[quote=“Jagermeister,post:19,topic:36373"”]
Money certainly plays a huge role in the equation, I’ll give you that. But, its not like Franchitti wasn’t get paid multi-millions in the IRL…
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But NASCAR will pay him MORE multi-millions, plus his sponsorship opportunities will grow exponentially in NASCAR. thus the potential to make WAY MORE MONEY than IRL could ever give him. Unless he has a sex change and looks hotter than Danica, it wasn’t going to happen in the IRL. It’s still about the money.
[quote=“Jagermeister,post:19,topic:36373"”]
As far as travel goes…
IRL is a 16 race schedule
F1 is a 17 race schedule
NASCAR is a 37 race schedule
Although it is within the USA, NASCAR travel is DEFINITELY more strenuous. …
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Hell no. Any Nascar venue is a 3 to 4 hour flight on your private jet/helicopter/plane. F1 you are travelling 3x that time for the non-european venues, and the swing of time-zones is more extreme and not even remotely accounted for. There is no way you can say NASCAR has a more strenuous travel schedule, even if they do twice the number of races. Plus NASCAR boys don’t have to go through customs on EVERY TRIP.
I have a good friend I went to school with that was an engineer on a Champ Car Team as well as a NASCAR team, and is now a mechanic in F1. He always moans about travelling for F1 being a royal pain. He never minded it much when he was stateside.
[quote=“Jagermeister,post:19,topic:36373"”]
I am definitely NOT saying that NASCAR drivers are the most talented ever, in fact I personally think F1 drivers are, but for those that say “anyone can turn left, win races, and make millions” is simply ridiculous.
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That is ridiculous. You definitely have to have some talent to drive in NASCAR. No arguments on that here. You’re average Joe and even your average amateur isn’t going to walk off the street and just shine at turning left. That being said, the mass move of open-wheelers to NASCAR is not predicated on “challenge”. It’s strictly money. The day open -wheel racing ever gets their collective heads out of their asses and/or road racing starts to gain momentum and sponsorship dollars, the migration will stop and reverse.
The other plus NASCAR has going for it is that they also control GRand Am Cup racing, so it’s a nice carrot for the open-wheel/ road race guys because they can still dabble in what they really love by entering in one off races and the 24Hr of Daytona since most cup teams have a GRand Am team and/or most Grand Am teams would love the buzz of a NASCAR driver in their car because NASCAR is where all the sponsorship money is as far as racing is concerned.
Race car drivers want to make a living driving race cars. The only way to do this is get paid. The only series that pays substantially is NASCAR. IRL only pays if you are a big name on a big team. Everyone else is brining money/sponsorship with them to pay for their seat. Same in Champ car, same in ALMS, same in GRand Am, hell, same to an extent with AMA motorcycle racing. Drivers will go where the money is because they would rather just drive than have to worry about soliciting sponsors to help them pay for their careers.