What would you change about NASCAR

We had this on the old forum, if you could change a few things about NASCAR in genral, meaning all the top three series, what would you do.


-More track mismatches, meaning when Cup is a Texas, Nationwide at Richmond and Trucks at Iowa
-Eliminate most cookie cutters 2nd races, does Kansas need two races?
-Employ a new qualifying system, give the teams 45 minutes in an open practice session, to qualify. This could make Qualifying interesting for the Superspeedways
-This is an interesting one, no backup cars. If you crash it, your done for the weekend.
-An elimination points system like ARLA, where only the cars that finish get points
-Only cars that finish get prize money to eliminate Start and Parkers. Makes things very crucial


Special Sprint Cup Changes

- 3 car per team limit
- Add Road America and COTA
- Run Watkins Glen With the Boot
- Run the Indycar Sanoma
- Run Iowa
- Darlington goes to Labor Day Weekend

Nationwide Changes

-NO IMS... (YOUR NOT WORTHY)
-Montreal gets a Cup off week so Montreal can become the Nationwide version of the Daytona 500, Cup drivers can attempt.
-Make the races interesting, Double races like Texas Indycar, 100 mile dashes, ect...

Trucks

-Make 3/4ths of the schedule short tracks and road courses

How do you like my suggestions and can you add your own.

Turn it into the TM Master Cup series.

I would build a time machine and travel back to 1998. But, since that's obviously not possible (yet), here's just a small fraction of what I would try to do.

Cars:
-Work with manufacturers to develop the COT into an actual race car. This means opening up design and mandating that the hood, quarter panels, roof, decklid (spoiler included), and bumpers match the production car exactly (just like before 2003).
-Eliminate bump stops from the suspension and transition back to a traditional coil spring setup.
-Eliminate the splitter from all series and replace with a traditional valence.
-I would also make sure the bumpers do not line up so we can finally say GTFO to the two-car-lottery.
-Also, move the frickin' grill back to where it should be. Jesus, even small things like this NASCAR can't get right.

Tracks:
-Reconfigure Bristol. Again. Back to asphalt, and remove the gimmicky and stupid progressive banking. We're goin' back to Bristol!
-Expand the Cup series into more markets and reduce or eliminate fledgling markets (aka...make Dover and Texas have one race). Possibly add more road courses, and expand into Canada and Mexico.

Chase:
-I'm not going to eliminate the Chase. I think we're too far into the current era to just eliminate it. Although I would LOVE to, I have to be realistic here. With that said, we're going to keep the bonus for winning races. Also, adding a significant bonus for being the points leader at the end of 26 races. Move the chase back to the top-10 only and keep it to them.

Lower series:
-Remove most of the speedways from the Truck calendar. Promote the series and work with local short tracks to have the series show up to more markets. Also, bring the series into Mexico and Canada, if possible, but only for one race in each country (to keep costs down).
-Ensure that the Nationwide series has more one-off races to let the actual up-and-coming drivers shine without interloping from the Cuppies.

Again, this is only part of what I think needs to be done. There's much, much more that I could come up with if I had more time to think.

I keep saying it but, if there is a track that has a second date and has an infield road course, they use the infeild road course.

Trans Am Cars, on predominately Road Courses. Cut the schedule down to like 15 races.

I'd change the make of the cars, Toyota to the Avensis, Chevrolet back to the Monte Carlo, Dodge to the Intrepid and Ford to the Taurus.

NASCAR AS A WHOLE:

- Encourage more American manufacturers to get involved (and Chevrolet to bring back the Monte Carlo). Brand identity's going to soar through the roof in 2013 anyway.
- No more bump stops.
- Extend GWC's to 3 or 4 laps.
- Make Versus a TV offer they can't refuse and then say they can only do it if Bob Jenkins is in the booth. Same with TNT and Allen Bestwick.
- Top-35 rule is changed to the top 20.
- Yellow line is legal on the last lap.
- Make racing back to the flag legal to some degree. As soon as you're ahead of whatever caused the yellow, have at it. Of course, in special cases where the hazard is close to the finish line it wouldn't be allowed.

