Why NASCAR Racing Is Best - SHAKEDOWN

This past weekend, we had racing in almost every series.
In fact, the only races not running were the Kenyans and
Ethiopians.
Boston Marathon was last month.
Today on ShakeDown, the results from all the racing.
Le Mans sports cars in Spa with the WEC.
More sports cars in Japan with Super GT.
German Touring Cars and World Touring Cars.
V8 Supercars in Australia.
You like bikes?
MotoGP, World and US AMA superbikes and Monster Energy
Supercross.
How about Rally America with the Oregon Trail Rally?
And even goddamn LeMons racing.
And none of it, none of it this weekend, was as
entertaining as NASCAR at Talladega.
They actually sold me on the fact that NASCAR is the best
racing series on the freaking planet.
Yeah, I said it.
And it takes balls the size of dirigibles to
admit that to you.
Stay tuned to find out why I'm telling you NASCAR is best, if
you have the balls to stick around and hear me out.
Remember, I said dirigible balls, not little Goodyear
Blimp balls, although they do seem to show themselves at
every NASCAR race.
Well, maybe it's just to go along with the dicks that call
themselves Danica fans.
Yeah, he's in there.
So sorry, whoever you are.
[CAR DRIVING]
NASCAR is best.
I'm convinced now.
This weekend proved it for me.
Get ready to share this video with your friends.
And you and all your friends comment your brains out in
support or in contradiction of what I'm saying,
that NASCAR is best.
But first, the other racing news to show you how feeble it
was versus the mighty NASCAR.
WEC, World Endurance Championship Racing Spa.
The race started with a wet track, and the two Audi R18
e-Tron Quattros ran away from the rest of the field, proving
four-wheel drive, at no matter what mile per hour limitation
the rules force upon it, is an advantage.
And then the Toyota TSO30 engineers ran back to their
computers to rethink why they decided to make their hybrid
electric motors power the rear wheels only.
Because you know, it never rains on Le Mans.
But then as the track dried, the R18 Ultra, the normal
cars, showed speed, and showed enough speed to take the lead
and win the race.
Audi finished one, two, three, four.
Ultra, then e-Tron, Ultra, the e-Tron.
The first hybrid race win will have to wait until Le Mans.
No real word on why the e-Tron did not win.
One Audi racer expressed real surprise that e-Tron did not
prevail, but seemed to mention and keep mentioning low speed
understeer.
So maybe there's some chassis dialing in that
still needs to be done.
By the way, R18 may look similar to last year's car,
and yes, there's a bunch of aero tweaks, but it really is
an all-new car underneath.
When I was at Sebring as an Audi guest at their test, I
roamed the paddock area and saw the 2011 car sitting next
to the 2012 Ultra.
And the 12 rear suspension is now a Red Bull like F1 norm
pull-rod rear design for lower weight CG and better undertray
aeropackaging.
I didn't see it, but the front still seems to be push-rods to
keep the aero tunnels between the wheels and tub open.
Nissan won P2 class, but some of the gentleman drivers
driving was atrociously bad, and not the caliber that you'd
expect to be calling world-class.
See, NASCAR doesn't even have gentleman drivers.
Their racing is at such a high level.
That's why they're best.
Porsche won GTE, amateur and pro.
In the pro class, holding off Ferrari on the final laps of
the six hour race.
But it took six hours to have close action.
Not like NASCAR, where it's wheel to wheel every lap.
In Japan, Super GT ran at Fuji.
And as at Spa, more rain.
And again, influencing the race outcome.
And again, another reason why NASCAR is better.
NASCAR doesn't let capricious weather determine who wins.
Later in the show, NASCAR racer Tony Stewart will
explain how NASCAR has a better way.
The GT500 Super GT podium was a promoter's dream, with all
three manufacturers on a step.
Lexus, P1.
Honda, P2.
Nissan, P3.
In the GT300 class, BMW Z4 won, for that paint job alone,
followed by my fave, the Shiden, and
then an Aston Martin.
By the way, the Super GT series is actually getting
concerned that GT300 spec cars are getting overwhelmed by the
GT3 spec cars.
So expect rule changes to help the home teams.
German Touring Cars, Race Two, but win number one from BMW
already, and number 50 in their DTM history.
That didn't take long.
World Touring Cars in Hungary, and hometown race Norbert
Michelisz took his BMW from P5 on the grid to P1 into the
first corner in the second race, and held everyone else
back for an emotional win.
So much for Chevy Cruze and Salon de Lyons dominance.
Ford dominance in Aussie VH Supercars continued at Perth,
where they won both races.
But apparently during a safety car period, two cars including
a Vodafone Holden, were dropped deep into the field by
a series of mistakes by the series officials.
Still, Will Davison for Ford earned wins in both races over
the weekend.
And this one error further shows that while V8 Supercars
may want to be the global NASCAR series, they've got a
long way to go if they want to match NASCAR.
That didn't make sense.
Bikes.
Casey Stoner won again in Estoril.
Honda getting it done, as is Stoner.
More bikes.
World Superbikes were in Monza.
Tom Sykes won on his Kawasaki, won race two.
The only race, because the first tilt was canceled after
two laps due to unraceable weather.
Cancellation was controversially criticized by
some of the teams, showing a lack of unity that makes
NASCAR teams and series such a cohesively strong force in the
racing world.
You'll see what I mean later.
AMA Superbikes raced in Sears Point, Infineon Raceway, where
I'm headed as you watch this for my F3 race car test.
Josh Hayes and Blake Young split the Saturday, Sunday
races for the wins, as they've been doing all season long,
extending their championship battle.
And then there was a bike show in Las Vegas called the
Monster Energy Supercross.
The season-ending jumpfest put Ryan Dungey on top for his
fourth win of the season.
