NASCAR Thread.

[RACECAR]

I don't know if it's a new thing, but NASCAR has a reputation for being a bit rough & wild with the body contact, but then there's a lot of whingeing about it afterward. Either biff & take being biffed or drive clean guys. Strikes me that given the nature of the cars, acknowledged physicality is probably the better bet.

Well, The contact is diffenately not new and Nascar isn't the first series with it, But Just the pure disgust for drivers who are/not champions that aren't from the southearn states, even against the american born drivers seems to be growing fad.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Well, I think that any domestic series has to go through this as a learning experience sooner or later. I can remember when there were people questioning whether the British Touring Car Championship could be called such because there were only a couple of Brits driving in it.

 

[RACECAR]

Well, I think that any domestic series has to go through this as a learning experience sooner or later.

Maybe. To my knowledge, There hasn't really been alot of Foreign drivers in Nascar and the last foreign Manufacterer in Nascar was MG (I Think), but I would have thought with The constint appearance Of guys like Ron Fellows and Marc Goosens at Infineon and Sonoma that they would have gotten used to it by now. But I guess we'll see in some years.

 

[TS]

Thank Goodness rusty won't be in the booth, but Not Jerry Punch again! Good grief, ESPN! And even worse is that I'm going to be watching five series with him commentating

God don't tell me he's gonna ruin ESPN's half ass IRL and Champ Car coverage.

And ABC's ALMS coverage will be over before it begins if he commentates.

Random Thought: Is it Just me or is it becoming a fad to hate any driver that either drives aggressive and/or does something that resembles Dale Sr and hate any Nextel Cup champion or any new driver for that matter, that does not reside from the southern states?

I think most NASCAR fans that are stereotyped dislike drivers that aren't from the South regardless if they're aggressive on the track or not.

But I think NASCAR's days of being a good ol' boys racing series are extremely numbered, considering that there's 4 full time foreign/ex-open wheel drivers this year (Montoya, Villeneuve, Carpentier & Franchitti), and there may be more coming in the future.

 

[RACECAR]

God don't tell me he's gonna ruin ESPN's half ass IRL and Champ Car coverage.

And ABC's ALMS coverage will be over before it begins if he commentates.

QFT They really need to bring back Paul and Scott Goodyear because this isn't working out for me

But I think NASCAR's days of being a good ol' boys racing series are extremely numbered, considering that there's 4 full time foreign/ex-open wheel drivers this year (Montoya, Villeneuve, Carpentier & Franchitti), and there may be more coming in the future.

Yeah. One thing I didn't notice until I read speed's article with Brian France's speech was that Southern-born drivers are diminishing and appararently from what I read, its one of the reasons that fans are leaving. Very narrowminded, eh?

 

[TS]

QFT They really need to bring back Paul and Scott Goodyear because this isn't working out for me

Yeah, Paul Page & Scott Goodyear were a good commentary team, hell, Marty Reid and Goodyear were a better commentary team than Punch, Petree and Wallace.

Yeah. One thing I didn't notice until I read speed's article with Brian France's speech was that Southern-born drivers are diminishing and appararently from what I read, its one of the reasons that fans are leaving. Very narrowminded, eh?

I bet that most of the fans as of last season aren't from the South.

 

[TwinTurbos94]

I think Brian maybe right...
I mean when you hear a NASCAR fan say the reason why they hate the new drivers is because "they aren't redneck enough"

that an that NASCAR is becoming overkill. You see it everywhere now. I can understand it growing and being very popular, but they do it to the point of "OMG if I see NASCAR on something one more time, i'm going to club a baby seal (I don't condone that...)!"

 

[RVDNuT374]

Thank Goodness rusty won't be in the booth, but Not Jerry Punch again! Good grief, ESPN! And even worse is that I'm going to be watching five series with him commentating

ESPN made a half-assed attempt to change the commentary team up. Dr. Jerry Punch does not belong in the booth, he belongs on pit road. Alan Bestwick should've replaced Punch in the booth, that way Nascar on ESPN would be watchable.

 

[TS]

ESPN made a half-assed attempt to change the commentary team up. Dr. Jerry Punch does not belong in the booth, he belongs on pit road. Alan Bestwick should've replaced Punch in the booth, that way Nascar on ESPN would be watchable.

Agreed.

 

[RACECAR]

ESPN made a half-assed attempt to change the commentary team up. Dr. Jerry Punch does not belong in the booth, he belongs on pit road. Alan Bestwick should've replaced Punch in the booth, that way Nascar on ESPN would be watchable.

Exactly

 

[TwinTurbos94]

third.

 

[toyota_gt1]

Fourth. Bestwick is much better than punch.

Any picks on who's gonna win the Bud Shootout.....I gotta go with Kurt Busch. He's ran really good at Daytona the last couple of races. But that was a completely different car.

