Forgive me Father,

for I have sinned.

[Priest] Alright crap for brains, what did you do now?[/Priest]

[Me] Well, this is hard to say...[/Me]

[Priest] Don't tell me that this has to do with your dog again.[/Priest]

[Me] No, no, no, that was back in my Lenny Bruce phase. [/Me]

[Priest] Come on, come on, I don't have all night. [/Priest]

[Me] Well, I, uh, well, I kinda slipped last night. [/Me]

[Priest], Camp Town Ladies, sing this song... [/Priest]

[Me] Okay, okay, I watched a NASCAR race last night. [/Me]

[Priest] OMFG, you did what![/Priest]

[Me] Yeah, not only did I watch the race, but I kinda got into it.[/Me]

[Priest] Oh, Mother, Jesus and Mary, this is awful. [/Priest]

[Me] Well, you know that maybe you should give peas a chance, because that was real racing. [/Me]

[Priest] (Putting hands over ears...) I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. La La La La La [/Priest]

[Me] No, seriously, those dudes were racing, unlike this F1 crap. [/Me]

Priest] (Putting hands over ears...) I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. La La La La La [/Priest]

[Me] Im a man of wealth and taste
Ive been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith
And I was round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name[/Me]

Seriously though, what I saw was real racing.

Dale

 

NASCAR is real racing and F1 has become a scripted dog-and-pony show. The end is near!

 

Methinks you goth lucky.

I'd always figured that Nascud was "real racing", but on a kind of dynamic I can't really appreciate: I tried offal tracks a couple of times in my youth, when most of my drag racing buddies switched over (when we got old enough for licenses). But I couldn't really see the point to the combination of boredom and terror you get from driving in circles a millimeter from a concrete wall.

There are skills to formation parking on a banked surface at 100 mph. But I don't know where you'd ever use those skills off an oval track.

And, these days, the cars have virtually nothing to do with the ford or chebby logos pasted on them.


But then I watched a couple of recent Nascur events, when there was nothing else on, and Speed went all Nascar.

They run for a lap and crash. Then they have a safety car period, everyone comes into the pits, and the field gets scrambled. Then they come out, and about the time the field starts to sort itself out, they have a crash, a safety car, and do it all over.

Then they have a scheduled safety car, and everyone comes into the pits for seven *minutes* for a tea break.

It looked like a combination of a demolition derby and a riverdance.

There may have been "real racing" going on out there, but it didn't look like it had any effect on the results.

 

I've admitted I have been into NASCAR almost as long as I have liked F1 and WSC. I find it really silly when people try to compare NASCAR to F1, two totally different forms of motorsports bot require incredible driver skills of a different nature. NASCAR feeds the needs for side by side racing, F1 is the artistry.

Wait until you go to Daytona for a real event, you will be hooked.

 

One of my Skippy instructors put it this way: If you want to see the best racing, watch NASCAR. If you want to see the best driving, watch F1.

Dale

 

I would suggest that watching NASCAR gives you both. To control a car on the verge of no adhesion for 3 hours at constant speeds of 160-190 MPH, all along dealing with the effects of the draft not only nose to tail but side by side, usually with car interior heat of well over 100 degrees, requires a lot of skill in my book. More so than road course driving.

I am not saying that NASCAR drivers are better than anyone else, I am saying that there are a handful of drivers in every form of motorsports, including NASCAR, that are better than their counterparts. Jeff Gordan, Tony Stewart, I put them right up there with anyone in F1. Maybe they would not excel in F1, but then I doubt that Hamilton, Raikkonen, or Massa would do well in NASCAR either.

But then, nothing looks as beautiful or sounds as good as an F1 car. So I gotta watch both.