But the other Ryan, Villopoto, had already sealed a series
championship.
39,000 fans showed up and tried to re-up their
sponsorship of the Monster Energy Supercross for two more
years, proving that like they do with their NASCAR money,
Toyota really knows where to spend their racing dollars to
showcase and validate Toyota technology.
That was a shock.
A ShakeDown fan or two or more asked for this coverage, so
here we go.
The Oregon Trails Rally was won by David Higgins in his
Subaru WRX STi.
A Nissan Silvia took the two-wheel drive class.
Subaru STi took SP.
The results are below.
Hey, Rally America.
And LeMons had a race in New Hampshire.
Someone raised a NASCAR Car of Tomorrow, taking the Dale
Earnhardt high-line early in the race.
Which gets me to NASCAR and this weekend at Talladega,
which convinced me NASCAR is the best racing series ever.
And it starts with the talent levels of the drivers.
NASCAR is not like the WEC or Le Mans or ALMS or Grand-Am,
or any of the elite sports car series around the world.
Because as I said before, there are no gentleman drivers
in NASCAR, not in the top-level Sprint Cup, or in
the second-tier Nationwide Cup.
That right there makes NASCAR better.
And NASCAR knows it.
I'm quoting their TV ad.
This is an actual quote that they ran for next week's
Nationwide Race.
They want you to tune in because it will quote,
"feature Danica Patrick and NASCAR's best." Think about
what they just said.
That type of leadership and honesty is
right on so many levels.
Speaking of the Danica, at Talladega she did not
disappoint.
She drove home the point of another NASCAR strength, star
power, proving she knows what it takes to be a NASCAR star
and make NASCAR the best racing series on the planet.
In Saturday's Nationwide Race, when Sam Hornish, Jr lost a
front tire crossing the finish line at race end and couldn't
turn the car, Danica on the outside was forced toward the
turn one wall.
Danica, of course, took it personally, and went all Kyle
Busch retaliation on him after the checkered flag.
Rear bumpered Hornish into a crash into said wall.
NASCAR dropped no penalty on Danica, seeing it completely
different from Busch's action when he was suspended for
doing the same thing.
And they suspended him for a whole weekend.
Danica then tweeted, "Hey, I just talked to Sam Hornish,
and we are all good." Wow.
As NASCAR's current woman driver, we know she doesn't
have one, but she may just be a dick.
Because on Sunday's NASCAR show that Sam Hornish
co-hosts, when asked about the Danica dustup, it was no "all
good" on his part.
He said he wouldn't retaliate, but he also said
he will never forget.
If Danica could only remember what she does wrong.
OK, star power and driver talent.
Check those boxes off why I think NASCAR is best.
Next it's the show.
You know, Audi can give us Truth in 24 movies, F1, the
Senna movie.
Drive, with Trackside.
MotoGP with their "Grid Girl" videos, but only NASCAR can
actually bring a movie to life.
At Talladega, Kurt Busch, fired by Penske last year for
being Kurt Busch, is racing this year with no sponsor.
So he and his girlfriend did the Ricky Bobby thing.
Because as the best series in the world, NASCAR knows racing
is marketing.
And nobody beats NASCAR at marketing.
You know, even their TV commercials are funny.
Seriously.
Dale for Mountain Dew, Jimmy Johnson for Sprint.
And I'm kind of pissed that Mike Waltrip and Mark Martin
stole my short joke act.
See what I mean?
But it's Tony Stewart that carries home the key point of
why NASCAR is best, to me, and I guess to him.
In his post-Talladega race interview, where the cars had
cooling troubles based on the NASCAR rules, to stop the two
car drafting, where 20 of the 43 cars did not finish the
race unblemished from all the action, and
bashing, and crashing.
Tony Stewart's interview quotes touched all the bases
why he, like me, thinks NASCAR's unquestionably the
best racing on the planet.
These are real Tony Stewart quotes, and here we go.
First he said, "The racing was awesome.
It's fun to be able to race and have to watch the
overheating gauges at the same time.
It just adds that much more.
It makes it more fun."
He continued, "I'm just sorry we couldn't
crash more cars today.
We didn't fill the quota for Talladega or NASCAR.
Honestly, if we haven't crashed at least 50% of the
field by the end of the race, we need to extend the race.
I mean, we still had over half the cars running at the end,
and it shouldn't be that way."
He kept going.
"That's what the fans want.
They want to see that excitement.
I feel bad that as drivers, we couldn't have done a better
job crashing enough cars for them today.
As an owner, I feel bad if I don't spend at least $150,000
in torn race cars going back to the shop, I
have not done my job.
We definitely have got to do a better job at that."
He continued.
"I had a blast.
It would have been a lot more fun if I could have got caught
up in one more wreck.
If I could have done that, it would've been perfect."
Keeps going. "I think we ought to make it a figure eight.
I mean, if it's a figure eight race, it'd
be absolutely perfect.
It'd be better than what we've got now.
Or we could stop it halfway, take a break, then turn around
and go backwards.
Then, with 10 laps to go, we could split the field in half.
Half would go in the regular direction, and the other half
could go backwards."
I guess he's looking for the crashes that he thinks the
fans want and NASCAR wants.
Tony Stewart in one interview proves NASCAR understands the
fans, the technology, the drivers, the racing, and all
of it better than any other series on the planet.
Tony Stewart as a racer, a team owner, a spokesperson, a
personality, and a professional proves
NASCAR is the best.
Just listen to his quotes.
And Tony Stewart is NASCAR's best.
Kimi is a wanker versus stuff like that.
McNish?
Just way too nice.
And Tony Stewart has proved to me that NASCAR is best.
You heard.
Now what do you think?
[MUSIC PLAYING]