 

[TS]

Any picks on who's gonna win the Bud Shootout.....I gotta go with Kurt Busch. He's ran really at Daytona the last couple of races. But that was a completely different car.

Anybody who drives for Hendrick is immediately favored with the COT going full time now. And from what we've seen at Talladega in October and in pre-season testing, Toyota looks mighty strong on plate tracks, so you can't count them out either. I'm picking Smoke to repeat his win from last year and get Toyota their first cup victory (even though the shootout isn't a points race(.

 

[YSSMAN]

So the 500 draws ever closer... Unfortunately NASCAR dropped completely off my radar last season once football started, so I want to give this one a proper welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jr. can do under the Hendrick banner this year, and of course I'm hoping for the best, but I have to admit that Juan Pablo Montoya nearly became my favorite driver last season.

...He kinda reminds me of the old Tony Stewart, good for pissing a lot of people off with his attitude on and off the track. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other kids from the other racing series' will do this season, should be particularly interesting on the road course tracks...

Early predictions:

- Chevrolet, presumably the Hendrick and DEI/Ginn cars will dominate early in the season
- Toyota may have more "success" with Gibbs running a program, but I do not anticipate a win coming at any time this season. The engine package still isn't enough to out-do Ford or Chevrolet
- Ford will have a promising year with Roush, again. I'm hoping for the best with Edwards, I like the kid, but the Hendrick cars again are going to be tough to beat...
- Dodge won't do much. They'll show up on the big tracks, but otherwise, I can't see them doing much.

 

[TS]

- Chevrolet, presumably the Hendrick and DEI/Ginn cars will dominate early in the season

I think Hendrick alone can dominate the early part of the season because their COT program is the best, but Roush-Fenway can definitely give them a run for their money.

- Toyota may have more "success" with Gibbs running a program, but I do not anticipate a win coming at any time this season. The engine package still isn't enough to out-do Ford or Chevrolet

Agreed, if Toyota beats them anywhere, it would probably be at a plate track.

- Ford will have a promising year with Roush, again. I'm hoping for the best with Edwards, I like the kid, but the Hendrick cars again are going to be tough to beat...

You can't forget about Kenseth, but he may be a big question mark because he has a new crew chief for the first time in his cup career.

- Dodge won't do much. They'll show up on the big tracks, but otherwise, I can't see them doing much.

Dodge is a mess right now, Penske is the only Dodge team that was competitive last year, and that was only with Kurt Busch. (and Newman to an extent).

 

[YSSMAN]

Did Kasey Kahne find a new team? Hes always a promising driver for the Dodge boys, but his season was an absolute wreck last year... Hes got a good head on his shoulders, and he'll be one to look for if he can get with a good car/crew chief/engine package.

 

[WallRunner]

Same team I think, just different sponsor (Bud)

From,
Chris.

 

[RACECAR]

Did Kasey Kahne find a new team?

Nope. He's still with Gillette-Evernham Motorsports, but Budweiser is his new sponsor as a result of Jr's move to Hendrick.

 

[Sting]

... and the Budweiser Shootout is under way. Looks like Jr's got cozy in his Hendrick supplied car.

 

[RACECAR]

... and the Budweiser Shootout is under way. Looks like Jr's got cozy in his Hendrick supplied car.

And he just won too! Yeeeeessss!

 

[toyota_gt1]

Congrats on Jr. winning the Bud Shootout as well as Jimmie Johnson finishing 3rd, Jeff Gordon 4th, and Casey Mears 6th. Not a bad start for the Hendrick boys.

 

[JohnBM01]

I've gotten my first glimpse of testing and then the Budweiser Shootout. Allow me to offer some observations.

* The first thing I've really observed... I missed that sort of signature sound when superspeedway racing. I'm talking about the muffler the cars use with the sound we've been used too. It seemed like the new CoT models allow for nice downforce as well as maybe a new engine package to allow for cars to not have to use the restrictor plates. Or do they still use the restrictor plates?

* I have always thought the new CoT design makes these stock cars look a bit more like touring cars. Only touring cars with V8 engines that make upwards of 750hp. Not that it may matter much, but I'd be curious as to if there may be future wing designs to supplement different tracks. I do think it's unlikely we'll see anything even closely resembling a pure GT race car. High-Test says that I've proven to be an evil genius when we had the Dodge Challenger discussions. Well, I've been envisioning a much more racy and much more stellar stock car. More like... what would NASCAR Cup be like if they went with more professional racing machines than the cars we had today. The cars still seem to do pretty well in the wind. The car packages somewhat makes it so that no one car can simply blow away the field. NASCAR's always been about close racing, so I'm sure this only adds to this.

* On a different note, I do still imagine what kind of wing design would work best for these cars. There are people out there who usually irk at anything that even closely resembles a professional race car. The front splitter and rear wing offer different aerodynamic packages you can work with.

