Off-Topic Forum

I'm glad the appeals panel removed the points penalty from the HMS cars. They should have also removed the crew chief suspensions too. HMS and Kaulig did not CHEAT in this case. The supplier sold them incorrect parts that did not fit the car. HMS brought this up with NASCAR weeks before asking if they could modify the size so that they would actually fit the car and still be able to close the hood. NASCAR said they could then, but changed their mind when HMS and the #31 team decided to use them. Funny how the #31 Kaulig car was affected but not his teammate in the #16 (Allmendinger). HMS and Kaulig were just trying to use the incorrect parts that they had already bought from the only supplier they can buy the parts from per NASCAR rules. The parts manufacturer is the one at fault here, not the teams trying to use the parts they bought from the NASCAR-specified company. NASCAR needs to either be tougher on the suppliers or less tough on the teams using those parts when they aren't correct.

As for COTA, I mostly enjoyed the race. It did get a little boring for about 20 laps when everyone got spread out. But Byron and Reddick were clearly the better cars and they put on a heck of a show. It's too bad that the end had to be all jumbled up to create chaos though. It was still very entertaining, but I'd have rather seen Willy and Tyler battle it out on the track alone at the end. And yes, I was ready for it to be over after the 1st GWC. It was starting to look like half the field would have to be in the garage before they could get a clean GWC lap. BTW, Suarez got fined $50K for bumping Alex Bowman several times on pit road at the end of the race. It was funny though seeing the video from his in-car camera. When they parked and got out, he rushed to Alex who immediately pointed at Chastain and said he shoved me in there. Then Daniel had to go fuss at his own teammate for making him finish 27th! Ross finished 4th though.

Richmond should be a fun race to watch this weekend, but I doubt they get qualifying in before rain coats the track. It's supposed to rain there from mid-morning through about 5-6pm. It's likely that one of the races Saturday gets bumped to after the Cup race on Sunday.

Can't wait for the Bristol Dirt race this weekend! Plus, NASCAR finally announced the layout for the ASR weekend in North Wilkesboro. I like the more simplified plan this year over the complicated crap they've done over the past few seasons. Qualifying is two 60 lap races to set the field on Saturday. The Open race race on Sunday will add the extra cars. The actual ASR race will be a single 200 lap race with a caution at lap 100. WAY better than all the crazy stages and random reorganization of cars at each break that they've done the past several years!

Once again, NASCAR has penalized the HMS crew for stuff they did with cars in Richmond. Seems like HMS is being the proving ground for all Cup teams this year since they have the speed to play with the rules. NASCAR penalized the #24 and #48 teams with points, money and crew chief suspensions for unapproved modifications to the "greenhouse area" (the area between the top of the front windshield and the back windshield). The backup crew chiefs for the 24 and 48 have been suspended now for 2 races. HMS is going to test every limit that NASCAR is trying to mandate. IMO, it's not in an effort to cheat, but to make NASCAR clarify things further. There is way too much leeway in what NASCAR is "mandating" for car parts and procedures and HMS is going to exploit every single one of them until NASCAR makes the correct adjustments to the rules for this new car. I personally love that HMS is willing to stand out to force NASCAR to make the rules correct or standard instead of leaving them fluid. NASCAR needs to get rigid on the rules and they need to enforce the parts standards that they expected from the manufacturers of parts. Until they do that, HMS is going to keep pushing them to do it. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Ford teams start to push the limits too since they know that Chevy is doing it. Toyota seems too far behind to really push anything that might cost them points in the standings. Bell is really the only Toyota driver doing well this season and there is no way JGR risks his points for some controversy. If Toyota plays that game, it will have to be with Ty Gibbs. Hamlin and Truex won't accept it as drivers and Denny wouldn't allow 23XI to suffer it.

The season has just barely started and there is already drama that doesn't even involve drivers hating each other on the track. As much as I hate drama in my own life, I'm kinda loving this drama playing out on the track that isn't actually on-track drama.

