2018 NASCAR Cup Series silly season

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Daytona only has 40 cars entered?? With all the hoopla usually surrounding previous winners qualifying the car just for Daytona to get points to start the season under a full grid just sounds insane. But then costs sound insane too so guess it makes sense that way. But still under 43 for Daytona sounds weird.

I won't look it up because I don't really care and prefer to just speculate wildly but pretty sure the count has been under 43 for the entirety of last season.

[R.Lee]

Car count is down for four reasons basically. 1. The slow recovery of the economy, after 8 years of economic ruin! It is going to take awhile to get it back up to where it use to be, if that is possible at all. 2. Mega teams, that own and/or control the majority of the cars in the series. The independent driver/owner is no more and the with today's prices few outside of them can afford to compete. Bill France was right, back in the 50s, when he banned multi-car teams, after the old Mercury Outboard team so thoroughly dominated for a season or two. The two car max per team, worked for years. Same old story though, "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it"! It wasn't broke, but Hendricks, Roush and others slowly snuck more and more teams into ownership and the rules against it WERE NOT enforced! Now, it would be all but impossible to break up the big multi-car teams. 4. The charter system! That has effectively locked out new teams for coming into the series. Couple that with the driving away of the base, hardcore, long time, grass root fans, due to the IDIOTIC, lack of leadership of brian france and his desire to turn automobile racing into some kind of a rolling "stick and ball" sport, with play-offs, overtime, and other such non-racing NONSENSE and you can see why the sport is dying! NASCAR had the "Goose that laid the Golden Egg, but brian france KILLED it!

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

I won't look it up because I don't really care and prefer to just speculate wildly but pretty sure the count has been under 43 for the entirety of last season.

They downsized the field down to 40 cars when they went to the charter system.

[P38 in workshop]

With the news that Ford is dropping a slew of car models in favour of trucks/SUV's would anybody hazard a guess at what the implications for NASCAR might be?

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by P38 in workshop

With the news that Ford is dropping a slew of car models in favour of trucks/SUV's would anybody hazard a guess at what the implications for NASCAR might be?

Probably not a whole lot. They've already announced that they will be racing the Mustang next year. The Mustang in one of two cars that they say that they will not drop. If anything, I could see them producing it as their only car, in the future. I'd say that NASCAR is safe, regarding this move.

[Alfisti]

The Mustang in
Cup was for exactly this reason... that Ford plan was cooked up some time ago. Be kind of amusing if they'd tried to make a NASCAR of the Focus Active (the only other car that will be in the Ford range). It's a high riding Focus with hideous black plastic cladding to look tough.

Makes sense, pick ups and SUVs are where the US customer is spending their cash.

In Blighty SUVs are getting everywhere though we still love our compacts and sub compacts. Big sedans like the Fusion (badged Mondeo in Europe) are not cars anybody wants nowadays.

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

The Mustang in
Cup was for exactly this reason... that Ford plan was cooked up some time ago. Be kind of amusing if they'd tried to make a NASCAR of the Focus Active (the only other car that will be in the Ford range). It's a high riding Focus with hideous black plastic cladding to look tough.

Makes sense, pick ups and SUVs are where the US customer is spending their cash.

In Blighty SUVs are getting everywhere though we still love our compacts and sub compacts. Big sedans like the Fusion (badged Mondeo in Europe) are not cars anybody wants nowadays.

Pick-up Trucks and (unfortunately) suvs have outsold all other vehicles for the last 10 to 15 years here in the U.S.. Pick-ups are EXTREMELY useful, suvs are not. suvs are basically "soccer mom" vehicles, like the station wagon use to be. They clog up the roads and create more of a hassle than anything else, IMO. From what I am hearing, the reason that Ford and the rest are dropping sedans and going to these things is because of the RIDICOUS "café" standards! Those are NOTHING, but enviorWACKO rules, designed to KILL the American auto industry! TOTAL CRAP! Smaller, lighter, less well constructed vehicles, made of cheaper materials that are required to get ABSURD mpg standards! The results, these are DEATH TRAPS on the U.S. highways! The Fusion would not catch on as a racing vehicle, for stock car racing! It is not and cannot be converted into a stock car. BTW, WHAT is a NASCAR? I have not ever seen one of those? I know that NASCAR is a sanctioning body for automobile racing. I see the term, "a NASCAR" from time to time, used by individuals that are anti-NASCAR, but I have yet to ever see or to understand what "a NASCAR" is?

[Alfisti]

Sorry dude, offense most definitely not intended. This may seem a little ignorant but a NASCAR to me, in simple terms:

Seriously heavy duty steel cage with some suspension bolted on

A "proper" engine... anything 6 cylinders and above ticks that box for me, so a US V8 lump is right on!

