2022 NASCAR Season Thread

[Retroram52]

It is a new year, new teams, and a new NextGen car. The new teams are working out the logistics of their new organizations and they are also testing right now at Daytona to get the new car to go faster as the times are hovering around 185 MPH, Dale Earnhardt Jr is down in Daytona to drive as a test consultant for Hendricks and the teams are a bit concerned that this car won't get up into the 190's for a race like the 500. So it is interesting to see what people are doing to get speed out of this car. We shall see how all of these changes play-out in the next month or so as the new season is underway.

 

[Retroram52]

The most obvious changes to the NextGen car is NASCAR has finally gone to one big lug nut to hold the wheels on the car which is similar to the IMSA, IndyCar, and F-1 series, Like those two series, NASCAR has moved-on from 15-inch steel wheels, which hardly any car bought today has unless you are in the compact and sub-compact class of consumer automobiles and replaced them with 18-inch aluminum wheels. Also, the door number has been moved to the front of the front door overlapping onto the front quarter panels. I like all of the changes and these changes should introduce many new strategies in this series to perhaps change the dynamics of the series outright. But we shall see.

 

[Schmoopy1000]

The most obvious changes to the NextGen car is NASCAR has finally gone to one big lug nut to hold the wheels on the car which is similar to the IMSA, IndyCar, and F-1 series, Like those two series, NASCAR has moved-on from 15-inch steel wheels, which hardly any car bought today has unless you are in the compact and sub-compact class of consumer automobiles and replaced them with 18-inch aluminum wheels. Also, the door number has been moved to the front of the front door overlapping onto the front quarter panels. I like all of the changes and these changes should introduce many new strategies in this series to perhaps change the dynamics of the series outright. But we shall see.

I might be done with Nascar this year.
After watching it for 43 years. I just cant get excited for this coming season. Now that my favorite driver is out of racing, which was the only thing keeping coming back (to listen to his radio live) Pushing #'s to the front looks stupid AF. If they were gonna move the #'s for more sponsorship should have been towards the back. Many many other bitches about how Nascar ruined my sport through the years.
I do like the fact they went to one lugnut. Which they probably should have done way back when they got rid of the carburetor.

I am a huge racing fan always have been, so I am sure I will turn the race on if I am at home, but I dont think I will plan around the races anymore, Like I had done the past 43 years. (I missed very few races throughout that time)

 

[Retroram52]

Yea Schmoopy. Many points I agree with. The car number moving was just plain stupid like you stated. Cars look more and more like a Class that belongs in IMSA. Richard Petty's organization has been purchased by this Gallagher fella and Petty is still involved in racing but mostly as a figure-head. When he dies, my final participation with the sport will probably be like yours.

Racing has a whole has fallen under alot of corporate bullshit. Even series like F-1, IndyCar, NHRA are being controlled by people who really don't understand racing at its core and the people who ritually follow it. I have been watching NASCAR since 1962. The other series not too long thereafter. So as I get older and see the old guard that made those series die off, I am inclined to go the same path. So yea, I hear ya!

 

[Retroram52]

After watching a segment of Dale Earnhardt's Dirty Mo podcast, the Next Gen car is presenting some real problems that will continue to be addressed going forward into the season. One major problem is how to cool the interior of this car which apparently traps interior hot air too much.

The new cars run very hot and the drivers are burning-up inside as Austin Dillon put it. So cooler air-flow systems to keep the driver comfie is the major focus right now. That and the car doesn't draft very well in the bump-draft.

We shall see how this all plays out.

 

[Retroram52]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Next Gen was supposed to be about making the playing field more level but the top three cars are all Hendricks owned in thiis year's Daytona 500 qualifying so far. Typical NASCAR eff-ups.

When Chevy belly-ached backed-in-the-day to get NASCAR to ban the Hemi, it was the beginning of a series that was dominated by who squealed the loudest. First it was Chevrolet and Goodyear and then Ford crying that Chrysler had too dominant of an engine. Fast-forward to the Next Gen and we now have Chevrolet dominating the series through the in-bed activities of Hendricks Motorsports and NASCAR.