PLUS (and I almost forgot this tonight)... the team owners boycotted the quarterly meeting with NASCAR officials on Thursday! This is going to create widespread changes in NASCAR very soon. For those that don't know this already, NASCAR's TV contracts are up for renewal after the 2024 season. FOX and NBC will need to make new contracts with NASCAR to air the races on any of their channels. Of course there can be competition from other networks to get those races on their network too. I know that ESPN is interested too. FOX and NBC are already paying $800 MILLION for the current contract. Teams currently get about 25% of that TV money spread across all of the teams. NASCAR and (NASCAR-owned) Speedway Motorsports (which owns 11 of the NASCAR tracks) get 65% of the broadcasting money. This alone will bring much attention to the NASCAR broadcasts over the rest of this year and heading into the 2024 season.

Personally, I want to see FOX continue to air races on FOX and FS1. I actually couldn't care less about NBC/USA continuing to air races, but that would most likely lead to ESPN getting their races. However, Disney owns FOX now so the races could air on FOX, FS1, FS2, ABC, and any ESPN channel at that point. That is basically a monopoly of the NASCAR races, so I hope it doesn't happen. Plus, ESPN/ABC already has the IndyCar races. So that would create a conflict of interests. Again, the upcoming TV contracts for NASCAR get complicated, but I hope NASCAR makes it simple for the fans!

Sponsorship issues arose in the late 90s...

Then FOX came along and tried charging sponsors to even show

closeups of cars.. Attempted to stop drivers from mentioning their sponsors....

Their actions turned races into ENTERTAINMENT instead of SPORT....

I wanted to point out that while Disney/ABC/ESPN owns Fox, they don't actually own the Fox network or FS1 or FS2 (or even Fox News for that matter).  They were not part of the sale.  Also ABC/ESPN broadcasts F1 races, not Indy (they are currently on NBC).

Having said all that, I prefer the way Fox covers the races over NBC, but I don't get FS1 or 2 so I hope if they do get the rights they show most if not all the races on FOX.  I think Fox might try to go for the entire package, which would be fine with me.  I wouldn't be surprised to see CBS try to go for a part time package as well, just for a few of the races in the summer months.  I know sometimes its a struggle figuring out when sporting events are on different channels, but I wouldn't be against seeing all 4 of the major networks carry a race or two.  ESPN/ABC worries me just because while they did a serviceable job covering it in the past, I don't know how well they would cover it now.  The reason I enjoy the F1 coverage is because they let Sky Sports handle all of it (plus no commercials).  NBC does a good job with Indy, honestly better than NASCAR I think.

What could be interesting for some wrestling fans is how this could affect Fox.  If the NASCAR rights get too high, it may force Fox to balk at keeping Smackdown.  The rights with WWE are up this year or next with both Fox and USA Network (Comcast/NBC) both airing them.  I'm not sure Fox wants to spend much more than they currently do for WWE, so if the NASCAR prices go too high, it might spread them thin.

I hope whoever gets the rights will show more Xfinity and Truck races on network TV.  I understand not showing them EVERY week, but at least 1-2 times a month.

One issue with Fox is their NFL contract....

Kinda conflicts with NASCAR after Aug....

Don't know if it's Fox, but the late (3:30) starts,

even when racing on the East Coast stinks....

During the 90s, having multiple stations/Networks from week

to week was fine with me (just had to know which one carrying it that week)...

Yeah, I like multiple stations airing it.  I miss TNN and TBS coverage.  I wonder if CW has any interest in airing some races.  I know they wouldn't probably want a full or half package, but a few weeks a year showing some races might be beneficial to them.  They have started showing LIV Golf and rumors are they are interested in Pac 12 Football, so they might put in a feeler.

Jupiter, you are right on my typo. F1 is on ESPN/ABC and Indy on NBC. I knew that but mistyped there. And also yes, FOX still owns the FOX broadcasting channel, as well as Fox Sports 1 & 2 and Fox News. But Disney owns everything else that FOX had (including "The Simpsons" and other shows that FOX said they would NOT sell the rights to when trying to sell much of the company). Oddly, all the regional sports stations that FOX sold that became Bally's Sports are about to go bankrupt! MLB is already going crazy trying to make sure that fans in those regions getting shut down can still see MLB games on TV.

