NASCAR Thread.

[Pescara for GT5]

Ok, I think I speak for everyone, when I say, I don't have a problem with Johnson or Knaus and I am happy for their success, but please be like Dio and pass the torch dude, then next year you can have it back.

 

[RACECAR]

 

[TS]

I have one better Camyron.

 

[RACECAR]

 

[Northstar]

I have decided to allow some space between this text and the pic I'm posting as some may find it offensive.

Here is the Camry CoT

 

[TS]

That Impala is the ugliest race car I have ever seen in my life.

The Camry isn't much better with it's "big smile is big" grille.

 

[Pescara for GT5]

What happened to the Camaro being used, don't use the Impala guys, it is ugly.

 

[JohnBM01]

Okay... WHY the hell doesn't Chevy use the Camaro when you got the Mustang and Challenger for next season? Absolute FAIL!!! No, let me spell it... F-A-I-L- exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point! Oh, wait, I just used that. I got nothing against the Impala itself, but why use the Impala for the body design? The design suits the Camaro more than the Impala. Somebody needs to be fired for making this decision.

On much less ugly news, it's being said that Danica Patrick is close to signing a two-year deal that takes her into the Nationwide series for JR motorsports. Key words: "close to." I still think Danica needs to establish herself more in IndyCar before testing the NASCAR waters. Here's the Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR blog entry on this:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog...mMwH9rlRCIlbKTXT1wp1hbov7YF?urn=nascar,200254

Danica transitioning from IndyCar to NASCAR. Your thoughts?

 

[RACECAR]

So I'm guessing she still thinks "this looks fun". *sigh* Not a wise career move in my opinion, she still hasn't established herself enough.

 

[RVDNuT374]

The Chase system officially sucks big time. 👎 As everyone knows, Jimmie Johnson is well on his way to winning his 4th straight championship under the Chase format. His points lead is 184 over Mark Martin with just 3 races to go, nearly insurmountable unless Martin dominates the next 3 races and Johnson has trouble, which is highly unlikely. If anyone is wondering what his lead would be under the original points system, I did some quick calculations and this is what I came up with for the top 3:

1. Jimmie Johnson- 4752
2. Tony Stewart- 4745 ( -7 )
3. Jeff Gordon- 4673 (-79)

Now tell me which is more exciting, a Jimmie Johnson runaway under the Chase format, or a points battle so tight that the final races are worth watching? I know which I'd rather have....

 

[LSX]

The Chase system officially sucks big time. 👎 As everyone knows, Jimmie Johnson is well on his way to winning his 4th straight championship under the Chase format. His points lead is 184 over Mark Martin with just 3 races to go, nearly insurmountable unless Martin dominates the next 3 races and Johnson has trouble, which is highly unlikely. If anyone is wondering what his lead would be under the original points system, I did some quick calculations and this is what I came up with for the top 3:

1. Jimmie Johnson- 4752
2. Tony Stewart- 4745 ( -7 )
3. Jeff Gordon- 4673 (-79)

Now tell me which is more exciting, a Jimmie Johnson runaway under the Chase format, or a points battle so tight that the final races are worth watching? I know which I'd rather have....

Yeah, agreed for sure. Maybe they will get the idea after a few more years of JJ being the chase master. Or not, they haven't yet so who's to say really. Every year though, it seems like the margin of victory would either be closer, or we would have had a different champion than as dictated by the chase format...It's not like there is some added excitement from watching JJ run away laughing.


I don't think those N-wide COT cars look that bad, considering how much worse the Sprint COT looks... They aren't Camaros, or even based on two door cars, but I don't think they look as bad. Not the coolest things out there either though.

I don't know why Danica would just jump to N-wide, what happened to ARCA or the Camping World Touring Series? Jr, gonna just assume she can hack it? Maybe she can but why not start at the lower tier to build confidence in a car you've never driven, especially at venues the IRL do not visit. Oh well, it's her career, not mine.

