[Bob Tanner]

John Close, of closeracing.com had the following comments about this weeked:
Of course, all this NASCAR Infineon boredom came on the heels of the IndyCar race at Iowa where fans/viewers were treated to some awesome open-wheel action on the 7/8-mile oval track. As usual, the ABC/ESPN television package ruled the day as well not missing a second of the race thanks to its ‘side-by-side’ coverage.

With great tracks like Iowa, Kentucky, Nashville and others not on the Cup schedule, you have to wonder why NASCAR hangs on to non-exciting road racing venues like Infineon and Watkins Glen.

After Sunday’s event from Infineon, it’ll be way too soon before we see another race from one of those places. Fortunately, there were plenty of great racing and stories at the NASCAR Nationwide and Truck Series events in Milwaukee to carry the weekend.

You can read the entire article at:CloseFinishes.com

He brings up some good points, IMNSVHO.

[WestCoast]

Me thinks Mr. Close is "confused" at best.
Maybe he's been watching a different race than I.
The excitement of the 2 Road races make up for a lot of sleepers that we have been seeing lately, we need more of them on the schedule not less.

[LSC9901]

I'll agree that passing is always at a premium at road courses but that is the nature of the beast. The places where they can actually pass do make for some interesting, exciting moves. What would the restrictor plate races be without the expectation of the "Big One" ????? They all can't be Bristol races where there is constant action.

[oncea3fan]

as much as I'd like to see cup race at nashville, the road courses do give some excitement and deserve thier dates.

I'd still like to see another RC in the chase races.

[Bryan88]

Personally I don't like the road courses and didn't really find the race to be all that exciting. And I would have to say a big NO to adding a road course to the chase.

[SteelPhoenyx]

Yeah, because tracks like Pocono are so freaking exciting over road courses.

Maybe I was watching a different NASCAR Cup Road Course race from the rest of y'all yesterday, but it seems I saw a lot of passing.

I LIKE Road Course racing... its a welcome change-up from the oval. Would I want to see it all the time? No.

I say dump one of the Pocono dates (gawd, dump BOTH of them, I hate that track!), dump a Fontana date, bring in one more short track and one more road course date.

[Bob Tanner]

I'm ambivalent about this subject.

I did think that yesterday's event was about as bad as a NA__AR road race could get. I don't think it was the course though, they hjave had good races there. I think that it was the drivers. But, that's another story.

On one hand I find the road courses an afternoon of follow the leader. It just feels like that if you have a 2-mile track but you can pass on only about a total of a 1/2-mile stretch, it just seems as though there is a 1.5 mile waste of space. Passing in the pit isn't racing, as far as I'm concerned.

On the other hand it takes the driver's talent to another level and it is a diversion.

The biggest problem I see is that the courses themselves weren't designed for full bodied cars, only open wheelers and shorter wheel based sport cars.

I'd rather not have them but... if it came to a choice between a road course or another cookie-cutter Charlotte or a (perish the thought) California, I'd take the road course. Worse things could happen.

[DOF_power]

1] TNT transmission was horrible; most of the overtakers/overtakes were NOT shown.
I mean come on, you overtake 20 cars or so (TS) and no footage ?!
TS, JPM, KB (before taking the lead), Ambrose, C. Edward all overtook quite a lot.
The actual race was better then what was shown.

2] Could help to follow the touring car format, meaning 2 or 3 short races as opposed to a long one; so no tires and/or fuel issues just charge hard.
At least shorten it to reduce the importance of the fuel/ strategy.

3] The race might have been better had JPM, Carl Edwards and/or Ambrose wouldn't have been so unfortunate; but that's racing.

4] It's not necesarily a COT car track thing, IMO.
In road courses the secret for overtaking is to combine stretches (for drafting/slipstreaming) with hard breaking corners/areas (for brake overtaking) all on a wide track.

[OrionBen]

I watched the race in 3 parts yesterday, 1/3rd on Tony Stewart Hotpass, 2nd part on JPMontoya HotPass and final 20 laps on TNT to watch the winning moment.

- Road Racing and HotPass is a perfect fit. How great it was to see Tony coming back from way back in the field passing all those car. It was nice see to JPM and how he pushed to try to catch Kyle but balancing with fuel economy

- I went to TNT after that, it is much harder to follow the race switching from one race to another and all those advertisement. We need side-by-side (I switched back to hot pass channel then).

- But it is painful to watch TNT, but I will give credit to them, once Kyle claim the checkered flag, they didn't zoom on Kyle and the Checkered flag. We were able to see most of the driver crossing the line including the flat tire of Sadler.

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

With great tracks like Iowa, Kentucky, Nashville and others not on the Cup schedule, you have to wonder why NASCAR hangs on to non-exciting road racing venues like Infineon and Watkins Glen.

I would so much like to see his comment on the weekend of August 23-24 when it will be the the Cup night race at Bristol and the IndyCar race at Infineon....

Originally Posted by SteevePhoenix

I say dump one of the Pocono dates (gawd, dump BOTH of them, I hate that track!), dump a Fontana date, bring in one more short track and one more road course date.

