Busch Clash…Who’s going?

[Mr. C]

You’re not missing anything. Like watching a bunch of Skittles getting flushed down the toilet!

There trying to make sound exciting. But Not sure it’s working.

 

[HCP3]

It's a big stadium but holy sh does it look empty.

 

[shueman]

Big loss this year

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I wonder if it wasn’t going to rain as much as they claim that they could have kept it on Sunday and used rain tires?

I’m talking if it gets drizzly or sprinkly not full on downpour.

 

[sirbob]

they were giving tickets away to get people to show up today.

free just come

 

[HTTP404]

They moved the race up a day?

 

[Hardly Satisfied]

My son went and said it was empty

 

[HTTP404]

I just started watching from the DVR. This is the stupidest "race" I've ever seen. Compared to the KOH race today this is a joke.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I wish they’d move the clash back to Daytona. This is so pointless.

 

[pixrthis]

On TV it is boring, in person it’s great. So much bumping and temper tantrums you don’t see on TV. Most laps have someone getting moved or sideways and locking up going into corners. We were at the car show in Pamona when we found out it was bumped up a day, traffic sucked going everywhere we went today.

 

[HTTP404]

On TV it is boring, in person it’s great. So much bumping and temper tantrums you don’t see on TV. Most laps have someone getting moved or sideways and locking up going into corners. We were at the car show in Pamona when we found out it was bumped up a day, traffic sucked going everywhere we went today.

I'll pass.

 

[76sanger]

Waste of time! I'd watch KOH anyday/everyday over this crap. Oh ya, I DID!

 

[K-DOG]

I’m watching the replay this morning. If you don’t count the crew chiefs and spotters in the stands, maybe only a few thousand others. Looks horrible on tv. Like the sporting events during Covid when fans couldn’t go.

 

[rrrr]

On TV it is boring, in person it’s great. So much bumping and temper tantrums you don’t see on TV. Most laps have someone getting moved or sideways and locking up going into corners.

But that's not racing. NASCAR is leading the charge to irrelevance by promoting that shit. They put the Clash in the Coliseum because it's impossible to race clean on a quarter mile track in a 3,200 lb car.

This is admitted by the sanctioning body:

"NASCAR expects the race to be high contact.

"You might see some bumping from rear-to-rear, door-to-door, side-to-side. It’s a contact sport, but this will be more pronounced because it’s such a short track,” Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen told Spectrum News 1. “The fastest way around the track will most likely be around the bottom, so when there’s only one fast lane on the track, it causes the drivers to use their car to try to move somebody out of the way.”

Clean racing has been replaced by intentionally wrecking one's competitors. The discipline required to stalk another driver for multiple laps, forcing him to use up his tires or overdrive through a corner and then finessing a pass, is disappearing. It doesn't take any talent to drive into the back of the car ahead, getting him loose so the other driver can easily pass him. Going through a tight corner and intentionally shoving the car on the outside into the marbles to pass isn't driving, it's low class bullshit.

It goes both ways, too. In years past, if another driver did the above, there wouldn't be on track retaliation. Intentionally ramming another car and wrecking both showed you weren't any better than the instigator. Instead, a discussion after the race, with a punch in the nose for emphasis, would focus the miscreant's attention, leading him to think twice about doing the same thing again.

The focus on driving to crash starts early. NASCAR encourages the 18 year old punks in lower classes to wreck each other. The truck series is a joke, with the 2023 season finale in Phoenix being the pinnacle of unpunished stupidity. Those drivers' rich daddys pay for crash damage, so the owners don't care if the vehicle is wrecked.

But that behavior destroys the cohesion of a race team. Crew guys that take their job and career seriously don't like fixing crashed race cars every week because their driver had a tantrum. They don't enjoy busting their asses 12 hours a day just to come in 32nd and push a twisted piece of junk into the hauler. I've personally heard those discussions.

The bottom line is that racing in NASCAR has devolved into a farce where crashing another driver to win is acceptable.

In 2018, Austin Dillon intentionally drove into the back of Aric Almirola on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Almirola was in the lead. On the backstretch, Dillon made a contact bump to unsettle Almirola's car, made firm contact again with a half car alignment on the low side of Almirola, and pushed him while turning down.

Almirola's car hooked right into the wall, and Dillon recorded his "historic" win. Fans and talking heads made much of the win. It was "the 3 car," driven by the ghost of Dale Earnhardt. Dillon made his move just like the Intimidator would have, shoving another car into the wall at speeds near 200 MPH and taking the checkers. There were cheers.

It was a bullshit tactic that easily could have killed another driver in the ensuing huge crash. You know, as in dead?