 

[Tornado]

The Chase system officially sucks big time. 👎 As everyone knows, Jimmie Johnson is well on his way to winning his 4th straight championship under the Chase format. His points lead is 184 over Mark Martin with just 3 races to go, nearly insurmountable unless Martin dominates the next 3 races and Johnson has trouble, which is highly unlikely. If anyone is wondering what his lead would be under the original points system, I did some quick calculations and this is what I came up with for the top 3:

1. Jimmie Johnson- 4752
2. Tony Stewart- 4745 ( -7 )
3. Jeff Gordon- 4673 (-79)

Now tell me which is more exciting, a Jimmie Johnson runaway under the Chase format, or a points battle so tight that the final races are worth watching? I know which I'd rather have....

I read an editorial around the time NASCAR announced the Chase format. For the most part it was a standard article, pointing out all of the idiotic problems with the format that we now take for granted having had to live through them for the past few years.

However, at the end it asked an interesting rhetorical question of what it would take to have NASCAR admit the whole thing was a crock (one of the answers was essentially what you just said: The traditional rules putting up a far closer championship than the Chase rules), and the answer it came up with as the most likely was to have a fan-favorite driver lose the championship under the Chase but win it under the normal rules. Now, of course the driver the author thought of was Junior, but would Tony Stewart losing when he should have won (in addition to Johnson walking away with another boring win) have the same effect?

 

[Ian Poole]

That's an interesting point

 

[CodeRedR51]

I did some quick calculations and this is what I came up with for the top 3:

1. Jimmie Johnson- 4752
2. Tony Stewart- 4745 ( -7 )
3. Jeff Gordon- 4673 (-79)

Now tell me which is more exciting, a Jimmie Johnson runaway under the Chase format, or a points battle so tight that the final races are worth watching? I know which I'd rather have....

Being a Gordon fan, that just makes me sick.

 

[CAMikaze]

The Chase system officially sucks big time. 👎 As everyone knows, Jimmie Johnson is well on his way to winning his 4th straight championship under the Chase format. His points lead is 184 over Mark Martin with just 3 races to go, nearly insurmountable unless Martin dominates the next 3 races and Johnson has trouble, which is highly unlikely. If anyone is wondering what his lead would be under the original points system, I did some quick calculations and this is what I came up with for the top 3:

1. Jimmie Johnson- 4752
2. Tony Stewart- 4745 ( -7 )
3. Jeff Gordon- 4673 (-79)

Now tell me which is more exciting, a Jimmie Johnson runaway under the Chase format, or a points battle so tight that the final races are worth watching? I know which I'd rather have....

Benny Hill did it better.

::runs away::

 

[Pescara for GT5]

I have been against the chase since day one, Matt Kenseth deserved that championship and Nascar said that he ran away and it was unfair, well he had the best season, so who are they to say he didn't deserve that win, and Jeff would be a 6 Time Champ, which is something I would rather see than Johnson or anyone in existence winning 4 in a row, or 3 in a row for that matter, actually seeing Jack Roush win 2 in a row(03, 04) was painful for me.

 

[Northstar]

I have been against the chase since day one, Matt Kenseth deserved that championship and Nascar said that he ran away and it was unfair, well he had the best season, so who are they to say he didn't deserve that win, and Jeff would be a 6 Time Champ, which is something I would rather see than Johnson or anyone in existence winning 4 in a row, or 3 in a row for that matter, actually seeing Jack Roush win 2 in a row(03, 04) was painful for me.

I don't think it was 100% NASCARs fault. When Nextel came aboard they wanted something that would differentiate the Nextel Cup from the Winston Cup. NASCAR was kind of cornered into it, they could have came up with a better system though.

The only racing series where a playoff type thing is drag racing(not to mention the NHRA did a better job setting it up than NASCAR).

 

[Pescara for GT5]

I don't think it was 100% NASCARs fault. When Nextel came aboard they wanted something that would differentiate the Nextel Cup from the Winston Cup. NASCAR was kind of cornered into it, they could have came up with a better system though.

The only racing series where a playoff type thing is drag racing(not to mention the NHRA did a better job setting it up than NASCAR).

