There was a time when Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was educating kids about basic life and Earth sciences on his tv show. Somewhere along the line Nye made the move from kids science educator to world science crusader and in his latest book he has apparently devoted a chapter to his views on NASCAR racing. It takes about 30 seconds to figure out that he’s likely never watched a full race and has absolutely no appreciation or respect for the engineers that work on the cars to make them run as they do. Nope, according to Nye NASCAR is the “anti-NASA” and should be run more like the space agency because often government agencies and businesses operate the same, right?
In the magical world of Bill Nye he can enter a Prius in a NASCAR race and win because the other competitors couldn’t finish events with his new rules of allotting only about 20 gallons of fuel per race. The “transportation technology of yesterday” needs to be scrapped and he thinks NASCAR will be able to launch itself into the future by regulating the amount of fuel given to teams. By doing that, the 10s of millions needed to upgrade the cars to the new “Nye” standard will likely come from magical unicorns or perhaps government grants. Hell, maybe NASCAR can get some of NASA’s funding to get out of the stone age and up to the Jetsons level of efficiency and coolness that Bill Nye wants to see.
In one of the lines cited in a story on Yahoo.com, Nye is quoted as saying, “I get it. I understand the appeal of a stock car race. It’s just exciting, and I’m all for it.” Here’s a life lesson. When someone says that exact thing about any activity on Earth they do not “get it” they do not “understand” it, and they sure as heck aren’t “all for it.”
NASCAR is a business and their business is to entertain fans with stock car races. Their business is not to reinvent the way an automobile works. Their business is to put asses int he seats and put a show on. The idea that Nye can so easily make the leap to suggest that NASCAR should operate like NASA is both hilarious and insane.
The cool experiments and the inspiration provided to millions of kids to learn was way cooler than Nye’s current evangelical scientist routine.
Click here for the full story and see what you think!
After being a fan for years, and now working for the owners of many NASCAR tracks.
There is tons more than just turning left..
Without reading the chapter directly, I think he may be inferring that rule changes may allow greater technology advancement in race vehicle development that may have the trickle-down effect to mass production (better fuel economy helps everyone which is a start).
The first thing I can think of where this has occurred is in regenerative braking technology which if I remember correctly came mostly from F1.
The Globe and Mail recently had a fairly decent article on the decline of NASCAR with one of the perceived factors cited as NASCAR’s homogenizing “car of the future” template which appears to be stifling technology advancement.
There is nothing like the sound of a screaming V8 (especially vintage Group 6 or such cars for me), but there may be more to Nye’s ideas (and worth a look into) as I don’t see it as an attack but possibly constructive criticism. Just my $.02….
That’s how I viewed it as well.
FYI, the “Car of the Future” was scrapped several years ago. NASCAR went to cars that actually have the same body shape as their street counterparts. They look great! NASCAR is also using fuel injection. They have also been the leader in race car and race track safety that can cross over into “civilian” areas.
BTW, Nye is a left-wing idiot.
Bill Nye needs to go back to teaching kids. He has become the Kardashian of the science world- the crusader no one needs. Along with his buddy Niel de Grasse Tyson, they have become more comical than serious scientists. (And Bill Nye is actually a mechanical engineer by education.)
Sorry to be contrarian, but America has never needed a science crusader MORE than right now. Evangelists are successfully pushing an agenda to teach kids creationism in public schools and seriously argue that the universe is 6000 years old. It grieves me to see my great nation dumbed down to Idiocracy levels, but that’s where we are. I wish we had more Bill Nye’s, especially if they were more charismatic and relevant to the current cultural climate.
Additionally, if Nye wants to suggest changes to NASCAR, let him. No harm, no foul. That doesn’t negate his views on other subjects.
Nye is a fool and should not be allowed to teach kids. Despite endless evidence to the contrary, Nye believes that your life and mine are nothing but pure happenstance, a random mixing of molecules with no soul and no future beyond the grave.
I get what he is saying here. NASCAR is fairly technologically stagnant (I mean, they JUST adopted EFI) and there is no real room for creativity or change. It would be interesting to see them, have to go and innovate to meet a new rule. Tell them what they have to do but not how to do it and stand back and watch the results.
Bill Who???????????
YEARS ago USAC mandated a maximum of 200 gals of fuel for the Indy 500 , the idea was to limit maximum HP and slow the cars. IIRC the early 70′ races had a few leaders coasting near the end of the race.
NASCAR should not be our technical leader , IMHO Indy car needs to fill that roll and should be open to any body who can build a car that fits in the tech spec box.
In the late 80’s Bill Hoth of Willow Springs Raceway came up with a motorcycle class that had rules that basically read “2 wheels and doesn’t leak”. Over the next few years those bikes , morphed into a fairly “basic” package without interference from rule makers. Yes 2-3 guys ended up dominating and rules came in to “even” the field but for a few years we had real GP500 2 strokes racing 1200cc 4 strokes in tiny production 400cc bike chassis.
The truth is NASCAR is not production car racing so if a change is made it should be something like front engine limited to 305ci,rear drive then decide if production like body or something that fits in “this” box. Then stand back and see what shows up.
Does it really matter ? Do you think they aren’t going to let Jeff Gordon win the title in his last race ? I like Jeff by the way. It’s all fixed. NHRA is like watching the same movie over and over with a slightly different ending most races. Same cars, same drivers week after week. Nothing changes. Same with Nascar. It’s all a joke anymore. It’s just rich people that throw money at something then whine about it.
Oh, so its like… sports?
Nye is trying to garner the same fame as Tyson, he is desperate to stay relevant in the new “nerds are cool” era we live in.
Hey Brian, your insecurities are showing!
I think what he’s trying to say (just from what I could find on the chapter) is that most of NASA advancements were forced upon them due to logistical restraints. With NASCAR they’ve used technology to overcome whatever constraints are placed upon them (car of tomorrow, differing rear spoilers, etc).
Ya know, I came here expecting to be filled with rage at how paint chip eatingly retarded the comments section was, and instead am seeing perfectly reasonable counterpoints to the headline article (which is clickbaity idocracy level knuckle dragging, imo)
And here I’d written off Bangshifts comments section as being on par with Youtube.
Think there might possibly be a bit of knee-jerk over reaction going on here?
Here is Bill Nye debating a real professor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McsZ1U20W0M
Nye has smoked wayyyy too much dope and not eaten any meat for far too long.
Nye earned village idiot status with me years ago.
He has got a point – NASCAR is extremely stagnant. Sure, there has been safety advances, and the teams push the limits of their rules to get the most out of the car, but it has remained basically unchanged for decades. It has not been “stock car” racing for quite a long time. So if they are not running “stock cars” they should allow some advancement of some sort. The average compact car has far more technology physically inside it than a NASCAR (not counting what the teams use in the shop for research etc.). The fuel limits would make things extremely interesting – look at Formula 1 – they have been doing it for years and it makes the engineers really push the envelope of what is possible. NASCAR needs to do something, they are losing a lot of their fanbase and has become extremely stagnant in the last 10 years or so.
https://www.facebook.com/alfaromeousa/videos/1659544950966639/ Umm it already is that mutch like nassa but have came to dislike Mr Nye very much. As Fiat says Germans make Italians create.