Should NASCAR stage a race in Japan?

[MagVanisher]

Self-explanatory question since Toyota is in this series for more than 10 years.

Maybe Bill France can make a request to Toyota to repave Fuji into a roval.

[FIRE]

In the mid-90s they had a couple of non-points races in Japan.

[MagVanisher]

Yes, but they should push themselves from their North America cage to stage a NASCAR race, particularly Japan.

I mean, Fuji Speedway was supposed to be an oval track for NASCAR. So why not repave it.

[JHamilton]

Warry Darrenbach

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

I already see the outcry from the "hardcore" fanbase...

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by W.A Trichlorostyrene

I already see the outcry from the "hardcore" fanbase...

Why, it's not like they don't want to export NASCAR to other countries?

Still, I wonder if Motegi oval course is usable for stock car racing?

[Axeman444]

didn't it crack in the earthquake?

[Purist]

It would be utterly impractical to rebuild Fuji again, after they already did it once for F1.

Honda owns Motegi and Suzuka. I think they could quite reasonably fix the Motegi oval now, if it hasn't happened already, given how long it's been since the quake. However, I sure as heck canNOT see Honda aiding in Toyota's marketing exercises by letting NASCAR use one of their tracks.

[Paradise City]

Nah. I think Toyota in America wants to reinforce its American credentials rather than roll that back, even slightly. Don't know how popular NASCAR is in Japan anyway although I remember their demo run there before.

[NaBUru38]

I wonder if the new Japanese Super Formula will use the oval. A shared weekend with Nascar would be cool.

[Peat]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Warry Darrenbach

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by Purist

It would be utterly impractical to rebuild Fuji again, after they already did it once for F1.

If Toyota can't rebuild it, why don't they just sell it to either International Speedway Corporation or Speedway Motorsports. The former has the knowhow on turning Fuji into the Daytona of the East.

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I wonder if the new Japanese Super Formula will use the oval. A shared weekend with Nascar would be cool.

Same here, but it takes a bit of bargaining in order to gain access to the oval course.

[NaBUru38]

What do you mean by rebuilding Fuji? The Super GT raced there a month ago, and in a month it's the JAF Grand Prix.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

What do you mean by rebuilding Fuji? The Super GT raced there a month ago, and in a month it's the JAF Grand Prix.

What I meant is turning Fuji Speedway into a roval so that stock car racing could be a possibility (which is what meant to be).

[IceMan_PJN]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

Why, it's not like they don't want to export NASCAR to other countries?

Still, I wonder if Motegi oval course is usable for stock car racing?

If NASCAR goes overseas, it will be in independent series with the NASCAR name. The Sprint Cup, for example, would never include a Japanese race. Americans, in general, hate the other 95.5% of the world and want nothing to do with them. They often hate Toyota being in there in the first place, and they want the drivers and teams to be American. They hate Montoya because he's a foreigner, and even worse for having a past in open-wheel.

[the.cosmic.pope]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

What I meant is turning Fuji Speedway into a roval so that stock car racing could be a possibility (which is what meant to be).

How do you propose this?

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=fuji+...+speedway&z=15

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by IceMan_PJN

If NASCAR goes overseas, it will be in independent series with the NASCAR name. The Sprint Cup, for example, would never include a Japanese race. Americans, in general, hate the other 95.5% of the world and want nothing to do with them. They often hate Toyota being in there in the first place, and they want the drivers and teams to be American. They hate Montoya because he's a foreigner, and even worse for having a past in open-wheel.

Then again, why they allow a certain Australian named Marcus Ambrose to compete in NASCAR?

I could not say this but the series needs to change. If they want to make a NASCAR series in Asia, then so be it.

But as for me, I want a NASCAR race in Japan and I want to make sure that they're promoting it seriously. Screw the aging fanbase, they should expand to newer markets just like F1.

[Purist]

MV, it's not practical to turn Fuji into a "Daytona of the East", not by a long shot. (Another oval of that size and with that level of banking will NEVER be built for actual racing again.) The old banking is gone. When Toyota redid Fuji for F1, not a single corner was left untouched. And it's not really a matter of Toyota lacking capacity, but rather, that it's not financially prudent to completely redo Fuji all over again.

ISC doesn't have experience building ovals in Fuji-esque terrain. Also, if they redid it with a focus on the oval, and somehow flattened the place out, the infield road course would be crap, and nobody but NASCAR would bother to race there anymore, thus defeating the purpose of the project anyway.

Also, it rains too often at Fuji to make a straight oval worthwhile.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by Purist

MV, it's not practical to turn Fuji into a "Daytona of the East", not by a long shot. (Another oval of that size and with that level of banking will NEVER be built for actual racing again.) The old banking is gone. When Toyota redid Fuji for F1, not a single corner was left untouched. And it's not really a matter of Toyota lacking capacity, but rather, that it's not financially prudent to completely redo Fuji all over again.

