Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogthedodger 
Another area where NASCAR has caused more harm than good is with its website. In the past the website was clean, easy to navigate and any race results, updates, etc. were right there in clear view. Now the company has decided to turn Nascar.com into more of a pay site, and to view any updates, results, etc. one must subscribe to trackpass. As well, the morass of icons, fantasy games, online stores and other advertisements has made the site almost impossible to navigate. If one is simply looking for results or NASCAR news, it's almost better to go to Jayski.com, RacingOne.com or ESPN.com where the sites aren't clogged with irrelevant material. In an independent poll conducted at the end of last year, people gave the thumbs down to Nascar.com's new look. It should be no surprise, therefore, that ESPN this week bought Jayski.com. It's too bad NASCAR didn't listen to Bert Lance's quote for thier website.
However, as much as the qualifying rules and the website have been a negative for NASCAR, they don't hold a candle to NASCAR's newest effort - the Car of Tomorrow. NASCAR has run the car in 2 Nextel Cup races so far this year, and will attempt a handful more. In 2008, they plan to run half the schedule with the new cars, and in 2009 they will go full time with the Car of Tomorrow. The purpose of introducing the car, according to NASCAR spokespeople, was threefold: to improve safety, to reduce costs and to even out the competition. The car, which sits much higher than the old stock car was designed on more of a truck platform and was said to withstand impact better than the old model. Based on comments from drivers after the first two races, it accomplished none of those things. Because teams have so few chassis that can actually run on this platform, crew chiefs actually stated that drivers should concern themselves more with not wrecking than with with winning the race. As Dale Earnhardt Jr. stated after the first race at Bristol: "The focus of the whole race was just to get home - get it in the bag. You're so conscious of getting wrecked that it wears you out." In fact even the winner of that race, Kyle Busch, stated in an interview following his victory: "it sucked."
04-09-2007
Hartley Hederson
MajorWager.com henderson@majorwager.com http://www.majorwager.com/frontline-475.html |
Absolutely can't stand the website. I use others like racingone.
As far as the COT. I was at the Bristol race and had Biffle and Hamlin to win. So I enjoied most of the race. They need to do something to dirty the cars up though. The Areo edge these cars have sucks. The guy out in front in clean air is almost impossible to pass on the cookie-cutter tracks. They missed the boat a bit with the COT, but they need more lead canges under green flag conditions (not just during pit-stops either). That is another reason why the crowds and ratings are dropping a bit. The old timers are calling the races to boring. Plus the TV coverage could be better. As there are a lot of good battles going on at Bristol and Martinsville that didn't get talked about.
Tire wear startegy has almost gone out the window, or changed a lot if you will. They don't know that a tire is going to let go till it's too late. Back in the good old days the guy who saved his tires for the long runs were they guys that usually had the best chance of winning.
It's nothing better than watching a guy run the same speeds and watch the field come back to him as he works through traffic to grab the lead. Bobby LaBonte, and Harry Gant were awesome at that.
Good change of pace article Hartley.
Doc