* Thank goodness Dodge replaced the Avenger car with the Charger in NASCAR. The only car I liked among the CoT models was the Impala. The CoT Charger doesn't look bad. I've been interested in what the latest Malibu would look as a stock car. I'm saying this since I've just liked the new Malibu since seeing it and sitting in it at the Houston Auto Show last month.





Each time I'm here, I'll try to offer some debate/discussion questions relevant to NASCAR in some such way. That's what I hope to do in each of my comments. So here's something to kick off 2008:

John's Debate! - Dale's Drive to Success
Dale Jr. will side with Hendrick Motorsports in trying to make up for a rough 2007. How many wins do you think Dale Jr. will get this season? Do you think he will make the Chase for the Cup? (NOTE: How many OFFICIAL races will he win? He did win the Budweiser Shootout, but the Bud Shootout is NOT a points race.)


How about it? By the way, I didn't know Carl Edwards is from Columbia, MO. I usually assume someone's from North Carolina. But he's from Big XII country. Where the University of Missouri is. The defending Big XII north football champions.

 

[TS]

It's been ages since we've seen Jr. with such a big smile on his face, DW made the prediction last year when Jr. first signed with Hendrick that he would win at least 6 races. With the win in the shootout, I think he's well on his way to at least 6 wins, maybe he can win as many as 10.

I've gotten my first glimpse of testing and then the Budweiser Shootout. Allow me to offer some observations.

* The first thing I've really observed... I missed that sort of signature sound when superspeedway racing. I'm talking about the muffler the cars use with the sound we've been used too. It seemed like the new CoT models allow for nice downforce as well as maybe a new engine package to allow for cars to not have to use the restrictor plates. Or do they still use the restrictor plates?

The cars still run restrictor plates, but they're now 31/32nd of an inch rather than 7/8 of an inch they ran with the old cars. (which allows for 100 more HP I think) The new cars also have less front downforce because of the fact NASCAR doesn't allow teams to pull/push the fenders in/out to add/remove downforce. It's all done through the splitter and they're only allowed to move it forward 2 inches and backward 2 inches.

* On a different note, I do still imagine what kind of wing design would work best for these cars. There are people out there who usually irk at anything that even closely resembles a professional race car. The front splitter and rear wing offer different aerodynamic packages you can work with.

Agreed, but for now there is only 1 wing that NASCAR assigns to all the teams, but teams are allowed to change the wing end plates to a flat piece or a curved piece.

* Thank goodness Dodge replaced the Avenger car with the Charger in NASCAR. The only car I liked among the CoT models was the Impala. The CoT Charger doesn't look bad. I've been interested in what the latest Malibu would look as a stock car. I'm saying this since I've just liked the new Malibu since seeing it and sitting in it at the Houston Auto Show last month.

For now, the manufacturers plan to stick with the current cars they've got (Impala, Fusion, Charger, Camry).

John's Debate! - Dale's Drive to Success
Dale Jr. will side with Hendrick Motorsports in trying to make up for a rough 2007. How many wins do you think Dale Jr. will get this season? Do you think he will make the Chase for the Cup? (NOTE: How many OFFICIAL races will he win? He did win the Budweiser Shootout, but the Bud Shootout is NOT a points race.)

This goes back to the point I made at the beginning of my post, Darrell Waltrip of Fox Sports said that he would win at least 6 races, I have a feeling as good as Hendrick's CoT program is, he should easily be able to do that. And he will make the chase as well, but I don't think he'll win the title this year.

 

[toyota_gt1]

John's Debate! - Dale's Drive to Success
Dale Jr. will side with Hendrick Motorsports in trying to make up for a rough 2007. How many wins do you think Dale Jr. will get this season? Do you think he will make the Chase for the Cup? (NOTE: How many OFFICIAL races will he win? He did win the Budweiser Shootout, but the Bud Shootout is NOT a points race.)

I think Jr.'s gonna get 5-8 wins. I also think all 4 Hendrick cars are gonna make the chase with Big Daddy (Jeff Gordon) bringing home the first Sprint Cup title.
Now time to get back to watching Bud Pole Qualifying for the Daytona 500

 

[TS]

Jimmie Johnson (pole) and Michael Waltrip (outside pole) are the front row for the 50th Daytona 500. The 3 go or go home cars that have locked into the Daytona 500 are 78 - Joe Nemechek (3rd), 00 - David Reutimann (4th) and 55 - Michael Waltrip (2nd). Other notables include 24 - Jeff Gordon (10th), 20 - Tony Stewart (12th), 88 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15th), 44 - Dale Jarrett (21st), 26 - Jamie McMurray (25th), 2 - Kurt Busch (34th) & 21 - Bill Elliott (45th).

