McLaren's Ron Dennis on NASCAR...
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=1739124
First, let me say that I attended two F1 races in my life, one a British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and the other a BGP at Silverstone. I also watched the USAC Indycars (pre CART and IRL days) with Foyt and Unser Sr. and Rick Mears etc. at Silverstone. One of my great thrills was to watch Niki Lauda drift his 312T Ferrari thru the last turn before Hanger Straight at Silverstone. Amazing car control....
Having said that, Dennis can't understand NASCAR any better than most of us can a cricket match. He says he has a better show? F1? Excuse me while I give my ribs a rest...SHOW? Sorry, we have the corner on showmanship. He's British for Pete's sake, God love 'um! American racing has always been roundy-round racing! Its a cultural thing, like which side of the car the steering wheel is on. Maybe its because Americans like to see most or all of the track when they buy a ticket. Maybe its a generation of people grew up seeing names like Foyt and Andretti and Unser going wheel to wheel lap after lap. Maybe its because on any given night, on some hometown dirt bullring, even the little guy can sneak in a win or two. Maybe its because you have more lead changes in a 50 lap Silver Crown feature than a whole season of F1.
(Let's see, we kinda invented drag racing too right? How boring....no turns at all! But you do get a new match race every few seconds)
Of course Mr. Dennis would LOVE to have the marketing success of NASCAR; so would the IRL and what's left of CART.
Personally, I love to watch them all....Solberg flying his Subaru through the snowy forests, Tony Stewart at the Chili Bowl, John Force at the Nationals, Paul Tracy at Cleveland, Jeff Gordon at Bristol, the Rolex 24 hours, LeMans, Monaco, Harry's SVX at Winchester....
Man I'm glad the racing season is back!
I'll just back out now, and enjoy the responses.
(I feel like I just dropped hamburger in a Piranha tank)
Don