The NHRA one confuses me, but then again, I only watch Drag Racing once or twice a year.

 

[Ian Poole]

All quotes courtesy of nascar.com

Not since 1997 has Jeff Gordon won fewer than two poles in a Cup season. Never in 16 previous full seasons had he failed to win at least one.

After qualifying in the top spot Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, Gordon extended his record streak to 17 consecutive years. Gordon, who claimed his first victory at Texas in April, turned a lap at 191.117 mph to edge Kasey Kahne (190.975 mph) for the P1 starting position in Sunday's Dickies 500.

The pole was the 68th of Gordon's career and his first since the fall race at Texas last year.

It was particularly gratifying to Gordon, who had struggled at the 1.5-mile track before winning earlier this year. It was also at Texas, in 1999, where Gordon suffered one of the hardest impacts of his career during a crash 68 laps into the March 500-miler.

"We've been very close," Gordon said. "There were times when I really thought we had a pole. It's like a win. You hope you get it early and accomplish it and get it out of the way so you don't think and worry about it -- it doesn't build -- especially when you've done 16 years in a row.

"To finally get it, it doesn't matter to me if it happens the first race or the last race -- it just takes a little bit of heat off you to get it early -- but the fact that we did get it, and to do it here in Texas, a track that we have struggled at until recently, this is a great place to do it.

"We're focused on ending the season the best we possibly can. We've got three races left and we want poles, we want wins -- we want to get a lot of points and get ourselves as high up in the points as we possibly can for the championship and also build something for next year."

Kurt Busch (190.941 mph) qualified third, followed by Tony Stewart (190.624 mph) and Kyle Busch (190.523 mph). Carl Edwards, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer will start from positions six through 10, respectively. Chase leader Jimmie Johnson starts 12th.

Kahne said he was disappointed to fall .021 seconds short of Gordon's 28.255-second lap time.

"That was the best lap I think I've ran all year, as far as any qualifying session, and we were right there," Kahne said. "So it is what it is. But it'll be a good spot on Sunday, starting second, being up front and having a good pit stall. I always enjoy coming to Texas, so it should be pretty exciting."

Tony Raines, Dave Blaney, Max Papis and Mike Bliss failed to make the 43-car field.

1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 191.117 28.255 Leader
2 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 190.975 28.276 -0.021
3 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 190.941 28.281 -0.026
4 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Old Spice 190.624 28.328 -0.073
5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 190.523 28.343 -0.088
6 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 190.148 28.399 -0.144
7 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Carquest / Kellogg's 190.087 28.408 -0.153
8 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M Scotch Super 33 Tape 190.054 28.413 -0.158
9 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy 189.960 28.427 -0.172
10 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 189.954 28.428 -0.173
11 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge AAA 189.900 28.436 -0.181
12 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's / Kobalt Tools 189.860 28.442 -0.187
13 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 189.820 28.448 -0.193
14 20 Joey Logano* Toyota Home Depot 189.800 28.451 -0.196
15 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 189.793 28.452 -0.197
16 44 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Ford. Drive one. 189.700 28.466 -0.211
17 6 David Ragan Ford UPS / Boys & Girls Clubs 189.700 28.466 -0.211
18 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge Valvoline 189.593 28.482 -0.227
19 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Kingsford / Clorox / Little Debbie 189.587 28.483 -0.228
20 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target / Dream in Color 189.407 28.510 -0.255
21 202 David Gilliland Toyota Farm Bureau Insurance 188.950 28.579 -0.324
22 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 188.884 28.589 -0.334
23 170 Mike Skinner Chevrolet TRG Motorsports 188.844 28.595 -0.340
24 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 188.699 28.617 -0.362
25 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Office 188.686 28.619 -0.364
26 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 188.646 28.625 -0.370
27 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 188.587 28.634 -0.379
28 171 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet CBR Motorcars 188.350 28.670 -0.415
29 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Mapei / Menards 188.317 28.675 -0.420
30 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Dewalt 188.304 28.677 -0.422
31 82 Scott Speed* Toyota Red Bull 188.016 28.721 -0.466
32 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 187.990 28.725 -0.470
33 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Stanley 187.944 28.732 -0.477
34 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota NEMCO Motorsports 187.820 28.751 -0.496
35 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Penske Racing 187.800 28.754 -0.499
36 07 Casey Mears Chevrolet Choctaw Casino Resort 187.793 28.755 -0.500
37 36 Michael McDowell Toyota Wave Energy Drink 187.474 28.804 -0.549
38 96 Erik Darnell Ford Academy Sports + Outdoors 187.182 28.849 -0.594
39 98 Paul Menard Ford Vertis / Menards 186.832 28.903 -0.648
40 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 186.438 28.964 -0.709
41 34 John Andretti+ Chevrolet Taco Bell 186.188 29.003 -0.748
42 31 Jeff Burton+ Chevrolet Caterpillar 183.767 29.385 -1.130
43 21 Bill Elliott Ford Motorcraft Champion's Provisional