SPRINT CUP:

- Cut Homestead, California, second Pocono, second Kansas and second Michigan, shortening the schedule to 31 races.
- Give Texas' second date to North Wilkesboro.
- Give Phoenix's first date to the Rock.
- Make it the Pocono 500 again.
- Return the Southern 500 to Labor Day and give the finale back to Atlanta.
- Get rid of the Chase and the new points.
- Run the carousel at Sonoma, and the boot at the Glen, every other year.

NATIONWIDE:

- Reduce a bit of engine power somehow.
- Require all manufacturers to run their compact models. Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus, Dodge Dart, etc.
- All tracks cut from Cup are also cut from Nationwide.
- Finale returns to Atlanta. Darlington is a support race for the Southern 500.
- Ban Buschwhackers, except perhaps on specific race dates.
- Replace first Phoenix, Vegas, Indy, Chicago, Michigan, Indianapolis and second Texas with various short tracks. Ones that Cup doesn't run on.

TRUCKS:

- Cut tracks apply.
- See Nationwide's rule about Buschwhackers.
- Finale is at Atlanta.
- Replace Vegas, Chicago, Kansas, Darlington and Texas with...yes...short tracks.

If allowed to make ANY changes to Cup...

1. With certain exceptions (Charlotte, Daytona, and maybe another track or two), all tracks get one race a season. Then you can expand to all sorts of different tracks throughout the country. Yes, some areas might hurt a little, but let's face it. The 2 races a track deal was for a time when you didn't have as many viable options for venues, at least with ovals. We got plenty of options today. If a region wants a 2nd race and doesn't have it, have another track on the ready (for instance, Indy and IRP, Michigan and Belle Isle, Irwindale and California/Auto Club)
2. More road courses. Road America. Laguna Seca. Montreal. Get some roadies out there. We have seen Watkins Glen and Sonoma give great races. Let's expand. And while we are at it.
3. Racing in the rain. Of course, on the ovals, thats a no go. On the roadies, do it. If these guys run 5 or 6 road course races a year, you will give these guys more road racing expeirence. And with that, if it rains, the drivers will know what to do when it rains, instead of having demo derbys like Montreal has when it rains.
4. Brand identity. Yes, I can get spec (or near spec) bodies, but the people want the cars to be identifiable, not just "slap sticker on it, and its a (insert car name). If a Manufacturer finds out that they are disadvantaged, oh well. Work on it, and present something better next season. No mid-season changes like what would happen every time.
5. No more Chase. Again, I get the reasoning behind the Chase, but if the people don't want it, it can go. Just don't whine when someone is running away with a title, and scream that something should be done to artificially make the end of the season worth watching.
6. Darlington gets the Southern 500 ON Labor Day weekend again. No ifs, ands, or butts about it.
7. Transparency in the rules. How many times have NASCAR been chewed out by the fans about how secretive they are with the rules. Let there be light. No "secret penalties", even if they are logical if you give a reason behind the penalties.
8. Modify the Top 35 rule. If it stays around, bring back the provisional system, and give a driver a set amount of provisionals (say 2 or 3). Once you run out of provsionals, and you are outside the Top 43 in qualifying, tough crap. You fall out of the Top 35 during the season, your provisionals (if you have any left) are stripped from you. If you get back in the Top 35, if you have provisionals left, you may go back to using them. If you insist on keep the rule around as is, then make it Top 20 or 15. If you are having a good season, you are rewarded with automatic entry in a race. As it is, Top 35 is just too inclusive.

As for the rest of NASCAR, I really don't have much.

1. Cup drivers are allowed to run in a max of 7 Nationwide races, and a max of 5 truck races

NASCAR-wise:
-Offer CBS the rights to both Daytona races, as well as the Shootout. If it weren't for them, NASCAR races would've been airing on live TV flag-to-flag well after 1979.
-I would buy SPEED Channel from Fox and turn it into a NASCAR-exclusive channel, and set up a second channel for non-NASCAR motorsports (F1, BTCC, GP2, etc).

Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Trucks:
Y'know the new points system we're using for the CRL Modified Division this season? You can see it here. I would implement that for both divisions. I would implement a somewhat similar, but somewhat different system for the Trucks.

