Which hit you the in the past 30 years?

[Starman]

All too true. I remember back in 1996 Jeff Gordon won 10 races and Terry Labonte won 3 but Terry won the series.

Yeah, and that's a perfect example of consistence beating out the checkers and wreckers approach to racing that you see now.

Gordon was really the forerunner to young guys getting premium rides early. His success really rubbed a lot of fans and drivers the wrong way, because it felt like he got handed the world on a silver platter at 21/22 years old, while guys like Earnhardt were competing for Rookie of the year at fucking 27 or 28 years old, and many not getting top flight rides until later than that.

My biggest problem with the way it's set up now is almost none of these drivers are wheelmen. Give these young guys a 10th place care and they'll finish tenth. Give them a 20th place car and they'll finish twentieth. In Earnhardt's era almost all the drivers were wheelmen that could get everything and then some out of their car. Earnhardt could take a 20th place car and get a top 10 or a top 5 out of it. He could take a tenth place car to victory lane. A great car? He'd lap the field with it.

None of these drivers can do that today, with the exception of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. Harvick did it so often the garage (not Kevin or his team) started calling him "the Closer", because he'd start out shit and not lead a damn lap, but on the last lap that motherfucker would just snipe wins from those jokers who dominated the other 99% of the race.

His first win that he stole from Gordon in Atlanta is a perfect example. He got around Gordon on the restart, and then while Jarret and Nadeau were fucking around for position, Harvick took them three wide off the corner and scared the shit out of them, got around both, and held Gordon off for the photo finish.

The other thing that bothered a lot of fans was the introduction of Toyota to the series.
I actually miss seeing more makes of cars like Buicks, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. Dodges and Plymouths. Times change though.

Yeah, for old school fans that's definitely true. NASCAR was supposed to be American cars, and the excuse to get Toyota in was that we make a few in American. What made it worse was NASCAR (and they still do it even today) gaming the rules to make sure Toyota could compete for wins right out of the gate.

 

[The Solid Man]

 

[heavy_hands]

Abe Vigoda

 

[badascan]

Dimebag then maybe Norm?

 

[Meatspin]

Typically give zero fucks about celebrity culture. From this list, Chris Cornell and Bourdain bum me out.

 

[MusterX]

You don't have to know people personally to be affected by their deaths.

That's for sure. If you go back beyond 30 years, one that has always bothered the shit out of me was Ernest Hemingway. The guy was a man's man, a tough guy, a big game hunter, a highly decorated writer who won a Nobel in Literature and who published works such as The Old Man and the Sea. Friends said he loved to drink and was the center of attention at gatherings. He was famous, successful, and loved.

If a man like that can end up with a gun in his mouth, it can happen to any of us, and that is why it bothers me.

 

[Starman]

Why no fidel castro?

Because people usually celebrate the death of deranged, far left communists who tyrannized and brutally murdered their own people, not mourn it.

Don't worry, though. Castro Jr. is alive and well.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

None as I didn’t know them. Don’t understand how someone can be truly affected by the death of someone who they didn’t know, never met, and certainly didn’t care about them…
Maybe I’m the wierd one…

Yeah, it’s kinda a sign of empathy. You may lack a bit of that. Nothing wrong with that. But that would kinda make you the weird one.

 

[Damo321]

The one who did the thing… I can’t remember his or her name but I was heartbroken for days!

 

[Plutoburn]

Not on the list, but George Carlin's passing really created a void in my heart because I've always looked up to his HBO specials as a thought compass. I am genuinely curious how he'd feel about the social landscape of today.

If I have to nominate one that is still with us, but I am concerned of losing is David Attenborough. I know that Steve Irwin has done tremendously for animal/environment conservation, but I am much more touched by Attenborough than Irwin for some unknown reason, and I really don't want to see Attenborough gone, but with each BBC production he is in, I can see his health deteriorate, and that really saddens me, for the record, he is 96 years old.

 

[ICHEERTHEBULL]

Other - dimebag darrell

 

[nostradumbass]

Wouldn't say I was "hit hard" by any celebrity death, but I was a fan of Norm MacDonald and his death was surprising for everyone since nobody knew he had cancer.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Went with Bourdain since Terry Jones isn't on the list.

 

[R.N.J.]

James Gandolfini, I watched the soprano a lot.

 

[Brom Bones]

Honestly, none of them affected me much, though I liked a lot of these people. We all gotta die sometime. Not trying to act tough or anything, maybe I'm just a heartless monster? If I had to answer, Bowie because I like his music a lot.

I know who affected me the least. Rik Mayall because I don't know who the fuck that is.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Wouldn't say I was "hit hard" by any celebrity death, but I was a fan of Norm MacDonald and his death was surprising for everyone since nobody knew he had cancer.

The amount of Norm clips posted on youtube after he died made me forget that he even died.

 

[SyranIncel]

I never really care for celebrities but I voted Chris Farley. The reason being that as a kid I thought he was hilarious and I could never expect he was a drug addict. It was shocking learning for the first time that people on TV are not what you expect

 

[Boomb]

Probably David Bowie even though I was a big Nirvana fan at the time, when Cobain took his own life, but I've been a Bowie fan since watching https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/ as a kid so it really felt like an end of an era for me.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Chris Farley. I absolutely loved him during that era, I thought he was the funniest person alive and then suddenly he was just gone while still in his prime. The death of John Candy was also still relatively fresh in my mind so at the time I thought we were losing all our fat, funny guys.

 

[Dr Curtis Love]

Cobain. Hands down. I remember not going to school the next day because I was so sad. I was such a HUGE Nirvana fan. I remember after his death, being the start of my depression, or at least when I noticed it.