Did Not Qualify
44 37 Tony Raines Chevrolet Long John Silver's 186.664 28.929 -0.674
45 66 Dave Blaney Toyota The Denny Hamlin Foundation 186.156 29.008 -0.753
46 113 Max Papis* Toyota GEICO 185.842 29.057 -0.802
47 09 Mike Bliss Dodge Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 183.592 29.413 -1.158

The big wreck is over, the crumpled race cars have been loaded up and hauled off and the massive track in north Alabama has gone back into hibernation for another half a year. While the Sprint Cup tour has moved on from Talladega Superspeedway, the aftereffects of last weekend's accident involving Ryan Newman are still being felt.

Newman, who had to be cut out of his car after it flipped over and landed on its roof late in last Sunday's event, met with NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup director John Darby on Wednesday morning at the sport's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. The Stewart-Haas driver had two items on his agenda -- his prolonged extrication from the race car, which took roughly 15 minutes, and the kind of airborne accident that put him in that position in the first place.

"From an aerodynamic standpoint, ultimately, our biggest thing is to keep the race cars on the ground," Newman said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, host of this weekend's NASCAR events. "Crashes have always been a part of racing. There are fans that like that. Sometimes that adds to extra excitement, don't get me wrong. When we can bounce off each other, get the car fixed, go back out and try to win a race, I understand that part of it. Keeping the race cars on the ground is how we keep the drivers, and especially the fans, safe."

NASCAR officials wouldn't discuss details of the meeting, other than to say it was positive.

"It was a good meeting," Darby said. "We explained a lot of things to Ryan, and Ryan took the time to walk us through step-by-step what he actually went through and felt as a driver, and that was good. At the end of the day, I think everything lined up pretty well."

It was the second consecutive Talladega race weekend involving a controversial airborne accident, and the second time this year a Sprint Cup driver has met with NASCAR officials over the issue. Carl Edwards met with unspecified NASCAR higher-ups in Daytona Beach, Fla., days after his car flew into the restraining fence at the end of Talladega's April race, a crash in which seven spectators were injured by debris.

Thankfully, Newman's car stayed out of the fence Sunday. But the driver still had concerns about why the vehicle lifted off to begin with, especially after seeing Mark Martin's car go into a roll during an accident a few laps later.

"I think there are for sure things that could be done and should be done based on what we saw, both [in] Mark's accident and my accident, [and] the spring accident with Carl," said Newman, who holds a degree in vehicle structural engineering from Purdue University. "Aerodynamically, there are things that need to be done to keep the cars on the ground. I said that six months ago. Six months is plenty of time to make those changes. The important thing is to make the right changes, to do the testing to the best of our capabilities with the tools that we have, meaning wind tunnels, modeling, things like that, to make the right difference."

That may already be occurring. In comments made to reporters the day after the Talladega race, Pemberton indicated that NASCAR was working on scheduling wind tunnel time to address the "high yaw" of the current Sprint Cup car on the 2.66-mile track. Friday at Texas, Darby said such studies are part of NASCAR's normal operating procedure.

