A salute to Tony Stewart
 

Congratulations to Tony Stewart, our 2005 Nextel Cup Champion.
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I really like Tony even though he's toned down his antics as of late. I also like how in a Maxim interview he referred to most of the other NASCAR community as "the redneck mafia."

I realize that watching NASCAR can be pretty boring as most of it consists of just waiting for wrecks, but i think there is alot of interesting strategy that all you stats junkies who follow baseball would be interested in. All the different kinds of adjustments you can make to the car based on track condidtions, tire conditions, fuel efficiency, drafting, coordinating with other drivers, etc. It's a pretty in depth sport, but because it was originated by moonshine smugglers it hasn't really come across to the blue state educated elitist types.

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

The thing is, I think the modifications are pretty interesting, but I never really hear about what modifications the team has made. Also, some of it is pretty in-depth and I've never heard explanations about what certain differences mean...

This might all be because I've never actually watched a full Nascar broadcast...

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

I just started watching it this year. I was drawn by the "old time hockey" aspect of these guys looking for payback when they thought they were on the receiving end of a cheap shot.

I had to watch about five or six races before I started to figure out what was going on.

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

Good post. Not kidding, I agree with about all of it.

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

I think the way that NASCAR is packaged by TV networks hurts its chances of being embraced by fancy pants blue staters like myself. I'm sure theres some interesting stuff, and recently I've started getting into F1 and the like, but I have to say it feels like the races can be packaged to dumb hicks, to be blunt about it. And that's why I haven't watched enough to give it a fair shake.

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

Have you watched a race on TV? I would argue, and probably most "Hicks" would argue that NASCAR has by and large begun to go away from there southern roots. The TV coverage is much more commercial now, and overall it would difficult for the most part to tell were in the United States the sport orignated.

And congrats to Tony and his team.

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

I would like to know your definition of hick

Re: A salute to Tony Stewart
 

[ QUOTE ]
The thing is, I think the modifications are pretty interesting, but I never really hear about what modifications the team has made. Also, some of it is pretty in-depth and I've never heard explanations about what certain differences mean...

This might all be because I've never actually watched a full Nascar broadcast...

[/ QUOTE ]
No, you're right. The reason you don't hear about a lot of these adjustments is because the teams don't want to give out all this info. This is fine in sports like football and basketball where you can tell which players are going where anyway. But in racing, there's no way you can tell from looking at a car what kind of adjustments the crew made to the wedge, alignment, etc. You have to rely on what the broadcasters tell you, which isn't always accurate or explained very well.

I'm not a huge nascar fan, but I like it when guys like Stewart and Gordon win because it pisses off all the 'necks here in Virginia.