a christmas morning gift. watched the 1997 martinsville hanes 500 from about 12:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. christmas morning.
that's when racing was racing. wallace, gordon, jarrett, bodine, musgrave, martin, mast, earnhardt, stricklin, and the rest. even bobby hamilton was in there, came in 3rd!
it was still a sport. no stupid car, no stupid chase. just tradin paint! NSASCAR's hay day!
great race. jeff burton held off earnhardt to win. it was like watching it for the first time.
as usual. rusty got penalized for jumping the restart with 20 laps to go, after he led 331 laps and had the race sewed up. he lost. burton took over and won. was great to see a real race car and some bumping and racing. not the crap with the stupid chase, and the turtle they call a car today.
it was real racing. great chrismas present from espn! no premadonas. just racing. first race i've watched in 2 years! and until i see another repeat, the last.

Good to see ya' bending a lil' kwik..... i started watching nascar around 96' and was captivated by it until around 02'..... I still watch racing as often as my sunday afternoons allow. However, the luster has faded some since the chase was implimented... I honestly think the death of Earnhardth in 01' changed the sport forever...... I just have to wonder if he was still racing, would the "chase be a lil' more popular"? Randall

i have a feeling that had earnhardt not died, nascar racing today wouldn't be much different than it was at the start of the 2001 daytona 500. besides the chase, the biggest thing that has changed are the safety aspects of the cars and tracks. nascar wasn't worried about any of that until they lost their biggest name. hell, adam petty, kenny irwin, and tony roper all died shortly before earnhardt from the same injuries and what happened? kill switches on the steering wheels. but other than that, nothing........... it was business as usual. oh ya, and i forgot the restictor plates used at new hampshire. that was a great race, huh? burton led ever friggin' lap.

i'm sure the softer walls would've been implemented in time, but not near as quick as they were after dale's death.

i know the series has gone downhill the past couple years. the chase format sucks, the new cars suck to look at, etc. but if anything good has come from dale passing, it's the fact that drivers now have the chance to walk away from a horrific accident. that's what's most important. i mean......i dislike kyle busch with a friggin' passion. but, i'd never want to see him get hurt in a racecar. that goes for any form of motorsports.

i actually wonder, if big e was still here, would there even be a chase format? i really don't think so. i can't really say why i feel like that, other than i just can't see earnhardt caving in about the idea like the other driver did. i think he was the type of person that would've fought that idea tooth and nail. not just say...... "ok mr. brian france, whatever you want to do". but that's just my opinion. ;)

Good points scr8p!!!! I was actually talking about the popularity of NASCAR (now) vs. (when Earnhardth was alive) such as: would he have caved in to the new chase system? would the excitement STILL have been there as it was in the late 90's? or would he have been retired by now? Those are questions we will never know.......... so all we can do is make the best of the new format........ or boycott NASCAR, which i'll NEVER do!!!!!!!!! Randall

I was actually talking about the popularity of NASCAR (now) vs. (when Earnhardth was alive)

i think the popularity of nascar jumped with his death, simply because it was such a big thing. even if you weren't a nascar fan at the time, you were compelled by the story. which in turn, i'm sure sparked an interest in the sport for people that didn't pay attention to it before.

as for the chase format, which i touched on in my above post, i don't think it would've ever been implemented......... i really don't. i believe earnhardt had a lot of influence in what went on behind the scenes. not that he made final decisions or anything. but, earnhardt and bill france were close (i think anyway). i can almost see them sitting around talking about the direction of the sport, and france really listening to what earnhardt thought. i know the chase format was "captain ego" brian france's ugly baby, but i just don't see it ever happening if earhardt was still around....... and driving.

i often wonder how long he would've kept driving. i'm sure if he was still competitive, he'd be in a car. :thumbsup:

scr8p,
you hit some good points on the head. but should the safety of the drivers be no. 1? no. it isn't in football, or most other sports. if it was they wouldn't play any sports of any kind. i'm not going to watch them race in that turtle called a car.
i never thought of it as a boycott. but i guess it's what we've done, and everyone i know that watched racing isn't coming back. dover is 50 miles away, and it hasn't sold out for 2 years now. this year they had hotel rooms available in dover for the first time ever on a race weekend. so, we aren't alone. for us, racing now, simply, is wrestling, and we won't waste time watching it. it's boring, non competative compared to the old cars. and the chase is just plain stupid.
for the people i used to watch nascar with, nascar just no longer exists. they would have to make the car a car again and get rid of the chase and the premadonas they've made out of the drivers. when i quit watching completely 2 years ago, i was sick of it all, and remain so. i simply enjoyed seeing real racing on the replay of the 1997 race. when nascar mean't racing. bumping, rubbing, moving people out of the way. that's racing.
not all this "pardon me" crap, and politcally correct drivers, that started with the chase and have 33 drivers running around the track the last 10 races surely having been told, to stay clear of the 10 premadonas. they may as well just field the 10 cars for the chase, leave the other 33 out. it stinks. nascar did exactly what hockey did in the 80's. and hockey is a joke now as we all know.
they have destroyed alot of the base. and we wont come back, till north wilkesboro is back, the southern 500 is on labor day, california is closed down, they get rid of the chase and the stupid car they drive, and let them race, at their own risk. and that's just for starters.
as far as safety. there is only so much you can do to provide safety, without sacrificing the integrity of the sport. not a year goes by here in our area, that a high school kid isn't seriously injured or dies on the field. and that goes on across the nation. same with all other sports. nascar went way to far with that stupid car. sports are dangerous. and nascar in fact did sacrifice the reality and integrity of the sport for safety. in sports, you can't have both, completely, and keep it competative. or foot ball players would be in armormed suits. as would hockey. how would you protect basketball players? make it a completely non contact sport? and then they can fall wrong and break an ankle or tear an acl. same with baseball. no more diving for a fly ball, might get paralyzed. you get my point. that stupid car makes nascar a joke, not a sport. just like professional wrestling. and i bet they get hurt in professional wrestling more than any nascar driver.
you can't protect them all. unless you stop all sports in everyway. you'd have to eliminate the sport of curling, god forbid, they slip on the ice and die from hitting their head on the ice. lacrosse is huge here. with large numbers of injuries every year. that's the nature of the sport. it's a risk, you might die from an injury.
such should be racing. if it's a sport. the nature of the sport is you could get hurt or killed from and accident, like any other sport.
fact is, sports are dangerous. all of them. nascar went to far and ruined it.

