[vincesanity82]

Is NASCAR's Truck tour facing eventual extinction? Dodge is pulling all its Truck series support, and the addition of the Grand American road-racing series to NASCAR's official portfolio has led to intense speculation that Grand Am will soon have a much higher profile and might even supplant the Truck series in NASCAR's national touring operations. Sprint Cup teams and automakers say they are already feeling increased pressure to add Grand Am to their operations. A good Grand Am budget right now is about $1.5 million, for 15 races or so. That's half the price of a good Truck sponsorship, which runs from $3 million to $5 million a year. But one worry is if Cup owners get involved in Grand Am racing, the annual team budget could quickly escalate by $3 million to $7 million. Still, the possibility of adding, say, Tony Stewart or Jimmie Johnson to a Grand Am field would certainly raise the visibility of that tour and probably ratings and crowd appeal, too. Ford team owner Jack Roush, who once ran one of the country's top road racing operations, said: "I think there's a NASCAR road-racing series coming, regardless of whether the Truck series goes away. And for us to be able to road race again would be a great thing. "It would be cool, and I would enjoy having a Daytona Prototype car for the 24 Hours in 2009, and for a handful of other races, too, but I think it may be too late to get that going for next year. But maybe 2010." -- Winston-Salem Journal

Endangered List: Dodge's departure may be the beginning of end for Truck series

[Bob Tanner]

I hate to say it but the article is correct.

The reason is that the majority of the people who still watch NA__AR have marginal interest in racing. All they want are rock star drivers and the media hacks who adore them and can fill up reams of articles which stories about these drivers. That's one reason MOPAR is pulling out. People no longer care about the brand, they just want "Their driver." CTS doesn't fulfil that need. It supplies racing.

Racing, as they do in CTS isn't near as exciting to them as the deep philosophical discussion of who bumped who and who's paying back who.

A lot of the people who want actual racing are drifting away, me included. When CTS goes Tango Uniform, their will be precious few who will actually miss it.

I agree with Jack Roush. Jim France's Grand Am Rolex Series will easily take CTS' place. Hopefully they'll give us some racing, not the generic stuff we currently see in Cup and Cup Lite.
NOTE TO JIM FRANCE: Please keep the Cup primadona's out of your cars! That would be a start.

[LSC9901]

Geeeeeez, how could we possibly care about the brand when in reality the only thing different about then is the valve covers and decals.

Brand .... what brand ??

[loco4pablo]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

Geeeeeez, how could we possibly care about the brand when in reality the only thing different about then is the valve covers and decals.

Brand .... what brand ??

I agree LSC.... NASCAR is taking the brand name out of racing...Hence, WHY BOTHER?!
I don't blame Dodge for checking out....This is just the begining

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by loco4pablo

I agree LSC.... NASCAR is taking the brand name out of racing...Hence, WHY BOTHER?!
I don't blame Dodge for checking out....This is just the begining

You know something, loco? You might want to be vwery, vwery, cwareful. You and I are begining to agree on more and more things.

[logano-fan]

No more truck series? That would be a shame

I personally love the racing that goes on in the cts, and I feel it to be at times more exciting than the cup series.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by logano-fan

No more truck series? That would be a shame

I personally love the racing that goes on in the cts, and I feel it to be at times more exciting than the cup series.

At times? I would say about 80% of the time the CTS has better racing than Cup.

[loco4pablo]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

You know something, loco? You might want to be vwery, vwery, cwareful. You and I are begining to agree on more and more things.

Oh I'm sure this will change once "led foot" Lagano starts racing!

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by loco4pablo

Oh I'm sure this will change once "led foot" Lagano starts racing!

Probably, unless Chico Logano manages some way to gain a few years of age in a matter of a few hours.

In all honesty, Chico won't be nearly as bad as the media fawning over every move he makes. That will get under my skin far more than the boy himself, for from what I see he's actually a pretty good kid.

Logano to the 2009 Daytona 500 will be worse than what Danica was to the 2007 Indy 500.

