Reality... what a concept:

[John Thawley]

From CBS Sportsline:

Sure, Fortune 500 companies will be splashed all over car hoods and fenders in Sunday's Daytona 500. But behind those flashy corporate logos, there are signs NASCAR's runaway prosperity and popularity are beginning to plateau.

Television ratings that leaped in recent years began to slip last season. And NASCAR officials are having second thoughts about a rash of recent major changes intended to make the sport more palatable to mainstream sports fans -- moves that might have alienated the hard-core base.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuh, ya think?

[MikeB]

Captain Obvious works for CBS these days!

[kwokjk]

Local San Diego newspaper has a feature on nascar titled "Did NASCAR take a wrong turn?"

Where have you gone, NASCAR? Where have you gone, Richard Petty and the high-winged Plymouth Superbirds ... David Pearson and the Wood Brothers' Mercury Cyclone ... Junior Johnson's famed one-of-a-kind banana car?
Anyone else remember when Petty and Bobby Allison would have at it on and off the track?
Apparently a lot of NASCAR fans do. And they don't like the politically correct/corporate direction their sport is following.

Not only is attendance down at most tracks, but television ratings have slumped each of the past two seasons. Even the sale of souvenir merchandise has taken a hit.

The COT is a standardized design that NASCAR is forcing on all teams. Yes, teams will still be listed by the four competing manufacturers – Chevy, Ford, Dodge and Toyota (which represents another speed bump to core fans) – but the COT Ford is a Chevy is a Dodge is a Toyota.

ALMS is looking better everyday.

[porschefan]

Why not take away the drivers personalities. NA$CAR has taken away the personalities of the cars (CoT). "Let's put everyone on a level field."
What's next? Something like scoreless youth soccer leagues, where there will be no race winner, no matter who crosses the finish line first, so everyone can feel good about themselves?

[Hallen]

I think that NASCAR seriously miscalculated the fans' loyalties to the different manufacturers. NASCAR assumed since they were all running tube frame cars that were not actually made by the manufacturers (or really, having anything at all to do with the manufacturers) that all the fans already knew about it and it would be an easy shift to the CoT.

Apparently, the NASCAR fans really did think that Ford made the Ford, etc and are not happy about the CoT. It is also funny that the CoT really should be the CoYY (Car of Yesteryear) since it has nothing new in it.

I also think it is funny that these loyal core fans can't deal with Toyota being out there. But, it might not just be Toyota. If you grew up as a NASCAR fan 30 years ago, I can't imagine you being all that impressed with the changes over the last few years. One more straw is enough to just turn you off completely.

On the other side though, and this is what I really think is happening, is that NASCAR was just on a fast ride and overshot the apex. In other words, people jumped on the NASCAR band wagon because everybody else was. Then those "fans" find out that it just isn't the thing for them after they get past all the hype. They just fade away and are no longer fans. I would expect this downward trend to continue until NASCAR stabilizes at some lower level. Probably back to about where it was 10-15 years ago.

[porschefan]

I had to laugh at the "SPEED poll of the day" or whatever they call it, on SPEEDtv.com today... "What Manufacturer Will Win the Daytona 500."
Well, since the cars, and engines aren't truly Fords, Chevys, Dodges, or Toyotas, I thought the poll should read "Which Manufacturers DECAL will win Daytona."

[John Thawley]

Originally Posted by porschefan

Why not take away the drivers personalities.

Don't you think they have? Or, at lest tried to? Fines for swearing... sending Tony Stewart off to Ms. Manners School of Charm? Do you really think some of the new-comers are "manly men?"

For a series that can literally pin point the exact moment in history that the American television watching audience discovered NASCAR, you'd think they'd figure out that they need to take a look at what got them here.

The year was 1979. It was first NASCAR race broadcast flag-to-flag live, by CBS. The finish came down to a war between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough.

Yarborough attempted a slingshot pass out of the second turn, but Allison blocked him. Yarborough’s wheels got into the grass, he slid back into Allison and the two bounced off each other until they wrecked in the third turn.

Richard Petty, running third, held off Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt to win.

Immediately after the finish, a fight broke out in the third-turn infield between Allison, Yarborough and Bobby Allison, who ostensibly had stopped to give his brother a ride.
Fists and helmets were flying.

And millions saw it. A snowstorm had ravaged the Northeast, keeping folks inside. They decided to see what this NASCAR stuff was all about. They got an eyeful.
For the first time, NASCAR was thrust into the national consciousness – and the seed for its future growth was planted.

Let's hear another collective DUH!!!!

[porschefan]

Originally Posted by John Thawley

Don't you think they have? Or, at lest tried to? Fines for swearing... sending Tony Stewart off to Ms. Manners School of Charm? Do you really think some of the new-comers are "manly men?"

For a series that can literally pin point the exact moment in history that the American television watching audience discovered NASCAR, you'd think they'd figure out that they need to take a look at what got them here.

The year was 1979. It was first NASCAR race broadcast flag-to-flag live, by CBS. The finish came down to a war between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough.

Yarborough attempted a slingshot pass out of the second turn, but Allison blocked him. Yarborough’s wheels got into the grass, he slid back into Allison and the two bounced off each other until they wrecked in the third turn.

Richard Petty, running third, held off Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt to win.

Immediately after the finish, a fight broke out in the third-turn infield between Allison, Yarborough and Bobby Allison, who ostensibly had stopped to give his brother a ride.
Fists and helmets were flying.

And millions saw it. A snowstorm had ravaged the Northeast, keeping folks inside. They decided to see what this NASCAR stuff was all about. They got an eyeful.
For the first time, NASCAR was thrust into the national consciousness – and the seed for its future growth was planted.

Let's hear another collective DUH!!!!

Oh, no I definately do feel they have, I just structured that sentence poorly.

[johnlemans]

Since Trans-Am won't be coming back any time soon how about some tube frame silhouettes based on the new Challenger, 'Stang, Camaro and whatever Toyota has.

autoextremist.com: Fumes - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth...

[Hallen]

Originally Posted by johnlemans

Since Trans-Am won't be coming back any time soon how about some tube frame silhouettes based on the new Challenger, 'Stang, Camaro and whatever Toyota has.

autoextremist.com: Fumes - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth...

NASCAR would have been much better off if they had gone that route. The problem is that it is such a specialized form of racing, one car will always end up being better than the rest... well, I know that is the point, but why would a new team use the Ford when the Chevy always wins? Kind of like what Grand Am Cup has gotten to with all the Rileys.

NASCAR didn't want that. They wanted to level the field and dumb it down just a bit more.

But, I agree that it would make it a little more interesting if good old American muscle cars were out there again... even if they are just tube frame knock-offs.