GM to pare support of NASCAR teams

[Satty]

Linkypoo

Associated Press

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- General Motors is planning to cut back on its support of NASCAR teams in all of the sanctioning body's professional series.

Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan says GM, which is reorganizing through bankruptcy, is discussing what he described as incremental cutbacks in support. He says cuts will be made soon and that the discussions are "indeed NASCAR-wide."

Rhadigan would not say if one series would be affected more than others, nor would he say the size of the cuts or how much GM spends on NASCAR. The automaker, through its Chevrolet brand, provides cash and other support to teams including engines and parts.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Good, Nascar sucks and doesn't deserve GM's (and therefore my taxpayer) money.

[Robert Hall]

Linkypoo

Good, Nascar sucks and doesn't deserve GM's (and therefore my taxpayer) money.

Given the outdated technology (carburators???) and generic 'styling' of their cars that has nothing to do with the real cars, I can't imagine GM's investment being very much as it is, beyond the advertising of using the Chevrolet name on the cars. It's not like these cars use engines supplied by GM or something...

I quit watching NASCAR when the did the whole lame effort of using the name and general styling of FWD production cars but with RWD race platforms thing around 1987-88. Before that, the 'stock car' idea was semi plausable, as even up until the mid '80s, the race cars actually resembled production cars...

Edited June 12, 2009 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Satty]

$5 would be $5 too much from GM to this redneck trashfest. Seriously, this "sport" had a driver test positive for meth. Who the hell uses meth, other than white trash sluts and neo-Nazi douchebags?

[CSpec]

I don't see any return on GM's investment here... there was a time when racing technology made it to the showroom but that certainly doensn't happen with NASCAR. Also I don't think Chevy really needs to advertise heavily to convince people who watch NASCAR to consider the brand.

[Daryl Z71]

NASCAR.com is reporting that it is just the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series.

NASCAR.com

[Z-06]

Hopefully this will force NASCAR to change the attitude and push changes to make the sport better and less commercialized. Or Toyota may always pump in.

[Robert Hall]

NASCAR.com is reporting that it is just the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series.

NASCAR.com

'Camping World'??? LOL. I thought the truck series was the Craftsman Truck Series. I haven't really paid attention in years, though.

[Daryl Z71]

$5 would be $5 too much from GM to this redneck trashfest. Seriously, this "sport" had a driver test positive for meth. Who the hell uses meth, other than white trash sluts and neo-Nazi douchebags?

It was one driver, and he sucked anyway. Why do you have to bash the hell out of nascar? Some people like it and some people don't. If you don't like it be a little more mature and keep your mouth shut. I don't understand why people have to bring something down just because they don't care for it.

[Satty]

Nascar is incredibly stupid. There are no technological advances coming out of it, you cant buy the cars they race at any dealership, its literally just a bunch of dudes turning left. Would you watch the Kentucky Derby if it went on for 4 hours? Didn't think so, but thats all Nascar is.

[Robert Hall]

Nascar is incredibly stupid. There are no technological advances coming out of it, you cant buy the cars they race at any dealership, its literally just a bunch of dudes turning left. Would you watch the Kentucky Derby if it went on for 4 hours? Didn't think so, but thats all Nascar is.

It's advertainment..it's all about getting the brand advertisements to the eyeballs.

One of the best descriptions I've read is to imagine dropping a bag of Skittles or M&Ms in a toilet and flushing...watch the brightly colored blobs go round and round..for 4 hours.

I'm going to watch the 24hrs of LeMans some this weekend, but not the entire 24 hrs..at least there, there is a variety of shapes and styles of cars, and they go left and right..

[hyperv6]

Like NASCAR or not there are 80 million weekly viewers that come cheap per dollar spent.

The money GM has spent on ALMS and The Daytona series has been more fun for me to watch but much more less effective marketing.

My favorite team is the Pratt and Miller Vettes and I can't wait till they come back in the new class to race other teams. But I will be the first to say the last two years were a waste of money.

