The Autoextremist site is at it again with its vitriolic NASCAR-bashing, this time it its Road Kill section with authorship by Dr. Bud E. Bryan. Bryan takes umbrage at hostile reaction to Peter DeLorenzo following the site's story that one of the three participating manufacturers may quit NASCAR. Bryan's umbrage displays the mindset of those who hate NASCAR.
Bryan screams that NASCAR is a spec car series. But is this the exception to the rule nowadays? Racing in general has evolved closer to spec-car specifications than anyone could have ever imagined. It is hard now to think of a racing series that isn't fairly close to spec car status.
And the question is begged - if spec car is bad, what is NASCAR supposed to do? Bryan never bothers to make some recommendations, instead he blathers on about NASCAR being a spec car series, homogenized, driven by marketing, etc. It isn't a free lunch here - given the reality of costs and absurd performance levels, what is so bad about a spec car mentality anyway? NASCAR as it was in the 1950s died out in the 1960s because the reality of racecar performance, costs, and so forth changed the sport to where it could never be a pure stock car series anymore.
"Anyone who can say with a straight face that restrictor plate racing makes any sense...." I can say it with a straight face, and 56 lead changes among 22 drivers at Talladega say it with a defeaning crescendo, Dr. Bryan. Where has a non-spec car series ever had racing close to that competitive?
They may be right on NASCAR's often embarassing marketing overkill and some other areas, but the Autoextremist site suffers from the very disconnect to attacks in NASCAR - the disconnect from the realities of modern racing. This, rather than NASCAR, is the fraud of modern racing.
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