TBK-Light.com

Exactly. It's marketed as one, but even the fucking morons in Bristol, CT don't take them seriously.

At least they're not the FIA and how they're handling the current state of F1.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

The first half of this thread reads like a Fenway post. The second half reads like the New York Post.

No, lol. There are no rules on this anywhere, it's not like God wrote on a bible how it should be. Just that Nascar has decided to change to a playoff now and you can't face this (and almost 99% of any old school traditionalist fan). And I completely understand, the Winston Cup was the championship that rewarded the most consistent driver with that point system. Now it's the complete opposite. But it's not written anywhere that it can't be this way.

It's just common sense. Motor racing championships should be decided on consistency because there's a shit ton more factors involved in deciding the outcome of a race than there are a tennis match, for example. When was the last time a tennis player got knocked out of a tournament because his racket broke?

I heard a lot of times Mark Martin lost a championship because his wheel broke in the pacing lap at Talladega. And a lot of times a team may have a great season but lose one game in the playoffs and they're out. The biggest unfair thing I see is that each driver is better at a certain track, and this is a big game changer in Nascar. Other than that, the "you can't have mistakes now" is the same for everyone. The nature of the playoff is not to reward the best of the season, no! Is to make the end worth watching.

I read one guy posted Big Bill would have never gone ahead with this system. Found that hilarious. He was all for whatever improved the show and put butts in seats, including the original 'debris' cautions. Ratings are up, races are selling out. But that does not make it okay, you say? Tough luck. If you're looking for 100% sporting integrity, you were in the wrong sport since day one.

Races are selling out because most of the tracks have slashed capacity.

Did Phoenix and Homestead slash capacity compared to last year or are you just being your generally negative self again?

In the end, it's still a privately owned company and I kind of agree with Soul Reaver in that respect. It doesn't matter what's common sense or what makes sense. NASCAR can do pretty much whatever the hell they want. The teams and drivers are still participating. If they wanted to take the top 4 and have a Cars style championship battle with just those 4 cars on track they could.

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"The track's wet, that's what I think about it. Fucking shit gets wet when it rains."
-Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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Gael

all I can say is thank god we have other motorsports around the world that take common sense into account.

I'm only as negative or positive as the reality I'm given.

Have a look in the race thread. The trucks were good last night and it wasn't lost on me.

Thanks Gael, can I be a PITA and ask if attendance was less than 46000 at Homestead last year? Just curious, you don't have to answer as you made your (and Chris') point already. The ratings are still up though.

I think they stopped announcing the attendance numbers at some point last year. I did find this for seating changes: http://www.jayski.com/pages/tracks-seating.htm

But yeah, ratings have been up the last few races. I think the new Chase is a good thing for casual fans or attracting new fans, but I'm guessing most of the loyal fans will be annoyed by it. I don't follow NHL/NBA/MLB, but I'll watch a lot more often during the playoffs.. I can see this doing the same thing for non-racing fans.

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Gael

I don't watch racing for the ratings. A slight rise from last years numbers indicates to me that there are casual sports fans who want to see the stupidity known as the Nascar post race.

All hail the probably winless champ.

Kind of, the "Chase" format feels a little more contrived artificial then most. NASCAR has a bit of reputation of being the WWE of motorsports (in both demographics and in making "sports entertainment"). The only reason ratings are up is because of the fights and WWE style drama. That's it. They pretty much were down this year before the Chase, and most of the Chase races before the fights in Texas were in fact flat.

I can see some folks not liking that, particularly the racing fans of old. Your "wrong sport since day one" comment is incorrect... the NASCAR I watched in the 1980s and 1990s didn't have to rely on too many gimmicks or overly contrived drama. It was just racing and it was often good racing. Now, I haven't watched NASCAR since restrictor plate racing turned me off, so clearly I'm not exactly a spokesperson for the type of audience NASCAR wants to capture or had in the past. Still, it does seem (from my birds eye view) NASCAR keeps adding gimmicks and gimmicks, most of which have not improved the long term decline. And many of which may turn off the core audience left.

The fights were the one thing that definitively, positively, increased ratings. That's not personally a message that I want NASCAR to embrace.

You say old fans of the sport wouldn't like the little bit of fighting that happened recently but in the old days, a race without a fight was out of the norm. At RacersReunion.com, you have plenty of guys that have been there and done everything there was to be done during the so called good ole glory days of the sport, and all of them talk about how much fighting there was back then, usually involving an automotive spare part weapon of some sort too. Granted a lot of that was cleaned up as the new century drew closer as NASCAR started trying more and more to attract the corporate money but still.

Ultimately, everything is a gimmick. Why three strikes in baseball? Why not just one and you're out like in cricket? But I don't go calling baseball a gimmicked up version of cricket. It is what it is. Pick your poison.

Big difference between the wicket keeper catching the missed ball then the ball hitting the stumps.

Once again you've managed to go from writing something sensible to something stupid in a matter of lines. Baseball and cricket aren't the same sport, your comparison does not work. There are gimmick versions of cricket, but they are still cricket. Anyway, that's irrelevant.

I think everybody on here is aware why the new Championship/Chase format exists, or NASCAR's intention for the 'playoff' type end to the season. Some people think it's a good idea. some don't.

By the way, the average age of a NASCAR television viewer is 51 years old.