Sprint Cup:
-Buy out Budweiser's contract to sponsor the Shootout, and rename it the Coors Light Shootout. Go back to pole winners only, and cut the race distance down to 25 laps, without a mandatory pit stop. Winner gets 5 bonus points. The All-Star Race Winner would also get 5 bonus points.
-Cut the schedule down to 30 races. I'd get rid of Auto Club Speedway, Chicago, Kansas, Vegas, and Sonoma altogether. Plus, I would drop the second Texas race, one of Pocono's dates (and cut the other race down to 400 miles, which they've actually done), one of Phoenix's dates, and one of New Hampshire's dates. I would then add Road America, Nashville (the Fairgrounds, not the Superspeedway), Milwaukee, Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. Then there would be some schedule shifting. Darlington would be moved back to Labor Day Weekend and be run on Sunday night, Atlanta's lone date would be moved to July. Still coming up with what the schedule would look like.
-Remove the Chase for one year as an experiment to see what would happen with the new points system without a Chase.

Nationwide:
-No Sprint Cup drivers would be allowed to run races at tracks where the Sprint Cup Series doesn't run. Furthermore, if the Nationwide Series were to run a standalone race at a Sprint Cup track, no Sprint Cup drivers would be allowed to race. Add to this...
-Allow Sprint Cup drivers a certain number of races by their experience. Sprint Cup rookies and 2nd year drivers would be allowed to run only one Nationwide Series race at a Sprint Cup track that hosts to Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. Active Sprint Cup drivers with 3 to 5 seasons experience (running half a season would count towards this total) would be held to a maximum of 15 Nationwide Series race per year, drivers with 6 to 10 season experience would be held to 10 races per year, drivers with 11 to 13 seasons experience would be held to 5 races per year, 14 to 16 seasons would be held to 3, 17 to 20 seasons held to 1, and drivers with more than 20 seasons would not be allowed to run.
-Sprint Cup owners who have Nationwide Series teams and run Sprint Cup drivers with those teams would be required to field their car(s) with a non-Sprint Cup driver at Nationwide races that aren't being run in conjunction with Sprint Cup races.
-Also, Sprint Cup owners with Nationwide teams would be required to give Nationwide Series-exclusive $250,000 each before the start of the season.

That's all I got for now.

I like my idea of making Montreal the Nationwide Daytona 500.

- Offer a huge prize 1.5 Million bucks
- Run when Cup and trucks are on an off weel
- Allow them to run it
- Allow drivers from all types of racing.

Therfore

- You'd get about 80 or so entries
- All fighting for 1.5 Million bucks

The first thing I would change? That is easy and it's the only thing I think I could realistically get changed.

The [explative] YELLOW LINE RULE! The wicked spawn of satan will end up like Jimmy Hoffa.

day500champ1 wrote:The first thing I would change? That is easy and it's the only thing I think I could realistically get changed.

The [explative] YELLOW LINE RULE! The wicked spawn of satan will end up like Jimmy Hoffa.

I get the point of it. Maybe at Talladega where everything below the straights are paved, you could possibly get away with no yellow line rule, but Daytona, no.

I would like to see an endurance race,bit like the 150 Laps of Dwyer,but longer,obviously.Maybe 1000 miles across a road course.Now that would be interesting.

Also,I would like to see a series than runs only on Road courses.Infield road courses can also count.

To be honest I wouldn't mind twin races on some of the races. Not all, but it would be interesting.

I've tried to address some of these things with my stagnant PARA series. In short:

-Only the top 30 earn points. This reduces S&P teams and forces everyone else to work their asses off in the event of a "bad day"

-Scale bonus points based on the number of laps led. If you dominate the race and get wrecked by a Busch or Wallace, it's not fair for him to earn points and you not. Also, this makes leading a major points requirement. Don't expect anyone to just ride around in the top 10 trying to make it a "good points day".

-Eliminate the top 35 rule. This is one of those things keeping the car count low. If you have to run a top 5 lap just to make the race and every hendrick driver can ride around backwards picking his nose and still get in, why bother showing up to begin with?

-Eliminate "second" races. There is no reason to race at a cookie cutter twice (let alone over a dozen times once you add them all up). If you've seen the first race, you already know what is going to happen in race two. This will also lead to higher fan attendance, as every race is a once-a-year treat and if you miss it you're SOL.