Also if you really know what is going on NASCAR is a lot more advanced than you think in many areas. It is ignorent to say other wise. It is amazing to see some of the tricks they come up with to make a basic car faster than the other guys. The teams do not have a fleet of engineers in the pits just to tune a carb.

[ShadowDog]

Nascar is incredibly stupid. There are no technological advances coming out of it, you cant buy the cars they race at any dealership, its literally just a bunch of dudes turning left. Would you watch the Kentucky Derby if it went on for 4 hours? Didn't think so, but thats all Nascar is.

I enjoy virtually all racing forms, NASCAR included. It's just racing. Why is it that there must be a technological benefit from racing? There's other reasons for it all than that. The stubborn rarely poke their heads out from this bias. It's useful to manufacturers predominantly as marketing where millions of viewers are locked in hours on end to a manufacturer commercial. Toyota didn't take a gamble with jumping into the mix of manufacturers, and they contribute a heckuva lot more than just money. They're certainly receiving the benefits from it. Besides this, there is a lot of parts engineering meant to develop components for sustained 9k+ RPM racing. Many of these parts came from the manufacturer, or had development teams and engineers directly from the manufacturers to support the racing teams.

One of the main reasons you would never see a fuel-injected engine in NASCAR is simply because a carb-engine, fuel and electrical system are more easily scrutinized to help prevent for too much cheating among the teams. What did the sanctioning body do when F1 teams continually violated the no-traction-control rule? They gave in. That was disappointing. Too much technology and too little resources to scrutinize all of the software and coding ... wait a second, and we're talking about cars and racing here? With software and coding? What happened to just strapping in, turning on the engine and going fast by manual control? That's NASCAR's advantage.

Understandably, GM is in a position when they have to consider their expenses and race funding altogether. I can only imagine that dramatic changes are to come. I guess we'll see how it all develops for the future of racing in general.

[Satty]

Is it safe to say that when it comes to Nascar, GM has LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

[FAPTurbo]

Is there a way to reverse italics?

[Satty]

Is there a way to reverse italics?

Look at your monitor in a mirror?

[Intrepidation]

With Photoshop, anything is possible.

[Satty]

With Photoshop, anything is possible.

Now that thats all taken care of, who wants to go drink some Pabst Blue Ribbon, eat some Cheez-Whiz and do meth?

[Intrepidation]

I've never had any of those, not even the cheese-whiz, and quite frankly, don't think I'm missing out.

[A Horse With No Name]

I'm not anti Nascar, a lot of people who aren't white trash like it. I think Satty is bashing it because he doesn't understand it or want to understand it, and because bashing it gives him a feeling of superiority for no reason at all.

Just like people bashing Satty's Prius gives them a feeling of superiority for no rational reason.

For what it's worth, NO ONE on our board could drive fast enough or well enough to compete well in even the late model series at Columbus Motor Speedway. (here in Columbus we call it Columbus Monkey speedway) At 1/3 mile Columbus motor is the shortest sanctioned Nascar track in the nation. No way in hell...could the best drivers from that track compete at the next level very well...and no way in hell could the best drivers at that level step up to Nationwide series driving, much less Nextel Cup Driving.

A few years ago, David Brown, a VW GTI SCCA driver who raced in showroom stock let Bryan Herta, a CART driver at the time, take his car out for a few laps.

Dave was fast by SCCA standards, and Bryan took a good 3 or 4 Seconds off of Daves lap times right away.

As SCCA racecar driver Randy Pobst said....there are two things every man thinks he can do, and one of them is drive a car fast in competition.

Satty...perhaps you could put your money where your mouth is and drive in some form of competition, be it karting, autocross, drag racing, road rally, rallycross, road racing, or whatever...before you open your mouth and make god's own original ass out of yourself?

Not trying to be mean, but I usually enjoy what you write. In this thread you really have sounded profoundly stupid.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

...and who knows, maybe Tony Stewart will be racing a Toyota again...

Chris

[Satty]

What is there to understand? Its a bunch of guys in essentially the same car with 30 year old engines turning left every weekend. The most common defense of Nascar I hear is, "Well the crashes are exciting" which I find ridiculous, who in their right mind would sit for 4 hours hoping to see a crash?

[A Horse With No Name]

Riiight...all those Nascar fans are ignorant sheep who can't get up from the couch long enough to take a dump so they soil themselves watching a race.

There are actually a lot of intelligent race fans I know who watch Nascar, several with engenering degrees or rather advanced white collar jobs.

I'm not saying I'm into Nascar because I'm really not all that into it...I'm just saying your making an ass of yourself.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

I don't like NASCAR for the following reasons:

Their cars don't even remotely resemble real cars. "So much for Stock Car Racing"

It's all about the money and not about the racing

All they do is turn left

Watching Go-Karts is more entertaining (they go left and right), even more to drive

Any other forum of racing is more interesting, be it LeMans, F1, Drag Racing, Formula Drift, WRC, (where the cars actually look like their production counterparts).

When I was younger I used to watch it from time to time, but I soon realized there are better things to watch.

I for one, was annoyed that Chrysler pulled funding from their Drift teams but not NASCAR.

[Satty]

I've never gotten into a fistfight over who turns left better, so I'm not making as big an ass of myself as some other people in our sad, pathetic society.

[Intrepidation]

This reminds me of a fun "story", in Gran Turismo 3, you had to do an endurance race on Super Speedway, which is basically an oval track. The Trick to winning was getting the Suzuki Escudo, tying the analog sticks together, and and go do something else for four hours while the car just road the walls faster than the other cars were driving.

Try doing that in any other race track that isn't an oval.

[Satty]

I always sucked at Gran Turismo. I did, however, kick ass at Midtown Madness.

[A Horse With No Name]

I don't like NASCAR for the following reasons:

Their cars don't even remotely resemble real cars. "So much for Stock Car Racing"

It's all about the money and not about the racing

All they do is turn left

Watching Go-Karts is more entertaining (they go left and right), even more to drive

Any other forum of racing is more interesting, be it LeMans, F1, Drag Racing, Formula Drift, WRC, (where the cars actually look like their production counterparts).

When I was younger I used to watch it from time to time, but I soon realized there are better things to watch.

I for one, was annoyed that Chrysler pulled funding from their Drift teams but not NASCAR.

To turn this thread to a positive note...so sad that you were not there at our last autocross DF, not the one today but the one last month. PRISTINE 20,000 mile Neon ACR two door, looked like it had never even been driven in the rain, came out and ran fast times. It even ran faster than the SRT-4 Neon. Watching that thing run through the cones was just beautiful, it was lifting a rear wheel through every turn and just getting with the program.

God what a beautiful little car. Really nice Blue with white stripes Neon R/T (first gen with the hi po motor) running around grove city also.

One of our local SCCA guys is selling an ACR cheap...thought about it but I really want a MINI.

Playing with real cars is much more fun than just watching TV.

Good luck getting the Intrepid back on the road...we're pulling for you...

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

I've never gotten into a fistfight over who turns left better, so I'm not making as big an ass of myself as some other people in our sad, pathetic society.

You've also never propably driven on any real racetrack either.

Chris

[Satty]

The ACR Neons were pretty nifty, 150hp and they weighed next to nothing.

[Satty]

You've also never propably driven on any real racetrack either.

And all the people who jerk off over Nascar have?

[A Horse With No Name]

The ACR Neons were pretty nifty, 150hp and they weighed next to nothing.

I'm thinking I'd like to try Rallycross, even though I am not fast at autocross.

