NASCAR Complaints

[churchmouse]

Bill Elliott’s Melling T’bird was about 3” narrower than the other cars back then. They made sure not to park it anywhere the difference would be obvious compared to another car. Ah, the good old days. Not as good as Smokey Yunick driving away in a car with no gas tank after a tear down inspection but close.

Another good one for everyone is that when Penske was running the AMC Matador they had a roller cam in it and always handed the NASCAR inspectors flat tappets. They never even warmed them up first and NASCAR never caught on or simply looked the other way. My brother and I had a good laugh with Robert Yates about that not too long ago.

Ah the smokey syndrome. He had that Chevell that was 7/8ths scale. Had the mystery motor in it and was blistering fast. It was literally 1/8th's smaller than factory in every dimension. We had the special privilege of Mr. Yunick spending time in our garage when both our cars were crashed in practice (thanks to Mr Steve Chassey) and we are building one from a show car that had been little Al's car the year before. The one he crashed racing Fitipaldi to the finish line. It was a Chev chassis and we ran Spewics...err, I mean Buicks. We had to make all the parts bits and pieces to get the V-6 in the car where the Chev. had been. And make it work. That was the thing......it had to work. We got the car done, on the ground and through tech on Friday. 10 laps into its 1st practice it spewed its guts right after John Paul said it was loosing oil pressure and he was coming in. He did not make it back around.

The engine was wrecked. It was full of oil milk shake. We were tired from no sleep for over w eek building the car and brains were fried. Smokey was calmly sitting on a stool and observing everything. He came over and looked at the oil tank and asked if we had modified it for the Spewick....I mean Buick. I said no it was the chevy tank that was in the car. He looked at me and said think. Think about it. I looked at the spec Spewick oil tank and it was larger. Looked inside and it was heavily baffled to keep the oil from "Milkshake".....mixing full of air from the Spewick scavenge pumps and loosing its ability to carry a load. So we thrashed and fit the proper oil tank into the car. We took all the parts from all the wrecked/blown engines and retired to my shop.3 of us found the very best pieces from every engine and built 1 good on. We even re-used the rings. Hand lapped the good valves into the seats. We were putting that bullet in the car at 0-Dark-30 on Saturday morning. Ran it that day. Made some changes in the set up. Was fast enough to make the show on Sunday. I can not remember where we finished but it was amazing that we made it at all. Smokey is the (was) the freaking man.

Yes, we were immersed deeply into racing.

 

[cbhausen]

Yep, Smokey was one sharp guy and loved playing cat and mouse with the officials. As for Elliotts T-bird, I’m sure I heard this on TV once and it may be some of DW’s BS but I will try to dig something up. One thing is for certain: the cars back then and even into the 90s had some wildly asymmetric body setups on them. This all got shut down with better templates and eventually optical scanning.

 

[churchmouse]

Yep, Smokey was one sharp guy and loved playing cat and mouse with the officials. As for Elliotts T-bird, I’m sure I heard this on TV once and it may be some of DW’s BS but I will try to dig something up. One thing is for certain: the cars back then and even into the 90s had some wildly asymmetric body setups on them. This all got shut down with better templates and eventually optical scanning.

And with this loss of innovation the stands started to empty. Call it what you will. George Bignotti said if does not say specifically that you can not do something you are not actually breaking the rules doing it. It was the rules you had to break along the path to getting there that was rough to overcome.

AJ Foyte lived by this.

 

[femurphy77]

I get that. If you want to stick to the heritage, then loose the comical body "styles" and go back to stock cars.

And then go race on a dirt road from point A to B and turn both ways.



Oh, wait, that's exactly what rally car racing is and it's far, far more entertaining.

I assume we're talking euro rally here!?

 

[femurphy77]

Most in here aren't and probably have never been NASCAR fans.

Most in here may have been Nascar fans long before many in this thread were born. Aren't they allowed an opinion also? Don't you find it odd the gripe thread is longer than the.pro thread? Truth is they are more concerned with the almighty dollar now than racing and.there are many factors responsible for that.

 

[indyblue]

Most in here aren't and probably have never been NASCAR fans.

I was, back in the days of drivers like Richard "Dick" Trickle and the cars were actually "stock" based.
Front wheel drive Japanese cars converted to rear wheel drive don't seem very "stock" to me.

 

[thunderchicken]

Yep, Smokey was one sharp guy and loved playing cat and mouse with the officials. As for Elliotts T-bird, I’m sure I heard this on TV once and it may be some of DW’s BS but I will try to dig something up. One thing is for certain: the cars back then and even into the 90s had some wildly asymmetric body setups on them. This all got shut down with better templates and eventually optical scanning.

Back then the fenders were hand rolled on an English wheel and massaged to cut drag or to add downforce. But I'm pretty sure the wheel base had to be withing a +/- factory and the track width had a +/- amount and I guarantee the tolerance wasn't more than 1" either way. I'm not saying the Tbird wasn't narrower (they all were).
Keep in mind those Tbirds were based off the Foxbody chassis. So it was narrow just like the Mustang and Fairmont (also a foxbody chassis). Just making clear Bill Elliott's car was as legal as any other in the field.
In an effort to make all the cars as equal as possible the officials have created their own tech nightmare and have killed innovation.