-Restrictions on what series a driver may race in. If you can start only 7 races to qualify for a "rookie year", then that should be the line between full and part time in a series. Only those who are racing for points may race "full time", i.e. more than 6 races, in a given series. This prevents cuppies from dominating every NW race all year. Also require X amount of lower tier experience before letting someone race in the tier above that. An example would be starting the equivalent of every race for two entire seasons before qualifying to start races in the series above that. This would mean "development" drivers would be forced to get at least 4 years experience driving in a national series before being allowed to attempt Cup races.

-Wider track variety.There should be a vaguely even variety of track types and distances on the schedule. 6 short tracks, 6 mile tracks, 6 cookie cutters, 6 superspeedways, 6 roadies, plus or minus one or two, as an example. This forces teams and drivers to be the best all around and not just the best at whatever track type is most numerous. Throw in some dirt tracks to really screw with them.

-Abandon the GWC Rule. Low budget teams will really appreciate this, since they don't lose a car every time there's a GWC finish. Also, who gives a crap if they finish under "green" anyway? Half the time they're sideways and upside down and bring out the caution again anyway. Without the GWC rule, a late race caution would still freeze the field and eliminate the chance of a close finish, but as a driver that means you better get your ass out front before that can happen. This would bring about much better late race battles that last much longer than the 1.5 laps a GWC gives you.

Here are some of the ideas I agree with others' ideas:
-Add more diversity to the schedule (eliminate 2nd dates and cookie cutters, more road courses and short tracks, expanding to other countries like Mexico and Canada, possibly Europe and Asia, putting traditional date races back to the schedule like having the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend. Although I can see why Atlanta should hold the season finale again, I think Homestead should be able to keep the date being the track is as close as to what the old Atlanta track used to be).
-Get rid of the chase and points format. Everyone would be saying different if there was a chase format if Dale Sr. and other drivers that raced in the past were around.
-Put more brand identity back in ('70s, '80s cars). They should take some of what the V8 Supercars did with their COT version, which is make it cooler and faster while making it safer and less expensive.
-Get rid some of the unnecessary things (bump stop, splitters).
-No NSCS hackers ruining the NNS and NCWTS.

Some of my personal ideas:
-Although I can see why the 3 NASCAR Series should be on their own, you have to keep perspective of the money. Without the NSCS holding some of the events with NNS and NCWTS, not as much profit will be made. Yes, there should be more stand alone events but not every weekend.
-About the yellow line rule, it should be get riddin of, but not completely. Let the drivers go below the line on the straights but not into the turns. Considering the progressive banking, it can complicate things, such as causing big wrecks. Therefore, drivers MUST get themselves lined up above the yellow line before entering the turns (excluding the tri-ovals) or penalties will occur on drivers not letting other drivers back above the line, or derping by trying to pass below the line on the turns.
-Speaking of penalties, every penalty must be CONSISTENT! No bias B.S., or "it depends on the amount of damage that was done." You either screwed up or it's an incident. NO EXCUSES. And the government-type fines should be get riddin of as well.
-Loosen up on the rules a bit. I know they're there for cost control but let some of the teams do what they want.
-Get rid of the downforce. I saw a recent article of Jeff Gordon talking about going too far with technology. The more downforce, the less passing (hence F1). This goes back to making the cars look more "stock," adding more drag to the cars.
-Qualifying should be straight up, you either make it into the race, or you don't. Pretty much like the Indy 500 "Bump Day."

That is all for now.

Ok, I have to say this because it has been suggested as a change and I'd like to give my voice on it.

Personally, I happy with just two road courses on the Cup and Nationwide schedule. Why? Because this is stock car racing. Not an grand-am or road course series.

I don't have anything against road racing (it is some of the best racing out there), but NASCAR is an oval track series. It's been that way since 1948 (with a few exceptions).

But, I do have to say I would love to see some dirt racing. Even if it is an exhibition race, like Tony's event at Eldora.

While, I like the Chase as an idea. It shouldn't be the points system NASCAR uses. I would like to see NASCAR come up with a way to reward not just winning, but consistency like it used to. But, I don't want to see drivers points racing at the end if their in a lock up position.

