded like a LOT of teams are strugging. The expense for the teams is pretty high. It seems like NASCAR is about the only ones making money with a handful of team exceptions.
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Yep agree. A lot of companies are doing fragmented Sponsorship instead of full year to year like in the past…so that is a problem. ABC company just wants Daytona, vegas and charlotte. Ive been in several teams and they spend a Tremendous amount of money To basically go the same speed they were going in the 70s…well actually they are slower i believe. They have dyno depts for everything. It blows me away how many people work for Hendrick, roush and others. The new Dallara chassis is supposed to help.
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NASCAR fan since my college roomate introduced me to it in the late 90s. Attended the first ever race a TX Motor Speedway (what an interesting one that was), have since made several races at TX, a few a Dega, Charlotte, and COTA. With that being said, I still record the races, but I don’t even sit and fast forward through them anymore. Just can’t. There is so little personality left in the sport. It lost its way and I fear won’t find it back. It is no longer stock car racing, it is now spec car racing. Spec chassis, spec motors, spec parts, just decals to make them different, there is no identity in that. Drivers are no longer real people, there are corporate poster boys. Some of the off-color shenanigans and scuffles in the pits are a part of real racing, by real people, that are passionate about winning and pissed when they don’t, don’t dilute it.
Some areas I would love to see improved are the race formats, race selection, and race cars. They need to focus on a quality short track program, fix the car where it is durable and works on short tracks and add some short track racing. These cars have fenders, let drivers race on a track the lets them be used instead of a bunch of 190+mph 1.5 ovals. Keep the real road races, but don’t add stupid city street road courses. It only worked due to weather this time, don’t think it is a good race product to run within the confines of narrow streets and walls. Drop the focus on 1.5 mile ovals, the racing is the same on far too many of them. The current cars, they just suck. They aren’t remotely like a road car, they don’t look like anything we can purchase, they don’t use powerplants anyone can buy. NASCAR needs to go back to making cars that must replicate the dimensions of a stock manufactured vehicle, that must run a powerplant offered in a stock manufactured vehicle. Make a minumum production target to avoid truly wild and unmarketable designs. In addition they need to take away some aero from the cars to reduce the aero dependence and increase the reliance on mechanical grip. This achieves a two-fold outcome of making drivers lift and making it easier to follow.
Never happen, but its my wish list.
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Chuck, i agree with everything you said! It seems to me…when american car mfg’s moved from body on frame cars to untized body and nascar teams lost their brand identity. They had to make a tube chassis frame and hang custom sheet metal…thats about when things changed. Maybe a timing coincidence…i dont know…but for me that’s when i started lossing Interest.
Burton out, Berry in at Wood Brothers 
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Glad Josh found a seat for next year. 20th in points with 5 DNFs. 
. He is pretty routinely in the top 10 at some point during a race weekend. Think he has somewhere around 10 top tens this year.
Burton is buried down in 30 something with 1 DNF and I think only 1 top ten all season.
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Deegan no longer has a ride. She seemed to do OK at the outset in Xfinity, but lately she’s struggled pretty bad. The age old argument of how much is driver is how much team is a part of that is a always a discussion point.
I can’t help but wonder what Ford’s position is on this.
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I really want to see her succeed, but man, shes got a tough path ahead of her.
Chicago was a fun race to watch - at least for the portion I was able to see until Peacock cut off at 4 hours. SVG (always makes me think of scalable vector graphics) certainly seemed like he was again the car to beat, until he got punted into the wall.
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well that was an enjoy race to watch ! i was kind of afraid of logano hitting those tire barriers ,
maybe something with his brakes . So happy also to see a Camaro Chevy to take first place .
i like road type races a lot , its not nascar style i know , but i like them .
a good race . thats the taste a had in my mind as the checkered flag went down
I enjoy your positive attitude towards each race. I agree, overall a very entertaining race with plenty of drama and a lot of cool things happening. I too enjoy street races even though they are not “classic” nascar.
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Personally not a fan of city circuit racing for Nascar or Indy. Too narrow, too many right angle turns, too few opportunities for passing. This race has worked due to track conditions/weather the last 2 years. Dry race will be a snooze fest. I very much enjoy Nascar on road courses though.
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Gotta say Long Beach is my favorite or one of them at least in iracing. In sim it’s great, real life may be less interesting.
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You should watch the highlights of the Xfinity race the day before. Dry race track and maybe the most exciting NASCAR sanctioned race I have ever seen.
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I thought the Chicago layout was great for overtaking. Long straights followed by tight turns with the straights being 4 cars wide. Lots of room to setup a move.
For me, the Chicago race is a winner. The backdrop is cool as hell. I love the idea of the cars driving on streets because it is very suboptimal, sketchy and unpredictable. The unique challenge for the drivers elevates the series’ profile beyond it being “drivers going left all the time” and NASCAR badly needs that IMO.
I thought the drivers showed fantastic racecraft given the circumstances. Yeah there were definitely some F ups, but I saw a ton of two or three wide driving where there was barely any contact. Even if we say they were driving conservatively I think everyone as drivers on here forks can appreciate being able to maneuver 3600lb cars like that.
To anyone watching with open eyes, the series did a great job on the world stage.
Variety as they say, in the spice of life and I’m liking this direction of variety in NASCAR. Ovals, road courses and temporary courses. I’m here for it. Maybe another run at dirt with wipers this time 
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