I remember my mom taking me over to my grandparents house for Sunday lunches. I would get excited because out of my entire family, Lloyd was the only one who seemed to have interest in cars. He had model Corvette's and a few bits of NASCAR memorabilia. I remember occasionally watching races with him and telling myself ONE DAY I would own a C4 vette that he could ride along in. He passed away before I did that, but the memory of NASCAR and domestic cars comes from him. When I look at NASCAR nowadays, I am trying to find something to love. Every few months I tune into a race somehow, somewhere and don't find it as enthralling as I once did. Jump on reddit and the "controversial" news are things that should just be..common sense. I feel young, yet old, reading arguments that feel like a Facebook feed from senile old men. So I turn it off, jump to another sport like F1 or WRC and go on with my life. I want to watch NASCAR. I want to love it. This last weekend had drama. It had suspense. It had...well not the most ethical driving, but at least for a brief moment, the controversy was about the driving and not something that felt like a battle between CNN and FOX. Let me know if you think i'm wrong. I'm NOT an avid NASCAR enthusiast but I am a fan of all things motorsport. I'd watch it all day if I could fall in love with it a bit more. What're your thoughts? Let me know below. I'm Alex, thanks for watching and hopefully subscribing :)
Thank you for sharing I appreciate your insight on this interesting topic. To answer your last statement, No, your are not wrong about your thoughts or your perspective on the overall situation. I think your desire and interest in the sport from this one instance, is the same thing that would bring me back into the NASCAR world: the focus around the atmosphere and goings around NASCAR itself. One of the biggest reasons I was turned off from NASCAR after the early 2000's was because it wasn't focused on the drivers, races and general atmosphere of the sport itself. Even when I saw the news that was unrelated to the sport itself it just turned me way thinking it would take a long time to recover from. I used to only watch the Daytona 500 but even lately, I forget it is even on. I do feel for you and many others about the current state of the sport and want things a bit more focused and can immerse people back into the world of NASCAR like you mentioned for F1. At least for me in the early 2000's it really was like that. I hope my message was understood. I appreciate your insight and uploads. Take care!
@@AlexMartini. Ok current nascar has a lot going on I feel liked there was a lot missed in this video. First I’m a nascar fan so here’s my take. NASCAR is for one owned by the France family it’s not owed by a company so some things still feel a little mom and pop ish. Also the style of racing is very different then other forms of Motorsport. I would recommend to pick a driver and follow along with that driver and watch the race in the entirety with someone who’s educated in the sport to walk you along if you have any questions. There’s a ton going on I just don’t think you know where to look. Daytonas second race is this weekend give it a shot. I’d love to answer any questions you have if you want to get into the sport
NASCAR has really gone downhill the past few years since the gen 7 cars, and with playoffs, stages and green-white-checkers it's just one gimmick after another, I don't like the gen 7 cars at all, they are a sports car running on mostly circle tracks.
@@PaperBanjo64 I agree but it’s mostly the aero under the car that’s the problem and nascar needs to do something about it. It really hasn’t been to many green white checkers this year but it’s been a fuck ton f overtime races
I only watched nascar in the past for Dale. Once he left this world, I stopped watching. The adrenaline seemed to leave the sport. The Intimidator was gone Also, watching cars for hours just turning left is boring. They need f1 style tracks with American cars to get us involved. Fast mustangs vs chargers vs Camaros/vettes. We need those transam days back. V8s crushing the pavement 💪🏼
This sounds like a joke, but I’m totally serious: NASCAR should put a boxing ring at the center of each infield and allow drivers to put gloves on and fight at the end of races. I’d watch the s**t out of that!
As a Nascar fan for nearly 16 years, big issues is Nascar's officiating, their playoff format of crowing a champion, bad broadcasts(fox), bad Short track and rc racing, along with the lack of driver recognition from the public The Nascar playoffs in my opinion have hurt the sport due to its way of crowining champions. A Driver like Austin Dillon if he was in the playoffs could win in each round and win the final race and win the title despite being 31st in points. This is like if the 20th place driver in F1 points wins the title due to winning the last race of the season. Nascar needs to go back to a season long points format like every single motorsports series on this planet has. Only 3 of the past 10 cup champions would have been champions in a regular season long format. Increasing horsepower, removing stage breaks, fixing road course and short track racing, better officiating, better broadcast for fans, getting their drivers known by the public and puting themselves out their and making more personalities for the sport, better marketing and lots more
Yeah I mean there is other motorsport out there. For a new fan you get into Nascar for 5 minutes and it's fake yellow flags and then some rule where drivers who have more points don't get to fight for the championship and get dropped based on some system. It's like if there was another NBA and you're like amazing, I love basketball, but then they reset the score to 50-50 at halftime and then a team that is 4th in the standings misses the playoffs because of "reasons". Then the safety aspect is jarring from any other motorsport. You have cars still running on track and there are random crew and reporters and camera people and photographers and family and babies out in the pitlane. Wild stuff.
It's interesting to see someone who is a fan pretty much agree with my thoughts when I am not I fan but recently have tried to get into it. I got into F1 and truly wanted to do the same with Nascar and Indy. Like you say, broadcasts are awful. The younger generations want things quick and on demand, having commercial breaks during the race, and announcers reading ads should go away. What should matter is the racing and the announcer should be able to explain easily what is happening. That is why F1 has grown, one race is just roughly 2 hours and you are done, and not one second was the broadcast cut to sell you something but you sure as hell want to spend the $100 on the shirt of your favorite driver. The other thing is that the playoff format is confusing as hell. I watched the Netflix series and it almost feels like there are 2 competitions within Nascar, each with their own confusing point system to learn. The show also felt like they wanted to highlight drama over racing and not the technical side. Nascar should go beyond the drama and start showcasing the technical side, the strategies, etc. They should be open enough to welcome people that don't know about Nascar and show the people behind the scenes. There's is this assumption that people watching know everything going on and that just kills interest beacuse they put a barrier for you to join.
I've long been a fan of F1 so I've never really cared for Nascar, but Ross Chastain riding the wall at Martinsville in 2022 was easily one of the coolest things I've even seen on a race track. It's a shame that Nascar hasn't had more of those types of moments.
NASCAR constantly has close finishes and driver feuds. The smaller series like the Cars Tour would be a place to start if you want to watch Stock Car racing without ads interrupting it.
This is exact the type of moment NASCAR fans don't want to see. It only showed people the chaotic side of the sport. They take a look at it, say "well that was stupid" And turn off. NASCAR is a a racing series like no other, full contact, with varied driver skills and different tracks and surfaces. And the Chastain thing showed none of that
@@quickgenerichannelname3295 Interesting take. I found the response at the time to be overwhelmingly positive. As someone who’s always had trouble connecting with the sport, seeing someone pull off a move I’ve only ever seen executed in a video game was dope af. It was an indication that someone who thinks like I would, regularly competes in the sport. I gotta think that increasing the audience.
@@giancarlog8653 I agree, everyone I talked to, even friends that dot watch racing, when shows the video, said it was one of the coolest things they saw.
This is exactly NASCAR's problem. It sees some guy say this and thinks "oh, we need more craziness," when that is not the way to do it. Moments like that are entertaining precisely because they don't happen often. If they happened too often, they cease to be unique and spectacular and become an annoyance. NASCAR doesn't realize (or refuses to accept) they're just making the sport annoying to people who watch every week.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. was rough, but he wasn't reckless. Dale Jr was one of the most respectful drivers that ever raced in NASCAR. I don't know where calling him "rough" came from. What Dillon did at Richmond, and the 2018 Daytona 500 (where he intentionally spun out the leader at 200MPH in front of 30 cars).
@@leeboss6631monaco is a weird example, because the glamour has always been there, however this years race would disprove your point. The passion for leclercs win (the home hero), after years of bad luck and mistakes. Also its definitely not a parade for the drivers. Monaco isnt about the wheel to wheel racing, its about the driver’s driving at their maximum ability to keep from crashing. A driver described it best, its like riding your bicycle in the living room. However, races like miami are EXACTLY what you described. There is basically no racing passion there. The track is horrible, and its all about the celebrities.
A few facts here: 1. Austin Dillon had that race won before a caution with 2 laps to go came out. Due to NASCAR’s overtime rule, they extend the race to make sure it ends under green. That’s part of why he wasn’t willing to have that taken away. 2. Dale Jr wasn’t a dirty driver. Dale Sr was aggressive. 3. “Pop pop” is Austin Dillon’s grandfather, Richard Childress. The team owner and the reason why he drives that car
I hope Alex reads this. This video was definitely under-researched and has some clear misinformation and lack of context. It’s like he’s a casual fan of a casual fan’s social media and used that as his source.
The act of viewing Nascar has been 95% cheering on crashes and drinking. But it's been getting less exciting and less rough. So now it's drinking and drama.
As an American, I do have soft spot for NASCAR. Not a huge fan, but I do enjoy it sometimes. However, I do find too sterile nowadays. I feel that the drivers don't have a personality when talking to the camera. They talk in this odd corporate cadence through forced smiles very similar to NFL players. The only time where a sliver of personality pokes out is when there is drama and the drivers get legitimately frustrated or angry. As for F1, I tried getting into it, but I just can't. I don't like the culture surrounding it these days. It's too focused on flaunting this decadent and luxurious lifestyle filled with corpo-bros, influencers, and celebrities rather than the cars and racing. It was better in the 90s. I also find a lot of the modern fans of F1 to be obnoxious, arrogant, and prejudiced. As a person of Latin-American decent I surprisingly found more hostility from fans in the F1 side of the house than in NASCAR. Despite the occasional racist Southern white man, most NASCAR fans are more or less pretty chill. Most of the F1 fans I've met are very Euro centric and see anything outside of Europe as "beneath them". Even American F1 fans are acting this way despite being constantly insulted by European fans. Don't get me started with the Verstappen fans on Hamilton. Some of the shit I hear and see coming from a lot Verstappen fans about Hamilton is downright racist. Even with Verstappen's teammate, Sergio "Checo' Perez, they get vicious with the prejudice language. That being said. I'm a more of a fan of rallying, touring cars, and grand touring cars.
That's interesting, I get that from Europeans in general just being a white American lol. It's like they wanna be seen as the most tolerant, high brow elite by calling everyone else idiots, dumb racist Americans (350mil quite diverse people, quite a generalization) and only like black and brown people who wanna move to their country lol. But that's just that high brow weird European of course, most are great, but it is a weird phenomenon, and I agree F1 seems to cater to that crowd.
I 100% agree with this statement, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way about F1 and nascar. IMO only IMSA and WEC is where the real racing is right now.
If you haven’t checked out the Cars Tour, I think you might like it. It has a lot of personality that felt a little lacking in NASCAR. The series is run by Dale Jr and Kevin Harvick.
