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WSJ: NASCAR, Once a Cultural Icon, Hits the Skids

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by lcjjdnh, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    I know he's gone from here, but I'd be interested in reading what lono's feelings are on all this.

    As I've said before I'm many years out of the garage area, but in the 90s it was wild seeing the growth and the transition. It wasn't Roger Stone selling straw hats out of the trunk of his car, anymore.
     
  2. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    The Sunday night race recap shows on TNN were the place to get information, and jayski.com
     
  3. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Watching the duels ... are those the Monster Energy gals who're wearing the ... very little ... in Victory Lane? My, my ... NASCAR really is working the ratings.
     
  4. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    I don't recall Caddy and Lincoln, but I recall at one point Yarbourough's team testing a Mercury Cougar. There were rumors in the early 1990s of Toyota entering NASCAR with its Lexus brand. Autoweek had a rendering of a Miller Genuine Draft #2 Lexus SC400. There was a lot of talk of Chrysler wanting to return to NASCAR in the early 1990s, but the coupes they had (Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge Daytona) weren't big enough, though a LeBaron did race in ARCA. When the LH sedan triplets came out in 1993, they didn't work because NASCAR had long required coupe bodystyles. That changed when Ford discontinued the T-bird and was allowed to enter the Taurus sedan, which helped pave the way for the Dodge Intrepid and later the Toyota Camry.
    Based on Ford racing a "Fusion" and Toyota racing a "Camry," to me it would make sense for Chevy to race a "Malibu" in 2018.
     
  5. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Who were the sports stars that were gone that white middle America could identify with? Who has replaced them now that Nascar is less popular?
     
  6. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Wasn't Chevy Lumina one for a few years?
     
  7. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Yes. Those were in the Days of Thunder era.
     
  8. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I wonder if the adult male who 30 years ago a Dodge instead of a T-Bird because Richard Petty now decides between a Dodge Ram and a Ford S-150. And that has lead to manufacturer interest declining.
     
    Hermes likes this.
  9. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    NASCAR Lincoln Mark VIII, built by Kranefuss-Haas Racing in 1994. Note the fake spare tire hump under the spoiler.

    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
  10. cisforkoke

    cisforkoke Well-Known Member

    Is this Chevy Nova? Is that the car that I want?
     
  11. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    We're in the midst of a major shift in "independence" and young people.

    For me (and probably most of us), having wheels was your point of independence at 16. Now independence is having a phone with unlimited data at 12.

    I can't imagine this doesn't have an affect on motorsports. Not to mention that watching cars turn left for four hours on a Sunday is a drag. (As a note, I also have little use for golf -- so I'm not a NASCAR-hating/Mickelson-loving Dockers, argyle socks and Perrier type).

    After a decade of being a sports anchor, I HAD to pay attention to NASCAR. I made at least three pushes to try and get really into it. I'd be into it for a few races but it just never took with me.

    Some of it was the boredom I found within the race itself. Other parts were the broadcasts and even the commercial breaks. NASCAR really used to (perhaps they still do) play up the "dumb Southern yokel" on the broadcasts, the humor and the TV ads where drivers would be hawking car batteries and motor oil. I just never felt smarter watching the presentations -- even with the engineering, which I admit is probably mind-numbing and far beyond my capacity.
     
  12. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    It's been pretty amazing seeing this shift with my brood (and their circle(s)). I was there for my learner's permit the day I turned 15, and I was there for my license within the month (you could get a daytime-only license in SC at 15 back then). Everybody was like that.

    My oldest, on the other hand, she was in no hurry to get her permit, and she was in no hurry to get her license. She finally got the latter late in her junior year in high school when she was 17. I chalked some of that up to her personality -- she's always been a bit timid when it comes to such stuff -- but then I saw the same thing with my son. He didn't try for his license until the summer before his senior year. He wound up getting it the last day he could do so and still get a reserved senior's parking spot.

    DaughterQuant, my youngest, has her permit now and seems inclined to push things. Of course, she thinks she's going to be driving back and forth to school as a sophomore, and that ain't gonna happen.
     
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