[DougD]

I hate to be the one to break the news to you guys, but NASCAR is already gone. It's not about the cars and brand identity anymore. They've made it a driver's series vs a manufacturer thing. It's nothing more than WWF on wheels.

They try to convince themselves that we follow drivers vs the cars they drive, but they ignore the fans and their desires. Most people pick a favorite driver first for the type of car they drive. Do you think Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be so popular if he broke into NASCAR driving a Dodge, or a Toyota?? Fans might follow a driver when he switches teams, but they probably chose him in the first place by what brand of car he drives.

The cars no longer have any connection to actual assembly line vehicles. The bodies are not shaped like the production cars they resemble. There are front drive cars converted to rear drive. The engines they run are so far removed from reality that some manufacturers have never even produced a car with the engines they run (Toyota), and those that did produce one did it years and years ago.

The drivers they try to shine the light on today are really a bunch of faceless automatons who spew sponsor names and little else when interviewed (with the exception of Tony Stewart). Most of the current crop could walk around at the local mall and no one would recognize them.

So you disagree and think it's still real racing? Just look at the rules package. It changes by the freakin' week. In the good old days, NASCAR adjusted the rules in the off season. You built your cars over the winter to conform to a set of rules that would pretty much stay the same for the season. It was up to the teams to interpret the rules and build competitive cars. If the shape of the cars was not up to snuff, then the manufacturers went back to the drawing board and came up with a new car. Think Monte Carlo Aero Coupe. 1983 T-bird. Charger Daytona. Torino Talladega. Now they try to level the playing field during the season.

To fix it and turn their drop in TV ratings around, I suggest the following:

Freeze the rules at Daytona. If you're not competitive, there's always next year. We actually like for someone else to win once in a while.

Require the cars to have stock, production line bodies. We want to cheer for the brands. If the manufacturers want to play in NASCAR, then build a car for it.

Race in the rain. Wimps and baseball players run from the rain. Men race on.

End the practice of waving a yellow flag during the last few laps of every race to bunch up the cars. It's hokey and we all know it. Let a guy lap the field again. Racers are the best innovators we have. Let them do their stuff. The strong survive. The weak get left beside the road. Natural selection. Just let it work.