First ever NASCAR post

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever posted about NASCAR, or any kind of racing for that matter, in this blog.

I used to love watching racing.  I particularly enjoyed Formula 1 and Indy-car stuff (before CART came along).  NASCAR was a distant third for me, although I always rooted for Richard Petty and Darrel Waltrip when I did watch.  I enjoyed the road courses more than the ovals, and I liked Mario Andretti and Rick Mears.

I know I'm dating myself big-time, but I loved watching Andretti duking it out with Nikki Lauda, Jody Sheckter, Gilles Villneuve, James Hunt, and a bunch of others.  Loved that black JPS Lotus.  In those days it seemed like it was a hunt for innovation to give yourself an edge over everyone else, whether it was aerodynamics. or some engine innovation that gave you more power - whatever it took to get you onto the podium or into the winners circle.

Which leads me to my real point today - what we have in racing is all about sameness.  Bodys, wings, spoilers, height, weight, width, length - everything is the same and there is no innovation.  So what we get is what we saw last weekend at the Daytona 500 - hours of staying in the draft because if you get out of it you lose about 25 positions.  So it's nose to tail lap after lap unless someone cuts a tire or gets too loose in a turn.  Then its a mad scramble to get in and out of the pits and pick up "track position".

I watched the whole race, all the while thinking "it has to get better sometime soon", but it was just a yawner.  I think I prefer the short track NASCAR races where aerodynamics take a back seat to power and skill and, well, RACING.

So give me the old days of racing, not the genericized, uniformed, sameness of today's version