LGP NASCAR Thread

[relantel]

Kenseth on no tires holds off Kahne on 2 tires. 48/88 falter on late restarts, finishing 6th & 7th after being in the top 5 much of the race. Kenseth seems to be the leader of the the Gibbs shop right now. 12th in points now 50 back of the lead (JGordon)

[TheHammer24]

Kenseth on no tires holds off Kahne on 2 tires. 48/88 falter on late restarts, finishing 6th & 7th after being in the top 5 much of the race. Kenseth seems to be the leader of the the Gibbs shop right now. 12th in points now 50 back of the lead (JGordon)

Meh. Hamlin is 4th in points, but Kenseth has the best Sprint Cup head on his shoulders. Busch and Hamlin have other interests.

Anyone care to weigh in on the absurd Hamlin fine?

I dozed off in the middle, but I thought the races for the lead were quite entertaining yesterday. Big win for the 20 team, who is probably so happy Logano is gone. Kenseth is definitely a contender.

[relantel]

hammer, I think Kenseth taking on that role will only help Busch and Hamlin. Given their other interests, they don't seem to want to be that top-dog role anyway.

I found that the race was either boring, or what was being shown on TV was boring. I do hope the other mile and a halfs run better than Las Vegas did. Clean air was still important, but at least there was some green flag passing. The key pass for the win, though, was on pit road again. Kahne perhaps bit this week like the 88 last week, by losing on pit road due waiting on someone else on a set of 2-tire stops all around.

Wonder how much more interesting the race would be on the lineup by points if they used the points to determine the field, then lined up worst to first. By in large, maybe the same drivers get up to the front, but at least it makes it more interesting to watch all the faster teams work their way to the front.

on a side note, Stewart Haas appears to be in real trouble, despite Tony getting a wave-around and a free pass back to the lead lap late. Outside of Daytona, they've not looked real good.

[Jesse]

All we hear about is how much downforce and speed the Gen 6 car has. That's all well and good, but when the result is a car that wants to drive itself into the wall whenever you're attempting to pass or in close to the bumper of another driver, the results on the track are boring as all get out.

With the speeds these cars carry, they're sawing on the wheel way too much. And when they attempt to pass and get a bad side draft, they fly off the handle. NASCAR needs to fix something, because this isn't racing. It's who can win a race off of Pit road quickest and manage to hang on for dear life until the end of the race.

There's no trackbar or air pressure adjustment that is going to fix how loose these cars are. I don't see how they're going to correct this unless they make a drastic change to the makeup of this vehicle. I was listening to Trackpass yesterday and Jeff Gordon was one of many drivers (including Boyer, Stewart, Harvick, and Jr.) that said they literally felt as if they were going to spin out every time they tried to accelerate off the corner.

I am a huge fan of racing, but this isn't racing, it's like watching a freight train.

[TheHammer24]

I agree re Kenseth, Rel. All he cares about his Sprint Cup car going fast, and that's different than anyone at JGR for as long as I can remember. Kyle has his team and just a completely unique style. Denny has his night club and urban interests, plus a new kid. JoLo was just a different caliber. You really have to go back to Stewart, but he had so many unique interests too.

Nice assessment, Jesse. I wonder if they could raise the splitter? I understand that's what allowed slingshots and better passing in the 80s. The aero alteration would slow the car down, but who cares how fast the car goes? As soon as the car in front of you disrupts the air on your nose, you're toast. I actually don't know why anyone thought the new car would change this.

[shafnutz05]

I would gladly take a reduction in average of speed of 15 mph if it meant better racing. They could be going 400 mph and it would still be boring.

[TheHammer24]

I would gladly take a reduction in average of speed of 15 mph if it meant better racing. They could be going 400 mph and it would still be boring.

So true. The three slowest tracks on the circuit have produced the best racing recently. Watkins Glen, Sonoma, and Martinsville. Add Bristol last falls too. In fact, the quality of racing, generally seems inversely related to speeds and the relevance of aero, save for the flop at Phoenix last week. I think the NW series has produced far better racing since the beginning of last season, and I never recall watching that and thinking I wish they were faster. I'm sure NASCAR has thought of these things and there's an obvious reason why I'm wrong. But I also wonder what would happen if they shortened the rear spoiler. If you took downforce off the back end, it would seemingly make the lack of downforce on the front less meaningful. The cars would handle far worse, but if it made passing easier, perhaps that would be a worthwhile tradeoff.

