"RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG?"

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I'm ready to stir up a little controversy.There is several things that I simply don't agree with in the Nascar rule book.

1: Body Templates - Does anyone out there know of any place you can go buy a car that looks like the car you see racing on TV every weekend????? I don't think so. Take the Dodge Charger. You will never find a Dodge charger on the showroom floor that looks like Kasey Kaynes. They are dminsionally two totally different animals. The only thing Nascar requires is a (again) deminsionally stock hood, roof, and rear deck lid (trunk lid). Every thing else is almost, but not quite, open game.

Of course, most everyone knows that everything under the sheet metal is shop fabricated and modified. And now they are going to bring Toyota into the mix. Do you know of any Toyotas that fit current Nascar specifications?

My take is this. Make the car builders build the cars to the factory specs for outside deminsions. Put the burden back on the "Factories" to build models that deminsionally meet Nascar specs. And, do it in a manner that most all of us can afford. The factories can afford to do this.

Stock car racing is one of the best advertising mediums there is. Put the burden back on the factories to make their cars aerodynamically efficient. Put the burden on Nascar to insure that the templets are made to fit the car that the everyday Joe purchases to go back and forth to work. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for carbon fiber nose pieces and such. Anything that adds to the safety of the drivers and fans gets my vote. Nobody would want a 100 pound bumper to go flying into the grand stands or through another drivers windshield.

The thing that made Nascar so popular in the beginning was fan identification with the car their favorite driver drove.

Now they are working on "The Car Of Tommorow" (wooooooooo). I haven't seen it, but I can't help but wonder how close it will resemble the car from the showroom floor. As I see it, from a professional level, the days of stock car racing are long gone and that is sad.

2: Car Owner Points - I guess this is old school thinking but the idea of the teams locked into the field because they are in the top 35 in owner points is simply "CRAP".

Was this a Mike Helton thing? Maybe not, but someone is certainly in the pockets of the Roushes, the Yates, the Hendrixes, the Childreses, etc. Would some one please explain to me this? What is wrong with simple qualifing? You should bring your car to the track and attempt to qualify it. If you are not in the top 42 that Nascar allows for a complete field, You Go Home! What is wrong with that? Guaranteeing the top 35 teams in owner points a starting position should be down away with. Have you heard the term "Run what you brung"? Well, that's the way it should be. Nuff said.

Thanks,
Larryjack