[loco4pablo]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Probably, unless Chico Logano manages some way to gain a few years of age in a matter of a few hours.

In all honesty, Chico won't be nearly as bad as the media fawning over every move he makes. That will get under my skin far more than the boy himself, for from what I see he's actually a pretty good kid.

Logano to the 2009 Daytona 500 will be worse than what Danica was to the 2007 Indy 500.

I agree Bob, the media will turn me off too Joey. He seems like a good kid with a ton of talent and I don't see him having a problem competing in the series with the COT. But the media will drain me.
Just like w/ Jeff Gordon. I really liked him when he was on Thursday night thunder w/ the Diet Pepsi car. But NASCAR and the Media turned me off too him big time as soon as he moved too cup.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by loco4pablo

I agree Bob, the media will turn me off too Joey. He seems like a good kid with a ton of talent and I don't see him having a problem competing in the series with the COT. But the media will drain me.
Just like w/ Jeff Gordon. I really liked him when he was on Thursday night thunder w/ the Diet Pepsi car. But NASCAR and the Media turned me off too him big time as soon as he moved too cup.

We are pretty much of like mind. Before Jeff Gordon it was "Million Dollar" Bill Elliott in 1985. There wasn't much racing media then but the few that did report on the sport turned Bill success into a Second Coming and it took me around fifteen years before the very mention of the guy's name didn't irritate me.

Jeffie-Pooh... I have always been a big fan of his obvious talent but not a fan, in any dimension, of the guy himself. I've gone over his perceived ethical flaws ad nauseum.

With the increased media they have today, "Chico" (being in Miami you understand the significance of that term, I'm sure) will be rammed down our collective throats like grain down a goose getting ready to have his liver turned into paté.

My biggest gripe about "Chico" is that he will be in a car fully capable of winning the Cup next season. The kid is probably also fully able to pull it off. I just do not like, in any way, shape or form, the idea of some 19 year old post-adolescent representing as defending champion, my favourite sport.

[logano-fan]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

At times? I would say about 80% of the time the CTS has better racing than Cup.

Agreed

[BiscuitMan]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

...... The addition of the Grand American road-racing series to NASCAR's official portfolio has led to intense speculation that Grand Am will soon have a much higher profile and might even supplant the Truck series in NASCAR's national touring operations.

This might be a good move by NASCAR. That is to get rid of the Craftsman Truck Series. There might be good competitive races in the CTS, but they don't look like race "cars". They are supposed to be trucks. They don't even look like trucks I see in the show room.

So, dumping the CTS and replacing it with Grand Am "cars" would be a good move. The Grand Am races I been to at VIR and have watched on TV are very competitive. Their cars are not showroom cars from auto makers. They are full bodied sports car. Their chassis are much like that of a IRL car with a rear engine configuration. They race on road courses and give a different perspective that the Cup and Nationwide series races.

I think we can come to enjoy Grand Am races mainly because it not on the same venue as Cup and Nationwide races.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by BiscuitMan

This might be a good move by NASCAR. That is to get rid of the Craftsman Truck Series. There might be good competitive races in the CTS, but they don't look like race "cars". They are supposed to be trucks. They don't even look like trucks I see in the show room.

So, dumping the CTS and replacing it with Grand Am "cars" would be a good move. The Grand Am races I been to at VIR and have watched on TV are very competitive. Their cars are not showroom cars from auto makers. They are full bodied sports car. Their chassis are much like that of a IRL car with a rear engine configuration. They race on road courses and give a different perspective that the Cup and Nationwide series races.

I think we can come to enjoy Grand Am races mainly because it not on the same venue as Cup and Nationwide races.

The cars they race in Cup don't look like cars you see in the show room... maybe they should scrap cup and restart as well.

[saltysenior]

Originally Posted by Quality88

The cars they race in Cup don't look like cars you see in the show room... maybe they should scrap cup and restart as well.

good idea! ,,,but they cut up most of the '39 fords