Thread: NASCAR, something missing?

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I understand the need for endurance in parts and human muscle, but really it seems like only the last ten laps mean anything. Basketball is similar in that they should give each team 80 points and start with 2 minutes to play. In the NFL you can see that most teams are pretty closely matched but conditioning or lack of it shows up in the last four minutes, so maybe basketball games should be to run 100 laps around the court and then play for two minutes starting from 80 points? That is cynical and we just saw that Jeff Gordon was retired from the track with bad suspension, so the cars have to last 500 miles but really I always fall asleep for the first part of most NASCAR races and then make sure I am awake for the last ten laps so you really could do something else for most of the time and just make sure you watch the end of the race. The most extreme case is in those Olympic bike races where they lazily jockey for position slowly until the last lap when they go all out all of a sudden. I guess that is human gamesmanship nature and auto racing needs to have that mechanical endurance part of the race, but you really could schedule your day around something else for the first 3/4 of a NASCAR race; unless you need a nap!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder