The argument that killed NASCAR.....

NASCAR always stood for the "National Association of Stock Car Racing". Back in the 1950's when Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen took over Pontiac he had the motto "You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a young man." Pontiac immediately began building performance into their cars. The 1959 model was the first one to have been completely designed and built under Knudsen's tenure. It looked like the Batmobile, and the top engine option was a 389 inch V8 with 3 2bbls that had 345 hp. All a 348 inch Impala or a 352 inch Galaxie were going to see of a 389 Catalina or Bonneville is the taillights. A mechanic named Smokey Yunick partnered with a driver named Fireball Roberts and for a couple years they dominated NASCAR. The term "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" was coined by the automotive press. It certainly worked. With it's high-performance image Pontiac quickly climbed from sixth in U.S. sales to third. NASCAR rules said that to race a car at least 500 had to be sold to the public. The SCCA ( Sports Car Club of America ) which sponsored the immensely popular Trans-Am series had the same rule. This rule brought us many cool things-most notably the vaunted 426 Chrysler Hemi, as well as the Boss 429,the Charger Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird,the Z/28 Camaro,the Boss 302 Mustang and the Firebird Trans-Am, Challenger T/A and 'Cuda AAR. ( There was a loophole that allowed de-stroking a production V8 to get under the 305 ci limit. Pontiac de-stroked a 400 and Chrysler did the same with a 340; unlike Chevrolet and Ford, they had no 5 liter high-performance production engine )  We all know Robert Duvall's immortal line from "Days of Thunder"-"There's nothing stock about a stock car" is true. However-the point I'm making is the cars had to be production based. You could recognize your favorites on the track and if you wanted one-you could go down to your local dealer and buy a 421 Catalina, or a 409 Impala or a 406 Galaxie, and later a Hemi Road Runner or a big-block Chevelle, or a 427 Fairlane. The competition was fierce. In the early '70's in an effort to keep speeds down-they were hitting 200 mph on the big tracks-You know how much power it takes to push a '70 Charger or a '71 Monte Carlo to 200 mph?? Nascar lowered the cubic inch limit to 366 ci and the mega motors were no longer necessary. As the small-blocks got more and more powerful, then they went to restrictor plates under the carb and other crap to control speeds. Also bodystyles could not be more than 5 years old. This is what eventually ruined NASCAR racing and made it the uninteresting mess it is today. Richard Petty couldn't run his iconic '74 Charger after the '79 season. He tried to run a Dodge Magnum body, but it was uncompetitive. The Petty team then switched to GM products. Most GM racers were running either Chevelle or Monte Carlo bodies. Petty discovered that the slope-nosed fastback '76-77 Olds Cutlass was much more aerodynamic and would run much quicker than the blunt nosed, notchback Malibus and Monte Carlos. Since Petty was running the ubiquitous 350 small-block Chevy race engine, the other teams cried foul. They said Petty should be forced to run an Oldsmobile engine. Obviously-the 350 Olds had nowhere near the racing development or speed equipment availability of the Small-block Chevy. If he had to run an Olds engine, the car would have been uncompetitive, which the other teams knew. However-in the late '70's, mostly because of smog laws, GM was playing musical engines. In 1977 you could get a Pontiac Firebird with a 231 inch Buick V6, a 301 Pontiac,a 305 Chevy,a 350 Chevy, a 350 Olds, a 350 Buick, a 350 Pontiac,a 400 Pontiac,and a 403 Olds. In 1978 you could get an Olds Cutlass with a 231 Buick V6, a 260 Olds V8, a 305 Chevy,and a 350 Olds. You could get a Buick Regal with a 301 Pontiac or a 305 Chevy. A Pontiac Gran Prix offered the 231 Buick V6, a 301 Pontiac, or a 305 Chevy. The Cadillac Seville was powered by a 350 Olds. Petty argued that since GM was selling Oldsmobiles to the public with Chevy engines in them,that he ought to be allowed to race them. The NASCAR brass agreed with Petty, and amended the rules-saying that teams could run any GM engine in any GM body. Petty's Cutlass dominated, winning several races in a row. The other teams quickly switched to Cutlasses to keep up. Through the '80's you could still buy a V8 rear-drive Monte Carlo SS, like Dale Earnhardt drove, or a Ford Thunderbird like Bill Elliott drove to the championship. Buick Regals were a popular body-so that got us the badass Grand National-although no NASCAR team was running a Turbo V6.  That was all well and good. Then in 1988 GM discontinued the rear-drive "G" bodies ( Pontiac Gran Prix, Chevy Monte Carlo, Buick Regal, and Olds Cutlass ). Every GM intermediate and most of the "big" cars were now front-wheel drive with V6's. This posed a problem for the racers. Now why GM NASCAR teams didn't simply switch to Camaros and Firebirds-I don't know-they were still rear-drive, V8 models and stayed in production through 2002. That would have been the simple thing. Instead the rules were amended and teams began running Chevy Lumina and Beretta bodies. As we got into the '90's the downward death spiral started. NASCAR should have stuck to their guns. If no manufacturer is making rear-drive, V8 cars then guess what guys? Your racing 4-banger and V6 front-drive econoboxes!!  I guarantee the manufacturers would have made sure they each had at least one model that was rear-drive and V8 powered!! Instead, they change the rules to allow a fiberglass front-drive econobox body on a tube frame, with 1965 technology?  Carburators? No roller cams? No overhead cam designs?  Then Ford guys started running Taurus bodies, and Toyota got into the fray with Camry bodies. Here's where they really went sideways. NASCAR basically forced Toyota to build a small-block Chevy copy-a pushrod V8 that was NEVER in any production Toyota vehicle!!  I don't understand why they didn't stick to the rules that cars had to be production based. GM still had Camaros and Firebirds, Ford had Mustangs. And let Ford run the OHC Mod Motor. Let Toyota run their I-Force V8 in the Lexus coupe. Let GM run their LS engines. Let Chrysler run the Hemi in a Charger Body. Now that would have been fun to watch and competitive as all hell. Nope. You got small block Chevys-a 1955 design, "Clevor" Fords-Windsor blocks with "Cleveland" heads-a 1968 design, and small-block Mopars-a 1967 design. Toyota has their faux-small-block Chevy, not the OHC V8's they put in Lexus's and Tundra pickups.  They had carburators until 2014-when every american and foreign car built has been fuel injected since 1988!!  And the so-called "fuel injection" their running now isn't multi-port or sequential port injection like all modern cars have-it's a 4-barrel Holley throttle body on an Edelbrock Victor manifold!!!  A glorified carburator!!  All the cars look the same. You can't tell one from the other. Don't you agree that today the sport would be better if people were running LS engined Camaros, Coyote engined Mustangs, Hemi Challengers,and I-Force Lexus Coupes?  That would be fun to watch, instead of a bunch of "Cookie Cutter" "Cars of Tomorrow" ( That are really cars of yesteryear ) going in circles. I think they need to get back to their roots-"Stock Car Racing". Or like it was in the '60's and '70's and '80s-the Golden Age when they were at least production based!!  Anybody have any other ideas?  Mastermind