As I said before, I prefer FOX for the NASCAR races, but they have never covered them during the NFL season. They spend so much more money for NFL that they would never air NASCAR races on the national broadcast stations during the NFL season. Races would only be on FS1 and FS2 if they ever got the 2nd half of the season. CBS hasn't been a player in NASCAR for a long time because they spend too much money on golf. They did a good job with SRX the last 2 seasons but that was only a single broadcast on Saturday nights for 6 races. ESPN steals that this year with moving SRX to Thursday nights and starting the season almost a month later.

If I'm not mistaken, TNN became Spike TV and is now Paramount Channel. I wouldn't mind seeing some NASCAR races move to TBS, but that is still a Viacom station (like CBS, TNT, TRU, Paramount and about 10 other stations). It would honestly be funny to me though if a NASCAR race aired live on MTV or CMT! CW also has a football issue later in the NASCAR season. No football on Sunday, but they wouldn't be able to air any practice or qualifying on Saturdays unless it's early in the morning. I just don't think CW has the money to spend to even get a short run in the summer. They have nowhere else to air anything on Saturday either.

I do think FOX fights to keep the first half of the season no matter what. A new question for me is... What about MyNetworkTV? That was a FOX affiliate before the Disney buyout, but I have no idea who owns it now. MyNetwork could actually use a boost with something aired nationally, but I don't know how many areas of the country have one of those stations. My current station used to be UPN before WB and UPN merged to become CW. So my WB station became CW and the UPN station changed to MyNetwork. They do Friday Night Football for local high schools and then random college football on Saturday and Sunday. But they usually just show old movies when it isn't football season.

I hope FOX keeps the races they have now and maybe gain some from NBC before the NFL season starts. The only thing that REALLY bugs me about NBC is that they could air EVERY race on the main station since their football games are only on Sunday night. There is NO reason to air them on USA at ALL! Fox doesn't always have a good reason to move a race to FS1 either, but they air most of their Cup races on FOX. I completely understand airing the All-Star Race there since they have done that since back when it was the SPEED Channel (same reason for keeping truck races on there). NBC just plays randomly with which channel they will air the Cup race from week to week and most of them will be on USA.

MyNetwork TV has become such an afterthought, I had to look it up.  Somehow Fox Corporation kept it after the sale, but I'm not sure what they plan on doing with it.  Knowing that Fox still owns it, it does surprise me why they wouldn't test the water a bit and show a few weekend sporting events on there.  I'm not even sure what the point of the channel is anymore since they don't show original programming, I think most of the sports is through the local affiliates and maybe syndicating sports packages.

I do agree NBC should show all the NASCAR races, the only time they would have situations arise would be during the Olympics.  On a rare occasion there is a Saturday race it might interrupt a Notre Dame game, but they've kicked those to USA a time or two also.

As for CMT, I'm all for them showing a race or two on there, especially on one of the historical southern tracks, even if it is an exhibition race.  The more I think about it, I'm not sure I would be too upset if CBS/Viacom made a bid, as long as they didn't use CBS Sports Network too much.

I guess getting somewhat back on topic, I'm glad Fox is showing the Bristol race, it will be nice to catch some racing this weekend. Looks like Indy and F1 are off this week.

WOW, What a race, Other than the lack of respect out there. It wasn't a bad race. Unfortunetly The let Earnhardt away with it for so long, Now they think thats how you win. But It was good racing between cautions and some of the names you don't usually se had a good race. On to the next track, I think its time to say goodbye to the dirt tho. It was fun but getting redundant now.

I was a bit bored with the race, I think just because the novelty has worn off.  I'd rather see actual dirt track racing at a dirt track.  As for the race itself, I was tuned in until Preece and Larson got into it and Larson's day ended.  I think my enjoyment of that caused a power outage in my town, so I missed the finish.  Guess I'll have to look up the finish on Youtube.  The rules in this race is a bit complex, but easy to understand.  I'm not sure I like the way they pitted and how you couldn't change tires outside of the stages.  I also thought it was odd how they threw cautions, 2-3 cars could spin yet no caution, yet another one spins and immediately a caution comes out.

Again, I would like to see a dirt race in the Cup series, but would like to see it on an actual dirt track.  I'm not sure how many could handle NASCAR races though.