Official NASCAR Series News Thread

[UFCMPunk]

Re: Source: Carl Edwards to retire tomorrow

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...cing/96388940/

Wow, this is very sudden and shocking!

Man this sucks. The fact it is sudden makes you wonder when the decision was made. I'm surprised he didn't just say 2017 would be his last year and drive one more year. Going to miss his victory back flips after he wins a race.

[BurghFan]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Yeah, especially since 2017 was to be the last year of his contract anyway. Sounds like maybe he was just burned out especially after being so close to winning a championship but coming up short for a second time.

[Thrash13]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Edwards has been one of my favorites to watch, and like someone else said, I'll miss seeing the victory back flips.

That being said, he definitely didn't say it was retirement for good unless I missed that part. I won't be totally surprised if he takes a year or two off and makes a return down the road.

[franko3219]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

I am a little concerned for the sport. Within the next five years, my guess is that Jr, Johnson, Kenseth, and possibly a few others will retire. I believe that the Bush brothers will remain for a while yet, but I've not been able to connect with any of the younger drivers. I like Bowyer, but he's dropped off the face of the earth the last few years. I do like Hamlin as well, but as far as the new generation, aside from Elliot, who is going to drive the popularity? I'm sure that the generation before me thought the same thing about Sr, Petty, Jarrett, and drivers like that, but I guess only time will tell. As mentioned, aside from Elliot, there just doesn't seem to be a transcendent talent and/or personalities coming up.

[Thrash13]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

I think Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and the Dillon brothers are a pretty good place to start. Kyle Busch, Logano, and Keselowski will definitely be around for awhile too.

But you're right, there is going to be a definite changing of the guard 5 or so years from now. There a lot of big names in that 40-year old age range.

There's always Danica! Haha

[franko3219]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

I think Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and the Dillon brothers are a pretty good place to start. Kyle Busch, Logano, and Keselowski will definitely be around for awhile too.

But you're right, there is going to be a definite changing of the guard 5 or so years from now. There a lot of big names in that 40-year old age range.

There's always Danica! Haha

Haha. I want to like Dillion, especially for the 3 connection (yes anyway to try and hold on to a Sr connection once Jr retires). My problem is that he hasn't done much in terms of consistency to this point. He started to have some good runs in the second half of the season, which was encouraging. Hopefully with more experience he can continue to improve and become a title contender. I do want to like Dillion.

[pk500]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

I think Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and the Dillon brothers are a pretty good place to start. Kyle Busch, Logano, and Keselowski will definitely be around for awhile too.

None of those guys other than Kyle Busch resonates with NASCAR fans the way Smoke, Gordon, Jimmie, Junior, Harvick and Cousin Carl did early in their careers.

NASCAR is in trouble within five years, as nearly all of its bankable stars are heading for retirement. This reminds me of IndyCar racing in the early 1990s, when A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, Al Unser and Danny Sullivan -- all American racing heroes and Indy 500 winners -- retired within a five-year span. Sure, the split hurt open-wheel badly. But so did the departure of all those stars in a short window just before the split.

[pk500]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Haha. I want to like Dillion, especially for the 3 connection (yes anyway to try and hold on to a Sr connection once Jr retires). My problem is that he hasn't done much in terms of consistency to this point. He started to have some good runs in the second half of the season, which was encouraging. Hopefully with more experience he can continue to improve and become a title contender. I do want to like Dillion.

Dillon always will be Richard Childress' grandson first and a talented driver second. Let's just say it would have taken him a bit longer to reach Cup if not for Grandpa. He's not that good.

Logano is good but boring as hell. Chase Elliott has promise. I fear Larson is this generation's Kasey Kahne, a guy who arrived from sprint cars and short track with a TON of hype and talent and never quite fulfilled it in stock cars.

[franko3219]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

None of those guys other than Kyle Busch resonates with NASCAR fans the way Smoke, Gordon, Jimmie, Junior, Harvick and Cousin Carl did early in their careers.

That's the way I feel. Like I said, maybe the generation before mine thought the same thing about the drivers you mentioned? My concern is more from a marketability/personality standpoint. None of these young guys have an opinion, none of them really have an attitude. My concern is that NASCAR has been and will continue to dull the sport by catering to the societal PC crowd. That's not how the sport was built, yet they think that's the way to grow the sport; even though the numbers say otherwise.

[Redacted01]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Sounds like they're going to butcher the points system on Monday evening. Points for segments to reward those who race early. My only issue is going to be if they over complicate a system that is now fairly simple to understand for an outsider, but also, if they throw cautions at each of these segments. Take a snapshot of the field to get your segment standings, but absolutely no more unnecessary cautions.