"That's what we do," Darby said. "We do it every day. We don't just do it because the car got up in the air after Talladega. Our R&D Center is operational five days a week, 12 months a year. That's what they do everyday. So the answer to [potentially taking the cars to a wind tunnel] is yes. But as a result of [Talladega]? The answer is no. That's just what we do."

In the aftermath of Newman's crash, much speculation has centered around the Sprint Cup car's rear wing, and whether it provided the lift to send the car into the air. Pemberton said that wasn't the case, and that NASCAR has specifically tested the current vehicle in wind tunnels that allow the car to be spun around. And as Newman pointed out, there have been many airborne Talladega crashes involving cars with a rear spoiler instead of a wing.

"I don't know that it's the answer," he said. "As we've seen before, I believe it was Matt Kenseth's Nationwide crash, his car got airborne with a spoiler on the back of it. That's not the answer, that's not the fix. I've been part of crashes with spoilers on the back of them and a wing on the back of them, unfortunately. That's not the fix. Can it be a part of the fix? Yeah, potentially. Is it a better alternative in conjunction with other things you can do to the car? Maybe. Those are the things that NASCAR and the teams have to test collectively so that we can make it safer and better for the drivers and, like I said, more importantly, the fans."

It's unlikely to be a simple fix, given that cars have been going airborne in accidents at Talladega for years. Newman's crash "was no different than what we've seen for a good solid 15 years, if not more [at Talladega], and it's really hard to stop the cars from doing that when they get around like that," Martin said. Clearly, Newman believes that putting an end to airborne crashes at Talladega should be a priority.

"From an engineering standpoint, whatever we can do speed-wise and aerodynamically to keep the cars on the ground ... is what we need to focus on," said Newman, who requested the meeting with NASCAR in a telephone conversation with Darby on Sunday night. "There has been testing done. I learned some of that stuff on Wednesday morning talking to Mr. Darby and Mr. Pemberton, that they have tested. But I don't know that they have tested everything. I don't know that you can test everything. But obviously more testing needs to be done in order to make it safer for everybody."

Newman's other point of emphasis was his extrication from the car, which occurred after the vehicle was righted by a wrecker and the roof was cut off. It's not the first time Newman has spent a long time in his car waiting for relief -- following a 2003 crash at Watkins Glen, he sat in his vehicle for nearly two minutes before rescue crews even arrived, an incident that left the driver seething, and ignited debate over whether NASCAR needed dedicated safety crews like some open-wheel circuits have.

Newman said Friday that he was still sore from the impact of the crash, but as he sat upside down he never felt pushed down into his seat. He was, though, concerned about the way the roll cage was crushed, and believes there is some room for improvement as far as his extrication process was concerned.

"I want to make a point that I wasn't dissatisfied with the way I was taken out of the car," he said. "I just feel there were things that potentially could be done to make it easier for the next guy. That's my responsibility, because the next guy might be me again. You never know."

Bruton Smith is looking to expand his race-track empire.

And this time, he is looking to royalty overseas to do it -- or rather, royalty first came looking for him.

Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., is in negotiations to build three race tracks in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. It is not clear yet if Smith and SMI would assist in ownership and/or operation of the facilities, or simply construct them and hand over the keys to the Emir of Qatar and his royal family, but Smith said Friday that he hopes to have all the details worked out soon, perhaps within another week.

Smith said he was approached about construction of the tracks by the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani -- and not the other way around. The Emir was in the international news recently for reportedly offering 400 million euros to purchase the former Elysee Palace Hotel in Paris.

The Emir is said to be a great fan of all forms of auto racing, and several of his representatives met late last week with Smith and his associates to put the finishing touches on an agreement to have SMI build the three tracks in Qatar. That didn't quite come to pass, but Smith said the two parties are moving closer toward finalizing everything so construction can begin.

"We had a great, great meeting. We'll be talking again this coming week," said Smith, speaking from Texas Motor Speedway, one of eight tracks SMI owns where NASCAR events are run. "We've already designed the speedways, and they like the design and all. But they've formed a committee and now it's got to go to a committee and all that kind of stuff, so it's not where I would like it.

