OT Nascar to allow drivers to start "mixing it up"

i don't follow it closely, but it seems like they're done everything in their power to make it so that nobody bumps another driver and everyone is on their best behavior. They did that so that they could go "mainstream". What I think they didn't understand is that the people buying their merchandise and going to the races loved that part of racing and were getting more and more pissed off as they took it away.

"NASCAR will now permit bump-drafting at Daytona and Talladega and more contact on the race track." I'm not a NASCAR fan either, but if they pulled drunken, shirtless fans at random from the infield at Talladega and stuffed them into the cars to see if they could make it around the track for five laps going at least 200 mph for a $50,000 prize, I'd watch it.

I know she is racing in the IRL but if she went to NASCAR I would 'mix it up' with her

Sounds even more like demolition derby than it has been...

As a race fan, I love this move. They have tried so hard to go mainstream and took the NASCAR out of NASCAR. Sponsors didn't want their drivers getting into fistfights in the garage after someone wreaked another diver. While trying to please the sponsors, which makes these teams run, they ruined the product they were putting out there for the fans who pay to watch these guys. With ratings that are dropping faster than Tiger Woods endorsments, their starting to feel the pinch. I would love to see these guys police their own. It sure would make it more interesting and the driver would have to answer to people for more than an "accident". NASCAR gets me through until September!

Over the past few years they have sucked all of the excitement out of the events. More and more restrictions on the car set ups to make them all "equal" (which means they all run in a bunch and do nothing). You can't hardly touch cars without being penalized. You can't swear without being penalized. You can't get mad, say bad things or punch a guy who just wrecked your $250k ride and endangered you... They repaved several of the tracks to make the outside lanes as fast as the inside lanes...again just resulting in no passing, but rather a clump of cars that goes around together. I started watching nascar in 2002 or 2003 and it has diminished significantly in my eyes since then because of all of these rule changes. It is very stale indeed. It's not just about "mixing it up" after a race, but it's about being able to push cars out of the race during the race, and then drop an f-bomb after wards. I don't know if it's enough to save nascar, but it should make it watchable again (I haven't watched it in a few years now).

Explanation: Corporate sponsors have wanted their drivers to be model little citizens, which is boring. That combined with the death grip on "safety issues" that NASCAR has is even more boring. Basically they're going to stop laying absurd penalties for getting in shouting matches in the garages and bumping each other around a bit on the track. In other words, they're going to let them entertain people a bit more. Would hockey fans want to see the fighting taken out of hockey?

until someone dies in a horrific wreak at Daytona or Talledega

I grew up on the NASCAR watching "The Nashville Network" and sometimes "TNT" carry their races before it became corporate and watered down. "Fans were incensed that the rough and tumble sport they once loved had been molded into boring, follow-the-leader racing"...that's completely accurate with the cars being equal and all contact limited it had basically become the IRL or Formula One and full of vanilla (hello Jimmie Johnson). Dale Earnhardt would have been thrown out of NASCAR in the past 5 years. I am sure he is looking down at these changes (including the spoiler remod) with some happiness. I hope it's watchable again.