Those people are everywhere. They are not the majority but they are loud and noticeable, unfortunately. Be it football racing or whatever, people be people, good and bad. Ask any real F1 fan their top 10 drivers of all time and you will probably have an Argentinian &/ a Brazilian topping a large proportions lists. Racism and being elitist is not what F1 is about, it's innovation and fine tuning to eek out any sliver of a margin against the competition. (And trying to find loopholes in rules, just like NASCAR) The squeaky clean image/robotic interviews are a result of corporate sponsorship.. can't be saying anything that would alienate any of the potential customers for those sponsors. Some of the most loved teams are those that inspire, though winning is obviously a massive draw too.
Your perception of NASCAR is deeply flawed, Alex. NASCAR doesn’t encourage crashing others, they never did (up to now... I guess...). The handed rough/reckless driving penalties for decades. What NASCAR is a full contact motorsport, where cars are tough enough to handle some bumping here and there. For most of its history however there was an unwritten code between drivers, what kind of contact was okay, and what wasn't. Because one type of bump could move someone from the preferred racing line and the other could kill them. Ever since NASCAR introduces the stupid playoffs, it seems like that code has gone out of the window. Drivers have become reckless and desperate and those moments now overshadow great racing that still happens on the weekly basis. NASCAR's downfall is just simply sad to me.
Great comment overall, although NASCAR is on an upswing right now. They’ve grown a lot in the past 3 years. Not like it used to be in the early 2000’s obviously.
I remember growing up and going to the Vegas race twice a year with my grandparents. Nascar was a huge part of our life, I had a #9 Kasey Kahne sticker on my red quad and a #48 Jimmy Johnson sticker on my 50cc dirt bike. The first year I had my license, I took my high school buddies down to Vegas and we suffered through the 100-degree September heat for 4 hours and loved every minute of it. However, nowadays when I try to tune in and watch the races, it feels like something is missing. There isn't the same energy and passion at the races that there used to be and it doesn't seem like anything is being done to change. For that reason, I'm far more involved in F1 and have road-tripped to Austin and Vegas over the last couple of years to attend F1 races rather than NASCAR. That said, every once in a while I watch Talladega Nights to remember what NASCAR used to be... the good ol' days lol.
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If NASCAR wants to be the WWE of motorsport that's fine, but don't expect for fans of other series and especially non-American racing fans, to ascribe any talent or respect for people that are more than happy to kill their adversaries "for the Gram".
As a motorsports fan i tend to be on a different side of the racing spectrum. I love watching nascar for strategies and pure unpredictability. One of the few motorsports to be able to have anyone in the field win. Id also like to add that f1 was in this similar situation just a few years back before dts and the liberty media takeover. Slowly but surely nascar is making a comeback but something like this takes time. Also i might nascar is a much more inclusive sport over f1 as it doesn't take much to be able to join one of the top 3 tiers. Nascar is also family owned and operated so it takes much more to change in its ways. As for other motorsports and drama look no further than f1 with its 2021 finish. That season is still fresh in the way people view that sport. Look at comments on any f1 post and try to find one with no hate. One thing i wish people would do is research about nascar before they speak on it as people like dale jr don't just go on some podcast as it's his podcast which is one of the biggest nascar podcasts ran by his company dirty mo media which is one of the biggest if not the biggest independent news and just entertainment companies in racing. As for the flag stuff, Nascar is a sport founded in the Deep South, and at this point, the flag was more synonymous with Nascar than the Confederacy. Also it and the noose incident, which was nothing more than a pull rope for the garage door, happened at the peak of the george Floyd and blm movement, so it got way more exposure than deserved. I hope you don't take this as hate as i am a fan, but i just take this sport and the media it gains very seriously
There was also that wall riding incident a few years ago. It has changed so much since I started watching 25 years ago, the ever changing points system was confusing, which didn’t help. Rubbing is racing and that may not always be a good thing I think 🤔
@AlexMartini There are limits that NASCAR has begun to establish. That is intentionally hooking someone into the wall. In 2022 at Las Vegas Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson were racing for position. Larson ran Bubba up the race track and into the wall. Bubba got upset and came down the race track and intentionally hooked Larson sending them both hard into the outside wall. Afterwards Bubba got out of his car and shoved Larson a few times. It’s important to note that this was the first year of the Gen 7 car and at the time its safety has been called into question after two drivers were sidelined due to concussions, so this was a very bad look for bubba. These cars travel at around 150-190 mph so a move like that is uncalled for. NASCAR rightfully suspended him for one race. A few months later in the 2023 Coke 600 a similar situation played out between Chase Elliot and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin washed up the race track, got into Elliot put him in the wall, Elliot got mad and hooked him into the wall. Charlotte speed’s dogleg is more sharper than Las Vegas’s one so the angle Hamlin hit the wall was a lot more violent than Larson’s crash. What did NASCAR do? Suspended him for one race. So they are trying draw a line now. They have SMT data that they use to track the drivers inputs so they know if it’s intentional or not. I’m all for boys have at it but right hooking someone into the wall is pretty much the equivalent of throwing the gloves off and shouldn’t be tolerated. That’s why NASCAR penalized Dillon. It should’ve been more harsh imo.
When you see this discourse about Nascar, the root of it usually is caused by the very stupid and contrived rules the governing body has for the sport's points format and overtime finishes to races. The combination of these two creates scenarios where a super desperate driver like Austin Dillon can save his season by forcing his car into first place to win the race no matter what. A lot of the old fans remember the time 20 years ago when the sport had less ridiculous rules and enforcement of those rules was much more consistent and transparent. That's why the drama around the sport because it's manufactured by the current rules that Nascar itself encourages.
It sucks that this is what everyone thinks of when 2024 has had the best racing in a decade, the closest finishes ever, and incredible progress in the sport.
Thanks for commenting this. You are so right but the f1 people in this videos comments keep calling NASCAR a sport stuck in the mud. At least we have battles and good racing.
Perfect summary of NASCAR..."Angry old men, saying angry old things, about angry old traditional values, and angry old people causing drama on the internet"
You gotta remember the history of nascar is based on the fact that you could actually buy the cars that were racing that day. Sure they’ve been modified, and people knew that, but they could see Petty driving the superbird and knew it was at least available to them. People like us, who are scraping by just to get to work, aren’t connected to nascar at its core anymore. Car prices are high, the cars we see racing aren’t relatable anymore, and the enthusiast dream is being sacrificed for SUV’s. I think this is a big reason why so many people love Cleetus when he does the danger rangers and the crown Vics. It’s relatable and people can actually afford a POS crown Vic if they so wanted to. They feel like the drivers are just like them and not some corporate placed driver who can’t relate.
Dale Earnhardt was booed whenever he pulled off controversial moves (he was the most popular driver) So those commending Dillon for this move are just braindead.
this is so wrong its insane Bill Elliott literally won the most popular driver award from 1990-2000 / 2002 and had to take his own name of the ballot. the only year Sr won the award was after his death posthumously in 2001. Dale Earnhardt Sr may have been the face of the sport the guy people recognize the most but in the actual sport itself and from people who were invested and hardcore fans Earnhardt was a guy loved by a lot and hated by more. Earnhardt’s death turned everyone into a Sr fan it simply was never like that before.
As a foreigner, Nascar looks like the WWE of motorsports. I watch F1, but they are just drama divas... WEC and especially Fanatec GT3 are the sweetspot. Love the racing in GT3. Also, the MX5 Cup races are insanely awesome.
and 30 years ago IndyCar was the dominant motorsport in the US and it even rivaled F1. The peak of that is when F1 World Champ Nigel Mansell bailed on F1 and went to IndyCar and won the title and is the only driver to ever concurrently be F1 and IndyCars champ. There's the stories that Bill France of NASCAR and Bernie Eccelstone of F1 got in Tony George's ear and it lead to IndyCar(CART) tearing itself on half and that lead to NASCAR becoming the dominant motorsport in the US and IndyCar still hasn't recovered from this.
I remember when I tried getting into NASCAR as a kid but I quickly found out that most of the sport is drama and strict regulations around cars. I never once cared about the race itself. The logical answer was just straight up GT3 because it does well in every category that NASCAR has failed. In short, it just feels like anything that actually happens that's interesting on the track is either punished or immediately banned.
I'm the first to admit in a group of people that I'm a NASCAR fan. I grew up watching Jimmie Johnson win 7 championships, the Hendrick Motorsports domination, the sponsor changes from the Winston Cup, to Nextel, and then to Sprint. When I moved into my dorm for college I didn't have an affordable way to watch NASCAR anymore. Now I have an antenna tv and a TH-cam TV account from a relative to watch it. People used to recognize drivers. NASCAR tv commercials were amazing, sponsorship deals saw cutouts of drivers at the big box stores. It seems like it's so hard to get that anymore. Big names like Lowe's FedEx, Dupont, Menards, etc.. aren't full time sponsors for drivers anymore. Do I understand why? Mostly. I used to be a big Jeff Gordon fan, but now I don't have a consistent favorite driver. Nobody seems to stand out as much as Jimmie, Jeff, or Dale did back in the day. I'm not sure what NASCAR needs to do to change it for the better, but I sure hope they change it quickly. I'd love to see NASCAR rise up in the rankings again.
It’s ridiculous honestly, NASCAR has just completely ruined the legitimacy of the sport. With the playoffs and overtime and stage racing it’s all just manufactured entertainment.
For a lifelong F1 fan, NASCAR is just weird, but I get it. Ovals...beer...the roughness of it all. It looks like they are starting to lose that as well. How about INDY? It seems they are not doing so well either (for other reasons). I've always sort of keep an eye but it also seems like it has never recovered from the CART split. Maybe its a systemic inside the US thing...where motor racing just isnt on the radar screen as much anymore.
Grew up near Bristol Motor Speedway. Saw the top Nascar series at Bristol in '98. Was near Indy a couple weeks before the 500 in '04 and got to see some practicing. We forgot our earplugs and said "they don't sound that loud on tv, maybe we won't need them for a partial pack." One lap of 7-8 cars sent us ducking under the seats to pay for overpriced ear plugs. But it wasn't just LOUD, you could feel the wave of energy pass over you. A couple of years later, top fuel a took that and cranked it way up! Like a bomb went off and kept detonating for a few seconds. Traveling probably 150mph as it passed where we were seated. They are a whole different type of machine.
This situation is a direct result of NASCAR's stupid "playoff" championship model. Yeah, what Dillon did was pretty sh***y, but no driver would have done that except because of the "win to get in" nature of this "playoff" system. It's time for NASCAR to ditch the "playoffs", ditch stage racing, ditch the spec series cars, and go back to their roots. Let the teams build the best car they can, line 'em up, and let them race for the full race distance. Count up the points at the end of the year and crown a champion.