"I thought we would be a little bit further down the road with it than we are right now, but we're working on it diligently. We'll get there."

Qatar (pronounced KA-tar) is a small, oil- and gas-rich nation located on the Qatari peninsula, just 100 miles north into the Persian Gulf from Saudi Arabia. The entire country's land mass is smaller than the state of Massachusetts.

It is a wealthy country, with the International Monetary Fund stating last year it had the highest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita in the world. With a modest population estimated at 1.4 million by the United Nations in 2009, there are questions about who would fill the seats at the race tracks. By comparison, the population of the greater metropolitan area of Charlotte, N.C., where many NASCAR race teams are located, is estimated at between 1.7 million and 1.8 million.

But Smith said the preliminary plan is to have each track seat no more than 40,000 and that he has been informed the Emir has a unique plan in mind for filling them.

"They said no more than 40,000 [at each track]. They don't want a lot of seats," Smith said. "This is kind of strange to us -- to you and I -- but they said they probably would give all the tickets away. I said, 'You're not doing this to make money?' They said, 'Oh, no, no. We're doing this for our people.' I said, 'You don't want to make money? Well, OK, whatever.'

"They don't need to make money. They make all the money they need with natural gas, and oil, I guess."

One source speculated that if the tracks are built, they likely would all be part of the same complex -- much in the same way as the 1,300-acre, SMI-owned Las Vegas Motor Speedway compound includes not only the 1.5-mile oval major NASCAR events are run on, but also a .375-mile paved oval called The Bullring, a half-mile clay oval called The Dirt Track, a 2.4-mile road course and even a quarter-mile drag strip.

Smith said only that details are still being worked out and that the preliminary plans call for the tracks to be "within the same vicinity" along a coastal area in Qatar.

"We're incorporating the waterfront there and everything else," Smith said. "It will be a great showcase for the country. I think we'll get it done. I just wish we had more to report to you at this time."

Smith said this venture is in no way connected to the recent interest shown by George Gillett, majority owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, in eventually helping develop a Middle Eastern stock-car series. But it does underscore the fact that NASCAR-types are beginning to think globally -- specifically, Middle Eastern -- when it comes to selling their sport and building future fan bases.

"It's one of only three places in the world right now that have any money," conceded Humpy Wheeler, former president of Lowe's Motor Speedway who now runs his motorsports consulting business, The Wheeler Company. Wheeler said he had not heard that Smith, his former boss at LMS, was looking to build in Qatar -- but did say that Qatar was one of the few countries in the world right now with the kind of money it would take to spend on such an ambitious project. He said Russia and "some Pacific Rim countries" were the only others currently possessing the wherewithal to spend that kind of money.

"Everyone else is still in the grip of the global economic downturn," Wheeler said.

Gillett inadvertently caused a minor uproar last month when it was announced that Richard Petty Motorsports had entered into a "commercial collaboration" agreement with F6, a leading Saudi Arabia-based sports management firm.

The Saudi firm, founded and led by Saudi Arabian Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah Al Saud, will work with Gillett's team "to explore business opportunities" in soccer, stock-car racing and interactive media in Saudi Arabia. A few days after the announcement, prior to a race at Kansas Speedway, Gillett explained further that he believes the Middle East is ripe for the development of a stock-car racing series.

Gillett said then that he originally was talking with his Saudi contacts about possibly building academies for young soccer players in the Middle East and North Africa when the subject of stock-car racing came up.

"In the midst of those conversations, the light went on and I said, 'My goodness, what an opportunity this might be if we could create a series in the Middle East for stock cars,'" Gillett said.

"That's what happened. We have had extended conversations now about developing a race series. There are several extraordinarily good road tracks there. They have identified 14 sites -- or more -- in the Middle East where they could put an oval track or two, or 14. So that was the genesis of the conversation."

Gillett went on the stress then that the conversations were very preliminary in nature, as were any minor discussions that may have taken place about Saudi investors eventually purchasing a minority stake in RPM.