Gatorade Duel Lineups + Explanation on Duel Classification

 

[JohnBM01]

The racing season in NASCAR starts tonight with the Truck series. Or for those of who you think NASCAR is the greatest series in the world and that everything else is just fluff, then the season of racing begins tonight. I'm actually going to follow David Starr this season in trucks since he's from my hometown of Houston. I'll follow him much like I say I follow certain teams in college football.



Here is some FACT OR FICTION for you. Note possible things as FACT and highly unlikely things as FICTION.


The 50th Annual Daytona 500 - FACT OR FICTION?
1.) The winning team will win in consecutive entries. (For example, if Dale Jr. wins Daytona, at least one of his teammates will join Dale Jr.

2.) At least two Toyotas will occupy the Top 10 of the finishing order.

3.) Among Toyotas, the highest-finishing Toyota will be that of Dave Blaney.

4.) At least one of the Busch brothers will not finish.

5.) "The Big One" will happen only once.

6.) The race will finish with no more than 10 cautions.

7.) At least one Joe Gibbs teammate will finish in the Top 5.

8.) Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will both finish in the Top 10, if not the Top 5.

9.) The highest-finishing rookie will be Sam Hornish Jr.

10.) Dale Earnhardt Jr. will win the Daytona 500.





Really bad weather is expected in my area, so I may not be able to see the Nationwide race tomorrow or maybe the NCTS event tonight. So fire away.

 

[toyota_gt1]

Well, the big one's already happened to the truck race. I didn't notice if Kyle Busch got serious damage or not.

 

[TS]

The 50th Annual Daytona 500 - FACT OR FICTION?
1.) The winning team will win in consecutive entries. (For example, if Dale Jr. wins Daytona, at least one of his teammates will join Dale Jr.

2.) At least two Toyotas will occupy the Top 10 of the finishing order.

3.) Among Toyotas, the highest-finishing Toyota will be that of Dave Blaney.

4.) At least one of the Busch brothers will not finish.

5.) "The Big One" will happen only once.

6.) The race will finish with no more than 10 cautions.

7.) At least one Joe Gibbs teammate will finish in the Top 5.

8.) Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will both finish in the Top 10, if not the Top 5.

9.) The highest-finishing rookie will be Sam Hornish Jr.

10.) Dale Earnhardt Jr. will win the Daytona 500.

1. Fact, HMS has proven themselves to be the team to beat long before this season started.

2. Fact, Toyota has also proven themselves to be competitive so far in Speed Weeks.

3. Fiction, Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart will be the highest finishing Toyota.

4. Fact, Judging by starting 43rd, Kurt Busch may get caught up in the big one.

5. Fiction, with the cars being able to stay 2 and 3 wide for an entire fuel run, it won't take much to take out 10 or so cars in a wreck.

6. Fact, I don't even think we'll see more than 7 cautions, even though I said there will be more than 1 big wreck.

7. Fact, they showed that just because they're running Toyota's instead of Chevrolet's, JGR is still one of the teams to beat at Daytona.

8. Fact, see point #1.

9. Fiction, Regan Smith will be the highest finishing ROTY canidate.

10. Fiction, I think the streak of Bud Shootout + Duel Winners not winning the 500 will continue. But I will give him credit where credit is due, he was able to win his first 2 races out with a new team in a new car.

 

[Jim Prower]

Mopar fan Happeh.

Mopar cars win.

*Purrs*

Joe Gibbs "Team TOM'S" (As I shall start calling them) put forth a good effort. Not sure I liked Kyle Busch's weaving game...I hate driving like that on the highway, and I was sure he was gonna trigger the big one coming across someone's nose. Speaking of Which...That never materialized. There was an accordion, but the wings seemed to keep the cars straight when someone got touched, not like those twitchy spoiler cars. It looked like the V8 Supercars at Bathurst on Conrod Straight. All the way 'round. So...

1. Fact, double time, Penske 1-2, Gibbs "TOM'S" 3-4

2. Fact, Joe Gibbs

3. Fiction, He wreckeded. :<

4. Fiction, though One of 'em shouldn't have...

5. Fiction, It never happened.

6. Fact, Definitely got less than 10...WAY less.

7. Fact, Two did, so, yeah. :3

8. Fiction, Johnson spun, Gordon broke his suspension.

9. Fact, you were right on that. Hornish got 15th.

10. Fiction, He didn't, but he put up the best Hendrick showing. Something about that makes me happy.

ENDNOTES: WOW. Dodge really filled up the top 10, there, followed by the two Toyotas, Earnhardt's Chevy, and Biffle's Ford. That's Six Dodges to four other makes. As a Mopar guy, this makes me happy.

 

[YSSMAN]

Well, looks like we're off to a good season. If Toyota can deliver a performance like they did tonight on a consistent basis, we're in for a show.

I'll happily admit that I wanted anyone to win except a Toyota, so the results pleased me greatly. Ryan Newman and Team Penske deserved the win, they were pretty consistant all day.