Last time NASCAR was covered on ESPN was like 2014. Not saying ESPN is a major player in the racing world, but it says a lot when the largest sporting outfit doesn’t even cover mention your sport anymore when they used to have at least one NASCAR segment if there was a race over the weekend.
ESPN reduces coverage of any sport when it doesn't hold the rights to games. When they stopped carrying NHL games, hockey coverage on Sportscenter went to almost nothing.
Alex I agree with most of what you said in this video but I think you’re off base on quite a lot. Don’t take this comment as hate just expressing where I disagree. NASCAR is not dying, in fact it’s on an upward trajectory compared to where it’s been the last decade. Of course it’s nowhere near where it used to be but it’s unfair to claim that it’s dying with huge growth especially in the past 3 years. 1. The racing is better than it has been for a while and is getting better with this new gen of cars. There’s been 3-4 of the some of the closest finishes ever in nascar history this year alone. A lot of it is aero blocking/drafting/etc and doesn’t work exactly the same way as other forms of racing. The road course races in nascar are great and entertaining with the lack of downforce. 2. The sport has always been about being relatable and being rough round the edges as a person and driver. If nascar changes that to someone to look up to rather than being relatable they lose the spirit of the sport. Although you have heros like Dale Sr. to look up to you certainly feel he’s still an average every day guy outside of the sport. They’re all about being rowdy and having fun just like the average American (they do burnouts after a win and there’s no podium, losers go home). 3. Drama is fun and good in any sport. I agree it shouldn’t be everything. You mostly got that one right. Although it’s lack of knowledge of the sport is the reason I can see you think that’s all that’s going on in it right now. There’s a hell of a lot more than just the drama going on that people talk about. 4. I won’t go deep into your lack of insight on the Joey/Denny/Austin situation as well as the Earnhardts(jr. Was not like his dad at all as a driver) but as someone deeply engrained in the sport it was frustrating to listen to lol. Again I don’t blame you as you don’t watch it. Overall great video and every other point you made I pretty much agree with. Hopefully we can see NASCAR grow back to where it was in the early 2000’s again. Keep doing what you do Alex love your videos, been watching since the early fitment industries days 🤝 Shameless plug: if you’re interested in funny NASCAR race analysis come watch my new videos.
NASCAR is a perfect embodiment of legacy American companies. Most of them as they lose popularity do essentially nothing to change then say it’s the customers fault we are doing the same thing we always did. Harley Davidson and dodge come to mind as well.
except you are absolutely incorrect? nascar has done nothing BUT change year after year in every way possible to try and stay alive since 2007/08. (hell even 2004). If they had kept the formula truly the same the popularity woulda went full circle and NASCAR would be in a better place with a traditional championship maybe cars that aren’t indestructible idk lol
@ayTesz NASCAR has added gimmicks and unnecessary changes and doesn't undo them instead they double down on them...a few boring road course races last year, they had removed the stage yellows on road courses, but brought them back due to fans complaining about the races being boring instead of actually fixing the cars.
@@ayTesz they kept things exactly the same for nearly 2 decades as they lost fans, then they change things up at the last minute upsetting the small fan base they had left. I’m not a marketing expert but I remember nascar being a big deal as a kid, and not so big of a deal as an adult. You would think nascar could have found a way to capitalize on the resurgence of car culture over the last decade or so but they have not managed to do so in a meaningful way as far as I can tell. The new cars really haven’t made the racing any better in my view, I just hear more drivers complain about them.
Being half West Virginian, I was basically born to be a NASCAR fan. Anyway, I got the chance to see the race at Sonoma this year after having gone to a few oval track races and I was so into NASCAR again. I’ve been to Dover, Richmond, and Charlotte but seeing these cars on a road course was something I want to see more of.
People seem too look at the badge or the number and forget the sole reason why Austin Dillon has a cup series ride bc hes the grandson of Richard Childres. Meanwhile these same people call Ty Gibbs, son of Joe Gibbs, a silver spoon despite outpacing him week in and out. Its the double standard with that and the fact that Austin Dillons last race win before this involved doing almost the same damn thing to Austin Cindric in the 2nd 2022 Daytona race (where 80% of the field wrecked out bc of a shower btw) AND THE KICKER IS HE DID THE SAME THING TO ARIC ALMIROLA TO WIN THE 2018 DAYTONA 500. Its the fact that Austin Dillon is a piece of shit racer thats the issue.
As someone who doesn't like either Nascar or F1, I'll just say WHY they don't interest me. Most of it is probably the cars and the drama. I want to see different manufacturers trying new things, and restrictions not holding them back to a point where you really have to look to find a different from one car to another. I want to see cars having their own advantages that may help or hurt them depending on the track or even just which corner they're on. The drama, I just don't care for. It gets quick click views, but it's not going to draw me into a sport. It gives that TV show feel to it where it's drama for views. I want some Ford vs Ferrari at Lemans type drama, not Joey did a burnout in the pits because he got pit menuvered. (Which I think is an issue itself for me, I want clean racing. Is it really a win if you had to wreck the other guy? How does that feel good?) If you've made it this far and are curious, I like to watch Rally, GT3, and LMDH/LMH
As a huge nascar fan, I hate the fact that literally nothing changed. If anything leadership has gotten progressively worse over the past few years. It’s all just business men making business decisions. Not making decisions to help grow the sport. IndyCar just signed a deal to put all their races on Network TV. They have a “REAL” championship format with some cool drivers. I haven’t had a favorite driver in nascar since Jimmie retired. And I’m a young adult….
NASCAR’s only issue is they aren’t trendy anymore. Formula 1 has 1 to 3 interesting races a year and then beyond that they are snoozefests. People ignore it because it’s trendy and people are still excited about it. NASCAR has close finishes, passing, fights, wrecks, and an appreciation for cheating in a fun way. They make sure to fully explain all decisions and why they made them instead of the walled garden of f1 where Ferrari can get caught cheating and then they never explain it. The sport does make some odd decisions if you don’t know the sport, but if you get involved they make sense. It’s the same way as when someone has to give way in formula 1. It’s complicated but drivers know the line. NASCAR fans all knew Dillon crossed lines. You never right hook someone into a wall, and his wreck of Hamlin was intentionally crashing someone for a win instead of close racing. Same as Logano was clearly going to get a penalty because every fan knows you don’t do anything dangerous on pit road. Nascar leans into drama but that’s because it’s the only time outside people pay attention. There is amazing racing but it doesn’t help if no one knows about it
@@Michael-pi8ps I watch every single race and all but 2 this year I watched live. I’m an avid fan of formula 1 and nascar. I do admit this year has had better racing than previous years but the last few before summer break is hiding some of the races that have been boring. You maybe get a little passing in the first 3 turns and then it’s auto pilot where nothing happens. Im not saying nascar doesn’t also have boring races (because they do), but you forgive boring events when it’s popular.
I haven’t missed a formula one race going on 5/6 years now. you are wrong, besides Verstappen pulling away every race last year I still enjoyed every race did I think some were boring maybe.. but you gotta understand F1 is so much deeper than some overtakes lol I could watch F1 cars do parade laps. F1 has historic legacy and tradition where NASCAR HAD legacy and tradition.
@@ayTesz this is where I don’t see the difference. Formula 1 would struggle if it was only the on track product. Drive to Survive massively increased American viewership because it gave people characters and story lines to give more to the sport than the on track. I love Monaco and never want it to go, but if I showed that race to someone new to racing they would hate Formula 1. NASCAR has massive flaws on and off the track but usually there is more to see than announcers stating that in 10 laps the guy in 4th may get in range to pass the 3rd place person.
This was perfect Alex! I grew up going to the Daytona 500 and loved it! But as I got older and as you stated I find it hard to feel invested in the sport and drivers. The last time I felt excitement for a sport was FD in 2012 and I haven’t looked back since.
Loving these videos and appreciate you bringing attention to the things that you do! Maybe turn off the reverb on your microphone? You don’t have to if you don’t want to but it would make the videos more enjoyable for me!
What I like about F1, is that it's a design and engineering competition, that happens to be decided on a race track. There's so many more pieces that go into each car and race. Multiple tire compounds and they have to use at least two during a race. Tracks change drastically throughout the session. They actually race in the rain, and the strategy around rain can make or break your race. Honestly, it's just more fun than watching 300+ loops for 2-5 hours. F1 is ~90 minutes, and generally pushing to 8-9 tenths the entire time 🤷♂️
I personally am a NASCAR fan and wish it would regain popularity! There are definitely things NASCAR needs to fix... but I doubt the France family is interested in fixing it while it's still wildly profitable.
NASCAR with a full season points format and with a competent governing body would be the most exciting Motorsport on Earth. I love NASCAR, always have, and I probably always will, even though I’m deeply unhappy with the current system. Also, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was virtually the polar opposite of his father. Dale Jr. was an extremely shy and respectful driver for most of his career, whilst still being very successful, even if not to the extent of his father.
1. Drop the playoffs and go back to points championship. !992 Championship was magic. The perfect storm. That's what NASCAR is chasing and they'll never recreate that by trying to manufacture drama by fudging the points. 2. Drop the stages. Just an excuse to bunch up the field for increased crash drama. (I like crashes too, but it should be real racing incidents.) 3. Drop the Overtime GWC's... except for rain delays. 4. Enact a rule to force the field to use the same "paint schemse/liveries except for All-star and Darlington Throwbacks. It's hard to establish a driver as brand (like Earnhardt, Allison, Petty) if the car and driver are in a different look every week... Also it's just hard to follow. 5. Rubbin's Racin'. And keep it that way. F1 at this point has become time trials, teams crying on the radios with race directors, teams altering gran prix outcomes with team orders (It's not racing if you're ordered to slow down and let your teammate pass because he needs the points for the driver's championship), with manufactured pit drama and goofy DRS rules that hinder what real racing could be.
Watching on tv is boring watching in person is where its actually interesting cause depending on where your sitting you can feel the wind and pressure from the cars as they go around the track and you can feel the rumble of the engines in your chest
Another take from someone who doesn’t understand how aero dependent car were when Eardhart raced.. NO ONE was recking people like Austin Dillon did. A lot of times cars running were close enough to destabilize suck the aero out from underneath each other. Bump drafting was a thing but no one was wrecking each other during the a draft train. AND the Dale Eardhart you showed in a video from the podcast was Jr, not the original Driver of the No 3. That’s not the Dale Eardhart people were referring to. Maybe you should have written that down in the notes you kept looking at.
I haven't watched since probably 2005 and I don't plan to watch either. It was something to do with my dad on Sunday. That's about it. That being said, Mark Martin is and always will be my favorite driver. He was no drama and the most underrated driver who would never give up.