 

[thunderchicken]

Most in here may have been Nascar fans long before many in this thread were born. Aren't they allowed an opinion also? Don't you find it odd the gripe thread is longer than the.pro thread? Truth is they are more concerned with the almighty dollar now than racing and.there are many factors responsible for that.

QFT

Although I wasn't botn until 78 but was immersed in it pretty much from birth

 

[JCSR]

Most in here may have been Nascar fans long before many in this thread were born. Aren't they allowed an opinion also? Don't you find it odd the gripe thread is longer than the.pro thread? Truth is they are more concerned with the almighty dollar now than racing and.there are many factors responsible for that.

I think we can all agree it's about the money. I don't like opera, I don't watch opera or go to live performances of opera. I would not get in a complaint thread about opera. Those are the people I'm talking about. You know if that applies to you. I'm not here to judge.

I was, back in the days of drivers like Richard "Dick" Trickle and the cars were actually "stock" based.
Front wheel drive Japanese cars converted to rear wheel drive don't seem very "stock" to me.

Trickle was one of favorites along with the Owensboro gang. I don't care for the Jap cars either but NASCAR bent over for GM in 89 and allowed the front wheel drive , four door Lumina to complete. The door was open then!

QFT

Although I wasn't botn until 78 but was immersed in it pretty much from birth

 

[JCSR]

Great read

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ctrp-0801-smokey-yunick/

 

[thunderchicken]

I think we can all agree it's about the money. I don't like opera, I don't watch opera or go to live performances of opera. I would not get in a complaint thread about opera. Those are the people I'm talking about. You know if that applies to you. I'm not here to judge.



Trickle was one of favorites along with the Owensboro gang. I don't care for the Jap cars either but NASCAR bent over for GM in 89 and allowed the front wheel drive , four door Lumina to complete. The door was open then!

I was a HUGE Elliott, D Allison, Martin & Kulwicki fan. And I was always a little partial to the Alabama gang

And yes NASCAR never should have opened up the door by allowing the Lumina. Would have been so easy for GM to just manufacture X number in rear wheel drive cars to be accepted.

 

[JettaKnight]

This thread seems to be outrunning the positive thread and man that is just sad.

 

[Robert Richardson]

When Dale died the series really fell off. He was a driving force keeping the rules makers and shakers at bay. When he left us they completed ****ed the whole thing up. And they are still ****ing it up.

Yep, when Dale Earnhardt died, so did NASCAR.

 

[Gabriel]

Yep, when Dale Earnhardt died, so did NASCAR.

Dale who?

 

[halfmileharry]

Yep, when Dale Earnhardt died, so did NASCAR.

Dale was getting long in the tooth and would have started rusting out of the seat a decade before these rules undermined the sport as they have.
Initially I had thought the low life span of the self-destructing tires were the demise of the sport but there's a long list reasons the South lost the Civil War.
You must admit that losing the "good ol' boys" like Martin, Smoke, Gordon, Earnhardts, and southern staples put an end to the traditions and appeal of the races. IF you're into soft drink commercials and such then Nascar has a desirable appeal.

 

[copper]

Napcar

 

[thunderchicken]

Dale was getting long in the tooth and would have started rusting out of the seat a decade before these rules undermined the sport as they have.
Initially I had thought the low life span of the self-destructing tires were the demise of the sport but there's a long list reasons the South lost the Civil War.
You must admit that losing the "good ol' boys" like Martin, Smoke, Gordon, Earnhardts, and southern staples put an end to the traditions and appeal of the races. IF you're into soft drink commercials and such then Nascar has a desirable appeal.

I kinda tend to agree. When car owners started chasing after the "young guns" for their youthful more marketable faces all it did was drive out the older talent. In turn it pushed a number of life long fans away....along with a long list of other reasons

 

[femurphy77]

Dale was getting long in the tooth and would have started rusting out of the seat a decade before these rules undermined the sport as they have.
Initially I had thought the low life span of the self-destructing tires were the demise of the sport but there's a long list reasons the South lost the Civil War.
You must admit that losing the "good ol' boys" like Martin, Smoke, Gordon, Earnhardts, and southern staples put an end to the traditions and appeal of the races. IF you're into soft drink commercials and such then Nascar has a desirable appeal.

I had to laugh at this; not because I have a problem with the statement but the generational point of view. I would have written the sentence such: "You must admit that losing the "good ol' boys" like Yarborough, Pearson, Petty, Allison,".

I guess I am getting old!

 

[BugI02]

One thing I did like about the Jeff Gordon generation of drivers was their ability to stay in the car on road courses instead of having to bring in ringers; but then the drivers had to become little corporate spokesmen off the track/on camera and in retrospect it seems like a test run for the way everybody has to act in professional life now, so it was the beginning of the end

When your story doesn't have any 'characters' it's not much of a story

 

[halfmileharry]

I had to laugh at this; not because I have a problem with the statement but the generational point of view. I would have written the sentence such: "You must admit that losing the "good ol' boys" like Yarborough, Pearson, Petty, Allison,".

I guess I am getting old!

I think I'm older than you. I couldn't remember the names. The bulk of my Nascar watching was done in bars. American Legion, VFW, and some fine nightclubs with cold 'neckers and lovely floozies.