'What Would You Change'

[Lee Roy]

I think it is relevant.

Not when everyone is saying that the racing at the Rock and Darlington is the greatest thing since sliced bread, yet few of the fans bothered to show up.

I agree that SMI does a better job than ISC, but ISC packs them in at a lot of the tracks that they own also, including Daytona, Richmond, Phoenix and a few others. For some reason, the fans seem to show up there.

[gary_580]

Not when everyone is saying that the racing at the Rock and Darlington is the greatest thing since sliced bread, yet few of the fans bothered to show up.

Too many races in such a small geographical area. If your going to go to a couple of races people have to make choices

[Lee Roy]

Too many races in such a small geographical area. If your going to go to a couple of races people have to make choices

DING DING DING DING!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Someone who can look at a map and understand that there were too many races in a small geographical area and that the fans made a choice as to what they wanted to see, and the bottom of the list was Rockingham and Darlington.

All the romantic nonsense about them being NASCAR fan favorites that NASCAR Brass took away because they were out of touch just didn't match up to the facts that were apparent to anyone who would take off their rose colored glasses.

[ms0362]

Change the point system for the Chase competitors for the last ten races. Isolate them away from the others. The chase competitors that gets the highest finish get a set number, 2nd competitor 10 points less, 3rd the same and so on. The way it is now, two DNF's and you're out. This would keep the competition for the Chase closer to the end. The other 31 drivers stay on the same point system during the chase to determine 13th and down.

[Aussie12]

All the romantic nonsense about them being NASCAR fan favorites that NASCAR Brass took away because they were out of touch just didn't match up to the facts that were apparent to anyone who would take off their rose colored glasses.

Rebuild them and they will come. But I wonder why no one wants to watch the cookie-cutter tracks on TV... boring races, methinks.

[Lee Roy]

Rebuild them and they will come. But I wonder why no one wants to watch the cookie-cutter tracks on TV... boring races, methinks.

They didn't come before. They won't come in the future. The fans spoke with their feet and NASCAR listened.

[Mark in Oshawa]

This thread is fun, because you can really see how people see what NASCAR does vis a vis reality.

Lee Roy is right on the money with concerns to Darlington and Rockingham. The fans in the Southeast, those same fans who are on Sirius's NASCAR channel saying newer fans from elsewhere are ruining this sport didn't come out in enough numbers to make Rockingham and Darlington work for NASCAR on a financial level. Just because many more eyes watch Darlington on TV then a lot of tracks means little. Fox and ABC/ESPN/TNT get the ratings for all their events and NASCAR gives equal portions of the TV pie out to all the stakeholders.

Darlington and the Rock are two of my favourite tracks to watch on TV for sure. Since I live in Ontario and am on the road a lot ( too much really ) as a trucker, I couldn't go if I wanted to, but if I lived in the Carolina's, I would have went, or shut my mouth. I do think ONE race at Darlington is not only working but if it was back on Labor Day as the Southern 500, that would go a long way to help NASCAR's image. It would be a swap I would make in a heart beat with California since their April date seems to suck wind.

Now...other changes? Nationwide cars would be pony cars.
Fuel injection...have NASCAR put a "Chip" in the ignition system and have them police it with seals and let all the teams know messing with it would be a death penalty.

I would take a race away from California, and likely Michigan and Pocono as well. I hate the cookie cutter 1.5 mile tracks...so the only new dates would be road courses, short tracks ( think another Richmond...or maybe Iowa). I would freeze the total sched at 36 dates.

I would leave the "chase". Everyone hates it, but the drama of guys trying to get in at Richmond is quite amazing and the old system had less drama most years.

I would make the top 35 rule a top 20 rule. Gives the poorer teams a better go at getting in and I would put in 45 car fields when possible.

I would also give more points for a win, like 40 more than second. You would see no riding around by anyone in the top5 if you did this.

Finally, I would do my damnest to get a short oval built in Southern Ontario.....because I think us Canadians would shock you guys if we hosted a Cup event.....

[woody2goody]

Actual manufacturer cars instead of the same shell branded a 'Dodge', 'Ford' or whatever. Engines will remain the same, however, they will have to last two races. A 10 place grid penalty will be imposed for an engine change between qualifying and the race. this should help to cut costs for the smaller teams. Also, there will be 'control' engines made by the same manufacturer.

The fastest 40 cars in qualifying will compete in the race, HOWEVER:

The Top 10 cars in the previous year's championship will be awarded ONE provisional.

Also, previous championship winners NOT in the previous season's top 10 will recieve ONE provisional.

The Top 35 Owner Points rule will be scrapped.

The points system will be changed. I believe the current points system creates gaps which are too big by the end of the season.

Points will be awarded to the top 20 drivers in each race:

1st - 30 points
2nd - 26 points
3rd - 23 points
4th - 20 points
5th - 18 points
6th - 16 points
7th - 14 points
8th - 13 points
9th - 12 points
10th - 11 points
11th - 10 points
12th - 9 points
13th - 8 points
14th - 7 points
15th - 6 points
16th - 5 points
17th - 4 points
18th - 3 points
19th - 2 points
20th - 1 point

Each driver gets 1 point for qualifying for the race, so that drivers who miss the race are penalised but not overly as in today's system.
Also, 1 point for the fastest lap, 1 for leading a lap, and 2 for leading the most laps.

Under the safety car, 2 drivers will recieve the free pass during a caution.

The Chase for the championship will be scrapped as in my opinion it devalues most of the season. 2 more road races will be held during the season, at Laguna Seca and Montreal.

[Jag_Warrior]

There are lots of good and interesting ideas in this thread. The one I like the most is doing one or two dirt tracks as part of the regular season. Two road courses. Two dirt tracks. Those, along with the various oval types, pretty much would make NASCAR Sprint Cup the most diverse series running. And since so many of the NASCAR regulars have dirt track backgrounds, the transition shouldn't be so difficult.

Has anyone proposed this recently?

[call_me_andrew]

I've been tinkering with anothe radical idea lately.

I've been pretty unsatisfied with the field getting bunched up by debris and other unneeded cautions lately. So after putting some thought into this, I think there should be two different types of cautions for oval races. The first kind would be the same as it is now: the yellow comes out and everyone follows the pace car. The second kind would be more like a pre-1979 Indy 500 caution: the field would slow down without packing up. The crew chiefs could direct the drivers to speed up or slow down based on data it recieved from NASCAR via wireless internet.

This would be more handy for stalled vehicles on the track and cleaning up debris near the bottom of the track/apron. It also doesn't punish drivers who build large leads that would otherwise be undone. It would be mostly irrelevent at plate races, but would come in handy at intermediate tracks, road courses, Pocono, and Indy. Instead of indicating this with a yellow flag, it would be indicated by an orange flag with a blue circle.