NASCAR raced “city streets” in Daytona, long before Chicago
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HEY, WILLIE!
The TV announcers for the Chicago race kept saying it was the “first street course race in NASCAR history.”
Um, street race implies racing on a temporary course in a municipality on city streets. Let’s get in the Time Machine to 1948 for NASCAR’s first race on the Daytona Beach & Road course — a temporary race course in a municipality on city streets.
What am I missing here? You make the call!
P.S.: Are there rattlesnakes in Chicago?
ROGER THE DODGER
HEY, ROG!
Stop the presses!
Or at least let’s edit the script.
No matter how you look at it, this past weekend obviously wasn’t NASCAR’s first venture on a street course. Even if you want to suggest the beach wasn’t technically a street, South Atlantic Avenue most definitely was.
From the late 1940s through ’58, NASCAR sanctioned races on a ”track” consisting of two miles on the hard sand, two miles on South Atlantic’s blacktop, with the two straights connected by a pair of often rutted beach approaches.
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No intersections, no city parks, no bridges, and only those two turns, but by golly, they were public streets, and after NASCAR incorporated in 1948, it raced there for 11 years. But calling Chicago “NASCAR’s 12th street race” might not have gotten everyone’s attention.
Big Bill France, by the way, would plant “Beware of Rattlesnakes” signs in the dunes to discourage freeloaders from sneaking through to view the race without buying a ticket. Sunday in Chicago, he would’ve tweaked those signs to “Beware of Water Moccasins.”
HEY, WILLIE!
You’re right, but not for the reasons mentioned in (Sunday’s) column.
I am an old-time NASCAR fan, and I have not seen the end of a race in a long time. Why?
Start times: Races started at 1 p.m., or 3 p.m. on the west coast, and 7 p.m. for night races. Sunday’s Chicago race was scheduled to start about 6 p.m. That’s food and beverage time at my house.
Restart zone: Eliminate it. The flagman controls the race, the flagman decides when it’s go-time. Nobody else.
Micro-management: There’s too damn much of it. Remember when Richard Petty ran a Superbird with a tail wing up in the air about three feet? NASCAR today wouldn’t even let him unload that car. They need to remove the handcuffs.
There’s a lot more, but you get the idea.
JOHN S, FORT MYERS
NASCAR’S REASONINGWhy Chicago for NASCAR? Old fan base couldn’t stick around forever | KEN WILLIS
HEY, JOHN!
Someone smarter than me could give you the logical reasons for instituting all of those things you dislike.
But you left out one gripe I bring up now and again — one that, yes, would take us back to earlier times, but would also be a tremendous marketing advantage today: Consistent car colors.
When your Aunt Mae and Uncle Ed can’t turn on the television and quickly find Kevin Harvick or Chase…
Read More: NASCAR raced “city streets” in Daytona, long before Chicago 2023-07-05 09:19:03