2018 NASCAR Discussion threadNASCAR 

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Dennisch
Earnhardt JR will be back on track for the Xfinity race at Richmond this weekend.
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Dennisch
Earnhardt JR will be back on track for the Xfinity race at Richmond this weekend.
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I've known about this all year. ALL YEAR. And I forgot to request this Friday off from work. :banghead: Gonna have to listen to the first half of the race on the radio on my way home from work.
 
Dale Jr. finished 3rd in stage 1. And he wins stage 2. (His first ever career stage). Restarting from first for the final stage!
:D
 
Disappointed with the finish. Congrats to Christopher Bell for the win. Race would of been Jr's if Legge hadn't hit the wall bringing out the caution. (Is that what happened? They never really showed anything just that Legges rear quarter panel was bent in as if she hit the wall.) at least I got to see Jr. lead laps one more time. (Most laps!) That was cool.

Edit: They just interviewed Jr. and he said he might run another race next year!
 
Dylan
Disappointed with the finish. Congrats to Christopher Bell for the win. Race would of been Jr's if Legge hadn't hit the wall bringing out the caution. (Is that what happened? They never really showed anything just that Legges rear quarter panel was bent in as if she hit the wall.) at least I got to see Jr. lead laps one more time. (Most laps!) That was cool.

Edit: They just interviewed Jr. and he said he might run another race next year!
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I think he said that Hellman's has a multi-year deal that was negotiated a few years ago which requires him to drive a Hellman's-sponsored car once each year for as long as they are sponsoring his other drivers.
 
I taped the race last night since I was out. I did get home to see the last ~70 laps.

Anything noteworthy happen before that, or can I delete the recording?
 
Adamgp
I taped the race last night since I was out. I did get home to see the last ~70 laps.

Anything noteworthy happen before that, or can I delete the recording?
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No. It was a race. You probably got the race for the lead with Kyle and Brad and that was the best part.

The Xfinity race was much better.
 
bloodyboyblue
No. It was a race. You probably got the race for the lead with Kyle and Brad and that was the best part.

The Xfinity race was much better.
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Yeah I saw Kyle & Brad's battle for the lead which was pretty good.

Just saw the highlights from Nascar.com, not much else happened. Guess I can delete.
 
Dylan
Noah Gragson will be filling the seat left empty by Elliott Sadler next season at Jr Motorsports!
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No respect for that team. At least most other teams have one non-pay driver that’s there based on talent. JR/Hendrick hasn’t hired anyone that doesn’t come with a fat cheque in years.

At least they found someone that makes Sadler look talented by comparison. Gragson’s one of the only people that can make the Dillon brothers seem likeable.

Dylan Kwasniewski Round 2. Except Kwasniewski had more talent than people gave him credit for.
 
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bloodyboyblue
No respect for that team. At least most other teams have one non-pay driver that’s there based on talent. JR/Hendrick hasn’t hired anyone that doesn’t come with a fat cheque in years.

At least they found someone that makes Sadler look talented by comparison. Gragson’s one of the only people that can make the Dillon brothers seem likeable.

Dylan Kwasniewski Round 2. Except Kwasniewski had more talent than people gave him credit for.
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:odd:
 
We are coming up on the Charlotte road course race. This will be a new experience for some oval racing fans. So I wanted to focus this lighthearted post on a lot of other ovals with infield road courses. There's a lot to share to make this post interesting.

Usually, unless you haven't played Gran Turismo 5 or 6, you may know of Daytona and its road course. Even Homestead-Miami Speedway (the site of "Championship Weekend") has a pretty tough road course. Some courses have road course configurations that don't physically use the oval, such as Indianapolis Raceway Park (or whatever it's called nowadays) and Twin Ring Motegi. A number of ovals in the USA have infield road courses. Ovals outside of the USA with road courses include Puebla in Mexico (which some of NASCAR Mexico series has raced at), the former Rio de Janeiro oval (Jacarepaguá), Rockingham (in England), and maybe the best of the non-American "rovals," EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany.

The challenge of racing a traditional "roval" is the transition from road course to oval. If you get it wrong, you could risk spinning out or losing a significant amount of speed. Even when I used to play the NASCAR Racing games on PC, I would go too deep on the apron and end up spinning out trying to go from the apron back onto the oval. So the real key to racing rovals (to me) is to properly handle the transitions from oval to road course and road course to oval.

The only other concern I have is rain. Rain usually won't automatically mean a red flag or an extended caution, but I have seen a few races on ovals with road courses that may hinder how the races go. Now according to AccuWeather, rain is not in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I do want this race to be successful. Some even think this could help add some extra incentive for races in NASCAR. It can mean more races for a track. Think back in IndyCar when Indianapolis Motor Speedway had the race on the former F1 and MotoGP road course in addition to the Indy 500. For those who grew up as road racing fans (like myself), this could open the door for possibly more road races, especially on ovals with road courses. Then too, I'd prefer more natural road courses rather than road courses on ovals.

