NASCAR

[38Super]

I still remember Kyle Petty coming to a high school assembly during race week in Daytona. 1979. When racing was REAL. Lesa France was in my graduating class and Brian France was a year behind us. You could get a grandstand ticket for $30.
Heck, I remember getting an in-field/pit pass/ grandstand pass for the 24 of hours of Daytona for $35/40.
long time ago for sure.

 

[dennishoddy]

To me it was all about who could build the best setup given a few rules like displacement, induction, car weight, etc.

Like back in the good ol' days when Smokey Yunick was Crew Chief for lots of racers.
"Ninety percent of the so-called cheating that was innovated, it wasn't cheating," Yunick said, citing as an example a Chevrolet he entered at the Daytona 500 in 1968. "There was no rule on how big the gas line could be. Everyone else ran a 5/8-inch gas line. That was adequate to supply the race engine with gas, no question about it. I chose to run a two-inch gas line, which was obviously much too big, but it was 11 feet long and it held five gallons of gas. Nobody ever [specified size]. A week after the race, the gas line couldn't be over a half-inch in diameter. The day that I did it, it was not illegal.
They won the race because they could carry an extra five gallons of fuel!
That was NASCAR back in the day. Real racing and "innovation".

 

[User_3155]

Like country music, nascar started fading into oblivion in the early 90's. Honestly, I have watched a cumulative total of 5 minutes in the last 25 years. And that's probably being generous.

 

[DavidMcmillan]

They miss you…..

 

[Shadowrider]

Like back in the good ol' days when Smokey Yunick was Crew Chief for lots of racers.
"Ninety percent of the so-called cheating that was innovated, it wasn't cheating," Yunick said, citing as an example a Chevrolet he entered at the Daytona 500 in 1968. "There was no rule on how big the gas line could be. Everyone else ran a 5/8-inch gas line. That was adequate to supply the race engine with gas, no question about it. I chose to run a two-inch gas line, which was obviously much too big, but it was 11 feet long and it held five gallons of gas. Nobody ever [specified size]. A week after the race, the gas line couldn't be over a half-inch in diameter. The day that I did it, it was not illegal.
They won the race because they could carry an extra five gallons of fuel!
That was NASCAR back in the day. Real racing and "innovation".

Exactly!

An old boss of mine had a Winston West team. The rules were just nuts. They measured and weighed each car before AND after each race. They had “certified” profile templates for each model of car. NASCAR had roving officials and had eyes on every team during every race just looking for something to disqualify or penalize over. It was mind boggling.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Exactly!

An old boss of mine had a Winston West team. The rules were just nuts. They measured and weighed each car before AND after each race. They had “certified” profile templates for each model of car. NASCAR had roving officials and had eyes on every team during every race just looking for something to disqualify or penalize over. It was mind boggling.

The big difference was how much did the car deviate from stock, it wasn't much back then.

 

[MP43]

Like back in the good ol' days when Smokey Yunick was Crew Chief for lots of racers.
"Ninety percent of the so-called cheating that was innovated, it wasn't cheating," Yunick said, citing as an example a Chevrolet he entered at the Daytona 500 in 1968. "There was no rule on how big the gas line could be. Everyone else ran a 5/8-inch gas line. That was adequate to supply the race engine with gas, no question about it. I chose to run a two-inch gas line, which was obviously much too big, but it was 11 feet long and it held five gallons of gas. Nobody ever [specified size]. A week after the race, the gas line couldn't be over a half-inch in diameter. The day that I did it, it was not illegal.
They won the race because they could carry an extra five gallons of fuel!
That was NASCAR back in the day. Real racing and "innovation".

A Chrysler engineer involved in the Daytona and Superbird projects had this to say about NASCAR racing: "Win if you can, lose if you must. But always cheat."

 

[1911DA]

Racing and a gun fight both have the same rules.........if you ain't cheating you ain't winning