I'm following F1 and have never liked NASCAR. It's inevitable to me when driving in oval like endlessly, the only thing that can effectively get people excited will only be bumping and crashes... which this sport is built on. As an Asian moved to US many years ago, I will say this is an American thing, same as encouraged fighting in Ice Hocky when every other sports I know if the players fight, they are out.
What NASCAR was 20 years ago, it isn't today. It honestly changed too much after the 70s. The cars are too much alike, and that's not what it started out as. You looked up to drivers because of their grit, not because of how nice they were. I don't think there's a single redeeming quality about NASCAR.
NASCAR has lost its buzz. Everyone is turning to Drifting, Autocross and Rally! Sitting there watching people to go in the same direction gets boring. NASCAR needs more excitement in their races to keep people on their toes.
We need more road course styled races. This would change EVERYTHING. Keep it rough and bumps are okay. But you see big loud V8's run around a track it'd be amazing. Like the Supercar series in Australia. I hate how that race ended because it was so unsportsmanlike but give them a road race and a big V8 and it'd be more interesting than F1
They have 5 road races on this year’s schedule and there will likely be a 6th next year. The problem is NASCAR’s current car is TOO good on the road courses so passing is tough
Can you also talk about how NASCAR has repeated ruined IndyCar races due to their stupid repaving or taking tracks away from Indy? If you want the gritty racing of NASCAR and the technicality of F1, that's what you get in IndyCar.
I am a Harrison Burton fan, and I have learned over the years that the publicity people, now work for NASCAR, so it reduces the amount of adds of the drivers, and it stops the fights early.
I've always thought of NASCAR as the WWF of racing. Oh and the "noose" was just a pull down rope on a garage door, I guess the door was up so someone used their imagination and called it what it wasn't lol. Anyone that's pulled up a garage door knows exactly what it's used for 🤣
Yeah that whole thing was a big misunderstanding on the sanctioning body’s part. The thing that really got the attention was that it was the only pull at the track that was tied up like that, and it was in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall, and he’s the only black driver in the top series. Yet Bubba caught most of the flack when he wasn’t the one to notice it
I used to love NASCAR as I was a kid But now I cannot watch that shit I literally puke watching a NASCAR race it makes me dizzy seen the Car around around for the same exact amount of time
the thing with old nascar was a little bit of contact was a risk for everybody involved the cars are so strong these days the drivers know they get multiple chances at wrecking and getting away with it.
NASCAR really really needs to bring “stock” back into play. Part of the appeal was the drama but also the cars. You USED to be able to actually buy the cars they raced at a dealer. I can get the safety aspect of a uniform chassy but that is not a “stock car”. The engines, at the very very least should be STOCK, as in “I can go to a dealer and buy a Mustang 5.0L NASCAR engine spec”. “Oh so and so manufacturer got rid of V8s and only makes turbos now? Well, guess they’re racing with those then”. It needs drama, grit and SOMETHING stock. I also agree the current points system is extremely confusion for people just tuning in.
If they're ok with "rubbing is racing" and in their eyes it is ok to pit maneuver someone at over 150 MPH. Then they should allow the drivers to fight one on one, like they do in the NHL.
People have lost their appreciation for NASCAR. Restrictor plates, bumper to bumper drafting, not letting your foot off the pedal lest you lose 5 places and cause a horrifically awesome pileup that DOESNT cost millions of dollars per car like F1. and with more circuit racing coming and more downforce, more corners.. NASCAR has so much potential.
NASCAR in my opinion will never be the same as it was, I’m 22 not in my 50s or 60s. Growing up watching NASCAR was an event every race every weekend was an event. Drivers in the early 2000s had personalities unlike today’s drivers, The wrecks were huge the racing was Great! Right around 2013-2016 is when nascar started to die.
It’s hard to be able to race excitingly & rough when they’re a million laps. Its just saving your stuff until the last few laps then they get excited. To finish first, you must first finish.
I don't keep up with NASCAR, but I did get a laugh about a lot of people not caring because of who it was done to - Hamlin and Logano absolutely would have wrecked other drivers to get into the playoffs, so 🤷♂️
Nascar is like hockey, people watch it for the crashes and fights. Unlike years past, they no longer have names that are easily recognizable. The Earnharts, Andretties, Pettys, Jimmy Johnson were easily recognizable because they were marketable with charisma. Now, these drivers are just a name with no meaning to majority of the public that doesn't watch nascar.
All I will say is go watch the ending of the Xfinity race at Indianapolis. That is the kind of racing that NASCAR fans love and it does happen, just social media focuses on the Drama instead.
I stopped watching nascar in 2006, they had a an unwritten rule of not purposely wrecking each other but they did bump and push each other. Now the cars are so aero that they just run in a line. It just doesn’t feel the same.
I was a Jmac fan throughout his cup career because he wasnt "that guy". Didnt miss anything for several years. Nascar was new to me and was fun in thr early 00s. Thennit slowly got more and more gimmicky. By thr time Jamie's career was winding down so was my enthusiasm for thr sport. Those were good years though. Fun times. But lifes goes on.
I graduated from the nascar school and had buddies who worked in nascar and I can’t frigging stand it. It’s bad racing with just garbage drama about old men being triggered about crap. It’s never about good racing, good drivers and fun things going on in the sport. I always enjoyed and leaned towards F1 and even voiced that while at the nascar school. It’s superior racing, superior drivers and much better and cooler racing cars. I don’t care about racing in Virginia. That’s boring stuff on boring tracks where yes they mostly turn left. Throw in angry old white men and it’s a complete turn off. All the rules changing, the names of races changing, teams changing, new tracks in checks notes Iowa wow. And the worst part is it’s 5 hours long and now they had stupid breaks or sectors in the race. Why? Just shorten the race. How is that difficult to see? Baseball did it with the pitch clock. Unfortunately I don’t see the real basis for nascar changing anytime soon so it will continue to die off.
Big fan of NASCAR here and you bring up a lot of good points. A Lot of these issues have happened after a new person took control and while there were a lot of changes, there also was a lot of nothing too. Nascar doesn't know what it is at this point and they don't care about the fans or even the drivers. They do what they want and they are hurting the sport because of it. The drama is definitely a black spot in nascar and with the flag rulings it is good on Nascar to make those changes but I don't understand why people take such offence for it. The Bubba Wallace thing in 2020 was also a huge thing that I think even the former president was getting involved in saying that Wallace should be banned from the sport for wasting law enforcement time, which is hugely out of line. The sport is and for the foreseeable future, will be stuck between the past and the present. The old fans want the old racing and the new fans want the new racing and nascar wants none of it. I mean we have only had 3 people of color ever win in the sports top 3 series. Its really unacceptable. I love nascar but it needs to get with the times
The problem is that NASCAR isnt racing, its spectacle. NASCAR is to racing what the WWE is to Olympic Wrestling. NASCAR rules are not designed for fairness or competition, but to create the most spectacular circumstances. Green white checker finishes, the playoffs, and stage racing are all great examples. Its not a problem if you enjoy it, but you really cannot compare NASCAR to any Motorsport
My problem with Nascar is the oval tracks (yes), simple tracks like these gave drivers way too many opportunity to play dirty in mindless fashion, should've just run more roadcourses and make it like WTCC or V8 Supercars but with these big heavy cars with no downforce, keep how raw it felt and just let them race without some stupid rules .
Bro, right there with you, Tuned in in the late 90s and early 2000s, and then stopped caring entirely. I think the field changed fast, all the old timers retired around the same time, car of tomorrow came out, and for some reason, everyone stopped caring. Maybe Talladega Nights was so much better than the on track product at that time that people just stopped caring. Heck, the Drive to Survive style docuseries is good even, yet I still can't be bothered to tune in. I think the rule changes, stages, and attempts to lure viewers have mucked it up so much its a tough product to come back to. F1 by comparison is boring, I love that in nascar they dont care about "ruining someones race" they care about outright finishing order, championship be damned.
I remember my mom taking me over to my grandparents house for Sunday lunches. I would get excited because out of my entire family, Lloyd was the only one who seemed to have interest in cars. He had model Corvette's and a few bits of NASCAR memorabilia. I remember occasionally watching races with him and telling myself ONE DAY I would own a C4 vette that he could ride along in. He passed away before I did that, but the memory of NASCAR and domestic cars comes from him.
When I look at NASCAR nowadays, I am trying to find something to love. Every few months I tune into a race somehow, somewhere and don't find it as enthralling as I once did. Jump on reddit and the "controversial" news are things that should just be..common sense. I feel young, yet old, reading arguments that feel like a Facebook feed from senile old men. So I turn it off, jump to another sport like F1 or WRC and go on with my life.
I want to watch NASCAR. I want to love it. This last weekend had drama. It had suspense. It had...well not the most ethical driving, but at least for a brief moment, the controversy was about the driving and not something that felt like a battle between CNN and FOX.
Let me know if you think i'm wrong. I'm NOT an avid NASCAR enthusiast but I am a fan of all things motorsport. I'd watch it all day if I could fall in love with it a bit more. What're your thoughts? Let me know below. I'm Alex, thanks for watching and hopefully subscribing :)
Thank you for sharing I appreciate your insight on this interesting topic. To answer your last statement, No, your are not wrong about your thoughts or your perspective on the overall situation. I think your desire and interest in the sport from this one instance, is the same thing that would bring me back into the NASCAR world: the focus around the atmosphere and goings around NASCAR itself. One of the biggest reasons I was turned off from NASCAR after the early 2000's was because it wasn't focused on the drivers, races and general atmosphere of the sport itself. Even when I saw the news that was unrelated to the sport itself it just turned me way thinking it would take a long time to recover from. I used to only watch the Daytona 500 but even lately, I forget it is even on. I do feel for you and many others about the current state of the sport and want things a bit more focused and can immerse people back into the world of NASCAR like you mentioned for F1. At least for me in the early 2000's it really was like that. I hope my message was understood. I appreciate your insight and uploads. Take care!
@@AlexMartini. Ok current nascar has a lot going on I feel liked there was a lot missed in this video. First I’m a nascar fan so here’s my take. NASCAR is for one owned by the France family it’s not owed by a company so some things still feel a little mom and pop ish. Also the style of racing is very different then other forms of Motorsport. I would recommend to pick a driver and follow along with that driver and watch the race in the entirety with someone who’s educated in the sport to walk you along if you have any questions. There’s a ton going on I just don’t think you know where to look. Daytonas second race is this weekend give it a shot. I’d love to answer any questions you have if you want to get into the sport
NASCAR has really gone downhill the past few years since the gen 7 cars, and with playoffs, stages and green-white-checkers it's just one gimmick after another, I don't like the gen 7 cars at all, they are a sports car running on mostly circle tracks.