nascar alienated alot of the "real" fans. the ones that were there the first 50 or so years. it's obvious that nascar has changed post earnhardt. it didn't happen right away, just a slow progression. some for the good (safety), and for the bad (everything else). the chase format was the nail in the coffin, though. more than the COT in my opinion. but, i know i won't stop watching it. i just don't get as involved with it as i did. i don't care if i miss a race on tv, or care if i don't know who's on the pole. stuff like that. but i still enjoy it.

it just goes to show that growth isn't the best for everything. new tracks, new markets, etc. oh, and don't forget the 3rd generation of the france family running the show. :rolleyes:

You are forgetting the TV networks and there coverage of NASCAR, I'm a hardcore racer and the networks are cattering to the new fan who knows nothing about the sport, and they are insaulting the diehard race fan intelanges. So now if i have a choise of racing my R/C cars or watching racing on tv, I'll take being insaulted at the R/C track than by the announcers on tv.

kwik..... my case in point about the last 10 races...... definately not fair to the rest of the field "to have to stay clear" of the chase competitors, which i'm sure they are warned to do.... Sooo, I'm sure for the entire last 10 races, the excitement isn't there for majority of the field.... In my opinion i hate the chase format more than the new COT car's..... OK.... i'll go out on a limb and say this much: If NASCAR didn't have Kyle Busch last year, the year would had been a total bordem.... He DID ADD quite some excitement to the sport, as well as drive his tail off the first 3/4 of a year.... Not like Dale Jr. did anything to help his own cause.... He's riding the name, and VERY overated.... he's an average driver at best...... (sure i'll probably be starting something here, but facts are hard to hide..) Randall

I used to photograph the races for both the Associated Press, and Speedway Illustrated magazine. I was either at the race, or in front of it on the tv if it was not one in the area I covered. But now, I did not watch a single race last year, and don't care to any more either. Both the chase and cot completely ruined it for me. I honestly don't care if I ever see another nascar race at this point, at least until they do away with both of those.

And yes, when Nascar lost Earnhardt, it was the end of nascar as we knew it. IMO it will never be the same again.

folks, sorry if i rubbed anyone the wrong way. but when i saw the replay of the 1997 race, it made me realize how good it was then. we planned our weekends around the races. racing belongs on the old tracks. not cookie cutters that put you to sleep. and races with 10 drivers involved.
safety. sorry, as i pointed out. don't buy it. every sport you play you risk injury or death. you all know it. safety is a made for t.v. issue. it not gruesome to see a guy rip an acl on sunday playing football, joe theisman's leg an exception, but seeing someone killed in a car wreck is considered out of bounds. not politically correct. that's crap. people die in every sport every day. professional and neighborhood games, or tracks. look at boxing. the trauma, people killed every year.. it's just not on abc for the politically correct to see..
the chase i think all agreed. it's a joke and bad for the sport, if you grew up without it.
just had to vent folks. i'll watch a repeat of an old race if i catch one again. otherwise, as i said. nascar died for us around here long ago now. and we won't be back.
i must admit i love seeing an article in the paper here talking about empty seats, or low ratings, race teams collapsing, etc. those articles are in with the sports section, and with dover having relied on racing so heavily, it makes headlines here..
i'll end by saying, i hope nascar completely fails. it would be their just deserves.
with that, i've got football to enjoy! for 2 weeks. 30 bowl games. plus the pros.

kwik, i understand that there are risks of injury in any sport. hell, i could get plastered by a bus stepping off the sidewalk. but just on the racing side, any driver knows the risks involved in what he does. and they're the ones that put themselves in that situation. there's nothing wrong, in my eyes, for nascar, or any other racing organization for that matter, doing whatever they can to put some sort of limit on the possibilty of serious injury. but there's no excuse for nascar coming up with that POS they call a racecar to accomplish the task.

long live the days of nascar when you turned on TNN and the cars were already pacing the track. :thumbsup:

Get rid of the restrictor plates and then you will see who the really good drivers are. NUFF SAID!

I understand your point sort, of. Come on down to Talladega this spring and you will see "how much it has died".(HELL THERE,S NOT EVEN STANDING ROOM) Truth is the younger generation is taking over and "us ole farts" are yearning for the old days when as KWIK said rubbin was racin. Im still going to both the Talladega races and i am for the first time going to try to go to Bristol. Nothin smells better to me than burning rubber and unburnt gas. Even tho my driver(Bobby Labonte), probably wont have a ride this year because of the damn economy!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still LOVE it, but being a mechanic for 30+ years will make you appreciate just how much goes into making these cars as fast and SAFE as they are:thumbsup: