back when stock cars were "stock cars"
This current car with single lug nut and sequential gearbox is not for me. I watch some of the races now because my kid is a fan and it gives us something to talk about.
IMO, the real racing begins Wednesday about 30 miles south of the event held in Newton this weekend!!
YES. Indeed I most certainly miss what I will always think of as
REAL NASCAR.
IMHO original
NASCAR died a little over 20 years ago. It was headed down slowly even before the loss of D.E. #3.
I even used to get excited about and follow the schedule weekly... Took my sons + wife to the races. Used to go to the
Atlanta Motor Speedway as it was the shortest drive from home. Also have a cousin who lives and works near the track who would attend races with us. We had some great times there over the years.
Telling on myself (age) now.
I am old enough to remember when one could not even watch a LIVE
NASCAR race on television. We had to wait until the Monday after the
Daytona 500 for the network to air a re-play of the
500 a day later. I would avoid the sports news so I would not see the results before I got a chance to watch that replay humbug when I got home from work on the Monday after.
REALLY telling on myself (age) now.
I am old enough to know who The
Alabama Gang was. I pulled for them. I recall pulling for
Cale Yarborough when he won the 1976 / 1977 Championships back to back driving one of my favorites. The
Chevelle Type S3 cars like my last
Chevelle. The ones eventually banned from
NASCAR due to winning too many races in 2 seasons back to back.
Ugh.
Rules & NASCAR! The strange thing..... They banned the
Chevelle Type S3 cars due to an unfair aero-design.
NASCAR then allowed the
1977 / 1978 Oldsmobile 442s to run with a very similar front clip
(near identical aero designed) as the banned
Chevelle S3 cars.
NASCAR had forced the
Chevelle S3 teams to use the restrictor plates on the intake manifolds in a failed effort to slow the
Type S3 cars down after so much complaining from the other manufacturers & teams. When the restrictor plates failed to accomplish the slow down much, it was ban the car itself time. So ,
Cale Yarborough won the 1978 Championship driving the newer
Olds 442s.
RULES! 
There have been so many new rules , rule changes and playoff systems + race manipulation (IMHO) they THINK the fans can not notice etc.... the last 20 yrs or so I can hardly even keep up anymore. I
may be older but I don't think that has as much to do with my loss of passion/interest for the sport as much as the increasing amount of change NASCAR keeps weighing the sport down with.
Cale's 1975 / 1976 Chevelle Type S3 - Cale's 1977 / 1978 Oldsmobile 442s
