NASCAR 2010: The New Look For Sprint Cup Cars?

Race car drivers policing themselves is an interesting concept.  It is a throw-back to a time stock car racing was exciting and great fun for drivers and fans.

Pearson, Petty, Yarborough and Earnhardt Sr. were all masters at doing what needed to be done for a win.

There is now a glimmer of hope for fans to see drivers move one another out of the way without fear of a trip to the NASCAR hauler. 

The past few years have denied fans the racing action they grew to love.  The action that made the sport popular.

We used to see NASCAR drivers with unique personalities.  They created memorable moments.  It didn't matter if we were a fan of the driver or not, they got our attention.

Now drivers will be able to use their own judgment to determine the risk/reward of moving a car out of the way.  Rest assured fenders will be lost, front and rear body damage common and  of course plenty of tire marks down the sides of cars.

Fans want racing action and cautions.  They want to jump to their feet with hearts pounding, screaming as the drivers make daring moves.  Lots of lead changes with many drivers in nose to nose battles are mandated.

Drivers need to race all 500 miles not just the last 100 laps has been repeated by many adnauseam.  The new rules should allow this to happen because racing will be fun for the drivers.

Restrictor plates being larger makes for more horsepower.  Self-policing, faster cars, high banks and bump drafting sounds pretty darn exciting.

NASCAR must constantly balance the kind of racing fans want and safety.  Everyone wants the warriors of this sport to be safe.

The wing to spoiler change that kicks in later this year is more aesthetic than anything.  Stock cars should have spoilers and wings belong in another racing series.

The new rules allowing drivers to actually engage in racing antics on track making for action at all the venues.

Anyone who has attended races at short tracks in their local area knows about racing antics.  It is best described as strategy modified by driver personality.

Hard racing with lots of bumping and banging make the cars of today handle poorly.  We won't see the battles like Petty and Pearson or Allison and Yarborough so often gave us.

The fans still won't see fist fights in the pits or infield like the days of old NASCAR.  Racing has evolved like everything else.  Unfortunately it evolved to a state of boredom during many events.

NASCAR listened and is trying to bring the excitement back to racing.  Brian France recently said "our history is based on banging fenders."  NASCAR racing in 2010 promises to be a year to remember.

Let the self-policing begin.