That bad taste is beginning to return to my mouth and like Schmoopy, it may be the death nail that sends me packing from anymore time wasted on a near fraudulent race series.

 

[Retroram52]

The field is finally set for the 2022 Daytona 500 on Sunday. Larson and Bowman are 1, 2. Keselowski with his new team is third. I like where Erik Jones finished with the new Petty-Gallagher team. He starts 13th.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Next Gen was supposed to be about making the playing field more level but the top three cars are all Hendricks owned in thiis year's Daytona 500 qualifying so far. Typical NASCAR eff-ups.

When Chevy belly-ached backed-in-the-day to get NASCAR to ban the Hemi, it was the beginning of a series that was dominated by who squealed the loudest. First it was Chevrolet and Goodyear and then Ford crying that Chrysler had too dominant of an engine. Fast-forward to the Next Gen and we now have Chevrolet dominating the series through the in-bed activities of Hendricks Motorsports and NASCAR.

That bad taste is beginning to return to my mouth and like Schmoopy, it may be the death nail that sends me packing from anymore time wasted on a near fraudulent race series.

What I still don’t understand is why they're constantly trying to run off their core base to try to get fans that’ll never be interested in racing.

 

[Schmoopy1000]

well I am glad Brad didnt win.
That guy would just push the shit out of you until you lost control & he gains spots while crashing those in the field.

 

[Retroram52]

Apparently my boy Erik Jones and Kevin Harvick got into it with like 20 some laps to go and ended-up in a wreck. Damn it!

 

[Retroram52]

Yep, just got done watching the highlights and Harvick started a wreck that took out Jones who had a car that could have won that race, Damn it!!

 

[Schmoopy1000]

the new design of this car is pretty shitty.
the rear of the car breaks if you look at it sternly. Simple Flat tires pretty much ends your day. Right now on a big track you lose min. 4 laps. (or more)
they made the body more resilient, & the actual race car brittle as fuck.
That is just stupid.

 

[Retroram52]

And they reduced the horsepower as well.

 

[molsaniceman]

lets go racing boys

 

[Racer8825]

The only things I like about the new NextGen car is the number replacement and the one lugnut like IMSA and F1. The tires Goodyear has given the teams over the last few races have been terrible. All the drivers you know will run up front have had issues with tires. I feel bad for all these guys who had their day ended early due to poor tires. When will Goodyear learn?

 

[Retroram52]

Racer, the beginning of the death of NASCAR started when they began removing product competitive products that identified with a brand. The first major event was the outlawing of the Chrysler corporation's Hemi motor as dominant and untouchable by other brands ran exclusively by Richard Petty and some of his early collaborative garages. Then Goodyear demanded the same sanctioned monopoly of one tire brand (Goodyear) removing competition by other brands like Firestone, Hoosier, and Continental in the early days.

When that mindset was inextricably woven into the series competition, the series died a slow death and now it is a shell of its former self. The NextGen car is a testament to the decades of NASCAR removing the inherent results and benefits that the presence of competition provides. NASCAR should have said to Ford and Chevrolet back-in-the-day, if you can't beat the Hemi. join Dodge and Chrysler or build a better engine. But they didn't. NASCAR took the path of least resistance fully funded by corporate money and now we see a completely boring series that has little measure of any worthiness or value whatsoever! Period!!

 

[Retroram52]

That dirt mess at Bristol is just awful.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

It sounds like Kyle Busch could possibly be leaving Gibbs at the end of the season.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea, Busch has warn-out his welcome at JGR and the rumors are swirling.

 

[Retroram52]

Dega week-end. I always love the big track races but NASCAR has bit the hog in the ass with this downsizing of horsepower. Sucks seeing cars go around Talladega at 180mph. I miss the days of 200+mph at this venue.