North Wilkesboro Speedway....😢

Are Penske fans allowed here?

Sure...........We will allow Brad and Joey fans in here.......even though they are a couple of putzes! Just kidding......lighten up

I was never a huge fan, I watched for maybe 10 years, but I stopped watching because no race ever just ran to the finish. Whenever it got down to 10 laps or so, it was one restart after another.

You must not have watched since 2013. I believe that was the last time Mark raced.

Oh, did he retire again?

Oh, did he retire again?

I don't believe Mark Martin has ever used the "R" word. I think he filled in for Tony Stewart for 1 race in 2014 when Tony was hurt. Mark has to be 57 or 58 years old by now. Pretty much over the hill for this sport, but you never know. He was very successful and won many races over 35 years or so. Never won a Championship though. That has to be tough on a driver with Decades behind the wheel. one word to describe Mark...Legend

Half of the races are won by driving slow enough to get better fuel mileage, the rest are won by someone who wound up first after a pit stop because his tire changers were 1/10th of a second faster than the tire changers for the fastest cars on the track. Like who on Earth has ever gone to watch a race hoping the winner would get to victory lane because he had gotten better fuel mileage or because a tire changer changed a tire faster?

This reminds me a lot of how f1 is today. It's less about the driver and more about the performance of the car. Granted, it takes immense skill to drive an f1 car, but at the end of the day, most of those guys are pretty similar in skill level, just that the car manufacturers have variances that make some cars faster than others.

In nascar, driver skill is still of higher importance because all of those cars have to adhere to a strict set of guidelines, pretty much making them identical, for the most part.

In today's world, racing is less about racing and more about points, wins, and sponsorships and the money that comes with it.

In today's world, racing is less about racing and more about points, wins, and sponsorships and the money that comes with it.

Exactly.

To me, the fundamental problem is that NASCAR is in the entertainment business but it's being used as the face of corporate marketing campaigns which are the furthest thing from entertaining imaginable. So fans show up hoping to be entertained, only to find out that anything they would deem entertaining is deemed undesirable by the corporate sponsors. So the corporations completely sanitize the sport, strip most of the entertainment value right out of it, and leave us with a monotonous high speed parade of smiling mannequins driving shiny billboards.

Yay :-(

I won't disagree with all of the negative points made in lots of the posts in this thread. BUT......It is a BUSINESS just like any other. The almighty dollar rules the world. I Love the sport in spite of the warts. Been a fan of "Stock Car" ( I know....not stock any more) racing my entire life. Everything changes/evolves, Technology is growing exponentially, and working it way through all Motorsports as well as the rest of our lives.I still enjoy it and will be a fan til I DIE!

Are Penske fans allowed here?

It is quite depressing what happened to both North Wilkesboro and Rockingham, that was about the time I started watching. I guess they thought North Carolina at the time was over saturated and they wanted to add the new tracks in different regions. It was a good plan in the short term but hurt them in the long term as the cars became more aero dependent and the racing at these bigger tracks became more spread out. I would personally like to see the Cup series go to smaller tracks like Iowa or Pikes Peak for that purpose but I don't see it happening.

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As in Roger? Yes.

The Allison brothers, Richard Petty, AJ Foyt, Buddy Baker...I could go on but my nurse just reminded me it's time for my evening medication and that I shouldn't be getting too excited...

I was watching these good ole boys when I was a little kid in grade school.

I won't disagree with all of the negative points made in lots of the posts in this thread. BUT......It is a BUSINESS just like any other. The almighty dollar rules the world. I Love the sport in spite of the warts. Been a fan of "Stock Car" ( I know....not stock any more) racing my entire life. Everything changes/evolves, Technology is growing exponentially, and working it way through all Motorsports as well as the rest of our lives.I still enjoy it and will be a fan til I DIE!

Being a business using modern technology doesn't mean it has to be painfully boring and sterile. But hey, all they have to do is keep doing what they doing and soon enough the rest of the seats will also be empty and the debate will be over.

On the bright side, a modern NASCAR fan has no trouble getting tickets or finding parking!

The grass roots nature of the sport is definitely in the rear view mirror...I still watch but with less passion and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, in today's NASCAR, a guy like Alan Kulwicki wouldn't have been able to win Rookie of the year without having a major sponsor. Days of an indie guys making a big run are done.