DrRick

the word around the sport is there is some real shady business coming outta the far east. obviously, we all know that toyota isnt gonna do anything half-assed. and we all know that the pockets are mega-deep. right now they are scavenging the garage, picking the best of the best for their 3 team Cup invasion next year. they are paying engineers, crew chiefs and drivers 2 or 3x more than the other teams are paying. truthfully, i dont have a real problem with that. but now the word is, is that they are discounting sponsorship deals. basically subsidizing the funding outta their own pockets. now that, i have a problem with. this will have a ripple effect throughout the sport, because sponsorship money will dry up as they wont want to pay the premiums that less funded teams are asking to be competitive. with the red bull team coming in, i have no doubt that toyota will be successful in the cup series. just like in the truck series. but i really dont like the way that theyre doing business right now.........

spwolf

its open market

vraa

iTrader: (2)

Didn't we learn this in highschool economics?
It's a pure competition -- many firms offer the same product. Therefore there is little to none economic profit on these cars and because of that -- inefficent producers (or racers or whatever) are pushed out.

J.P.

If their not breaking any rules then they are doing what they have to do to win, a la steinbrenner

mmarshall

NOBODY plays fair in NASCAR. Just watch how these guys drive around the track like madmen trying to bump and spin each other out and you will see just what I mean.
The current champion, Tony Stewart, is, IMO, one of the worst.

LexFather

GO TOYOTA!!!

baddis es

iTrader: (3)

i still dont see the fun in NASCAR.....driving in circles until some1 crashes--toyota should join the BTCC, where it actually requires more skills than keeping your left turn consistent

DrRick

you have no perspective on nascar. b/c you dont like stewart, you paint with a broad brush. its not a game of bumper cars, like you believe. watch a race and educate yourself before you spout off and look like a hater..............

DrRick

see post #8 (with a little less bite, for you )

baddis es

iTrader: (3)

i've watched races before, thinking i could enjoy it if something did catch my eye (the girls in the stands did) but other than that nothing really....i know it takes skill and all that greatness to drive a car around 200mph and overtake and what have you, but i rather see drivers use their full potential and drive a course full of twisties in both directions--that to me exerts real driving skills

DrRick

thats not exactly true in this case. toyota will not be able to land a tier 1 driver (ala earnhardt, gordon, stewart, johnson, etc) when they 1st come in. those drivers are locked in place with long-term contracts. however, the sponsorship deal is another issue. i realize that toyota did this with lexus in the beginning. offer an incredible car for much, much less than your competitors and then take it upmarket (price-wise) once you have established yourself. in marketing, i say go for it. in sports, i have problems. nascar isnt formula one, where the best funded teams always win. the technology (and therefore the costs) are kept down in order to balance the playing field. if toyota isnt careful, they will rattle the cages of the suits in daytona. and im sure that the frances will have no problem telling them to take their budgets elsewhere........

DrRick

how does it take more skill to 50 left turns and 50 right turns, than to make 100 left turns. there is a reason that great road course racers havent done well in nascar. boris said, paul tracey, ron fellows, pj jones.............these guys are world class road course racers. and on nascar road courses, they do farely well. but they dont win. and on an oval, they are dog food. dont discount the fact that its in one direction and they only turn left as to the opinion that they arent as talented. it takes infinitely more precision to drive and set-up a car on ovals.......

drink300

Here here! Well said.

I had the same opinion of NASCAR until about two years ago when my girlfriend got me watching. It takes so much talent, for instance, to bump-draft properly, that it absolutely stuns me. For instance, Jeff Gordon was in the top 5 for most of the race two weeks ago in Talladega until he lost his draft partner on the last lap. In less than one lap, he dropped all the way to 15th.

Additionally, the G-forces in a NASCAR race are all in one direction, all the time. So, your body gets very, very tired from bolstering itself to one side of the seat for 2-5 hours. This also takes its toll on the car, where tires get unequally worn down because of the angle of attack is constantly the same and in the same direction.

Watch for a few weeks. especially watch the restrictor plate races, Bristol and Martinsville and you will begin to see why it is so amazing.

drink300
2003 LS430 Parch/Ecru Custom Lux

Ichigo

Isnt nascar by nature a game of what you can get away with? There are all sorts of tricks to make your car faster or last longer before re-fueling. Thats why they have all of those pre and post inspections to make sure people arent "cheating". But the reality is, you keep bending those rules until you get busted and then you find another way to bend the rules.

So toyota's way of saying hello to everyone else is by offering cheap ads...

baddis es

iTrader: (3)

well i guess we'll find out if nascar drivers can deal with regular road courses (and road rage for that also) because they have 2 road courses this season that they must compete in, if i'm correct...and though the road courses may not be high speeds as their used to, we'll see how much they can deal with steady single file laps with barely any room to overtake one another