@@PaperBanjo64 I agree but it’s mostly the aero under the car that’s the problem and nascar needs to do something about it. It really hasn’t been to many green white checkers this year but it’s been a fuck ton f overtime races
I only watched nascar in the past for Dale. Once he left this world, I stopped watching. The adrenaline seemed to leave the sport. The Intimidator was gone
Also, watching cars for hours just turning left is boring. They need f1 style tracks with American cars to get us involved. Fast mustangs vs chargers vs Camaros/vettes. We need those transam days back. V8s crushing the pavement 💪🏼
This sounds like a joke, but I’m totally serious: NASCAR should put a boxing ring at the center of each infield and allow drivers to put gloves on and fight at the end of races. I’d watch the s**t out of that!
Nascar 100% needs a hockey fight rule. Let em go at it till one gets knocked down or really hurt lol
back in the day bowman gray stadium held boxing and wrestling matches.
You watch Joe Rogan don’t you 😂
If you need a fight to break out to watch a sport it isn’t a good sport
As a Nascar fan for nearly 16 years, big issues is Nascar's officiating, their playoff format of crowing a champion, bad broadcasts(fox), bad Short track and rc racing, along with the lack of driver recognition from the public
The Nascar playoffs in my opinion have hurt the sport due to its way of crowining champions. A Driver like Austin Dillon if he was in the playoffs could win in each round and win the final race and win the title despite being 31st in points. This is like if the 20th place driver in F1 points wins the title due to winning the last race of the season. Nascar needs to go back to a season long points format like every single motorsports series on this planet has. Only 3 of the past 10 cup champions would have been champions in a regular season long format.
Increasing horsepower, removing stage breaks, fixing road course and short track racing, better officiating, better broadcast for fans, getting their drivers known by the public and puting themselves out their and making more personalities for the sport, better marketing and lots more
Really it’s just the higher ups neutering the sport making them drive slow
So basically, the France family needs to go
@@useless4692yeah, as much as I love what Bill France has done for the sport they're cooked
Yeah I mean there is other motorsport out there. For a new fan you get into Nascar for 5 minutes and it's fake yellow flags and then some rule where drivers who have more points don't get to fight for the championship and get dropped based on some system. It's like if there was another NBA and you're like amazing, I love basketball, but then they reset the score to 50-50 at halftime and then a team that is 4th in the standings misses the playoffs because of "reasons". Then the safety aspect is jarring from any other motorsport. You have cars still running on track and there are random crew and reporters and camera people and photographers and family and babies out in the pitlane. Wild stuff.
It's interesting to see someone who is a fan pretty much agree with my thoughts when I am not I fan but recently have tried to get into it. I got into F1 and truly wanted to do the same with Nascar and Indy. Like you say, broadcasts are awful. The younger generations want things quick and on demand, having commercial breaks during the race, and announcers reading ads should go away. What should matter is the racing and the announcer should be able to explain easily what is happening. That is why F1 has grown, one race is just roughly 2 hours and you are done, and not one second was the broadcast cut to sell you something but you sure as hell want to spend the $100 on the shirt of your favorite driver.
The other thing is that the playoff format is confusing as hell. I watched the Netflix series and it almost feels like there are 2 competitions within Nascar, each with their own confusing point system to learn. The show also felt like they wanted to highlight drama over racing and not the technical side. Nascar should go beyond the drama and start showcasing the technical side, the strategies, etc.
They should be open enough to welcome people that don't know about Nascar and show the people behind the scenes. There's is this assumption that people watching know everything going on and that just kills interest beacuse they put a barrier for you to join.
I've long been a fan of F1 so I've never really cared for Nascar, but Ross Chastain riding the wall at Martinsville in 2022 was easily one of the coolest things I've even seen on a race track. It's a shame that Nascar hasn't had more of those types of moments.
NASCAR constantly has close finishes and driver feuds. The smaller series like the Cars Tour would be a place to start if you want to watch Stock Car racing without ads interrupting it.
This is exact the type of moment NASCAR fans don't want to see. It only showed people the chaotic side of the sport. They take a look at it, say "well that was stupid" And turn off.
NASCAR is a a racing series like no other, full contact, with varied driver skills and different tracks and surfaces.
And the Chastain thing showed none of that
@@quickgenerichannelname3295 Interesting take. I found the response at the time to be overwhelmingly positive. As someone who’s always had trouble connecting with the sport, seeing someone pull off a move I’ve only ever seen executed in a video game was dope af. It was an indication that someone who thinks like I would, regularly competes in the sport. I gotta think that increasing the audience.
@@giancarlog8653 I agree, everyone I talked to, even friends that dot watch racing, when shows the video, said it was one of the coolest things they saw.
This is exactly NASCAR's problem. It sees some guy say this and thinks "oh, we need more craziness," when that is not the way to do it. Moments like that are entertaining precisely because they don't happen often. If they happened too often, they cease to be unique and spectacular and become an annoyance. NASCAR doesn't realize (or refuses to accept) they're just making the sport annoying to people who watch every week.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. was rough, but he wasn't reckless. Dale Jr was one of the most respectful drivers that ever raced in NASCAR. I don't know where calling him "rough" came from.
What Dillon did at Richmond, and the 2018 Daytona 500 (where he intentionally spun out the leader at 200MPH in front of 30 cars).
Earnhardt right hooked Darrell Waltrip into the wall once
@@JackLikesTrackhouseand got fined and put on probation for rough driving in that instance. He was pretty rough in that late 80’s era for sure though
He didn't get the nickname "the intimidator" for nothing.
Its simple, the guy doesn't watch nascar or does any research about video topics.
@@dustykh He said he watched it as a kid, so this is from his perspective
I remember someone said Nascar isn't really about racing, it's a southern soap opera. Every time I look at it, that statement feels very accurate.
That's how I feel about F1. Monaco isn't a race, it's a fashion show for the ultra wealthy who aren't even motorsports fans.
@@leeboss6631monaco is a weird example, because the glamour has always been there, however this years race would disprove your point. The passion for leclercs win (the home hero), after years of bad luck and mistakes. Also its definitely not a parade for the drivers. Monaco isnt about the wheel to wheel racing, its about the driver’s driving at their maximum ability to keep from crashing. A driver described it best, its like riding your bicycle in the living room. However, races like miami are EXACTLY what you described. There is basically no racing passion there. The track is horrible, and its all about the celebrities.
A few facts here:
1. Austin Dillon had that race won before a caution with 2 laps to go came out. Due to NASCAR’s overtime rule, they extend the race to make sure it ends under green. That’s part of why he wasn’t willing to have that taken away.
2. Dale Jr wasn’t a dirty driver. Dale Sr was aggressive.
3. “Pop pop” is Austin Dillon’s grandfather, Richard Childress. The team owner and the reason why he drives that car
Thank you. Love Alex, but he was out if his depth of knowledge on this one.
I hope Alex reads this. This video was definitely under-researched and has some clear misinformation and lack of context. It’s like he’s a casual fan of a casual fan’s social media and used that as his source.
This should be higher up
The act of viewing Nascar has been 95% cheering on crashes and drinking. But it's been getting less exciting and less rough. So now it's drinking and drama.
What about 2024 Atlanta or 2024 Kansas or 2024 Michigan cup and xfinity or 2024 daytona and talladega.
I stopped going to races when they stopped letting coolers into the track.
@@dadbodmotomod5840texas motor speedway still let us bring coolers in when i went last year
The races are about as exciting and as rough they have ever been in the past 25 years. Just say u don't watch casual 😂😂😂
This!!
As an American, I do have soft spot for NASCAR. Not a huge fan, but I do enjoy it sometimes. However, I do find too sterile nowadays. I feel that the drivers don't have a personality when talking to the camera. They talk in this odd corporate cadence through forced smiles very similar to NFL players. The only time where a sliver of personality pokes out is when there is drama and the drivers get legitimately frustrated or angry.
As for F1, I tried getting into it, but I just can't. I don't like the culture surrounding it these days. It's too focused on flaunting this decadent and luxurious lifestyle filled with corpo-bros, influencers, and celebrities rather than the cars and racing. It was better in the 90s. I also find a lot of the modern fans of F1 to be obnoxious, arrogant, and prejudiced.
As a person of Latin-American decent I surprisingly found more hostility from fans in the F1 side of the house than in NASCAR. Despite the occasional racist Southern white man, most NASCAR fans are more or less pretty chill. Most of the F1 fans I've met are very Euro centric and see anything outside of Europe as "beneath them". Even American F1 fans are acting this way despite being constantly insulted by European fans. Don't get me started with the Verstappen fans on Hamilton. Some of the shit I hear and see coming from a lot Verstappen fans about Hamilton is downright racist. Even with Verstappen's teammate, Sergio "Checo' Perez, they get vicious with the prejudice language.
That being said. I'm a more of a fan of rallying, touring cars, and grand touring cars.
That's interesting, I get that from Europeans in general just being a white American lol. It's like they wanna be seen as the most tolerant, high brow elite by calling everyone else idiots, dumb racist Americans (350mil quite diverse people, quite a generalization) and only like black and brown people who wanna move to their country lol. But that's just that high brow weird European of course, most are great, but it is a weird phenomenon, and I agree F1 seems to cater to that crowd.
I 100% agree with this statement, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way about F1 and nascar. IMO only IMSA and WEC is where the real racing is right now.
If you haven’t checked out the Cars Tour, I think you might like it. It has a lot of personality that felt a little lacking in NASCAR. The series is run by Dale Jr and Kevin Harvick.
@@alejandroc4083IMSA is fantastic. As a big Corvette fan, it definitely scratches that itch
Those people are everywhere. They are not the majority but they are loud and noticeable, unfortunately. Be it football racing or whatever, people be people, good and bad.
Ask any real F1 fan their top 10 drivers of all time and you will probably have an Argentinian &/ a Brazilian topping a large proportions lists.
Racism and being elitist is not what F1 is about, it's innovation and fine tuning to eek out any sliver of a margin against the competition. (And trying to find loopholes in rules, just like NASCAR)
The squeaky clean image/robotic interviews are a result of corporate sponsorship.. can't be saying anything that would alienate any of the potential customers for those sponsors.
Some of the most loved teams are those that inspire, though winning is obviously a massive draw too.
Your perception of NASCAR is deeply flawed, Alex. NASCAR doesn’t encourage crashing others, they never did (up to now... I guess...). The handed rough/reckless driving penalties for decades.
What NASCAR is a full contact motorsport, where cars are tough enough to handle some bumping here and there. For most of its history however there was an unwritten code between drivers, what kind of contact was okay, and what wasn't. Because one type of bump could move someone from the preferred racing line and the other could kill them.
Ever since NASCAR introduces the stupid playoffs, it seems like that code has gone out of the window. Drivers have become reckless and desperate and those moments now overshadow great racing that still happens on the weekly basis.