In otherwords, I don't want a situation like what Tony had in 2002, where he only needed to finish in a certain position to win the title. One of the moments I like in the pre-Chase era was when Jeff Gordon won the finale at Atlanta in 1998 even though he didn't need to to win the title. That's what I want.

Eliminate the four car team limit. Nobody but Hendrick and somehow Curtis Key can afford to run four full time cars anyway, so just end the rule.

Modify the Top 35 rule so that if at any time following the first races of the season, there's less than a full field's worth of cars who have attempted all the races in the season, all full time cars get a lock in spot. In Nationwide and Truck this year, it wasn't much of a difference, but it sure would help the S&P teams to at least definitely start.

Make it so that in order to earn points, a driver must run a certain amount of laps. It would most likely have a pretty decent effect on the points standings.

Will update this when I think of more rules.

RealRacer4 wrote:
-Get rid of the downforce. I saw a recent article of Jeff Gordon talking about going too far with technology. The more downforce, the less passing (hence F1).

Yes, Because F1 had no passing this year, and there weren't races that broke or came close to breaking overtaking records. /sarcasm.

I realize some of these have been said. Using format Mrsyko used because its easier to read, IMO.

Cup Series:
-Eliminate Locked In Rule. You have to be in the top-43 quickest to be in the race. The only provisionals, If you were within championship contention going into the final race of the season, you get a lock-in into the Daytona 500 ONLY. The other one, is if you are a past champion, you get ONE champion's provisional.
-One Race Per Track Rule. Except for Daytona and Charlotte. They get two. Also if a track want to run the infield course, they are permitted a second date.
-Even Track Variety. Even amount of different types of tracks. This includes dirt tracks.
-Either Take Car Cap Off or Go to TMMC Car Rules. <------That. Either take the car restriction off or restrict them more, and maybe have a reserve driver battle or something.
-Different Cars. I want them to be more diverse, bumpers aligning or not. Meaning, no stickers, actual grilles and different bodies for each manufacturer.

Nationwide Series:
-Make It More Regional. Less cookie cutters/bigger tracks.
-Different Cars. Don't get me wrong, I really like the new NNS cars, but I think they should look more diverse, like I said for the cup cars.

Not going to say get rid of Buschwackers, because though I hate them, they are needed to get publicity for the NNS.

Blake Camphausen wrote:

RealRacer4 wrote:
-Get rid of the downforce. I saw a recent article of Jeff Gordon talking about going too far with technology. The more downforce, the less passing (hence F1).

Yes, Because F1 had no passing this year, and there weren't races that broke or came close to breaking overtaking records. /sarcasm.

Ok. Some races had a LOT of passing this year, and other races were just plain boring. In the full version ofthis article, Jeff Gordon goes into detail of what it takes these days to win a race, basically how Sebastian Vettel was able to win so many races in 2011. If you look back into the '70s, '80s, and early '90s of F1, drivers actually had to throw their cars into the turns to get the fastest times, as where in the late '90s and most of the '00s up to today, the downforce is so tremendous, it's impossible to wheel it.

For example, the NSCS cars have much tighter springs, have more downforce and have cars set much lower than the stock cars in the early days, where the bumpers and the rest of the body shape never exactly gave you the kind of smooth aerodynamics that the cars do today, and the cars were much higher off the ground as well.

Except for some of the political point of views F1 has, I really don't have much against them. It was something Jeff Gordon brought up that I thought seemed valid.

CUP Mix the Lock-in rule with the old Provisional system. If you are int the top-15 in owner points you get a provisional for as long as you are in the top 15 ion owner points, and you don't get any of the counted against you. Otherwise you get

Remove Second dates from Chicago, Kansas, California, Texas and New Hampshire. Replace with North Wilkesboro, Iowa, Rockingham ,and a race in Canada.

Limit Drivers to run in only 25 races in the Nationwide and Trucks combined.

-Only the top 30 earn points. This reduces S&P teams and forces everyone else to work their asses off in the event of a "bad day"

That would do absolutely nothing for the S&P teams.

NATIONWIDE

Bring Back IRP!