 

[pixrthis]

But that's not racing. NASCAR is leading the charge to irrelevance by promoting that shit. They put the Clash in the Coliseum because it's impossible to race clean on a quarter mile track in a 3,200 lb car.

This is admitted by the sanctioning body:

"NASCAR expects the race to be high contact.

"You might see some bumping from rear-to-rear, door-to-door, side-to-side. It’s a contact sport, but this will be more pronounced because it’s such a short track,” Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen told Spectrum News 1. “The fastest way around the track will most likely be around the bottom, so when there’s only one fast lane on the track, it causes the drivers to use their car to try to move somebody out of the way.”

Clean racing has been replaced by intentionally wrecking one's competitors. The discipline required to stalk another driver for multiple laps, forcing him to use up his tires or overdrive through a corner and then finessing a pass, is disappearing. It doesn't take any talent to drive into the back of the car ahead, getting him loose so the other driver can easily pass him. Going through a tight corner and intentionally shoving the car on the outside into the marbles to pass isn't driving, it's low class bullshit.

It goes both ways, too. In years past, if another driver did the above, there wouldn't be on track retaliation. Intentionally ramming another car and wrecking both showed you weren't any better than the instigator. Instead, a discussion after the race, with a punch in the nose for emphasis, would focus the miscreant's attention, leading him to think twice about doing the same thing again.

The focus on driving to crash starts early. NASCAR encourages the 18 year old punks in lower classes to wreck each other. The truck series is a joke, with the 2023 season finale in Phoenix being the pinnacle of unpunished stupidity. Those drivers' rich daddys pay for crash damage, so the owners don't care if the vehicle is wrecked.

But that behavior destroys the cohesion of a race team. Crew guys that take their job and career seriously don't like fixing crashed race cars every week because their driver had a tantrum. They don't enjoy busting their asses 12 hours a day just to come in 32nd and push a twisted piece of junk into the hauler. I've personally heard those discussions.

The bottom line is that racing in NASCAR has devolved into a farce where crashing another driver to win is acceptable.

In 2018, Austin Dillon intentionally drove into the back of Aric Almirola on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Almirola was in the lead. On the backstretch, Dillon made a contact bump to unsettle Almirola's car, made firm contact again with a half car alignment on the low side of Almirola, and pushed him while turning down.

Almirola's car hooked right into the wall, and Dillon recorded his "historic" win. Fans and talking heads made much of the win. It was "the 3 car," driven by the ghost of Dale Earnhardt. Dillon made his move just like the Intimidator would have, shoving another car into the wall at speeds near 200 MPH and taking the checkers. There were cheers.

It was a bullshit tactic that easily could have killed another driver in the ensuing huge crash. You know, as in dead?

Saugus Speedway provided my friends and family years of entertainment as did Ascot and Ventura Raceway, the race I watched last night in person was just as entertaining and nobody was close to getting dead.
What do you think made the Bristol night race sold out more than any other NASCAR race? They’d put more seats in if they had the room.

 

[22hotkat]

The purpose of this exhibition race is to expose Nascar to people who might not be aware of Nascar. Changing the date resulted in no spectators and just a bunch of beat up cars and pissed off drivers. They should have canceled the event as it was POINTLESS ( pun intended)

 

[rrrr]

Saugus Speedway provided my friends and family years of entertainment as did Ascot and Ventura Raceway, the race I watched last night in person was just as entertaining and nobody was close to getting dead.
What do you think made the Bristol night race sold out more than any other NASCAR race? They’d put more seats in if they had the room.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 seats at Bristol have been removed since 2019. Attendance at both races is well below 100,000, with some saying the race on dirt last year had fewer than 50,000 in attendance. There won't be another dirt race in 2024.

My comment about death referred to Daytona, not short tracks. Racing speeds there and at Talladega exceed 200 MPH.

 

[pixrthis]

Why would you bring up superspeedways taking about the Clash? No doubt NASCAR is not booming right now like it has in the past but history has shown us that there is an audience for short track racing and it can provide entertaining racing. I love racing and if there are battles I love it more. One of the best races I’ve ever seen was at Irwindale for a 50 lap sprint car race that went green all 50.

 

[rrrr]

There's a difference between hard racing and driving like a fool. I'm discussing driver behavior that occurs at all NASCAR tracks now. Daytona and Talladega were specifically mentioned because that's where the consequences are highest.

I knew drivers that died racing in IndyCar and USAC. Those deaths amplified the dangers I already was aware of, and it changes the perspective when someone you joked around with is killed. Driver deaths can occur at any track. Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr died at New Hampshire International Speedway, a one mile track.

The cheering when a green-white-checkers crash happens at the superspeedways is going to quickly disappear the day a driver gets t-boned by another car traveling between 175 and 200 MPH.