NASCAR's downfall is just simply sad to me.
Great comment
Great comment overall, although NASCAR is on an upswing right now. They’ve grown a lot in the past 3 years. Not like it used to be in the early 2000’s obviously.
I remember growing up and going to the Vegas race twice a year with my grandparents. Nascar was a huge part of our life, I had a #9 Kasey Kahne sticker on my red quad and a #48 Jimmy Johnson sticker on my 50cc dirt bike.
The first year I had my license, I took my high school buddies down to Vegas and we suffered through the 100-degree September heat for 4 hours and loved every minute of it. However, nowadays when I try to tune in and watch the races, it feels like something is missing. There isn't the same energy and passion at the races that there used to be and it doesn't seem like anything is being done to change.
For that reason, I'm far more involved in F1 and have road-tripped to Austin and Vegas over the last couple of years to attend F1 races rather than NASCAR.
That said, every once in a while I watch Talladega Nights to remember what NASCAR used to be... the good ol' days lol.
If NASCAR wants to be the WWE of motorsport that's fine, but don't expect for fans of other series and especially non-American racing fans, to ascribe any talent or respect for people that are more than happy to kill their adversaries "for the Gram".
Nascar seems like racing online where the person behind you uses you as a brake
Probably the most accurate thing I read online in a decade...
Try iracing it’s more professional 🤣🤣🤣
I watch F1, IMSA, Baja and occasionally drift. Havent watched Nascar since 2004 with my Dad.😅
As a motorsports fan i tend to be on a different side of the racing spectrum. I love watching nascar for strategies and pure unpredictability. One of the few motorsports to be able to have anyone in the field win. Id also like to add that f1 was in this similar situation just a few years back before dts and the liberty media takeover. Slowly but surely nascar is making a comeback but something like this takes time. Also i might nascar is a much more inclusive sport over f1 as it doesn't take much to be able to join one of the top 3 tiers. Nascar is also family owned and operated so it takes much more to change in its ways. As for other motorsports and drama look no further than f1 with its 2021 finish. That season is still fresh in the way people view that sport. Look at comments on any f1 post and try to find one with no hate. One thing i wish people would do is research about nascar before they speak on it as people like dale jr don't just go on some podcast as it's his podcast which is one of the biggest nascar podcasts ran by his company dirty mo media which is one of the biggest if not the biggest independent news and just entertainment companies in racing. As for the flag stuff, Nascar is a sport founded in the Deep South, and at this point, the flag was more synonymous with Nascar than the Confederacy. Also it and the noose incident, which was nothing more than a pull rope for the garage door, happened at the peak of the george Floyd and blm movement, so it got way more exposure than deserved. I hope you don't take this as hate as i am a fan, but i just take this sport and the media it gains very seriously
There was also that wall riding incident a few years ago. It has changed so much since I started watching 25 years ago, the ever changing points system was confusing, which didn’t help. Rubbing is racing and that may not always be a good thing I think 🤔
What in the midwest is that hair cut?
Bro said to his barber: gimme the business up front party in the back
Redneck style
I wanted to dress the part for this video...
Please don't cancel the barber
@@AlexMartini. Nailed it! Even skinnier joe dirt! :)
Nascar is like old Basketball. It's rough and aggressive but there are limits.
Rubbing is racing and fights were common, where should the limits be?
Hockey also
@AlexMartini There are limits that NASCAR has begun to establish. That is intentionally hooking someone into the wall. In 2022 at Las Vegas Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson were racing for position. Larson ran Bubba up the race track and into the wall. Bubba got upset and came down the race track and intentionally hooked Larson sending them both hard into the outside wall. Afterwards Bubba got out of his car and shoved Larson a few times. It’s important to note that this was the first year of the Gen 7 car and at the time its safety has been called into question after two drivers were sidelined due to concussions, so this was a very bad look for bubba. These cars travel at around 150-190 mph so a move like that is uncalled for. NASCAR rightfully suspended him for one race. A few months later in the 2023 Coke 600 a similar situation played out between Chase Elliot and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin washed up the race track, got into Elliot put him in the wall, Elliot got mad and hooked him into the wall. Charlotte speed’s dogleg is more sharper than Las Vegas’s one so the angle Hamlin hit the wall was a lot more violent than Larson’s crash. What did NASCAR do? Suspended him for one race. So they are trying draw a line now. They have SMT data that they use to track the drivers inputs so they know if it’s intentional or not. I’m all for boys have at it but right hooking someone into the wall is pretty much the equivalent of throwing the gloves off and shouldn’t be tolerated. That’s why NASCAR penalized Dillon. It should’ve been more harsh imo.
@@AlexMartini. The moment you go from racing to turning off your line to wreck someone else. Doing it twice is a serious misconduct.
When you see this discourse about Nascar, the root of it usually is caused by the very stupid and contrived rules the governing body has for the sport's points format and overtime finishes to races. The combination of these two creates scenarios where a super desperate driver like Austin Dillon can save his season by forcing his car into first place to win the race no matter what. A lot of the old fans remember the time 20 years ago when the sport had less ridiculous rules and enforcement of those rules was much more consistent and transparent. That's why the drama around the sport because it's manufactured by the current rules that Nascar itself encourages.
It sucks that this is what everyone thinks of when 2024 has had the best racing in a decade, the closest finishes ever, and incredible progress in the sport.
yea it was cool
Thanks for commenting this. You are so right but the f1 people in this videos comments keep calling NASCAR a sport stuck in the mud.
At least we have battles and good racing.
What is it missing? Soul.
Perfect summary of NASCAR..."Angry old men, saying angry old things, about angry old traditional values, and angry old people causing drama on the internet"
Wrong
Wrong
😂🤦♂️😂
That part !!!💯💯💯
Not everything has to be woke like f1
“No one knows where Nascar is heading…”
…Left
Rubbins racing when you have fenders. What Dillon did was straight up wrecking. Very different
You gotta remember the history of nascar is based on the fact that you could actually buy the cars that were racing that day. Sure they’ve been modified, and people knew that, but they could see Petty driving the superbird and knew it was at least available to them. People like us, who are scraping by just to get to work, aren’t connected to nascar at its core anymore. Car prices are high, the cars we see racing aren’t relatable anymore, and the enthusiast dream is being sacrificed for SUV’s. I think this is a big reason why so many people love Cleetus when he does the danger rangers and the crown Vics. It’s relatable and people can actually afford a POS crown Vic if they so wanted to. They feel like the drivers are just like them and not some corporate placed driver who can’t relate.
Dale Earnhardt was booed whenever he pulled off controversial moves (he was the most popular driver) So those commending Dillon for this move are just braindead.
this is so wrong its insane Bill Elliott literally won the most popular driver award from 1990-2000 / 2002 and had to take his own name of the ballot.
the only year Sr won the award was after his death posthumously in 2001.
Dale Earnhardt Sr may have been the face of the sport the guy people recognize the most but in the actual sport itself and from people who were invested and hardcore fans Earnhardt was a guy loved by a lot and hated by more.
Earnhardt’s death turned everyone into a Sr fan it simply was never like that before.
As a foreigner, Nascar looks like the WWE of motorsports. I watch F1, but they are just drama divas... WEC and especially Fanatec GT3 are the sweetspot. Love the racing in GT3. Also, the MX5 Cup races are insanely awesome.
and 30 years ago IndyCar was the dominant motorsport in the US and it even rivaled F1. The peak of that is when F1 World Champ Nigel Mansell bailed on F1 and went to IndyCar and won the title and is the only driver to ever concurrently be F1 and IndyCars champ.
There's the stories that Bill France of NASCAR and Bernie Eccelstone of F1 got in Tony George's ear and it lead to IndyCar(CART) tearing itself on half and that lead to NASCAR becoming the dominant motorsport in the US and IndyCar still hasn't recovered from this.
I remember when I tried getting into NASCAR as a kid but I quickly found out that most of the sport is drama and strict regulations around cars. I never once cared about the race itself. The logical answer was just straight up GT3 because it does well in every category that NASCAR has failed. In short, it just feels like anything that actually happens that's interesting on the track is either punished or immediately banned.
I'm the first to admit in a group of people that I'm a NASCAR fan. I grew up watching Jimmie Johnson win 7 championships, the Hendrick Motorsports domination, the sponsor changes from the Winston Cup, to Nextel, and then to Sprint. When I moved into my dorm for college I didn't have an affordable way to watch NASCAR anymore. Now I have an antenna tv and a TH-cam TV account from a relative to watch it. People used to recognize drivers. NASCAR tv commercials were amazing, sponsorship deals saw cutouts of drivers at the big box stores. It seems like it's so hard to get that anymore. Big names like Lowe's FedEx, Dupont, Menards, etc.. aren't full time sponsors for drivers anymore. Do I understand why? Mostly. I used to be a big Jeff Gordon fan, but now I don't have a consistent favorite driver. Nobody seems to stand out as much as Jimmie, Jeff, or Dale did back in the day. I'm not sure what NASCAR needs to do to change it for the better, but I sure hope they change it quickly. I'd love to see NASCAR rise up in the rankings again.
Did not know why people like nascar, now I know it's WWE for cars lol
It’s ridiculous honestly, NASCAR has just completely ruined the legitimacy of the sport. With the playoffs and overtime and stage racing it’s all just manufactured entertainment.
@@ZPaul_yeah all that bogus bs they changed for the sake of gambling just ruined any interest I ever had in nascar.
Maybe that's why I dislike NASCAR. I found WWE rather revolting back when I was kid, I find WWE rather repulsive as an adult now.
For a lifelong F1 fan, NASCAR is just weird, but I get it. Ovals...beer...the roughness of it all. It looks like they are starting to lose that as well. How about INDY? It seems they are not doing so well either (for other reasons). I've always sort of keep an eye but it also seems like it has never recovered from the CART split. Maybe its a systemic inside the US thing...where motor racing just isnt on the radar screen as much anymore.
NASCAR was never the loudest. It doesn't even come close to the decibel level of Top Fuel or Nitro Funny Cars.
Grew up near Bristol Motor Speedway. Saw the top Nascar series at Bristol in '98. Was near Indy a couple weeks before the 500 in '04 and got to see some practicing. We forgot our earplugs and said "they don't sound that loud on tv, maybe we won't need them for a partial pack." One lap of 7-8 cars sent us ducking under the seats to pay for overpriced ear plugs. But it wasn't just LOUD, you could feel the wave of energy pass over you. A couple of years later, top fuel a took that and cranked it way up! Like a bomb went off and kept detonating for a few seconds. Traveling probably 150mph as it passed where we were seated. They are a whole different type of machine.
This situation is a direct result of NASCAR's stupid "playoff" championship model. Yeah, what Dillon did was pretty sh***y, but no driver would have done that except because of the "win to get in" nature of this "playoff" system.
