Nascar fans: If your favorite driver was to retire would you still watch the races?

Well my favorite driver will probably be retiring soon and yes I will still watch racing. I will just start pulling for his team mates.

H E N D R I C K~M O T O R S P O R T S~R U L E S ! ! ! ! !

I can see your points, as I used to share many of your views, but what got me hooked is when I found out about the personalities of not only the drivers, but the announcers, the team owners and so on. People of a type usually choose certain drivers to root for. You can easily tell the difference between a Tony Stewart fan and a Jeff Gordon fan, for instance. As to what makes one race more interesting than another: each track is at least slightly different than all the other tracks on the circuit, so the cars have to be set up so that they can survive the whole race. That is part of the fun. Some crew chiefs are much better than others at setting up their strategy. Watching how things unfold is most of the fun. New fans usually cheer when they see wrecks, but the more seasoned fan is less likely to do so. Safety has been highly improved over the past 7 years, so there are few injuries anymore. Now, the big deal is paying attention to the implication on the points race. You see, each driver is given points for the race based upon where they finish and if they led at least a lap during the race. At the end of the season, the guy with the most points is the champion. Yes, there are fun points during any race where someone will make a wild pass, but I also enjoy watching the pit stops just as well. You see, all parts of the race have strategy, much the same as any other sport. You can be the best driver in the world, but if you don't have a great pit crew you are very unlikely to ever win a race. You certainly will never win a championship with all the different facets figured out. Once you get to know the tracks, you will likely choose a couple favorites that you enjoy watching. For me, Bristol, TN and Infineon are fun to watch. It is so much fun watching the cars racing around the high banking of Bristol and Infineon is one of only 2 road races they have on the circuit. It's fun to watch them turn left AND right and change elevations. Going to a race is far different than going to any other sporting event. Lots of race fans will arrive for a Sunday race on Thursday or Friday before the race. There is always a lot to do, visiting vendor booths, making new friends by camping out, meeting drivers... just the atmosphere as a whole. NASCAR can become a lifestyle if you want it to. It's generally wholesome entertainment. You can be a casual fan (with just a bit of education) or you can get really into it. Many people collect various fan gear, etc., but you don't have to do that to enjoy the experience.

The status of my 5 favorite drivers:

1. Bill Elliott: Semi-retired (retires fully next year)

2. Rusty Wallace: Fully retired and working at ESPN

3. Terry Labonte: Fully retired (attempts a race every now and then)

4. Ricky Rudd: Fully retired

5. Jeff Burton: Active

So yeah I still watch NASCAR even though four of my original five favorites will be retired for good by next year. In fact I've come up with a new top five:

1. Jeff Burton

2. Mark Martin

3. Kasey Kahne

4. Three way tie between Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson & AJ Allmendinger

5. Marcos Ambrose

To be honest no I would not watch racing if Jeff Gordon retired. I have several drivers I like to see run well but J. Gordon is the only driver I will ever consider my favorite. If Gordon retired I would lose interest in Nascar fast, and if I stopped watching racing it would give me the chance to do other activities on the weekend. Five plus hours of Nascar each weekend ( I usually watch qualifying, some coverage of practice and the race) takes up alot of time that I could be doing other things. As much as I enjoy it, Nascar without Jeff Gordon just wouldn't be the same.

Already happened and I am even more hooked now than I was then.

I was a Rusty Wallace fan until he retired. After that I sort of drifted for a year or two, just pulling for whoever was closest to the front at the time. Until sometime last year I realized I was a Carl Edwards fan & I haven't looked back. Besides I figure I've got a couple of years before he retires.

GO CARL EDWARDS!!!!!!

I hate to say this but it really all depends. I would have to wait and see. I don't know why but I enjoyed Nascar a lot better back when I first started pulling for Kenseth back in 2000. I did have McMurray as my 2nd favorite but he might not be with Roush next year. Ragan doesn't look to have any promise at the moment.

I'm just tired of HMS dominating. I know it's good for HMS fans, but it's not pleasing to watch if you are not a fan. NFl has been more exciting and more surprising. Who would have thought Arizona would have been in the super bowl last year. You have several teams that done very well last year that aren't this year and vice versa.

Nascar needs to be more like that. No fun seeing the same team win every year. Just my opinion.

Sure, 'cause there's always at least one "backup" favorite driver on my list! If The Biff retired, I'd still have Marcos Ambrose, The Dinger & Brad Keselowski and they'd all move up one spot on the fave list.

Yes, because he retired along time ago. Even though he didn't win one race in his last seven year's of racing and his scheduled 'last race' finished in a DNF, he still had 200 wins.

Then came Rusty Wallace. I'm a gear head from St Louis so I couldn't help but be compelled by all of the Wallace's AND Kenny Schrader.

So now I can't help following Carl Edwards career.

The problem is 90% of them are my favorite in some way so YES!

Yes! Rusty Wallace was my favorite driver and when retired after the 2005 season I stayed with the #2 and here I am, still a huge fan!

I don't know if this counts, because Mark never actually retired, but when he wasn't racing, I actually did feel myself start to lose interest in the races. I still watched them, but I didn't really care about the outcome, even when I had a second driver to pull for. Now that Mark's racing full-time again, I'm actually enjoying the races again.

TraV, I hear Roush is accepting suggestions on how they could step up their program to beat HMS!