I can't agree more. For road racing, I would support so much the Indy Road course during the chase, lots of grand stand. I wouldn't mind Daytona road course (Stand and RV), but it's not the best road course.
And I am from Montreal, I would like Montreal for sure, especially since it is already on a Pocono weekend, but there is absolutely ZERO parking for RV, but crowd would be over 100K around the track.

[jks812]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

I'd still like to see another RC in the chase races.

I agree 100%. If they're gonna run them during the year they should have one in the last 10 also.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by SteelPhoenyx

I say dump one of the Pocono dates (gawd, dump BOTH of them, I hate that track!), dump a Fontana date, bring in one more short track and one more road course date.

I must be the only Pocono defender here. But, defend I will.

The problem with Pocono isn't necessary the track. It's the length of the race. 500 miles there is just too long! The ARCA races are usually pretty good with lots of hard charging and passing. The secret is they're only 200 miles in length.

Trust me. If they'd run a 150-200-mile CTS race at Pocono, the fans would be standing the entire time. If they'd shorten the Cup race to 250 miles, we'd see a completely different race. The drivers would be "up on the wheel" from the drop of the green flag and not just motoring around for 450 miles until they were finally ready to race.

It's a track comprised of the best of three of America's premier tracks, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Trenton. What's not to like except the intolerable and mostly B-O-R-I-N-G 500 miles of tedium, never ending pit stops and strategical driving we watch?

OTOH, I couldn't agree more about Fontana. Because NASCAR/ISC stuck it in Darlington and then broke it off by stealing the Southern 500 and giving it to that monument to mediocrity, Fontana, I will probably never like that track. In fact, I do my best to even deny its very existence.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

1]

2] Could help to follow the touring car format, meaning 2 or 3 short races as opposed to a long one; so no tires and/or fuel issues just charge hard.
At least shorten it to reduce the importance of the fuel/ strategy.

4] It's not necesarily a COT car track thing, IMO.
In road courses the secret for overtaking is to combine stretches (for drafting/slipstreaming) with hard breaking corners/areas (for brake overtaking) all on a wide track.

All good and valid points. Somehow I feel that, to the majority, road and street racing are a form of racing which you have to be brought up, as a child, to fully appreciate and enjoy fully. Ditto road rallying and gymkhanas.

I guess it's kind of like a person raised to put ketchup and/or steak sauce on any piece of meat which they are served will probably go through life never appreciating the taste of a good, rare steak.

[SteelPhoenyx]

After that disaster of a race in February, I couldn't agree with you more about Fontana. I do like that it means two more races on the west coast, but it is miserable in February, and a blasted oven on Labor Day weekend... it would be a better mid-spring track. Well, it would be a better track if they'd add more banking or rip the whole thing out and make a SHORT TRACK. Or another road course... I mean everybody else thinks we Californians are pretty twisted anyway.


Ok, I'll have to concede your point about Pocono being a better race if it were a lot shorter. The ARCA race WAS a lot more exciting than the Cup race. And I'd LOVE to see the Trucks run there. Again, another short race.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by SteelPhoenyx

After that disaster of a race in February, I couldn't agree with you more about Fontana. I do like that it means two more races on the west coast, but it is miserable in February, and a blasted oven on Labor Day weekend... it would be a better mid-spring track. Well, it would be a better track if they'd add more banking or rip the whole thing out and make a SHORT TRACK. Or another road course... I mean everybody else thinks we Californians are pretty twisted anyway.


Ok, I'll have to concede your point about Pocono being a better race if it were a lot shorter. The ARCA race WAS a lot more exciting than the Cup race. And I'd LOVE to see the Trucks run there. Again, another short race.

How is the following for a idea which might mesh well with the left coast twisted way of thinking (You wrote the last sentence of your first paragraph, not I)?

Level Fontana and put in a 3/4 or 7/8-mile short track patterned after Pocono. A triangular track with turn 1 the same as Bristol, turn 2 modeled after T3 at Charlotte and Turn three after t-4 at Phoenix or Louden?

I believe to the very bottom of my depraved little soul that shorter races would increase popularity of Cup racing by leaps and bounds. I've had people in this forum ask me if I was kidding, told me that I was basically nutz and accused me of motorsports heresy. I remain firm. Shorten the darn races!

[SteelPhoenyx]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

How is the following for a idea which might mesh well with the left coast twisted way of thinking (You wrote the last sentence of your first paragraph, not I)?

Level Fontana and put in a 3/4 or 7/8-mile short track patterned after Pocono. A triangular track with turn 1 the same as Bristol, turn 2 modeled after T3 at Charlotte and Turn three after t-4 at Phoenix or Louden?

I believe to the very bottom of my depraved little soul that shorter races would increase popularity of Cup racing by leaps and bounds. I've had people in this forum ask me if I was kidding, told me that I was basically nutz and accused me of motorsports heresy. I remain firm. Shorten the darn races!

I'm just twisted enough to think that would be a great idea for a track. The Triangle is an interesting idea, but Pocono is too big to really get the impact of it. The three different style turns would really put the drivers' skills to the test too.

Overall I think the races would do better to be shortened, with maybe a few that are exceptions to the rule. No more Coke 600, keep the Daytona 500, keep the road courses the length they are or shorten by about 50 miles, maybe keep the Bristol races the length they are. Gotta admit I could watch Bristol races all day. And if I record all the races from a weekend and watch 'em all at once, I can.