One last note about this upcoming weekend of races on the Charlotte road courses is simply the marketing of this as the "roval" race. As if to say people aren't supposed to know about Charlotte having a road course. A stream I was watching was sort of opposed to referring this as the "roval" race. Like when racing happens on Daytona's road course, it isn't referred to as the race on the "roval" or anything. So you can kind of say I have some problems with the whole marketing deal regarding this race. But like I said, I want this race to be a success. Just something different to mix things up.


Either way, enjoy this weekend of NASCAR action! Good luck to all drivers and teams across all levels of NASCAR this weekend. Oh, and let's not forget eliminations of Playoff drivers will happen after this leg of the Chase. Those in the danger zone have one last chance to stay alive in this postseason.
 
I like that NASCAR is trying it. I don't think it's going to be super exciting but do think there will be a lot of carnage. Also not sure it should be an eliminator given nobody has ever raced on it. Just a couple years ago Talladega was an eliminator and I ripped into NASCAR pretty hard via the fan council and I'm sure many more did too and then Talladega wasn't an eliminator anymore. I don't think it's very fair.
 
If you have NBCSN, are you watching Cup qualifying around Charlotte's road course right now? With one round of qualifying down, the faster times are in the range of about 76-78 seconds. So these cars are doing maybe 1:17.000 or just south of 1:17.000. That gives you an idea of how much the Cup cars are lapping the Charlotte road course by.

By the way, the course looks very interesting. It's a pretty tough 17-turn road course. What could be a problem is the chicane heading towards the Start/Finish line. Times could run foul if you cut the chicane. Some drivers cut the 2nd half of that chicane and had their times invalidated.

It will still be interesting to see how this weekend plays out. This is a true Wild Card race this is in the Playoff style.
 
In case anyone didn't see or hear it yet, the Start and restarts are going to skip the final chicane. So cars will be going a bit faster into turn 1.

Also, Bubba Wallace spun out 4 times today during practice and Qualy and never hit anything.

Also, Daniel Hemric to RCR in 2019.

Also, Ryan Preece to replace Allmendinger at JTG Daugherty in 2019.
 
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I'll be honest, when I first saw the track layout, I thought it would be so-so. After seeing practice and qualifying, I'm actually excited for the race. It seems to be more difficult than it appears. That chicane on the backstretch is nuts and is going to catch a lot of people out during the race if they aren't careful. Between the nasty curb (or turtle as they've been calling it) and the tire wall being so close to the exit, it's going to be wild.
 
I personally think the wall at the exit of the backstretch chicane should be replaced with more curb stones.
Bubba Wallace to a backup car.

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Cut the tire wall down so it doesn't make that tight of a corner or open the radius of the exit so we have a cleaner exit. I get the people want a challenging track, but this is seriously getting ridiculous. What was the point of qualifying yesterday when half the field is going to start in the back, anyway?

I think I've seen less torn up cars at Talladega and Daytona.
 
The wall is there to prevent shortcutting the chicane. If I remember correctly, the drivers insisted on adding it earlier this summer at a test session.

Another edit:
Once on the backstretch, cars go through a chicane to slow them down before entering Turn 3.

The test was stopped for two hours in order to add two more sets of rumble strips to the chicane and a tire barrier at the chicane exit. Before their addition, drivers were blowing over the existing rumble strips as if they weren’t there.

“The changes on the backstretch were just to keep everybody honest, to keep everybody on the line that was defined,” Ryan Newman said. “I don’t know that it’s on its final iteration, but we’re making an attempt for it to be the final iteration.”
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https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2018/07/10/what-drivers-had-to-say-after-first-roval-open-test/


EDIT:
 
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For final practice, they've move the barrier a bit to open up the exit of the backstretch chicane.
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Yeah, that XFINITY series race around Charlotte's oval was pretty dope. Like the commercials mentioned, "people like chaos." Charlotte's oval didn't disappoint. I can't help but think sometimes that the Charlotte road course was trying to look a lot like an F1 course- namely Circuit of the Americas down here in Texas. Maybe NASCAR wants to race COTA? Eh? ;)

Anyhow... that was the XFINITY race. Lord knows what the Cup race around the Charlotte road course will be like. I surely will try to watch the Cup race, even if I just the first lap or the final lap.
 
EngieDiesel
Bruton Smith owns Texas Speedway and hates COTA with the fire of a thousand suns, so don't hold your breath on that as long as he's involved with NASCAR in any capacity.
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IndyCar is running both in 2019 so it's possible.
 

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