NASCAR Wonders Why Numbers Are Falling... It's the Cars Stupid!

As a child, I fell in love with Dodge and Plymouth because Richard Petty drove them. I drive a Dodge to this day, in large part a product of watching the King win in one.

His cars looked like the Chargers I saw on the road every day, well except for the dayglo Orange and Petty Blue paint. Benny drove an Oldsmobile, others drove Mercury, or Pontiac, or Ford. It was fun to watch.

Until, as recently as a decade ago, NASCAR meant something. Then it became something that many of us no longer recognize as the sport we grew up with. Today, we have the COT, and while I'm a firefighter who's all about safety at the track, I cannot stand the cars.

Mind you, I think they are closer to stock cars than the super modified posing as Dodges, Fords and Chevys had been since the early part of the 2000's. At least the corners are corners and not just a wedge with decals.

Instead of making everyone even, the field is so uneven that you can count on one hand the number of wins by non Rousch, Hendrick, Penske, or Gibbs racing have won over the past year. Make that last four years.

Give the teams enough latitude to make needed changes and get away from balancing every car so as not to have any kind of advantage.

Go back to Sheet metal that resembles the actual cars. Use the COT developments to make the drivers safe and put manufacturers sheet metal back on the cars.

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday would actually have meaning again. With the Nationwide series primed to debut their COT's, it will be very interesting to see what fan reaction they get to their non standard fascia.

When fans can sit in their seats and tell you the makes of every car on the track without having to squint for the shape of the grill decals Nationwide will suddenly be more watchable than the Cup series.

Very interesting indeed.