Sorry for the double post, but what a fantastic finish. I swear to god, NASCAR scripts this shit. Waltrip, in the (black) 15, ten years to the day? With DW in the booth calling it, just like in '01? Wow. Two points: First, Michael has two daughters. The only one he ever talks about or shows on TV is his youngest. I think that's weird. Two, how crazy is the nepotism in this sport? Hermie Sadler in the pits calling the race his brother is leading and DW in the booth doing the same for his brother who is just ahead of Jeff Earnhardt, grandson of Dale Sr. It's like there's only five or six families in the sport sometimes.
Ok, I don't like Jr. Can't stand him, root for his failure, thoroughly enjoy every time he doesn't do well in a race (which is every single race). But when all the fans held up three fingers during the 3rd lap, that was just awesome.
Agreed. Goosebump-y. It's important not to lump Jr. in with Sr. Two entirely different racers, one much better than the other. I fucking HATE TSN's coverage. They cut out during live racing for commercials, they preempt live racing for hockey updates, they prolong the American feed by airing an interview with CASCAR's 2010 winner DURING THE LIVE FUCKING RACE. They wouldn't dare pull this shit with hockey, yet it's okay for the biggest race of the year? I wish this was airing on a US feed somewhere.
It is. Down here. They just ran a neat segment during a pit stop with a heat-sensing camera. You could see all the hot spots on the car, and it was awesome during the tire changes how the right rear was blazing red and the left side tires were all relatively cool and blue.
Stream it from <a class="postlink" href="http://atdhenet.tv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://atdhenet.tv</a> I am, and it's doing well.
Interesting. Hottest day of the year so far, new fuel, and engines are blowing up. Seems that the engine guys are recommending to not use partial throttle... either full throttle or nothing, otherwise it's leaning out the engines and causing detonation. Also, fuel actually cools the cylinders down. Not quite sure how the 2nd car in the drafting duos can pull that off. It's also kind of whacked how drivers from different teams can radio each other and collude to have an advantage while on track, like Jr. and (can't remember his drafting partner). The Fox guys are claiming this is a great thing, and pushing the leading edge of sports, but I know in all the series we run in, that's strictly against the rules. I'm not a fan. But yeah, we saw some crazy fast track speeds when we were down there a couple weeks ago.. it's a whole different track now. The big question is going to be how long it'll stay like that before it gets the bumps and sags.
Leave it to NASCAR to fuck this up, though. The cars are running too fast, so the...restrict the cooling system? WTF? Yeah, it works in theory but in practice you get what we're seeing here: a hot, sunny, Florida day and everybody blowing up because they can't get any cool air into the engines to start with, never mind having the cooling system restricted to boot. I just realized I get the HD channels, and have mercifully switched to Fox's feed. Personally, I like the direct radio chatter these guys are using. It's a lot safer than relying on the spotters, and faster too. The key is find a way to last until two laps to go, then fuck everybody else and charge for the finish.
Really, though, it's up to the driver/team to do the right thing. Stay drafting, sure you go faster, but you overheat and blow the fuck up. Get out in fresh air, go slower, and keep your engine in one piece. I don't blame NASCAR for that. In theory, their rule should have worked. And in a way it is. It's also got a LOT to do with how the engines were tuned, and they just didn't expect such a hot day, and didn't tune them appropriately.
I just think NASCAR needs to back off. Set the rules in the off season, then leave them alone during the year. Actually, I think they need to get the France family the hell out of there and set up an independent sanctioning body like in EVERY other major sport. But that's an argument for another day.
I disagree about the rule change thing. EVERY race series that exists has set rules in the off-season that don't work the way they thought they would, and has adjusted rules during the season. I think that is a good thing. Better to recognize a rule as being less than ideal and make corrections than to just leave a bad rule in place. Hell, for the 24 hour race, we had rules introduced in the testing week (first week of January), that were then modified for the race week (last week in January). This year it involved such things as ride heights and other non-trivial things due to the new surface on the Daytona track, as it was way safer than was expected, so they modified the rules to allow us to tweak things to take advantage of it. These "tweaks" resulted in $25,000 worth of new piece-parts and 2 weeks of re-adjustment of our car's suspension. Hell, we even had our intake restrictor sizes changed on us during testing, which called for all new engine tuning, etc. All for going from 52mm restrictors to 48mm. And the France's can go fuck a duck.
