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Reactions: Ford's fab five Users say it's too early to tell if Ford is kingPosted: Thursday February 24, 2000 08:33 PM
After Ford's sweep of the top five places at Daytona, many users thought NASCAR should do something to make a more even playing field. Others thought it was too early to tell and that maybe shorter courses may be Ford's downfall. A collection of some of the best responses from both sides follows:
Have you looked at a Taurus lately? Then looked at a Taurus racecar? I know the case can be made that none of the three being raced are copies, but my point is that WAY too many allowances have been made to Ford over the past few years to ensure them a manufacturers championship. And those moves were successful. But if you want to kill off NASCAR, just let one team or brand have a DISTINCT advantage and it will end in a hurry. It was obvious that NASCAR didn't want to have the Chevy with an advantage, but they went too far the other way.
It's about time! NASCAR has done it best to always slow the Fords down. Starting with the 429 in the '60s and the Thunderbird of the '80s to today's restrictor plate racing. If a car company builds a better car, let them run it! Which Ford has always done. Heck, if it wasn't for Ford, we would still be running the boxy style sedans. No one would care about aerodynamics.
The drivers that finished in the top five in Ford's are excellent drivers and would probably finish in the top five if they were driving the family sedan! As long as there is NASCAR, there will be feuding between the Ford camps and the Chevrolet camps and that's what makes it fun.
The only advantage that Ford has is the drivers. The drivers of the five Fords that finished in the top five at Daytona were all in the top 10 in the points last year or are former WC champions. Ask the Ford drivers over the last 2-3 years if they liked Daytona or Talledaga when the Chevy's clearly had the advantage. We need to wait until after Rockingham and Las Vegas to get a real take on if Ford really does have an advantage. Since the Chevy's supposedly now have more downforce, they may dominate the shorter speedways the same way Ford has done the last few years.
I am sick and tired of hearing Chevrolet's Bitching and moaning. Look who has won the 500 the last three years. Why doesn't NASCAR? Make them shutup and face the music, there is no stopping Dale Jarrett.
It is too soon to see if Ford or Pontiac has a clear-cut advantage over the new Chevrolets. The Chevy teams just haven't sorted out what to tweak to make them more dominate then the Ford or Pontiac. At Daytona they just were not at the same level of experience that the ford and Pontiac teams were. If I remember correctly the car that Jarrett won with already had won 2 previous restrictor races before winning Daytona. We will see next week at Rockingham how the additional downforce helps the Chevy's. It could be that the Ford and Pontiac teams start crying unfair advantage if the Chevys dominate at Rockingham.
Dale Jarrett won the Daytona because of both a fast and well-handling car but also because of his patience, driving ability, and timing. If Chevrolet wants to build a superspeedway advantage car, the ball is in their court. Chevrolet made the decision to build the Monte Carlo in its configuration knowing fully the characteristics of the Taurus! Let Chevrolet play catch up. Perhaps more of the teams should not be so loyal to their car manufacturers. Just go for the best car available. Just like they go for the best driver available.
Ford has a huge advantage over the Chevy cars as shown evident in the Daytona 500. The only way a Chevy could've won was taken out when Earnhardt was thrown into the wall. NASCAR has to step in to even these cars out. Make the driver win the race -- not the car. We as fans watch our favorite drivers -- not our favorite cars.
The Chevy drivers are going through the same thing as the Ford drivers went through when they first brought out the new Taurus. It took some time until the Fords were competitive just like it will take some time for the Chevy drivers to figure out their new cars. But, NASCAR will keep an eye on this and make the changes that are needed to keep the cars even.
I was watching an episode of Car & Driver Television a couple months ago. They were test driving the new 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. While in an interview with Jeff Gordon, he said NASCAR is having problems slowing the new Monte Carlo down. And while they were talking about the 2000 Taurus in a later episode they said it wasn't much of a change since last years. I don't know what NASCAR did, but they need to change them drastically.
The complainers need to get a grip or do a better job on setup. They need to complain to GM, not NASCAR. This is what racing is all about. I guess we can furnish crying towels.
Sounds like a good attempt at making the tail wag the dog. The rules should stand "as is." Chevrolet needs to be the one to make "changes" instead of trying to make a square peg fit a round hole in order to make the playing field "fair." Come on guys, quite crying and start trying. Ford used to have the logo of "...a better idea". Do ya think Chevy can bend a little with some "better ideas" also?
The Ford's may have a little advantage. But through out the whole race they were just willing to work with each other a lot more then the others. Every chance they had to hook up three, four, or five cars in the draft they did. Teamwork gave them a big edge.
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