Some sheet metal wrapped around trying to vaguely resemble a roadcar that the racecar supposedly is. If you squint a lot!

That's all I've ever known. First time I saw a NASCAR race was early 90's - 93 IIRC - when Nigel Mansell jumped F1 to CART. Being a Mansell fan I wanted to see CART and got introduced to NASCAR at that time as it was accessible on the TV package I had (as was the Aussie V8 Supercars). Found NASCAR more exciting and enjoyable due to the very close and competitive nature and have stuck with it since. Don't watch any single seat racing now.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by R.Lee

Pick-up Trucks and (unfortunately) suvs have outsold all other vehicles for the last 10 to 15 years here in the U.S.. Pick-ups are EXTREMELY useful, suvs are not. suvs are basically "soccer mom" vehicles, like the station wagon use to be. They clog up the roads and create more of a hassle than anything else, IMO. From what I am hearing, the reason that Ford and the rest are dropping sedans and going to these things is because of the RIDICOUS "café" standards! Those are NOTHING, but enviorWACKO rules, designed to KILL the American auto industry! TOTAL CRAP! Smaller, lighter, less well constructed vehicles, made of cheaper materials that are required to get ABSURD mpg standards! The results, these are DEATH TRAPS on the U.S. highways! The Fusion would not catch on as a racing vehicle, for stock car racing! It is not and cannot be converted into a stock car. BTW, WHAT is a NASCAR? I have not ever seen one of those? I know that NASCAR is a sanctioning body for automobile racing. I see the term, "a NASCAR" from time to time, used by individuals that are anti-NASCAR, but I have yet to ever see or to understand what "a NASCAR" is?

We get it, you think NASCAR is the greatest thing ever but guess what your knowledge of cars, safety, construction and pretty much everything else related to cars is utter tripe and WRONG. Ford can't sell the other cars here, sorry the SUVs you want to hate are cars they're the same chassis, because no one wanted them. They are not stopping production, just sales in the US. But hey why let that stop you from thinking they're lightened, so not even close, weaker, again utter bs, and death traps, sorry way way way off. No cars have been built before that are safer than are currently built. And if they really worried about CAFE numbers then they would drop the inefficient SUVs in favor of the better fuel economy cars.

And well the SUVs are marketed at the suburban people so why wouldn't they be soccer mom cars? Is this just you feel slighted because you're out of touch and have no clue about the real world? Your rantings are getting old and only serve to make those of us who enjoy stock cars, mostly road courses but some ovals work, to decide if it's being associated with you or hating stock cars well I'll move along to SUV soccer mom racing

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Sorry dude, offense most definitely not intended. This may seem a little ignorant but a NASCAR to me, in simple terms:

Seriously heavy duty steel cage with some suspension bolted on

A "proper" engine... anything 6 cylinders and above ticks that box for me, so a US V8 lump is right on!

Some sheet metal wrapped around trying to vaguely resemble a roadcar that the racecar supposedly is. If you squint a lot!

That's all I've ever known. First time I saw a NASCAR race was early 90's - 93 IIRC - when Nigel Mansell jumped F1 to CART. Being a Mansell fan I wanted to see CART and got introduced to NASCAR at that time as it was accessible on the TV package I had (as was the Aussie V8 Supercars). Found NASCAR more exciting and enjoyable due to the very close and competitive nature and have stuck with it since. Don't watch any single seat racing now.

Don't worry about it Alfisti. You didn't know and your intentions were not meant to be offensive. It's offensive to me, because I have always heard it from formula, indy and sportscar fans, always used in a derogatory manner. It is offensive to many American stock car racing fans. We wonder why they can't simply just say NASCAR cars or stock cars. They would probably be offended and/or would say that we sound stupid if we referred to their series vehicles as an indy or a formula. That really doesn't sound very intelligent, if you think about it, about like someone says that a driver drives a NASCAR. No one drives a sanctioning body. As I said, don't worry about it. You didn't know. Have a good day.

[Alfisti]

CBS are reporting - from an unconfirmed source - that the Frances are in talks with Goldman, and that the talks could be a sale of NASCAR... interesting times potentially.

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

CBS are reporting - from an unconfirmed source - that the Frances are in talks with Goldman, and that the talks could be a sale of NASCAR... interesting times potentially.

There have been several articles about this. The talks are supposedly with Goldman & Sacks. Allot of rumor and speculation. All that I have read is that they are exploring possibly selling. Nothing firm. Probably better to wait until something more firm appears.