2019 NASCAR Discussion ThreadNASCAR

[Dolph Drago]

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Gibbs seems pretty much set for the next few years at least, so if LFR isn't competitive they may have a hard time keeping him under the umbrella.

Might it turn into Furniture Row 2.0?

 

[bloodyboyblue]

Might it turn into Furniture Row 2.0?

That’s what they’re trying to do, it seems moving Ratcliffe up with him is the right call. Still, he’s no Cole Pearn.

 

[Snaeper]

That’s what they’re trying to do, it seems moving Ratcliffe up with him is the right call. Still, he’s no Cole Pearn.

Yeah I dont think good Crew Chiefs get enough credit. Rodney Childers is a huge reason why Harvick is so successful (not to take anything away from Happy).

 

[bloodyboyblue]

Yeah I dont think good Crew Chiefs get enough credit. Rodney Childers is a huge reason why Harvick is so successful (not to take anything away from Happy).

Childers is clearly the best crew chief around today, along with Pearn, Paul Wolfe and maybe Todd Gordon. Other than last year when SHR was dominant, Harvick has always been far ahead of his teammates and that seems to be a lot due to Childers. Also he always managed to turn mediocrity into gold at Evernham and MWR.

 

[bloodyboyblue]

Chris Buescher is replacing Stenhouse in the #17 at Roush next year. Apparently this is the silly season of great, no-brainer decisions. That makes even more sense than Matty D in the 21.

Now we get to speculate who gets into the 37 (and the 38, still).

 

[Dylan]

Michael McDowell has been hospitalized with abdominal pain. He missed first practice for Sunday's race. Austin Cindric filled in for him.

Edit: He has been released from the hospital. He will be in the car for qualifying and is expected to race.

Edit: NBC reporting he had kidney stones. Oof.

 

[Dylan]

HELL YES!! Byron on pole once again!

 

[Dylan]

Final practice for cup just finished and the Xfinity race is about to start. Here is all the incidents during practice and qualifying for these 2 races this weekend.


Xfinity practice 1:

Noah Gragson: wrecked in turn 3


Cup practice 1:

Parker Kligerman: wrecked in turn 1

Denny Hamlin: wrecked in turn 5

Bubba Wallace: spun in turn 6


Xfinity final practice:

Preston Pardus: wrecked in turn 6

Michael Annett: wrecked in turn 6


Cup Qualifying:

Chase Elliott: Spun in final chicane


Cup Practice 2:

Kyle Busch: Spun in turn 3 & 4 and brushed the wall.

Matt Tift: Wrecked in turn 4


Xfinity Qualifying:

No incidents


Cup Practice 3:

Martin Truex Jr.: money shift in turn 9

Jimmie Johnson: wrecked in turn 6

Austin Dillon: spun in turn 6

Alex Bowman: wrecked in turn 4

 

[01GTP]

Hoping Awesome Lawson Aschenbach has a good day. He was lucky in that messed up restart mishap, which he was in the middle of four wide at the time.

 

[Dylan]

Hoping Awesome Lawson Aschenbach has a good day. He was lucky in that messed up restart mishap, which he was in the middle of four wide at the time.

Just got spun in turn 1 oof.

 

[01GTP]

Yeah, I had to say something huh? Dumb as.

 

[Dylan]

Allmendinger gets the win at Charlotte!
Was a hectic race. Can't wait to see the Cup series version tomorrow in person!

 

[01GTP]

In person would be, I hate to say it again but, awesome. I love going to races.

Have a great time.

 

[Dylan]

In case anyone missed this when it premiered before the Xfinity race.


If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend giving it a watch.

 

[Snaeper]

I think NASCAR's cup series needs one more road course. What would be the top tracks?

Road Atlanta comes to mind given it's ownership by ISC. Only issue is it's market proximity to Atlanta Motor Speedway and that already gets two visits.

Indy could be interesting, given how boring NASCAR on the oval is, usually. And it's infield is at the caliber necessary for high level competition already.

Road America is another option. Xfinity already visits and Wisconsin could be a good market to tap for Cup. But then again maybe theres a reason Cup doesnt attend.

CotA would be cool, and Texas is about the only state big enough to have three races potentially, but scheduling the three of them to not overlap too much on themselves as well as Indy/F1 would be tough.

Thoughts on other road courses/rovals?

Daytona would be cool but I doubt they'd nix the 400 and I dont think it can support three races. Might be neat as a pre season addition to Speedweeks though, but that requires a lot of track prep...

 

[Northstar]

Road Atlanta comes to mind given it's ownership by ISC. Only issue is it's market proximity to Atlanta Motor Speedway and that already gets two visits.

Atlanta has only had one race since 2011.

But then again maybe theres a reason Cup doesnt attend.

Any track not owned by ISC or SMI has an insanely hard time getting a Cup date (hopefully this will be changing). Aside from that I know the track has some issues with how NASCAR operates (mainly the closed pits, full-course cautions and wet weather racing), although I'm not sure if that would prevent them from pursuing a Cup date.

I know if they do bring the Cup series to Road America I will certainly go.

Thoughts on other road courses/rovals?

I'd imagine Mid-Ohio and MoSport are pretty high up the list, I could also see them trying something out of left field and trying to imitate IndyCar's success at Portland.

