Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire NASCAR - Question about

It rained on Sunday and NASCAR postponed the Daytona 500. Why?

In Europe (say Le Mans 24 hours or the Nuremberg races), they change tires (to a more aggressive tread) and the drivers reduce speeds to about 160-175 mph and keep on racing. Why does NASCAR cancel its races? Anyone know?

NASCAR contemplated racing with rain tires and ran some tests 25 years ago, guess it didn’t work out.

Fans sitting there in the rain ain’t too appealing either. The cars aren’t set up for wet Weather racing as you could clearly see the dash cameras showing leakages on the interior and on the drivers. Tarps were covering the cars as they sat waiting on the track to dry.

For sure some folks got hosed with the delay considering hotel reservations, rescheduling air flights, etc.

NASCAR is entertainment, not necessarily pure racing. The huge crowds in the grandstands don't want to sit out there in the rain and watch a (relatively) low speed parade. Ditto for the millions of people who watch on TV. With the tires and suspension systems and even the aerodynamics of the cars optimized for dry conditions, simply changing to rain tires can't make enough of a difference to make the racing interesting, or profitable for the people putting on the show. The drivers are sort of like Hollywood actors- - - - - -they're just cogs in a much bigger machine, and the machine just isn't adaptable to changes in weather patterns.
Jerry

Visibility, or lack thereof, would be one of the main reasons. It's is hard enough in road racing when you come up to pass another car, but usually in road racing you are not running at sustained high speeds with a pack of 20 plus cars. The drivers couldn't see anything and on TV it would probably look like a horizontal hurricane. Also, cars in NASCAR don't generate the downforce generated by prototypes and Formula 1. While Indy cars will run rain tires on road course tracks, they don't at the ovals.

Indy cars and F1 cars weigh half as much and their tires are twice as wide. They don't run in the rain on oval tracks because of G-Force and speed. They only run in the rain on road tracks where the speeds and G-Force are much less. Actually, as of a few years ago, NASCAR does run in the rain with rain tires and windshield wipers on road courses also. It seems as though they really haven't had any rain events during a road course race yet. Even with an Indy Car weighing half as much and tires twice as wide, on a wet track, the speed and G-Force would send them into the fence in short order.

Exactly why I give it up (mostly) before Earnhardt died, and totally afterwards. Used to be NASCAR racecars weren’t that different from what sat in showrooms. They all started out as actual passenger cars that were modified.
Drivers were a completely different breed. They weren’t always the best sort of people. They partied and acted wildly, and lived for the balls to the wall, inherently dangerous sport that was motor racing. Some were downright selfish jerks on and off the track, and all had a drive to win, meaning they were selfish jerks when the green flag dropped. Sportsmanship did not exist on the track.
They all understood this. Dale had two personalities, his public persona being very much different from the driver on the track that us Ford and Mopar guys loved to hate!
Today’s cars are purpose built with safety as important as speed. Nothing stock about them, and most don’t even resemble the cars they’re portrayed to be.
As you said, today’s drivers are as much actors as they are racers. “Pops” Turner and “Little Joe” Weatherly wouldn’t be welcome now. Image is just as important as ability now.
It’s no longer a sport as much as it is an entertainment business. The tracks and the fans that supported NASCAR through its start and growth are not even valued compared to big money crowds on tracks where NASCAR wouldn’t have been welcome 30 years ago.
Safety for drivers is now much more important than it had been, purely because of public perception. Just as Football has made sacrifices in competition to improve safety, so has racing.
Not meaning to sound bitter, but money and greed have ruined sports as much as it has government. All professional sports are entertainment businesses now. Competition takes a backseat to profitability. Love of money has corrupted nearly everything.
Hope Newman recovers and is able to continue his career if he wants. If not he’ll probably find a home broadcasting, or maybe just retire from public like Ernie Irvan did years ago.
7mm

No need for any 9 paragraphical replies

Because rain sucks

I'm old enough to remember when dirt tracks were the backbone of the racing scene- - - - -race a while, fight a while- - - - -"It's only cheatin' if ya get caught"- - - -pitch in and help your competitors in the pits get ready to race, then become bitter enemies on the track, and buy each other beer at the after-race hangout.

One night at Antioch California a bunch of us from Merced had convoyed about 80 miles for a big end-of-season 100 lap race on Labor Day weekend. One of our group blew up his engine during time trials, but managed to qualify for the main event in the process. Another guy had a spare engine on his car hauler- - - - -a block and cylinder head assembly without accessories. They made a deal, and three pit crews swarmed over the car and swapped engines in just under 2 hours. He finished the race, and went home with a pretty good payday- - - - -didn't quite break even, though. Antioch was an interesting place to race- - - -we had to run against the local drivers, the crowd, and the track officials! Talk about playing against a stacked deck!
Jerry

Because it is GAY and there is absolutely nothing STOCK about it! NASCAR has become a complete Sh_tshow!

Hey man, shorten those replies, we ain't into editorials......

Exactly!!

I will like to add that the movie The Art of Racing in the Rain is absolutely terrible. About a racecar driver that has about everything go wrong in his life...followed by a dog who is voiced by Kevin Costner. Ridiculous.

This may come as a surprise to you, but this isn't goddam Europe, and I am thankful it is not. There's really not a whole lot more to be said.

The fact that this ? was asked......

pretty childish reply...to an honest question.....bob

It’s still like that in the amateur level. You’ve got your selfish jerks, and you’ve got great people off track who will kill to get to the checkered!
That’s how Dale Sr was. He had a charm that he could switch on for an interview, he gave away equipment and help when no one was looking. But he was pure terror on the track. Downright dirty on occasion. But he raced that way. So did Childress and Junior Johnson and the Wood brothers and other famous owner/drivers.
An awful lot of the NASCAR drivers from that era were that way, but now, I sometimes wonder if Dale would be able to get a top flight team because of the way he sometimes drove. The guys who are perceived to be “dirty drivers” are weeded out to a large extent, because selling tee shirts and toy cars is every bit as important as winning races.
Dale Sr lived at a time where he was already established as a top driver by the time image became important. I don’t know his style of driving would be tolerated now. Look at Ernie Irvan, Jimmy Spencer and several others. In the 90s, the times were changing and guys’d who had a bad reputation weren’t that popular with the fans. They got Jobs with second rate, low money teams or no ride at all.
7mm

Bill France was the ultimate showman- - - -probably a close second to P.T. Barnum. If a driver managed to break away and get a good lead on the rest of the pack, it was not uncommon for a bogus yellow flag to get flown at France's directions for "debris on the track". Of course, that bunched the cars up and made for more interesting racing for a while. Some of the TV commentators used to make snide remarks about "Here comes Pierre DeBree again!"
Jerry

As I understand it, NASCAR decided to race only in dry conditions out of fairness to all manufacturers.

These are “stock” cars which means they match fairly closely with what you or I can find on dealer lots. Outside of the paint jobs and such.

So the problem with racing in the rain is that stock Fords and Chevys don’t really work well in the rain what with all the leaks and the engines won’t stay running and all that. Only the Toyotas could complete even the first lap let alone the whole race so NASCAR just decided to call it.

F1 is racing. NASCAR is a joke.