“There’s Not the Etiquette There Used to Be” – Tony Stewart Dissects NASCAR’s Major Problems in the Modern Era

Shaharyar | 02/08/2023
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Over the years, many great drivers have come and gone in NASCAR, and with them, have come and gone, many great eras of the sport. But many believe the era the sport currently finds itself in isn’t exactly an ideal one when it comes to the racing product. Now, this can be attributed to many reasons and factors, but if Tony Stewart is to be believed, tires are a big reason for the problem.

Stewart recently described the biggest aspect of a race that made a race that more entertaining, which was present in his time but is absent today. The Hall of Famer also attributed that missing aspect as the reason why some drivers have to make rather extreme moves on the track just to make a pass.

Tony Stewart claims the etiquette has changed in NASCAR

Speaking in a recent interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Stewart described how when he first began racing in the Cup series, a driver would generally burn the tires off the car no matter the racetrack. “You absolutely could wear the tires out, you could wear the car out. And if you didn’t budget and you didn’t plan and take care of your tires, you’d be half a lap or a lap down in one stint,” he claimed.

“And nowadays we’re in this era where the tires are so good, they don’t fall off and the performance doesn’t fall off, so you can run a 100% every lap and not hurt your racecar. And that, along with how close the rules package is in NASCAR, now everybody’s got the same stuff and everybody’s super close so … before you had comers and goers, you had guys that ran super hard on the front, they burnt some tires off, went backward. You don’t have that anymore.”
Stewart further described, “So now, when guys are fighting for position, it’s not a, ‘We’ll give it away early in this run because we’re gonna get it back on the end of the run.’ The etiquette I guess so to speak has kind of went out the window. There’s not the etiquette there used to be.”

Stewart describes why the etiquette has changed in NASCAR

Further opening up on his thoughts on the subject, Tony Stewart described why etiquette has changed in the sport today, claiming it is not the drivers but the circumstances that have changed it.

“That’s the hand they’re forced to race under that. I think in the scenarios we’re seeing and what we’re talking about with what drivers have infued with how they’re racing each other, if you’re gonna win, you’re gonna be forced into those situations because you don’t have a car that’s two-tenths or three-tenths better than somebody on a given day,” he argued.
“We have shot ourselves in the foot as an industry complaining about races not being good because somebody won by 3, 4, or 5 seconds. We shot ourselves in the foot because we sat there and preached things are bad and NASCAR has done the best they can to tighten the field up as much as they can.”
Stewart concluded that because of it, now it is extremely hard to make a pass or overtake considering everyone runs at the same speed. This has put the drivers in “more dire situations” whenever they consider making a move, which, when it happens, becomes a larger move.
And when it goes wrong, Stewart claimed, it goes way wrong.
Post Edited By: Ankit Sharma
Tony Stewart

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Shaharyar

Shaharyar is a NASCAR journalist at the SportsRush. Along with two years of experience covering the sport, he is also a filmmaker and a big fan of soccer. His favorite NASCAR drivers in the modern era of the sport are Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch but when it comes to the GOAT debate, he believes no one is or will ever be as great as Dale Earnhardt.

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