ISC doesn't have experience building ovals in Fuji-esque terrain. Also, if they redid it with a focus on the oval, and somehow flattened the place out, the infield road course would be crap, and nobody but NASCAR would bother to race there anymore, thus defeating the purpose of the project anyway.

Also, it rains too often at Fuji to make a straight oval worthwhile.

Okay, but there's is a thing called "Make the impossible, possible" mantra. Of course, it would need a lot of financial backing, research and engineering to turn Fuji into a roval.

Then again, Fuji is not viable to redesign at the current economic climate. So maybe, the only option left is at Motegi.

[NaBUru38]

This news is very odd:

NASCAR "turned down opportunities to bring one of its national series" to Singapore, Malaysia and Russia. "We've had 20 groups approach us from China.

O'Donnell said Brazil, Japan and Russia are viewed as most enticing for building new series. The hope is that foreign drivers will begin gravitating toward aiming at the Sprint Cup Series instead of open-wheel Formula One.

As NASCAR tries to increase its domestic audience by luring more Hispanics, Spanish-speaking stars are viewed as a major asset.

"Our goal is to take what we've learned into other racing cultures and change that from open wheel to stock cars," he said. "We're nowhere near where we want to be, but we want to bring the NBA model where players come to the U.S. from other countries. We want drivers to race in premier NASCAR leagues around the globe but aspire to race in the U.S.

"Our tentpole events were to showcase the touring series and have that live on its own as the premier series," he said. "We look at that as a success."

"Everything was great [about Japan], but there were no new sponsors or drivers as a result," he said. "We want to be international but build from the grass roots. The goal is not to become Formula One and collect a fee and leave."

Though open-wheel racing on road and street courses is the predominant form of auto racing in Europe, O'Donnell said stock cars are making inroads.

"Our product on road courses over the last five years has been pretty good," he said. "People see that, and the light goes on that this is a pretty good product and compelling. We're trying to sell two things: the competitive nature of the sport and that it reflects what (fans) may be driving on the street."

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

This news[/URL] is very odd:

Odd? How so?

I'm not the biggest stock car fan in the world but I can see where over the past 30 years junior open wheel formulas, touring car and sportscar racing has let down fans in many nations with these motorsports becoming tiny niche sports followed by few. Nascar works on bringing in spectators, building a fan base, getting sponsors involved and making the numbers work.

[Mike E]

Call me an old fashioned purist but someone referring to a racing series as a 'product' makes me gag.

[R.Lee]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Call me an old fashioned purist but someone referring to a racing series as a 'product' makes me gag.

I agree! I despise it being called a "product" too!

As to Motegi, from what I understand, there is still a whole lot of problems, with the nearby nuclear reactor, that had the disasterous incidents caused by the earthquake and tital wave a couple of years ago. No way you'd want to go there again. Yes, NASCAR did a couple of exibition races there a few years ago, but that is all that they ever were, or were intended to be, exibitions. The oval was not that racy, it was a pretty dull show. That track was not designed for stock cars and it showed!

[NaBUru38]

There's too many quotes that are odd, Mountainstar.

"The hope is that foreign drivers will begin gravitating toward aiming at the Sprint Cup Series instead of open-wheel Formula One. Our goal is to take what we've learned into other racing cultures and change that from open wheel to stock cars."

I struggle to believe that Europeans ans South Americans will start following Nascar en masse. Ovals are a tradition in the United States, but long forgotten in Europe. There's F1, sports cars, touring cars, rallying... it's very crowded "market".

Argentina and Brazil already have strong touring car championships. They could add a few ovals, I admit. But I doubt that local associations and promoters will let Nascar invade.

"We're trying to sell two things: the competitive nature of the sport and that it reflects what (fans) may be driving on the street."

That's a blatant lie. A Polo WRC, a BTCC Civic, even a DTM C-Class, are more real cars than Nascar cars.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

This news is very odd:

That is very weird news indeed.

If they intend to add more road courses, I'd be very happy for them. The races at Road America, Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, and Sonoma were very enjoyable this year as was the truck race at Mosport and the old Nationwide series races in Montreal and Mexico City. Other than the ubiquitous Daytona 500, those were the only NASCAR events I watched in the 2013 season.

Singapore is not an especially good idea because the only circuit there is the Marina Bay Street Circuit, I believe, and that's like having NASCAR race on the Baltimore IndyCar circuit... chaos. With such massive cars, street circuits would be just about the worst option for putting on a good show for the fans and a positive race for the drivers. I'm not sure what they'd do in Russia, either, except maybe run Moscow Raceway? Sochi would probably be too narrow in spots.

China is an excellent idea. So is Japan and so is Brazil. Shanghai Intl. wouldn't be a great place for stockcars because the insane amount of heavy breaking and tight, convoluted corners that even challenge F1 cars, but perhaps Zhuhai, Guangdong, or Beijing/Goldenport? Suzuka and Interlagos could be good...