It's time for NASCAR to ditch the "playoffs", ditch stage racing, ditch the spec series cars, and go back to their roots. Let the teams build the best car they can, line 'em up, and let them race for the full race distance. Count up the points at the end of the year and crown a champion.
Last time NASCAR was covered on ESPN was like 2014. Not saying ESPN is a major player in the racing world, but it says a lot when the largest sporting outfit doesn’t even cover mention your sport anymore when they used to have at least one NASCAR segment if there was a race over the weekend.
ESPN reduces coverage of any sport when it doesn't hold the rights to games. When they stopped carrying NHL games, hockey coverage on Sportscenter went to almost nothing.
That 1 dude how did a wall rid was the most exciting thing I ever seen in Nas car
Alex I agree with most of what you said in this video but I think you’re off base on quite a lot. Don’t take this comment as hate just expressing where I disagree.
NASCAR is not dying, in fact it’s on an upward trajectory compared to where it’s been the last decade. Of course it’s nowhere near where it used to be but it’s unfair to claim that it’s dying with huge growth especially in the past 3 years.
1. The racing is better than it has been for a while and is getting better with this new gen of cars. There’s been 3-4 of the some of the closest finishes ever in nascar history this year alone. A lot of it is aero blocking/drafting/etc and doesn’t work exactly the same way as other forms of racing. The road course races in nascar are great and entertaining with the lack of downforce.
2. The sport has always been about being relatable and being rough round the edges as a person and driver. If nascar changes that to someone to look up to rather than being relatable they lose the spirit of the sport. Although you have heros like Dale Sr. to look up to you certainly feel he’s still an average every day guy outside of the sport. They’re all about being rowdy and having fun just like the average American (they do burnouts after a win and there’s no podium, losers go home).
3. Drama is fun and good in any sport. I agree it shouldn’t be everything. You mostly got that one right. Although it’s lack of knowledge of the sport is the reason I can see you think that’s all that’s going on in it right now. There’s a hell of a lot more than just the drama going on that people talk about.
4. I won’t go deep into your lack of insight on the Joey/Denny/Austin situation as well as the Earnhardts(jr. Was not like his dad at all as a driver) but as someone deeply engrained in the sport it was frustrating to listen to lol. Again I don’t blame you as you don’t watch it.
Overall great video and every other point you made I pretty much agree with. Hopefully we can see NASCAR grow back to where it was in the early 2000’s again. Keep doing what you do Alex love your videos, been watching since the early fitment industries days 🤝
Shameless plug: if you’re interested in funny NASCAR race analysis come watch my new videos.
What this guy said
NASCAR is a perfect embodiment of legacy American companies. Most of them as they lose popularity do essentially nothing to change then say it’s the customers fault we are doing the same thing we always did. Harley Davidson and dodge come to mind as well.
Gibson guitars as well
except you are absolutely incorrect? nascar has done nothing BUT change year after year in every way possible to try and stay alive since 2007/08. (hell even 2004).
If they had kept the formula truly the same the popularity woulda went full circle and NASCAR would be in a better place with a traditional championship maybe cars that aren’t indestructible idk lol
@ayTesz NASCAR has added gimmicks and unnecessary changes and doesn't undo them instead they double down on them...a few boring road course races last year, they had removed the stage yellows on road courses, but brought them back due to fans complaining about the races being boring instead of actually fixing the cars.
@@ayTesz they kept things exactly the same for nearly 2 decades as they lost fans, then they change things up at the last minute upsetting the small fan base they had left. I’m not a marketing expert but I remember nascar being a big deal as a kid, and not so big of a deal as an adult. You would think nascar could have found a way to capitalize on the resurgence of car culture over the last decade or so but they have not managed to do so in a meaningful way as far as I can tell. The new cars really haven’t made the racing any better in my view, I just hear more drivers complain about them.
Being half West Virginian, I was basically born to be a NASCAR fan. Anyway, I got the chance to see the race at Sonoma this year after having gone to a few oval track races and I was so into NASCAR again. I’ve been to Dover, Richmond, and Charlotte but seeing these cars on a road course was something I want to see more of.
People seem too look at the badge or the number and forget the sole reason why Austin Dillon has a cup series ride bc hes the grandson of Richard Childres. Meanwhile these same people call Ty Gibbs, son of Joe Gibbs, a silver spoon despite outpacing him week in and out.
Its the double standard with that and the fact that Austin Dillons last race win before this involved doing almost the same damn thing to Austin Cindric in the 2nd 2022 Daytona race (where 80% of the field wrecked out bc of a shower btw)
AND THE KICKER IS HE DID THE SAME THING TO ARIC ALMIROLA TO WIN THE 2018 DAYTONA 500. Its the fact that Austin Dillon is a piece of shit racer thats the issue.
There's an almost 1:1 comparison with Hockey and fighting.
Yea, the people who watch NASCAR or Hockey for crashes and fighting are the brain dead fans who purely watch because of it.
As someone who doesn't like either Nascar or F1, I'll just say WHY they don't interest me.
Most of it is probably the cars and the drama. I want to see different manufacturers trying new things, and restrictions not holding them back to a point where you really have to look to find a different from one car to another. I want to see cars having their own advantages that may help or hurt them depending on the track or even just which corner they're on. The drama, I just don't care for. It gets quick click views, but it's not going to draw me into a sport. It gives that TV show feel to it where it's drama for views. I want some Ford vs Ferrari at Lemans type drama, not Joey did a burnout in the pits because he got pit menuvered. (Which I think is an issue itself for me, I want clean racing. Is it really a win if you had to wreck the other guy? How does that feel good?)
If you've made it this far and are curious, I like to watch Rally, GT3, and LMDH/LMH
bro you're on fire with these videos.
Just trying to make what you guys like and what i'm passionate about. If you ever want to see a change, just lmk :)
As a huge nascar fan, I hate the fact that literally nothing changed. If anything leadership has gotten progressively worse over the past few years. It’s all just business men making business decisions. Not making decisions to help grow the sport. IndyCar just signed a deal to put all their races on Network TV. They have a “REAL” championship format with some cool drivers. I haven’t had a favorite driver in nascar since Jimmie retired. And I’m a young adult….
NASCAR’s only issue is they aren’t trendy anymore. Formula 1 has 1 to 3 interesting races a year and then beyond that they are snoozefests. People ignore it because it’s trendy and people are still excited about it. NASCAR has close finishes, passing, fights, wrecks, and an appreciation for cheating in a fun way. They make sure to fully explain all decisions and why they made them instead of the walled garden of f1 where Ferrari can get caught cheating and then they never explain it. The sport does make some odd decisions if you don’t know the sport, but if you get involved they make sense. It’s the same way as when someone has to give way in formula 1. It’s complicated but drivers know the line. NASCAR fans all knew Dillon crossed lines. You never right hook someone into a wall, and his wreck of Hamlin was intentionally crashing someone for a win instead of close racing. Same as Logano was clearly going to get a penalty because every fan knows you don’t do anything dangerous on pit road. Nascar leans into drama but that’s because it’s the only time outside people pay attention. There is amazing racing but it doesn’t help if no one knows about it
Just say you don’t watch F1. This year has been anything but a snoozefest
@@Michael-pi8ps I watch every single race and all but 2 this year I watched live. I’m an avid fan of formula 1 and nascar. I do admit this year has had better racing than previous years but the last few before summer break is hiding some of the races that have been boring. You maybe get a little passing in the first 3 turns and then it’s auto pilot where nothing happens. Im not saying nascar doesn’t also have boring races (because they do), but you forgive boring events when it’s popular.
I haven’t missed a formula one race going on 5/6 years now.
you are wrong, besides Verstappen pulling away every race last year I still enjoyed every race did I think some were boring maybe.. but you gotta understand F1 is so much deeper than some overtakes lol I could watch F1 cars do parade laps.
F1 has historic legacy and tradition where NASCAR HAD legacy and tradition.
Well said
@@ayTesz this is where I don’t see the difference. Formula 1 would struggle if it was only the on track product. Drive to Survive massively increased American viewership because it gave people characters and story lines to give more to the sport than the on track. I love Monaco and never want it to go, but if I showed that race to someone new to racing they would hate Formula 1. NASCAR has massive flaws on and off the track but usually there is more to see than announcers stating that in 10 laps the guy in 4th may get in range to pass the 3rd place person.
This was perfect Alex! I grew up going to the Daytona 500 and loved it!
But as I got older and as you stated I find it hard to feel invested in the sport and drivers.
The last time I felt excitement for a sport was FD in 2012 and I haven’t looked back since.
You can replicate a NASCAR event at home by simply pouring some Skittles in your toilet, pull the handle and watch them spin.
Loving these videos and appreciate you bringing attention to the things that you do!
Maybe turn off the reverb on your microphone? You don’t have to if you don’t want to but it would make the videos more enjoyable for me!
Nascar was a sport made by outlaws and then sold it's soul to the man.
What I like about F1, is that it's a design and engineering competition, that happens to be decided on a race track. There's so many more pieces that go into each car and race. Multiple tire compounds and they have to use at least two during a race. Tracks change drastically throughout the session. They actually race in the rain, and the strategy around rain can make or break your race.
Honestly, it's just more fun than watching 300+ loops for 2-5 hours. F1 is ~90 minutes, and generally pushing to 8-9 tenths the entire time 🤷♂️
Alex you’re my go-to automotive journalist at the moment! Thank you for covering the topics that affect us as consumers and enthusiasts
I personally am a NASCAR fan and wish it would regain popularity! There are definitely things NASCAR needs to fix... but I doubt the France family is interested in fixing it while it's still wildly profitable.
Closest finishes in NASCAR history this year have been pretty exciting.
The Hail Melon was so much better of a situation to base a video on
NASCAR with a full season points format and with a competent governing body would be the most exciting Motorsport on Earth.
I love NASCAR, always have, and I probably always will, even though I’m deeply unhappy with the current system.
Also, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was virtually the polar opposite of his father. Dale Jr. was an extremely shy and respectful driver for most of his career, whilst still being very successful, even if not to the extent of his father.
1. Drop the playoffs and go back to points championship. !992 Championship was magic. The perfect storm. That's what NASCAR is chasing and they'll never recreate that by trying to manufacture drama by fudging the points.
2. Drop the stages. Just an excuse to bunch up the field for increased crash drama. (I like crashes too, but it should be real racing incidents.)
3. Drop the Overtime GWC's... except for rain delays.
4. Enact a rule to force the field to use the same "paint schemse/liveries except for All-star and Darlington Throwbacks. It's hard to establish a driver as brand (like Earnhardt, Allison, Petty) if the car and driver are in a different look every week... Also it's just hard to follow.