Good thing with Payne winning it. He's young, good story (he only has partial-season sponsorship... I have a feeling that'll change), my wife says he's cute, that'll be good for the sport. Also, before the race I sarcastically told my wife that Jr (her driver) was gonna be up front and crash in the last 5 laps. She's not speaking to me right now.
I have a feeling I might be the only one here who watched Nascar when the Wood Brothers dominated the sport. The only reason they did not win championships in the 70s is they only ran a limited schedule. I was very suprised and pleased with the outcome. I might even watch the rest of the races that the Wood Borthers and Trevor Bayne are entered.
Wood Bros were THE shit back in the day, and were hired off to be the pro crew for some of the biggest and best teams. They did a lot to revolutionize the way the pit stops were done. Good to see some old school pioneers do well in the modern super-business environment of NASCAR.
Wow, didn't even think about this but just read in an article that despite winning the race, Bayne got 0 points because under the new rules, he chose to race for the Nationwide title.
The Wood Brothers have financing for 17 races this year. Trevor Bayne has a Nationwide ride with Roush for the entire Nationwide Season. New Nascar rules this year forbid a driver from trying to run for the championship in both Sprint Cup and Nationwide. The drivers have to make their selection before the start of the season and the decision is not reversable. Trevor made the sure selection and opted to run Nationwide. I am just hoping the Wood Brothers win like 11 of the 17 races this year and remind people why they dominated the sport for 20 plus years.
Personally, I think the rule change demanding drivers pick a league is fantastic and a long time coming. Nothing annoyed me more than seeing guys like Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle step into a car during the Nationwide race, finish second or third and take the points and money out of a league that's short on cash when they were only doing it for seat time for their Cup car. Busch, Edwards and Harvick are a bit different, IMO, as they ran full time in both leagues.
I'm resurrecting this thread because the series (s) are headed to one of the coolest tracks on the circuit this weekend. I have a few questions for you guys (and girl). 1. Do you like the new points system? (if you do, why?) 2. When will someone other than Jimmy win a fucking championship? (I hope this year myself) 3. Next Wednesday, I'm headed to Dover for the race weekend. If any of you have been, is there something/somewhere that's a "can't miss"? Looking forward to the Darlington Races this weekend.
I'll come back to Todd's question in a bit, but holy cow. Kyle Busch should be suspended for several races. I don't care how punchy he and Harvick got on the track; he showed himself to be a cowardly, no-good son of a bitch when he first refused to get out of his car, then drove away/dragged Harvick behind him, then propelled Harvick's car into the wall. Someone could have been killed. What a no class asshole and I hope Harvick beats the shit out of him a la Jimmy Spencer style. EDIT: Oh, and congrats to Reagan Smith. Great story there.
Good for Regan Smith! As for Kyle, It seemed like he wanted to antagonize Kevin, (who is also an asshole) but didn't want to fully commit to involvement. Cowardly? probably. No Good? He's a great driver! Son of a bitch? Please don't drag Kurt's mom into this! Seriously though, this wouldn't have happened with many other drivers in any of the top 3 series. Kyle and Kevin are both A-Hole Hotheads. More power to the fighting! I do have a new question, since no one really seemed to care about my last 3. My Favorite Driver is Matt Kenseth. This week his sponsor is Affliction Clothing. I hate these shirts, and the douches who buy them. Jayski's is saying this is only for the KS race and the summer Pocono race. Could your favorite driver ever pick up a sponsor that would cause you to stop following/liking them? Could they do something? (like the Kevin Harvick/Kyle Busch incident) While 2 races isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I'd rather see something cooler than Affliction on the 17. Maybe Tampax, or Masengill's.