Why not go all in? We know positions after each lap. Take your average position for the entire race to the nearest tenth. So you lead the entire thing? Great? You get to finish at 1.0. Hold 2nd the first half and 1st the 2nd half? 1.5. Now obviously you start complicating it more, but let's try and keep it simple. Scale up the standings by a factor of 10; a race is worth 400 points now instead of 40. It will look more obvious a difference to the "lay"fan than if you use fractions and award someone 40 points, 39.2 points, 36.8 points, and so on. Today there is an actual formula to convert your position into race points. It's just you don't have to know it because it's as easy as 1st = 40 and 40th = 1.

Points = -10*race average + 410

Scale goes from 400 down to 10 for last. Unless you go winning every single race, by the chase, your leader is still likely below 10,000 points.

[OPDriver]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Doesn't seem too bad of a change. I mean they are gonna continually change things and me being a traditional point system fan, this isn't horrible.

[Redacted01]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

They did what I didn't want them to do. Basically turned it into 3 sprints separated by cautions. I don't mind the 20,000 different bonus points they are awarding now during a race, although it makes it a lot harder to keep up with who has what and you get a gold star and this and that. But I guess they could have implemented a caution clock so it could have been worse.

[Richzilla]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Seems like a desperate move to me.

I used to live and breath this sport for over 35 years.

Didn't renew my season tickets last year for the first time and after today I couldn't be happier with that decision.

If you have to put out a 3/4 minute video just to explain how the points system will work you are in trouble with most people these days.

They keep trying to manufacture drama instead of investing in driver personalities....Drivers drive the sport not gimmicks.

We keep losing drivers with personality....only a handful left.

[ILuvMN81]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

Not really hyped for this segment system. I agree that it seems to reek of desperation and is a way to appeal to today's short attention spans.

Someone on social media was trying to hype that now each race will have three finishes, including the plate tracks. My retort was "will any cars be left for the third segment? Couldn't this backfire?"

What annoys me the most is that NASCAR just can't get out if its own way. We had a fairly simple point system for 28 years and while I won't argue it wasn't due, the constant changes since the intro of the Chase 12 years ago are a bit much. This one seems to be trying to manufacture drama and of course is as much about "stakeholder value" as much as anything else. They'll say its for the fans but I'm seeing little excitement amongst us.

Wonder if the folks at DMRacing will add dlc to NASCAR Heat Evolution with all the 2017 changes...no seriously, they're more tight-lipped than the CIA! They don't bother posting to Facebook and their standard Twitter response is "nothing to share right now"

[Redacted01]

Re: Official NASCAR Series News Thread

The new system, which will be in effect for all three NASCAR national series:
At the end of the race, the winner will get 40 points, and then second through 35th will be awarded points on a 35-to-2 scale. Those finishing 36th to 40th will be awarded one point. There will be no bonus points for leading a lap or leading the most laps.
• NASCAR will award points 10-to-1 to the top-10 drivers at the end of each of the first two segments. The number of laps of each of the first two segments will be the same in a race (and won't change if the caution comes out), and the end of the second stage will be approximately at the halfway point of the race. A race would be official after the second stage if it rains.
• Drivers will now carry bonus points -- called "playoff points" -- throughout the entire playoffs (instead of just the first round) when the points get reset. Drivers will earn five playoff points for every race win and one playoff point for every segment win. The top-10 drivers in the standings in the regular season also earn additional playoff points on a 15-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale. Drivers will continue to accumulate points throughout the playoffs and carry all the points earned during the year into each of the first three playoff rounds.
• Qualifying for the playoffs remains the same -- the regular-season champion plus 15 drivers based on wins with ties broken by points will get into the playoffs, as long as they are in the top 30 in the standings.
• The playoffs will remain divided into three three-race rounds with four drivers eliminated after each round to set up four finalists for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Drivers automatically qualify into the next round with a win in that playoff round, and the remaining spots filled by the point standings. At Homestead, the top-finishing driver among the four finalists at the end of the race wins the title.
• The race purse will be paid at the final stage.
• The 150-mile qualifying races at Daytona will be worth points to the top-10 drivers on a 10-to-1 scale (just like a race segment), but the winners do not get bonus points for the playoffs.
• NASCAR won't allow teams to replace body panels during a race, and teams will have additional limitations on crash repair that likely will mean most drivers who have to go to the garage won't return for the remainder of the race.

Can't say I like that last one. I get it that some cars impede traffic, but again, that's part of racing. Knowing how to navigate through the situation you're in. So we're actually going to have only 10 cars finish at Talladega now.