5. Rubbin's Racin'. And keep it that way. F1 at this point has become time trials, teams crying on the radios with race directors, teams altering gran prix outcomes with team orders (It's not racing if you're ordered to slow down and let your teammate pass because he needs the points for the driver's championship), with manufactured pit drama and goofy DRS rules that hinder what real racing could be.
Loved how you elegantly danced around what is NASCAR. They should hire you to help with PR. Tough job. Good luck.
Watching on tv is boring watching in person is where its actually interesting cause depending on where your sitting you can feel the wind and pressure from the cars as they go around the track and you can feel the rumble of the engines in your chest
Spec cars and restrictor plates ruined NASCAR.
Another take from someone who doesn’t understand how aero dependent car were when Eardhart raced.. NO ONE was recking people like Austin Dillon did. A lot of times cars running were close enough to destabilize suck the aero out from underneath each other. Bump drafting was a thing but no one was wrecking each other during the a draft train. AND the Dale Eardhart you showed in a video from the podcast was Jr, not the original Driver of the No 3. That’s not the Dale Eardhart people were referring to. Maybe you should have written that down in the notes you kept looking at.
great video aswell as was last weeks video so good i sent it to my entirely toyota owning mom dad and brother!! keep up the good work man!
I haven't watched since probably 2005 and I don't plan to watch either. It was something to do with my dad on Sunday. That's about it.
That being said, Mark Martin is and always will be my favorite driver. He was no drama and the most underrated driver who would never give up.
I'm following F1 and have never liked NASCAR. It's inevitable to me when driving in oval like endlessly, the only thing that can effectively get people excited will only be bumping and crashes... which this sport is built on. As an Asian moved to US many years ago, I will say this is an American thing, same as encouraged fighting in Ice Hocky when every other sports I know if the players fight, they are out.
What NASCAR was 20 years ago, it isn't today. It honestly changed too much after the 70s. The cars are too much alike, and that's not what it started out as. You looked up to drivers because of their grit, not because of how nice they were. I don't think there's a single redeeming quality about NASCAR.
NASCAR has lost its buzz. Everyone is turning to Drifting, Autocross and Rally! Sitting there watching people to go in the same direction gets boring. NASCAR needs more excitement in their races to keep people on their toes.
We need more road course styled races. This would change EVERYTHING. Keep it rough and bumps are okay. But you see big loud V8's run around a track it'd be amazing. Like the Supercar series in Australia. I hate how that race ended because it was so unsportsmanlike but give them a road race and a big V8 and it'd be more interesting than F1
They have 5 road races on this year’s schedule and there will likely be a 6th next year. The problem is NASCAR’s current car is TOO good on the road courses so passing is tough
What about Indy Car? It's pretty fun to watch
Can you also talk about how NASCAR has repeated ruined IndyCar races due to their stupid repaving or taking tracks away from Indy?
If you want the gritty racing of NASCAR and the technicality of F1, that's what you get in IndyCar.
I am a Harrison Burton fan, and I have learned over the years that the publicity people, now work for NASCAR, so it reduces the amount of adds of the drivers, and it stops the fights early.
I've always thought of NASCAR as the WWF of racing. Oh and the "noose" was just a pull down rope on a garage door, I guess the door was up so someone used their imagination and called it what it wasn't lol. Anyone that's pulled up a garage door knows exactly what it's used for 🤣
Yeah that whole thing was a big misunderstanding on the sanctioning body’s part. The thing that really got the attention was that it was the only pull at the track that was tied up like that, and it was in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall, and he’s the only black driver in the top series. Yet Bubba caught most of the flack when he wasn’t the one to notice it
I used to love NASCAR as I was a kid
But now I cannot watch that shit
I literally puke watching a NASCAR race it makes me dizzy seen the Car around around for the same exact amount of time
The classic bump and run has always been part of the sport, but not straight up pit maneuvering lol
Do a collab with Radman or the Iceberg. Or even Dale Jr.
Sounds like a great idea. Would love to learn more about it!
Old Nascar has the same energy as old british touring car, where a bit of the old 'body contact' was almost expected. Rubbing is racing and all that.
the thing with old nascar was a little bit of contact was a risk for everybody involved the cars are so strong these days the drivers know they get multiple chances at wrecking and getting away with it.
That's current IndyCar. Except it's wheel to wheel, even more intense
Those people shouldn't be in a live pitlane. It's the marshalls fault in this one.
NASCAR really really needs to bring “stock” back into play. Part of the appeal was the drama but also the cars. You USED to be able to actually buy the cars they raced at a dealer. I can get the safety aspect of a uniform chassy but that is not a “stock car”.
The engines, at the very very least should be STOCK, as in “I can go to a dealer and buy a Mustang 5.0L NASCAR engine spec”.
“Oh so and so manufacturer got rid of V8s and only makes turbos now? Well, guess they’re racing with those then”. It needs drama, grit and SOMETHING stock.
I also agree the current points system is extremely confusion for people just tuning in.
Glad to see some people get some education on NASCAR. Thank you Alex!
I stopped watching after Jeff Gordon retired. I started watching when he got into Cup as a kid. Dude is the f-ing 🐐
If they're ok with "rubbing is racing" and in their eyes it is ok to pit maneuver someone at over 150 MPH. Then they should allow the drivers to fight one on one, like they do in the NHL.
NASCAR got rid of the team builders who designed and built its own engines and cars. I never really like the racing. It's kind of boring.
Like f1 fans don’t cry and complain about literally anything and everything 😭😭
For better context, Austin Dillon was running very well for most of the race. More so in the last leg, a bad restart is where this all begone.
People have lost their appreciation for NASCAR. Restrictor plates, bumper to bumper drafting, not letting your foot off the pedal lest you lose 5 places and cause a horrifically awesome pileup that DOESNT cost millions of dollars per car like F1. and with more circuit racing coming and more downforce, more corners.. NASCAR has so much potential.
NASCAR in my opinion will never be the same as it was, I’m 22 not in my 50s or 60s. Growing up watching NASCAR was an event every race every weekend was an event. Drivers in the early 2000s had personalities unlike today’s drivers, The wrecks were huge the racing was Great! Right around 2013-2016 is when nascar started to die.
awesome video!!!!!
love seeing anything nascar related ha.
It’s hard to be able to race excitingly & rough when they’re a million laps. Its just saving your stuff until the last few laps then they get excited. To finish first, you must first finish.
GLAD YOU SAID THIS!!!🗣️
I don't keep up with NASCAR, but I did get a laugh about a lot of people not caring because of who it was done to - Hamlin and Logano absolutely would have wrecked other drivers to get into the playoffs, so 🤷♂️
Nascar is like hockey, people watch it for the crashes and fights. Unlike years past, they no longer have names that are easily recognizable. The Earnharts, Andretties, Pettys, Jimmy Johnson were easily recognizable because they were marketable with charisma. Now, these drivers are just a name with no meaning to majority of the public that doesn't watch nascar.
All I will say is go watch the ending of the Xfinity race at Indianapolis. That is the kind of racing that NASCAR fans love and it does happen, just social media focuses on the Drama instead.
I stopped watching nascar in 2006, they had a an unwritten rule of not purposely wrecking each other but they did bump and push each other. Now the cars are so aero that they just run in a line. It just doesn’t feel the same.
I was a Jmac fan throughout his cup career because he wasnt "that guy". Didnt miss anything for several years. Nascar was new to me and was fun in thr early 00s. Thennit slowly got more and more gimmicky. By thr time Jamie's career was winding down so was my enthusiasm for thr sport. Those were good years though. Fun times. But lifes goes on.
So do you have Drama with whoever did that to your hair? Name and shame we’ll get him for you! Love the videos keep up the great output.
I graduated from the nascar school and had buddies who worked in nascar and I can’t frigging stand it. It’s bad racing with just garbage drama about old men being triggered about crap. It’s never about good racing, good drivers and fun things going on in the sport. I always enjoyed and leaned towards F1 and even voiced that while at the nascar school. It’s superior racing, superior drivers and much better and cooler racing cars.
I don’t care about racing in Virginia. That’s boring stuff on boring tracks where yes they mostly turn left. Throw in angry old white men and it’s a complete turn off. All the rules changing, the names of races changing, teams changing, new tracks in checks notes Iowa wow. And the worst part is it’s 5 hours long and now they had stupid breaks or sectors in the race. Why? Just shorten the race. How is that difficult to see? Baseball did it with the pitch clock.
Unfortunately I don’t see the real basis for nascar changing anytime soon so it will continue to die off.
Big fan of NASCAR here and you bring up a lot of good points. A Lot of these issues have happened after a new person took control and while there were a lot of changes, there also was a lot of nothing too. Nascar doesn't know what it is at this point and they don't care about the fans or even the drivers. They do what they want and they are hurting the sport because of it. The drama is definitely a black spot in nascar and with the flag rulings it is good on Nascar to make those changes but I don't understand why people take such offence for it. The Bubba Wallace thing in 2020 was also a huge thing that I think even the former president was getting involved in saying that Wallace should be banned from the sport for wasting law enforcement time, which is hugely out of line. The sport is and for the foreseeable future, will be stuck between the past and the present. The old fans want the old racing and the new fans want the new racing and nascar wants none of it. I mean we have only had 3 people of color ever win in the sports top 3 series. Its really unacceptable. I love nascar but it needs to get with the times
Very thorough analysis. Good job, Alex.
Thanks man ☺️
“Cars are going real fast and they’re going real left!”
The problem is that NASCAR isnt racing, its spectacle. NASCAR is to racing what the WWE is to Olympic Wrestling. NASCAR rules are not designed for fairness or competition, but to create the most spectacular circumstances. Green white checker finishes, the playoffs, and stage racing are all great examples. Its not a problem if you enjoy it, but you really cannot compare NASCAR to any Motorsport
My problem with Nascar is the oval tracks (yes), simple tracks like these gave drivers way too many opportunity to play dirty in mindless fashion, should've just run more roadcourses and make it like WTCC or V8 Supercars but with these big heavy cars with no downforce, keep how raw it felt and just let them race without some stupid rules .
I feel like NASCAR is the reason for “Get Wrecked Son!”😂😂
Bro, right there with you, Tuned in in the late 90s and early 2000s, and then stopped caring entirely. I think the field changed fast, all the old timers retired around the same time, car of tomorrow came out, and for some reason, everyone stopped caring. Maybe Talladega Nights was so much better than the on track product at that time that people just stopped caring. Heck, the Drive to Survive style docuseries is good even, yet I still can't be bothered to tune in. I think the rule changes, stages, and attempts to lure viewers have mucked it up so much its a tough product to come back to. F1 by comparison is boring, I love that in nascar they dont care about "ruining someones race" they care about outright finishing order, championship be damned.