Aside from road courses, I would love to see them give Iowa a try, even though the attendance at every other race gives them no reason to. A trip to Gateway would also be interesting.

 

[AMPMROCKETFANN]

Atlanta has only had one race since 2011.



Any track not owned by ISC or SMI has an insanely hard time getting a Cup date (hopefully this will be changing). Aside from that I know the track has some issues with how NASCAR operates (mainly the closed pits, full-course cautions and wet weather racing), although I'm not sure if that would prevent them from pursuing a Cup date.


I'd imagine Mid-Ohio and MoSport are pretty high up the list, I could also see them trying something out of left field and trying to imitate IndyCar's success at Portland.

Aside from road courses, I would love to see them give Iowa a try, even though the attendance at every other race gives them no reason to. A trip to Gateway would also be interesting.

Sounds like NASCAR would have to up its road racing game to get RA a cup date. I can actually see that happening given both NASCAR's road racing connections and the fact that Goodyear is back in sports car racing now. Funnily enough, I could see NASCAR using a variant of Goodyear's LMP tire in 2021 with the gen 7

 

[Snaeper]

Sounds like NASCAR would have to up its road racing game to get RA a cup date. I can actually see that happening given both NASCAR's road racing connections and the fact that Goodyear is back in sports car racing now. Funnily enough, I could see NASCAR using a variant of Goodyear's LMP tire in 2021 with the gen 7

Well now that you mention that I think the exact opposite would happen given Michelin's massive push into Road Atlanta and IMSA, one or the other might not like a series that exclusively uses one tire to race at a track that's heavily sponsored by another.

Forgot Atlanta lost a race, it's been awhile.

 

[Northstar]

For being a no talent hack that Elliott kid is pretty good!

Also, that chicane rule is extremely stupid, why not just do it like every other series and make the person give any time back instead of making them come to a stop on a live race track?

 

[Blood Eagle]

What a s*** show. Bubba with the water in the face on Bowman. Probably the highlight of this dumb race.

 

[bloodyboyblue]

For being a no talent hack that Elliott kid is pretty good!

Also, that chicane rule is extremely stupid, why not just do it like every other series and make the person give any time back instead of making them come to a stop on a live race track?

He had the best car, but he also had the help of a bunch of very questionable cautions to get back into it.

If there’s one thing we know about NASCAR, they don’t pay much attention to how other racing series do things or how the proper way to do anything is. I agree the rule was dumb but at least they showed some rare consistency in making the calls.

 

[opelgt1969]

For being a no talent hack that Elliott kid is pretty good!

Also, that chicane rule is extremely stupid, why not just do it like every other series and make the person give any time back instead of making them come to a stop on a live race track?

They are not stopping on a live track they are stopping on a nonracing section, this is the only rule NASCAR has made lately I agree with. If 4 wheels are off track is a plane and clear rule that was enforced correctly by NASCAR for a change.

 

[Northstar]

They are not stopping on a live track they are stopping on a nonracing section,

If someone were to flub up turn 15, they could potentially rear end a stopped car at over 100mph. So while it's not technically a part of the track, it is a part of the track a car could reasonably end up if something were to go wrong.

I agree there should be a penalty for cutting the chicane and applaud NASCAR being consistent for a change, but every other series just makes the driver give any positions or time back and it works just fine.

 

[AMPMROCKETFANN]

What a s*** show. Bubba with the water in the face on Bowman. Probably the highlight of this dumb race.

Uhh, video please? I missed the whole thing sadly

 

[Northstar]

Uhh, video please? I missed the whole thing sadly

Newman and Suarez also apparently had a "heated" conversation.

 

[Dylan]

Definitely going again next year! What a race! And what a comeback for Chase Elliott! When he hit the wall, I thought he was done for! Have no idea how he drove back thru the field.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Also, that chicane rule is extremely stupid, why not just do it like every other series and make the person give any time back instead of making them come to a stop on a live race track?

I have no problem with the penalty when the driver makes a mistake himself. What bothered me was if a driver got booted going into the chicane and ended up missing it because of that, they would be penalized. Bubba got run into early, missed the first part of the chicane, and subsequently got penalized for it. Nevermind the fact he already lost some spots in the collision.

Anyway, did they mention on the broadcast what was wrong with Kyle Busch during the race? Other than the flat, all I saw of him was slowly rolling up to aftermath of crashes and when he took the car to the garage during the red flag. They mentioned he was 3 laps down, but I have no idea why.

Edit: Just searched...Busch had a broken sway bar.

 

[Dotini]

Definitely going again next year! What a race! And what a comeback for Chase Elliott! When he hit the wall, I thought he was done for! Have no idea how he drove back thru the field.

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What did the attendance look like? It didn't look too good on TV.

Comment: IMO, that was the most demanding and difficult racing NASCAR does, and it made for an amazing and highly entertaining spectacle on TV.

 

[Adamgp]

It was a decent race. I don't care about Chase Elliot either way, but he had an impressive run.

 

[Dylan]

What did the attendance look like? It didn't look too good on TV.

It was pretty good on the turn 4 sundeck where we watched stage 1. We were able to find some empty seats in the turn 4 grandstands just before the front stretch chicane to watch stage 2 & 3. There were quite a few empty seats on either end of the grandstands with most people trying to get seats near start/finish and turn 1. From what I remember seeing from last years race on TV, it looked like attendance was up.