NASCAR: Stop buying from snake oil salesmen; it’s time to revolt
By James Dunn
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway looked like a great race on paper. But dig deeper and you find a giant issue that needs to be called out.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race is getting great praise from the NBC booth and positivity from corporate social media accounts and all the big personalities. But fans are finally united over what we saw in the last 40 laps.
Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick were locked in a heated battle for the win with Harvick clearly having the faster car. But he couldn’t get around Logano because Logano was simply blocking clean air and taking his lane away.
So Harvick stalled and only got within about a tenth of a second of Logano heading into the turns. He went high while Logano went low. Harvick got momentum, then lost it — rinse and repeat for 40 laps. As a result, Logano stole the win away and a guaranteed himself a spot in the Championship 4 because of it.
More from NASCAR Cup Series
- NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
- NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
- NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
- NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
- NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500
There are only two reasons why this happened: the aero package and the Generation 6 car. Look back to the Generation 4 era, when drivers were actually braking entering the turns, it took a lot more skill to handle the car, and if the driver behind out-braked and out-throttled the driver in front, he would fly by with the position.
That doesn’t happen now. On Sunday, I don’t think I heard any actual braking from the two leaders, just throttle lifting. That’s not okay anymore. What’s worst of all, however, is the NBC booth is passing it off as an incredible battle and that Harvick was “close, but no cigar”.
Close??
Harvick never even got alongside Logano in the final 40 laps, and his #4 Ford was clearly faster than the #22 Ford!!
It’s time to act.
It’s time that fans no longer take what we hear as fact but instead use our eyes.
It’s time for a revolution.
I don’t mean to go on NASCAR’s Twitter page and call them “idiots” and say that “NASCAR died with Dale.” Let’s take a deep breath and offer constructive criticism.
Call out NASCAR for the race we saw today, use hashtags, and tag the leaders if you must. But I think the number one way we let our voices heard is through the NASCAR Fan Council.
Yes, there is an actual fan council. It’s used to generate feedback on races, advertising, and other areas that NASCAR needs fan input on. It’s not advertised very well; the only place you see it mentioned is via a direct link on the very bottom of the website.
Membership is unknown. But it was revealed a few months ago that 80% of fans allegedly like the low-horsepower, high-downforce rules package.
I just don’t see how that number can be so high, especially after Sunday’s race.
Next. NASCAR Cup Series: 8 tracks to add to the schedule. dark
So join the Fan Council. It’s our best way other than social media campaigns to let the leadership at NASCAR know: we are not blind, and we will bite the hand that feeds.