Wheeler said he doesn't know if there are enough race fans in the Middle East to sustain a series, or even a handful of stock-car events at new tracks.

"I just wonder where all the people would come from," Wheeler said. "The questions are: Where's the culture of it? And are there enough people to support it there? Will tourists flock there in enough numbers to make it work? That's doubtful because it's so far away from everything. It's a 14-hour plane ride from the United States -- and that's if you're lucky.

"So they've got the money. But do they have the people?"

However, there is some evidence to the contrary. Earlier this month, the city of Abu Dhabi in neighboring Saudi Arabia held its first Formula One race at a new 3.4-mile road course that cost a staggering $1 billion. The event sold out quickly and was attended by 50,000 spectators, who were treated to a pre-race concert by none other than legendary rock band Aerosmith -- perhaps a sign of the times that other American forms of entertainment, including stock-car racing, are primed to be embraced by the Middle East.

By contrast, Wheeler estimated that the most expensive track constructed in the United States in the last two decades is Texas Motor Speedway, where NASCAR's three national touring series are racing this weekend. It cost roughly $350 million to build and opened in 1997, originally seating almost 160,000. Since then, some 21,000 seats have been removed and its seating capacity is listed at 138,170.

Smith stressed that negotiations remain ongoing and that the deal to build the tracks in Qatar is not yet completed. But he said he does believe it is close to becoming reality.

"I certainly don't look at it as a done deal," Smith said. "Hopefully in another week, we'll be able to say it's done."

Anything take ur interest there folks?

 

[RACECAR]

Well, where do I start?

 

[Ian Poole]

Anywhere u like

 

[Pescara for GT5]

Ok, off topic from everything else here, but I think every second race at a track that isn't Talladega, Daytona, or Lowe's(now Charlotte) should be replaced with a different track or a Road Course Variation, seriously, mix it up, and make the chase more varified, if they are going to keep it, at least make it diverse, and not filled with Intermediate tracks, Talladega and Martinsville.

 

[Ian Poole]

Interesting idea

 

[opelgt1969]

Ok, off topic from everything else here, but I think every second race at a track that isn't Talladega, Daytona, or Lowe's(now Charlotte) should be replaced with a different track or a Road Course Variation, seriously, mix it up, and make the chase more varified, if they are going to keep it, at least make it diverse, and not filled with Intermediate tracks, Talladega and Martinsville.

Not a great ideal nothing better than a day and night race at Bristol! A better ideal since NASCAR wont let the drivers race at Talladega and Daytona; start running road courses at these tracks (without restrictor- plates)💡

 

[JohnBM01]

NASCAR Cup about to kick off in a half-hour or so.

NASCAR at Texas this weekend:
Trucks winner = Kyle Busch
Nationwide winner = Kyle Busch
Cup winner = ???

 

[Ian Poole]

NASCAR Cup about to kick off in a half-hour or so.

NASCAR at Texas this weekend:
Trucks winner = Kyle Busch
Nationwide winner = Kyle Busch
Cup winner = Jimmie Johnson

Does that help you?

 

[NISM0_SKYLINE]

NASCAR Cup about to kick off in a half-hour or so.

NASCAR at Texas this weekend:
Trucks winner = Kyle Busch
Nationwide winner = Kyle Busch
Cup winner = Kyle Busch

I'm kind of tired of Jimmie winning but they know what they're doing. Why not see a couple record broken near the end of the year with Kyle winning all three and Jimmie winning four championships.

 

[RACECAR]

Finally!!! Johnson just wrecked. Normally I don't wish that amoung people, but I have just been tired of seeing him upfront.

 

[InsaneRacer]

Go Jeff Go!

 

[NISM0_SKYLINE]

Finally!!! Johnson just wrecked. Normally I don't wish that amoung people, but I have just been tired of seeing him upfront.

Agreed, I'd feel worse if he was the three time defending champ. Plus Knaus sounded a little cocky saying he's going to try to win them all, oh how reality hurts.