Smaller Car Counts for short tracks. the larger fields I think killed off tracks like Myrtle Beach, South Boston and Music City as those tracks couldn't afford to pay the 6-7 extra drivers that ran the races. So Cutting the fields down and giving the top 34 fastest cars with two provisionals, for each race would help NASCAR bring the schedule back to its roots in the Southern Short track.

Use the Old NASCAR Provisional system.

First of all;

- BAN THIS TEAM NOW.

- Remove Champions Provisional.
- Remove repeating dates for tracks. Each track gets ONE date. ONE....
- Remove that "locked in" bullshit and let's see some actual excitement during qualifying -- give everyone one hour for qualifying with every car allowed four flying laps. Yes, this means cars could be drafting during qualifying.
- Instead of the Champion's Provisional, add one Promoter's Option, which will be given before the first practice session starts. This can prevent an important sponsor from missing the race.
- If there's a decent road course within three hours of a cookie cutter, move the race there, otherwise, make an infield road courses at all cookie cutter tracks and use those instead.
- Mandate that rear bumpers and front bumpers not line up.
- 50/50 ovals-road courses or damn-close-enough.
- Ban Michael Waltrip from being involved with anything remotely associated with NASCAR.
- Give the officials more power to park drivers for driving like clowns. See: Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart...
- Stop trying with the "brand identity" crap and just call the cars Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, and Toyota.
- Do your best to entice Honda to come to NASCAR.
- Put trucks on short tracks, three road courses or so, with three other races on ovals longer than 1 mile. Use the legends tracks at Charlotte for All-Star Weekend.
- Mandate three-car teams. Satellite efforts like Stewart-Haas would count as part of Hendrick Motorsports.
- Car counts:
Cup - 32 (43 for the major events, the Daytona 500, Coke 600, Brickyard 400, and the season finale)
Nationwide - 36
Trucks - 28
- Three races in Canada for Cup.
- Never, ever go back to North Wilkesboro. The only reason I liked that track back in the day was because Rusty Wallace would win quite often. Other then that, it was pretty crap.
- Adopt CART's old points system and remove the Chase. Let's see a champion EARN it.
- Flatten Bristol and go to a few other short tracks with 10 degrees of banking or less and no flukey tri-oval.
- Give all Cup drivers X number of NASCAR-sanctioned races they can enter, where X is the number of races on the Sprint Cup schedule.

Pretty sure these are too sensible for NASCAR to consider, though...

SPRINT CUP:

- Eliminate top 35 in points rule (goes for all series) in qualifying. Only the fastest 43 get in, period.
- Ban Start & Parks, waste of space.
- Run full length versions of Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen.
- 3 strike rule for driver conduct. Once, fined. Twice, Parked for the weekend. Three times, Suspended for three races. No excuses.
- Remove Pocono and California and Add Road America and a Oval from overseas to actually expand outside the US.


NATIONWIDE:

- Get rid of tapered spacer and instead just reduce horsepower.
- Run Watkins Glen full course.
- Limit cup drivers to 10 races.
- Ban Start & Parks, waste of space.
- 3 strike rule for driver conduct. Once, fined. Twice, Parked for the weekend. Three times, Suspended for three races. No excuses.

TRUCKS:

- Bring back Watkins Glen and add Road America.
- Limit Cup drivers to 10 races.
- Ban Start & Parks, waste of space.
- 3 strike rule for driver conduct. Once, fined. Twice, Parked for the weekend. Three times, Suspended for three races. No excuses.
- Revamp the front end of the trucks with a reprofiled nose similar to the COTs in Nationwide in Cup and replace current spoiler with a braceless one.

Pretty much my proposal. Had something much more harsh in mind for driver conduct, but then I'd be bordering on being too strict.

Blake Camphausen wrote:

RealRacer4 wrote:
-Get rid of the downforce. I saw a recent article of Jeff Gordon talking about going too far with technology. The more downforce, the less passing (hence F1).

Yes, Because F1 had no passing this year, and there weren't races that broke or came close to breaking overtaking records. /sarcasm.

This year's overtaking records were mainly due to the DRS, which basically removes a lot of downforce, and the tyre differences between successive cars. Even then, the cars that have been used since 2009 had already shed 50% of the downforce they had before. That's why there were so many passes this year. What RealRacer4 said is true: the more downforce, the less passing, provided you don't have any artificial way of overtaking.