I grew up around racing, even owned a raced a few cars. I liked watching NASCAR back when it was the Winston Cup, not so much when it became the Sprint Cup. Gradually slowed down watching it live, would record and watch as I could. When they went to the mandatory pit stops that was the last straw, I haven't even recorded it since then.
Run the damn cars until they won't go anymore, and trading paint isn't a reason to shut a team down - or even issue a fine.
There was a day when NASCAR race cars were cars. Richard Petty drove a Plymouth that, basically, sort of, started its life as a Plymouth on the assembly line in some Plymouth factory. The same was true of Fords and Chevrolets of the day. Obviously, they were heavily modified for racing, but they started out as street-legal motor vehicles.
Today? They all basically have the same tubular chassis under them, and they all have the same NASCAR-approved body shell over the cage. They just paint on a grille to make it look (sort of) like whatever make of engine the team happens to be running. I completely lost interest when that started to happen. Racing is racing. A huge part of NASCAR was identifying with your brand. Ford lovers rooted for the Ford drivers, Plymouth drivers rooted for Richard Petty, and Chevrolet drivers rooted for a Chevrolet driver (did Junior Johnson drive Chevies? Don't remember). If Ford produced a car with a slipperier shape than Chevy or Plymouth -- well, that's racing, and Plymouth or Chevy could come out with a more streamlined model next year if they wanted to compete.
NASCAR took all that away. That was the beginning of the ruination of NASCAR.