[shafnutz05]

That's a great point as well. Martinsville is probably my favorite track now. Bristol is up there too, but I give Martinsville the edge after the repaving snafu.

[relantel]

I would gladly take a reduction in average of speed of 15 mph if it meant better racing. They could be going 400 mph and it would still be boring.

aye. Remove the splitter, and return to the flat airdam. They are scared of air under the car, though, as they are scared of being airborn (hence the new hood flaps this year). So a higher airdam off the pavement probably won't be implemented, even if it should be.

Hell, while we're at it, let's go back to the bias-ply tire (The transition from Earnhardt to Gordon as top dog was around that transition fro bias-ply to radial tires, and the Lumina giving way to the Monte Carlo, boxy car to not as boxy)

[Rylan]

Just looked at the point standings, and Danica is way further down than I thought she would be. So much for winning a pole...

[shafnutz05]

Just looked at the point standings, and Danica is way further down than I thought she would be. So much for winning a pole...

She has returned to usual form the last two races. One thing about restrictor plate tracks is that it evens out the playing field significantly. Read: Trevor Bayne.

[Rylan]

I follow standings not races, so I don't really understand your lingo.

[shafnutz05]

I follow standings not races, so I don't really understand your lingo.

Daytona is a restrictor plate track. At those tracks, it is much more of a crapshoot as to who can finish high. Not saying Danica didn't do a decent job, but it's much easier to pull out a Top 10 there as opposed to a more skill-oriented track.

The last two races have been Phoenix and Las Vegas, both of which are a lot more dependent on how the car is and how well the driver handles it. Thus, her results are suffered.

The Trevor Bayne reference was about the guy that came out of absolutely nowhere to win the Daytona 500 two years ago, and hasn't done anything since then.

[Rylan]

So what does a restrictor plate actually do to even the field?

[shafnutz05]

So what does a restrictor plate actually do to even the field?

Because drafting is essential, the field tends to stay all grouped in a very large pack, within a second or two of each other. It's much easier for below-average cars to hang around till the finish, as opposed to a normal track where they will quickly be lapped.

[Rylan]

Ah makes sense then. Is that where that weird 2car drafting thing became popular? Cause that just looks terribly boring to watch.

[shafnutz05]

Ah makes sense then. Is that where that weird 2car drafting thing became popular? Cause that just looks terribly boring to watch.

Yes, but thankfully that was a temporary phase.

[roland]

Im not a fan of NASCAR but this is pretty funny! Jeff Gordon in disguise takes a Camaro on a test drive with salesman.

[relantel]

wow. that was hillarious.

[shafnutz05]

If that was genuine, awesome.

[shafnutz05]

Earnhardt Jr. qualifies 32nd for Bristol...that is not good on a 1/2 mile track. Depending on how his car is in race trim, he could be lapped pretty quickly.

joey galloway ‏@Joey_Galloway
Brad Keslowski won the last two spring races at Bristol...can't wait to see if he can keep the streak going!#Nascar#Ford

Not sure why, but I love the fact that Joey Galloway is apparently a big NASCAR fan (a la Randy Moss)

[relantel]

Letarte seemed pretty happy after Saturday practice. At least there aren't still 2 pit roads. Some have won there starting worse.

[shafnutz05]

On a side note, I cannot believe how absolutely horrible nascar.com is now. It's completely unreadable

[JS©]

On a side note, I cannot believe how absolutely horrible nascar.com is now. It's completely unreadable

Oh my....wow. If you were to tell me in 2001 to design a website for NASCAR.com, this is how it would look.

The one thing I was taught is that all of your information and links should be available on your opening page, or your potential user will lose interest if they have to scroll to find something.

[relantel]

ouchie at the front. Gordon blows a tire leading and takes out Kenseth. Kahne now leading 100 to go.