Plus, with 3 teenagers in the house I need another cheap car as a third car. I am thinking evil thoughts. Non GM Mopar thoughts, if you get my (four wheel past a cone in a field) drift.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

If you're thinking Neon, I would definitely go with the 2nd gen, since they're much more reliable than the first gen Neons. Plus then you're just a few trim levels away from an SRT-4. Unless you know the first a first gen that was well cared for and had the headgasket done.

[Satty]

Cheap 3rd car....sounds like a B-body to me. Sure, you'll never successfully autocross one, but they're dirt cheap. Combined the LeSabre and running, street legal Oldsmobile parts car set me back under $1000.

[A Horse With No Name]

Trouble is first gen is cheaper and has more speed parts available for it.

Second Gen ACR's are VERY hard to find...they only built a few of them before switching production to SRT-4 production.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Well if you're planning to tinker with it anyway, then so long as the first gen was cared for it should be fine.

I drove one when I was car shopping. snappy little car that handled very well...but then that same car I found had caught fire a few months back, possibly due to faulty stereo wiring.

[A Horse With No Name]

Cheap 3rd car....sounds like a B-body to me. Sure, you'll never successfully autocross one, but they're dirt cheap. Combined the LeSabre and running, street legal Oldsmobile parts car set me back under $1000.

I've thought of that too...but the cheap car to own IMHO in that range is an old Caprice cop car. Saw a very clean dark grey ex cop car that must have been ex-FBI or something on the way home the other day. Looked sweet.

But...no thanks on anything automatic...which DF is also why I am not going to get another Concorde or an Intrepid. I just can't handle life without a car with that third pedal.

I really, really wish Chryco had made a car like the first gen neon with an upgraded interior and a little bit more of a refined feel. Chryco nailed the handling on the first gen Neon.

Also really cool are the older Daytonas and Shelby Chargers.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

They did, it was the 2nd gen Neon.

There's also first gen Cloud cars that could be had with a manual.

As per the transmission. We've got a manual in addition to an automatic. The manual is fun and all, and (in theory( more durable, plus you can tell it what gear to be in without any bitching, but for cruising around, long trips and such...I'll take the automatic, especially in a large, comfortable, yet good handling package.

[A Horse With No Name]

(Way off topic but...)

I can appreciate that, DF. My Concorde really liked curvy roads...a lot of the roads I now enjoy with my Miata are roads I found with the Concorde. And after seeing the CC at the local VW dealer, I can see what you see in both the CC and Concorde/Intrepid/LH cars.

Besides, your young and horny and have other things to be doing with your hands than shifting.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Besides, your young and horny and have other things to be doing with your hands than shifting.

That was TMI my friend.

[FAPTurbo]

Back on topic:

LEFT!

[A Horse With No Name]

What is sad is that even after winning GT1 at LeMans, GM is cutting support of the C6R factory team, IIRC.

Chris

[Intrepidation]

Another thing to add to my list:

When a company's vehivle wins in LeMans, WRC, F1, etc. They're proud of it. Not even Toyota seems proud of (only) being able to go LEFT.

[A Horse With No Name]

I seem to recall Toyota getting excited about Winning the Baja endurance race...

Chris

[Z-06]

What is sad is that even after winning GT1 at LeMans, GM is cutting support of the C6R factory team, IIRC.

Chris

That was a good win. I was rooting for those puppies all the way. I wished GM could put a car in the LMP1 with the modified Duramax Diesel and give a tough fight for the Europeans.

[hyperv6]

I love the Pratt and Miller team and cars. I never miss a chance to see them.

But to be honest the last couple years were a total waste of money the majority of the time. First off few people watch this kind of racing or are even aware of it. Second racing the team car was just flat dumb.

I will like the GT2 car as they will be fighting other companies and models that will really mean something.

Road Racing is my favorite racing but the economic are piss poor for it to promote much. Even in the IMSA hey days MFG's pumped millions in and saw very little come back.

I miss the old days of IMSA that was fun and something ALMS has tried to copy but never will.